back to the infernal combusted engine....

With the help of my friend Jonathan we welded up a suitable tool to hold the cam sprocket and loosen the bolt that keeps it in place

and was successful in freeing it from the cam.

both actually

which allowed me to remove the tin work, remove the cam, remove the head bolts and remove the head.

and discover the offending spot on the head gasket that let go. Note as well the obstructed cooling galleries...

a shot of the damaged head gasket on the bench

now to determine if it is worth putting rebuilt heads on the thing --------

Repairs.... of the textile sort

Spent the afternoon playing tailor of sorts... not the needle and thread kind but the iron-on kind .......Taking a breather from truck repairs for a couple of days lest I damage something else ........ will continue with that battle soon.
 I love Carhartt work pants but I find it hard to justify spending 65 bucks on them only to trash them with paint, tar, cuts and burns within six months. And as they are now made in Mexico we no longer can use the excuse of being American made. So I opt instead to buy the $23 Dickies imitations at Wallyworld or Renny's. I try to keep a pair mildly respectable and clean for a few months but inevitably eventually I get something on them and they are relegated to the ranks of real work pants. In short time the fronts get trashed quite badly but with a bit of creativity you can give them new life and get a few more months of service out of them.

I bought some Steam-A-Seam/ Heat Bond material at the local Jo-An Fabrics to make up your own iron-on patches. Using some heavy Cordura fabric I had, I made up some suitable patches to double up the front of the legs where they wear thin. With the heat bond material between the patch and the pants, hit it with the iron on the Cotton setting and presto ......  14 $ spent on materials and I mended five pairs of pants this way. Now that's what I call recycling.

 

A few months back I did the same thing but used instead some iron on heat seal dry-bag nylon I bought a few years ago from Seattle Fabrics to make airbags for my home built kayaks. So far they have held well needing only an occasional hit with a hot iron where the edge seam may peel off a bit after a wash. These also have the advantage of being waterproof so in bad weather or traipsing through wet brush they keep you dry. You could make your own hunting pants this way if you covered the bottom 12 inches of the leg cuff. You'd pay $120 at Beans or Cabelas for nylon front hunting pants like these.  Note the pocket reinforcements as well.

A common issue for us that carry a clip on type knife is the pocket seam soon frays and tears open.. A quick double with the same patch reinforces the weak spot.

The in-F-ernal combusted engine.....

I managed to remove the exhaust system from the engine,  sheer agony... busted knuckles multiple trips to Sears for appropriate tools and all that good stuff... trying real hard to keep my cool. Laughing so as not to cry.

Its Friday night and the heads are yet to part from the block. To be able to access the cylinder head bolts the cam shaft must be removed, but do that the cam shaft sprocket must come off.  According to the Hanes manual, the bolt that holds the sprocket is supposed to be torqued to 80 ft/lbs. The Youtube videos show that it takes way more than 80 ft/lbs to break it loose. Estimates run about 350 ft/lbs. I attempted to hold the sprocket with a one inch pipe with a T in it and only succeeded in making it look like this. I guess I'll be shopping for a new one of them as well.

its inevitable when you try to polish a turd you wind up with some sh... on your hands

A bit of wrenching

Figuring at best I have a pile of junk in my yard I thought why not tear in to it and see what we have...... Worst comes to worse I call the junk man and have it hauled away for scrap value. It is clear the #1 cylinder blew the gasket and sucked in coolant.

Options are;

1) replace the engine with a newer 3.4 liter version of the same V6 engine,
2) re-do the heads on this for the third time or..
3) yank every thing out and put an American carbureted engine and trannie in it.

The last would mean losing the 4wd.

Yesterday I managed to drag the truck in to the garage with a little electric winch, and started tearing in to it today. The wood stove I built a couple of months ago came in handy. Proceeding slowly here in order to make the best of a bad situation. Removed the peripherals air-box, mas airflow sensor, wiring harness, throttle cable radiator shroud and hoses, and generally make some space

then a bit deeper.. an remove the upper intake manifold, fuel rails to expose the lower intake manifold and remove the valve covers.

then I get to the lower manifold and unbolt it...

after some persuasion with a rubber mallet it gives way

tomorrow we tackle removing the heads

A last minute rush job....

.... the unglamorous part of carpentry work..... Got a call on Sunday night from a customer needing a quick repair job to comply with pre-sale inspection faults. Closing of the sale is to take place this Friday. Turns out the trim under the front door on her house was rotted due to improper sealing. Sheathing and rim joist were rotted as well. First part of the job involved moving the 8 x 8 foot layer cake entry stairs. It was not attached to any foundation but the framing was filled with a couple of yards sand to hold it in place. Ughhh we will sort out the sand part later..

Blocks and pry-bar made a quick job of moving it away from the wall to allow some working space.

upon peeling back the rotted trim I find the rotted sheathing and framing just as expected.

yuck...

and the left side....

so we excise the bad rim joist careful not to cut the wiring and pipes behind it.

and replace it with a new piece.

....on goes some new OSB sheathing with some ice and water shield. The door frame is naturally punky as well, but the customer is not willing to spring for it and we really don't have the time for the job, so the worst of the rot on the door frame gets cut out.....

...and fit a new piece to fill the gap.... new Toughboard synthetic trim goes on and we refit the cedar clapboards I removed previously to access the bad sheathing.

 All joints sealed with polyurethane caulking.

 

then due to the 0 degree C weather and flurries we tent it over with 2 mil polyethylene plastic...

 .....and put the kerosene heater under the tent to keep us warm.... when I say US, I mean me, myself and I.. operating solo here though I have been known to talk to myself quite frequently....

....and we give it a coat of paint and stain the clapboards to disguise the work done.

Then the struggle to get the stairs back in place.. remember the two yards of sand under the stairs? ... lot of digging on my knees under the deck..... back and forth a few times with the bar and blocks I removed about 4 wheelbarrows of sand to make it all sit level and square...

11 hours of labor and a blown truck engine we are all done..

now about that truck engine.......

I killed the truck...

Looks like I killed the engine in the truck today....  I was at the lumberyard picking up materials for a project and when I started it, it blew gobs of white smoke.. limped it a couple miles to the job site to unload the materials but then I could not get it to start.. frozen solid.. could not get it to turn over and with the hood open and the radiator cap loose it was trying to spit the cap off... compression strokes back in to the cooling gallery??? so I had to have it towed home. Fortunately it was less than a mile away..... just pulled the plugs on it and found the right fwd cylinder was full of coolant
Not sure what I will do next... new truck?? swap engines??? 

Turkey???

Why have turkey when you could have lamb?

Thanksgiving diner.... another exquisite success....