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