"Are we starting a 'home' for square bodies now?"
Time for some more follow up.
The fuel gauge worked when I drove the truck home last week. Going slow it bounced between E and 1/2 tank, so I know the 1/4 tank shown with steady driving means there is more fuel left. I like having the gauge working, but got kind of nervous yesterday.
The wood shop teacher has a 1983 C10 short bed that was his dads. His dad died 3 years ago and he wants my class to make the truck mechanically sound so he can drive it around. The truck hasn't been started since his dad died.
I used the M715 to go get it 15 miles away yesterday after work. I have never driven the M715 more than 210 miles on a tank of fuel. Ever. I thought we were going to his brothers land 5 miles away. I was indicating 250 miles when we left to get the truck. Once we passed the turn of for his brother, I knew we were going all the way out to has mom's place. My gauge was steady a bit above 1/4, so I just kept on driving.
We pulled the C10 on up and I headed home. It was 95° out yesterday. With my fuel maybe being low, I didn't want to lay into the throttle too much. I kept it 45-50 in 5th gear. The temp gauge worked up to 205°. I have never had it that high before on the 6.2. I dropped down to 4th which would have been around 2200-2400 rpm. Same speed and the temperature went right back down to 197° where it likes to live. I can see where the super high flow water pump and dual thermostat cross over pipes the 6.5 engines have would be a help.
Jennifer had picked up Colton from practice and somehow, he didn't know what I was doing. I had just parked at the house when they pulled in. He gets out, looks at the short and wide C10 and ask if we are starting a "Home" for square body Chevy trucks? I told him it wasn't mine and I didn't want a 2wd 1/2 ton. "Yeah right, just like the Whistler wasn't going to be yours, just like the gulf port truck wasn't going to be yours and just like the bomber wasn't going to be yours?" He had a point, but this one really isn't going to be mine. A son is fixing it up so he can drive his dads old truck.
I pulled it into my class this morning with no issues. I now have the fuel gauge just a bit below 1/4 and 297 miles on the tank. True, that is just a bit over 10 mpg's if I run out of fuel here in my class. However, that is 50 miles of pulling an empty trailer, 25 miles of pulling either RED or the C10 around plus when I brought it home last week I started smelling diesel about half way. The #8 injector return line cap had popped off and I was venting diesel. Actually, pouring out diesel would describe it better.
All in all, I am still glad a 6.2 is living under the hood.