Spent today trying to wrap it up, stayed fairly busy much longer than had anticipated.
It went fairly well apart from the usual frustrations with working on a vehicle.
Had been hoping for early afternoon, worked till well after dark
Had to back up and reroute wires and hoses and such a half dozen times or more, but thankfully didn't require removing any major components to correct.
And when I got done only had one wire left over!
It was a single wire, type that's pushed onto a stud like connection.
Then before starting it added the coolant, it flowed in so very smoothly, and fast! I could plumb hear it swooshing on through there! Then I stopped, got the flashlight, and looked underneath, almost a gallon of coolant had drained into the driveway :/
Intentionally left the belt off so I could see how it sounded.
It started right up, and sounded ok, except for the knocking from the engine
It had been sitting there for almost a week.
That only lasted about 10 or 15 seconds then quit tapping, and sounded much better, except for the air sound :/
Discovered the loose wire goes to the oil pressure gauge, all I gotta do is figure out where that was
I guess in addition to one loose wire there must also be one loose vacuum line, but I couldn't find my rubber hose :/
Then I drove over into TX side to get some things, a 50+ mile trip.
It's doing considerably better in comparison to how bad it was. Set the cruise at 70 and it still downshifts quite often even on mild inclines, but doesn't backfire while doing so hardly at all, and not nearly as strong.
Also still seems to be guzzling the gas quite rapidly, been studying into EGR valves and something else I've done forgot, another emmission valve I suppose.
Also studied into the catch cans (thanks PetroleumJunkie for your thread on those)
Going to take a 120 mile trip in the morning and see the family, missed it Thanksgiving