Make It Aluminum They Said

 So this weekend I get to do something I've never had to do in all the years I've been turning wrenches.  I get it. I do. Aluminum is light and it's strong enough to take the stresses of an internal combustion engine. Having said all of that, I've never had cast iron blow a spark plug out of a head and take the threads out with it. Apparently this is a common occurrence with the Ford Triton engines.

So, now I get to bore out, re-thread, and install an insert into the cylinder head of my 2003 Grand Marquis. The process is done without pulling the head off of the engine and appears to be relatively simple.  Barring catastrophe it shouldn't take long. Of course now that I've said that, it's going to blow up in my face.

I'll post a follow-up on Monday.

Wish me luck.  

Y'all have a great weekend and remember...

Be good, but if you can't be good, be sneaky.

Wayne

Stroke Risks

 We recently had to have the entire fire alert system replaced where I work. The actual install wasn't awful, but now we're in the testing phase. The first couple of days involved setting off the alarm over and over from each smoke detector and pull station. Then came the making sure the alarm could be heard everywhere in the building. Now we're at a point where we don't have to have the siren sound, but instead it's this high pitched alarm on the system itself. It's about a half tone off from the ringing that is in my ears most of the time. It's creating a most uncomfortable dissonance. I can feel the Clint Eastwood eye twitch starting. Pray for me.

Wayne