Took the truck out to continue breaking in the 3.73 gears. Didn't follow any set schedule or protocol. Drove out to I-95 and headed south into Stuart. There's some steep bridges over the St. Lucie River that always has at least my converter unlock when going over unladen. If there are people in the car it will downshift to 5th. This time there was no change, locked up in 6th all across it.
Got off at the next exit after the bridge and pulled into a gas station. Took out the new IR temperature gauge and put the laser on the pumpkin through the LR wheel well. 89-90 degrees. So too were all four brake rotors and the ambient temp was in the 60s.
Drove back at 5-10 mph faster depending on traffic to my street and headed west out into the country. Stopped and checked the temps again and they were the same. Pulled out onto my favorite dirt road and put the truck in 4Lo and rung up 24 mph on the cruise control and drove over the washboard road for 4-5 miles and then turned onto the pavement and pulled into the county fairgrounds to see my daughter. We chatted awhile then made my way to I-95 again and headed south for home ringing up 81 mph for the first time for a few minutes before exiting the highway. 76 miles.
95% of my driving is with the cruise control on. If I am going to increase speed from city speeds to highway speeds I'll bump it up 2 mph at a time, give a pause and repeat to keep the truck from downshifting and disturbing/startling my passengers. Tonight I paid attention to doing on an onramp and the truck never picked a lower gear, nice.
I listen for gear noise and don't hear any. Sometimes I hear some whine or some kind of noise while decelerating off-road in 4Lo and that's it. What is noticeable is that the motor is slightly more noticeable than before for obvious reasons, it's turning a little faster.
I'd like to do some mpg testing but the current tank of fuel is from Shell and is at 11% alcohol content. I want to run the first tests with Chevron @ 0% or close to it.