Last trip back from Texas I was having engine temperature variations and some boost issues, Things had just deteriorated and the drive was not easy.

Had a seam leak in the radiator, fixed that, cleaned and straightened fins and re-installed the cooling system.

Drilled out a broken exhaust manifold bolt

Replaced the cracked manifold (number 3) with an aftermarket 2 piece manifold.

Moved EGT sensor to manifold before turbo, aftermarket manifold was pre-drilled for it.

Rebuilt exhaust system to 4 inch from turbo outward.

Installed a transmission temp sender in cooling line.

Cleaned up the engine.

Replaced both rear brake rotors and pads.

Rebuilt steering box.

Found another cracked Alcoa wheel, replace both inner rears with steel wheels.

The trip to Texas was a good shakedown. Engine temperature was very stable and predictable. Transmission temperature never got over 160 degrees.

Boost comes on about the same as before but at cruise speed and RPM, MUCH better! Cruise control would hold speed to +/- 2 MPH before, now it is +/- 1 MPH and on the flats I seldom see any speed change.

Steering MUCH better, even without the rear Panhard bar very little steering input needed

The only thing I did wrong with all this, I didn't get premium brake rotors. The guy asked me if the rotors were for the drive wheels or the steering wheels. He recommended the cheaper rotor, well that was a mistake! I now have a vibration, not too bad at 60 MPH, annoying at 65 MPH but just plain bad at 70+ MPH.

I have the harmonic wheel balancers but the rotors are so out that even they can not compensate. I will find the high spot on the rotors later and put some weights opposite that point on the wheel until I get home to either get the rotors milled or replaced.

Just turned over 264K miles, by the end of this year I will be approaching 290K miles. After this year I intend to slow down a bit with all these events but who knows.

When I get time I will have pictures of this work up on my website.