Make It Aluminum They Said - This is It

It dawned on me while I was working on the Grand Marquis yesterday that I hadn't posted a picture of the repair kit I was using.  Let me remedy that now.

You can see the tap in the top slot of the case. Right below that is the bore that hogs out the original hole, and there were still four of the eight threaded sleeves in the case when I snapped this pic.  All eight are now installed in the engine.  Also there's a guide (somehow I missed it in the picture) that slides into the spark plug hole in the head. It's entire reason for being is to keep the bore and the tap in proper alignment while they are doing their jobs. 

There's a step using a rubber stopper and compressed air to ensure that the valves are closed to keep the shavings in the cylinder. Once the boring and tapping were done, I spent about 5 minutes blowing compressed air into the cylinder to clear all of the aluminum shavings. At least I hope I got them all, or at least 99.99% of them.  

Anyway, all 8 cylinders now have threaded steel sleeves with full contact with all the threads on the plugs instead of the 2 or 3 threads from the original design.  If it throws a plug now, that will be the least of my troubles at that point.  

Next time it breaks it's either going to the junk yard or being sold for parts.

Until next time, be good, and if you can't be good, be sneaky.

Wayne

Make It Aluminum They Said - The Return

 I was heading out of town on my way to work. The radio (my phone playing Sirius through my ear buds) was blasting. I rolled up to a stop sign, and when I stepped on the gas to take off, I thought I'd been shot at. Then there was the familiar rhythmic popping of a cylinder that had yeeted its sparkplug out of the cylinder head. The previous repair on cylinder four is still solid. This time it was cylinder one that had decided to get spicy.  ***sigh***

Luckily the repair kit I bought came with 8 repair sleeves. As I reflect it occurs to me that there might be a reason for that.  I'm guessing that once the Ford 4.6 starts ejecting sparkplugs, it'll eventually get around to them all. If I'm gonna keep driving this thing, I guess I'm gonna have to just do the other seven cylinders just out of an overabundance of precaution. Luckily, it's not a difficult thing to do.  It just involves being outside, in Texas, in June.  It's hot.  I'll get it done eventually.

Pray for me to whatever deity or deities you follow, and if you don't follow any, good thoughts will always be welcome as well.  I'm gonna need it. 

As always, be good, and if you can't be good, be sneaky.

Wayne

**edit**

If your deity of choice happens to be Loki, kindly refrain from mentioning me to him.  Thanks.

He's a Good Boy

 So yesterday I gained knowledge I never wanted. I now know the signs of a stroke in a dog. Over the weekend my oldest pup, Koda, who I inherited from my dad, started falling a lot and quit eating. I noticed when he did walk he would drift to his right and that side of his body wasn't as strong as the left. His right ear doesn't perk up as high as the left. 

We went to the vet yesterday to get him checked out and once an ear infection was eliminated the vet said that it looks like a mild stroke. Apparently when our furry, four-legged friends have strokes it tends to hit the balance center of their brain. Koda's stroke appears to be mild and he should mostly recover. Steroids help but mostly it's just time for his brain to reroute the info around any damaged areas.

Today, I am dealing with the stress of unwinding all the tension I built up preparing to have to say goodbye to him.  He's 15, but I'm not quite ready for that just yet. Very grateful that he gets to stick around a while longer yet.

Y'all be good and if you can't be good, be sneaky.

Wayne

Make It Aluminum They Said - The Finale

Started it up this morning around 10 AM and let it come up to operating temperature. So far, so good.

Decided I needed to road test it to make sure it would hold under a load. Also gave me the chance to burn the rust off of the brake rotors. Still it runs.

Took it to get an inspection so I can renew the registration that has been out since February. Local PD is standing in the parking lot of the station shooting the shit with one of the mechanics. Never looks at me twice. I have no doubt that if I were a "known person" that the situation would have gone down very differently. (Sometimes I love living in a small town.)

Passed the "inspection", such as it is, with no trouble.

Drove it home and started cleaning a couple of years of young adults driving it out of the interior coupled with almost a year's worth of dust from sitting. For being 20 years old, it's not a bad looking ride.

Now I have to decide if I drive it for a while or just sell it. I've got a few days while I'm waiting for the registration sticker to come in the mail.

Well, at least I got another project off of my to do list. Time to start the next one.

Until next time, y'all be good, and if you can't be good, be sneaky.

Wayne

Make It Aluminum They Said Pt. 2

 Today was the day to re-thread the spark plug hole on the 2003 Grand Marquis. The procedure is pretty simple. The kit comes with a bore, a tap, and the steel sleeve insert.

It has enough sleeves in the kit to do an entire engine, and believe me that if I ever build one of these for a car I WILL do all eight as part of the build.

Like I said, it's pretty simple. Crank the engine around until the cylinder you're working on is at bottom dead center and both valves are closed. This will keep the aluminum shavings out of the rest of the engine. A  bore-scope comes in handy to check the valves. The kit even includes a hose with a rubber stopper that you can use to test if the cylinder is sealed up. Put air to the hose and if all is good it'll blow the stopper out of the spark plug well.

Without getting into too much of the nitty-gritty of it, this is the result.

The second pic is a side view of the new threads.

Last step is put anti-seize on the plug and screw it into the sleeve. Put JB Weld or other high heat bonding agent on the outside threads of the sleeve and use the spark plug and spark plug wrench to screw it all into place.

Now I have to wait until tomorrow to start the car and see if I actually fixed it.  At least it looks good for now.

I'll give a short post this weekend to let you know if I won or if it's going to the salvage yard.  

Until then, be good, and if you can't be good, be sneaky.

Wayne 

More Car Fun

 A while back I bought a 1999 Mazda Miata for my youngest as their first car.  It rough and that's ok because it IS a first car.  The only thing I knew I had to fix was the convertible top and to find the parasitic draw on the battery.

Let's start with the top. Here's a picture of what I was starting with:

This makes the fourth Miata top I've done and as a buddy of mine said, "The good news is that you're getting good with Miatas. The bad news is that you're getting good with Miatas." He's right on both accounts. Being the fourth one done did NOT make it any less of a pain in the ass. I'm a big fella and those are small, scratch that, tiny cars. First order of business was to gut the interior, so I could move around in there a little, and I mean little, easier.

All things considered, there are much harder convertible tops to install. Many of them have vary intricate steps to make sure they don't leak and so on. The Miata is relatively straightforward. That being said, these little foam bastards right here pushed me to almost hitting the "Fuck It" button. 

These push onto the studs that the top mounts to in the back of the car. There's one that goes behind the top and one that goes on the inside. The inside ones will not stay in place. The rain rail on the top keeps expending and pushing them off before you can get the retaining bar in place and bolted on. I went to bed about 35 seconds before I was ready to set the car on fire.  

As I lay there drifting between sleep and the waking world I had a thought, and I put it to the test the next day.

Worked like a champ, and now it looks like this.

Lastly I needed to find the parasitic draw on the battery.  My dad had a Miata that had a similar problem. My brother traced it down to a shit alarm that was installed in a shitty manner.

The last time I drove this car there was a weird sound from the front that kinda sounded like a wounded cow. My first thought was a moan in the brakes, but it went away and didn't happen all the time. 

I opened the hood and found the siren horn mounted to the firewall. Guess what I found under the dash? Yup. A shit alarm that was installed in a shitty manner. They also for some reason installed a door lock actuator, but only on the driver's side.

Once I got that all removed and the hack job on the wiring straightened out the moan of the wounded cow went away. Go figure.

While I was there I also removed the aftermarket stereo that was installed equally as badly. I'm waiting on the install kit from Crutchfield to put in the replacement. The car has a Bose amplifier and speakers, so I'm just doing the head unit.

I reconnected the battery and nothing caught on fire. The car even started, so I must have gotten the wiring right. Now I just need to wait a day or two and see if the battery stays fully charged.

Fun weekend. Now I just have about 6 more broken...project cars to sort out and get out of my driveway and/or yard.

Pray for me, and in the meantime be good, but if you can't be good be sneaky.

Wayne 

Breakfast, Cause a Man's Gotta Eat!

With working out and trying to lower my weight and blood sugar, I've been on a high protein diet for a couple of years now and to say that I've run out of ways to make eggs interesting would be putting it lightly. Last week I decided to add some Kent Rollins Original Seasoning to my usual list of ingredients and man are they good! 

Thought I'd share it with you. 

In a small bowl:

3 or 4 large eggs

3 finger pinch of salt

12 or so grinds of black pepper

5 or 6 splashes of Cholula hot sauce

Kent Rollins original seasoning to taste (I use enough to lightly dust the entire surface of the eggs)

Beat 'em like you're mad at 'em until they get kinda frothy.

Pour the eggs into a buttered skillet along with about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese (I use colby-jack).

Cook 'em until they're as done as you like your scrambled eggs.

Match that up with some coffee, thick cut bacon, and some griddle toast and breakfast is on!

Be good, and if you can't be good, be sneaky!
Have a  great week!
Wayne