Next time you change your oil, skip the $0.99 conventional oil and grab the full synthetic oil instead. The initial cost may sting, but you'll be rewarded with a much better lubricated engine, which adds horsepower and gas mileage. Come to think of it, do the differential(s) too.
Polishing your expensive billet and chrome wheels takes a soft approach. Fleece material is perfect, but T-shirts, cloth diapers, and terry-cloth towels can actually scratch more.
Trying to install a transmission alone without a lift is no joke. To ease the possibility of pain, use threaded rod of appropriate size and thread two lengths into the engine block's mounting surface. Simply jack up the tranny and slide it (on the rod) into place without the kicking, screaming, and most importantly, bleeding.
Having a truck with electrical gremlins can be a headache. Next one that pops up, check the connections. Wire rarely goes bad, but connections do.
If you changed the cap and rotor on your truck and it runs poorly now, but it doesn't seem that long ago that they were replaced, check the cap and plug wires. Cheap caps have aluminum inserts instead of brass and the aluminum will corrode faster against the brass plug wire inserts.
A tip for the painters out there: If you have a small area to touch up but don't need a gun full of paint to clean up afterwards, a baby food jar with a hole in the lid just large enough to accept the siphon tube will sit right on the bottom of your gun's can and hold enough paint to do a small touch-up area, and you won't have a bunch of paint wasted in your gun.
Starting a nut in a tight area that your hand doesn't quite fit is frustrating at best. A piece of tape over the nut will take up the extra gap between the nut and socket and hold the nut in place while you easily get it started turning the socket instead.
Don't be quick to toss that old carpet or cardboard box in the trash. A large cardboard box or piece of carpet makes an easy "creeper" so you are not lying on a rough, dirty surface when wrenching under your truck.
A digital camera is now an invaluable tool for reassembling those disassembled parts later. You can refer to the photos to see what everything used to look like when it was together. Young and old alike cannot rely on their memory alone.
Listerine works better than soap for getting the smell of gasoline or other petroleums off your hands. Simply wash your hands with it like it was soap for fresh-smelling skin.
Brake cleaner and acetone (nail polish remover) make excellent degreaser/parts-cleaner for small parts.
For best results when dressing your tires, allow them to dry completely before applying tire dressing. Once the dressing is applied, let it settle in for at least 30 minutes, then remove the excess.
Roads are not the smooth raceways we wish them to be and as such, potholes and irregularities hammer at our trucks. Getting maximum tire life out our tires requires checking the alignment and rotating the tires in 6,000-8,000-mile intervals.
Trying to fit tires under a lowered truck isn't always easy if you don't know how to decode the sidewall. We'll use 275/30R24 as our tire to decode. The first number (275) is the section width of the tire in millimeters. The second (30) is the sidewall-height aspect ratio percentage (30 percent of 275). And finally, the number 24 is our wheel diameter in inches. How tall is this tire? First we convert 275 millimeters to inches by dividing it by 25.4. The answer is 10.83 inches wide. Divide 10.83 by the 30 percent aspect ratio (.30x10.83) and we end up with 3.25. Our sidewalls are 3.25 inches tall. Add both sidewalls together (on top and bottom of the wheel) plus our wheel's diameter (3.25+3.25+24) and we have a tire that stands 30-1/2 inches tall. Now tuck it!
Disc brakes require finesse just as drums do. White lithium grease or the grease supplied with most new brake pads needs to be applied to the backside of the anti-rattle clips so they will float freely without squealing.
We're sure your truck is riding on killer custom wheels, and if you happen to have the stock spare in there somewhere, we bet you have a complementary set of factory lug nuts to go with it. You don't? You could run into trouble should you get a flat and find out too late that your fancy chrome lug nuts don't work for your steel spare wheel. Run a zip-tie through the OE lug nuts and attach it to your spare wheel or jack for safekeeping.
If you soak rusty parts in straight vinegar, you'll find that after a few days the rust will be very easy to remove due to vinegar's acidic nature. Parts will be clean and paint-free too.
For an easy drip pan in a pinch, use a cookie sheet with a piece of cardboard in it or fill it with kitty litter.
Vaseline on your battery posts will keep them from corroding and provide a perfect contact.
Didn't use the Vaseline tip and your contacts are corroded? Baking soda and water will shine them back up in a hurry.
Did you know that latex gloves are porous? Bad stuff can pass through to your skin. Put disposable nylon gloves under the latex when working with chemicals that may be hazardous to your skin.
Want a simple cleanup for the exterior of your new truck? Most new vehicles today have emblems and trim held on with adhesive foam. Merely removing the trim, emblems, and accompanying residue will provide your truck with a much cleaner appearance.
Rubbing a non-magnetized screwdriver against a magnet will magnetize the screwdriver. Magnetized screwdrivers are perfect for getting screws into hard-to-reach areas.
Got chrome with a small amount of surface rust on it? Wadding up some aluminum foil and rubbing it over the rust will make short work of the problem.
On show trucks and street rods that never see road use, it's common to see tires from two different manufacturers at each end. In the real world of driving, mixing different tread designs and compounds can lead to poor handling and braking characteristics.
A spark plug not completely torqued will not seat all the way, preventing the plug from dissipating heat completely, which in turn elevates combustion chamber temperatures. Elevated temperatures create detonation.
Got a Holley carburetor with a bowl screw leak? The rubber gasket on a common roofing nail is the correct size for the application.
Common chalkboard chalk or even your kid's sidewalk chalk works great for keeping your file from getting clogged when filing against soft material such as aluminum. Rub the chalk against the file so it covers it almost completely and work away.
After breaking in your shiny new engine for at least 20 minutes, go ahead and change the oil filter. Break-in lubricants will have worn off and worked into the oiling system, clogging the oil filter. A clogged oil filter and your new engine will not get along.
Rain-X works wonders for all automotive glass, both inside and out. Use it on the outside of the windshield, and both the inside and outside of your side windows if they roll up and down. The Rain-X preserves the rubber glass seals and you'll never have a window stick to the seal.
Installing headers in your truck is usually something none of us looks forward to doing, but once completed, we're happy. To keep from doing the install twice, do not use the gaskets if they are the paper-style, as they are prone to leaking. Instead, pop for some copper or multi-layer steel gaskets. They are worth the extra dough in the long run.
Find a screw in your tire? Resist the urge to pull it out until you have deflated the tire completely to keep that screw from being blasted into you.
Not all intake gaskets are created equal. Some intake gaskets have portions that purposely block off water passages to keep the flow going in a consistent direction. Gaskets are available in many ways varying by years, options, etc so ensure yours are correct before buttoning up the top end or you will find yourself doing the job again.