If you can work on your own car, go German. Otherwise, be prepared for higher than average repair bills.

Don’t get anything with a CVT. As a blanket statement, they’re time bombs.

If your water pump fails soon, it won’t be the universal coolant’s fault. I’m surprised you got 350k miles out of the pump.

At the very least, drain, flush, and refill with either Dexcool or universal coolant. Dexcool doesn’t mix well with ethylene glycol-based coolants, which can lead to gelling.

I would highly recommend replacing the rest of your radiator hoses and heater core hoses, since they could also pop soon, and coolant isn’t getting any cheaper.

Optionally, while you have your coolant drained and are replacing hoses, you could replace your water pump, too.

Lift the rear end up, put the truck in neutral, and count roughly how many times the driveshaft spins a full rotation to the number of times it takes a wheel to do one full rotation.

I stole this from another forum:

3.545 used in certain 2 wd trucks and 1st Gen 4wd trucks with a MA904 Automatic transmission let you achieve optimal fuel mileage

3.909 most common gear ratio used in about our trucks most 4 X 4 came with them for sure

If it takes approx. 3.5 DS rotations would be a 3.55

Closer to 4 full DS rotations would be 3.91

If it didn’t overheat you’re fine. Just fill it up and properly reattach the cap

I’ve actually seen what happens when a diesel dump truck is filled with gas, but whatever

That’s not how it works in real life

I personally don’t believe there is a big difference on ceramic vs. semi-metallic pads on stopping difference when cold, and if anything, ceramic pads make up the difference in increased longevity. I use Wagner Quickstop pads on all of my vehicles and have no complains about noise, life, or dust.

For oil, pretty much any full synthetic in your viscosity would work. I would pick an oil that is Dexos1 Gen 3 licensed (the majority of full synthetic 0w-20’s will be) for an additional echelon of quality over the standard API SP & ILSAC GF-6 license.

From there, you can pick whichever brand is on sale or whichever jug is your favorite color. They’ll all work just fine and you’ll get a bigger benefit by using a better quality oil filter and changing your engine air filter regularly. I personally prefer Quaker State Full Synthetic oil and Fram Ultra oil filters.

Yes do a drain and refill with OE-specified fluid and replace the filter. Be careful to remove the seal for the old filter.

Try to measure how much fluid comes out so you have a better idea of how much to put back in.

Adding petrol to a diesel vehicle would develop negative effects very quickly. You would get a ton of smoke out of the exhaust and the engine would almost certainly “run away”.

The hub bore is critical, that is where the weight of the vehicle is carried. You would need adapter rings to prevent the Santa Fe wheels from self destructing

Yes scrape the old rtv off as much as you can

Don’t worry about it. The rings will spin on the piston anyway

That part of the engine block is called the “China Wall” and there will be a gap of some sort more often than not.

Some gasket sets will include a gasket piece for the China Wall and some won’t. Either way, best practice is to discard the gasket (unless the gap is gigantic) and use RTV instead.

I would use The Right Stuff gray or black, Ultra Black, Ultra Gray, or similar oil resistant RTV’s.

You should also be able to reuse the intake manifold gaskets unless they are damaged.