Randii:
The salt conditions here are nasty on vehicles. That and acid rain shorten their life quite a bit. Anything 15 years old here is typically rusty, body holes, rusted brake calipers, lines, etc. I'm sure most of the east coast is similar. I've seen pictures of Arizona scrap yards, and was amazed at OLD cars in there with no rust, or little. I hate rust. Bad rust !!
I used to have the pump turned up on my diesel Jetta's a bit too much, so when the pedal was on the floor it smoked quite a bit. This proved handy for the people that insisted on not passing when they could have easily, and insist on tailgating. " Want me to go faster? Why, sure !! " Foot to the floor, no more tailgater. No, I didn't leave them behind. They couldn't stand the smoke, and would pass. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" />

Robt:

Thanks for the reply. This is why I am so glad I found this forum. People that KNOW something about these engines. The truck it came from was a 1984 S10. Probably nothing special, rod wise. Were the n/a versions also breaking rods? I'm guessing the north american turbo versions were breaking because we have to drive 1000mph and nothing is going to stop us !! Rev the life out of that diesel!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
This truck came equipt with 3.73 gears, and 205\74-14 tires. At 100 km\h now it revs 2500. I was contemplating changing the gears to 3.90 or 4.10, but didn't want it to rev too much at highway speeds. The T5 transmission thats in it now has terrible 4th-5th gear ratios, in that at 2800 in 4th, a shift to 5th means 2000 rpm. Big gap. A lower 5th gear would help, but the rear end gears would be easier to do. If I can find what I am looking for.
The tach is actually a Faria diesel marine tach with 4000 rpm face that runs off the pulse signal inside the Delco alternator. Most Delco alts can be easily wired for this signal. The marine tach reads this signal, and with the right setting clicked on the back, and a little fine tuning with an allen key, it can be set to be quite precise. I checked it with a manual tach that runs off the center of the crankshaft, and this one is used kinda like a stop watch. Gives me precise rpm to set the marine one with. I set it around 2500 rpm, and I checked it at idle and it was right on. Pulley size and ratios are irrelevant as this tach can be set up to work with most. I mounted the tach in a 3" piece of PVC coupler and with a bracket to the A pillar. Hey, whatever works and isn't too expensive. It just looks like an accessory tach. The engine redlines at 4250, but I don't rev it that high anyway, and it has a nice, wide sweep that I wouldn't get with a 6000 rpm tach. And it's back lit, too, for night use.I used the 4.3l oil pressure sender and temp sensor so the stock dash guages worked, and read correctly.
Thanks again for the help guys, and please feel free to ask anything.