To The Metal

Out with the old…

And in with the new…

More updates to come as we work to get the motor in.  With my cousin guiding as I turn the wrenches, I can only imagine how awesome this truck is going to turn out.  The crate 350 is a work of art and I cannot WAIT to hear its throaty roar the first time we fire it up.

Today after we pulled the engine out, I proceeded to degrease and pressure-wash all the drivetrain components we’d previously removed.  Who knew a transmission was supposed to be silver?

Anyhow, i’m beat, and I’ve got a bunch of part shopping to do.

Cheers!

Dropped the trans from the truck last night, drained the coolant, pulled the hood – should be pulling the old motor out today, then the dog house tomorrow – and then I get to pressure-wash and de-rust EVERYTHING.

Also took delivery on the new motor.  It’s all black and shiny.  I swear, I feel like a little kid at Christmas right now.  It’s a lot of hard work, but the payoff is going to be a kick ass resurrected pickup.

Recap –

Monday, drove the truck to my cousin’s place in Jersey

Tuesday, drained the motor and transmission oil.  (Transmission oil was burned BAD). Removed the driveshaft.

So day 3 of the Chevy build has us pretty much on schedule to have the motor out by the weekend.

Last night we disconnected the torsion bars, cut away the exhaust system, and dropped the transfer case.

Since the exhaust system was pretty much rotted away including the catalytic converter, I ordered a new set of Flowtech shorty headers, Y pipe, and a high-flow catalytic converter.  I’ll just bolt that together onto the new motor when we’re ready to take that step.

Hopefully this weekend I’ll be spending most of my time detailing the engine bay, cleaning out 20 years of grease and crap so the new motor will have a nice new home.

Once everything is put back together, I’m going to have to replace the front axles (they’re pretty much shot) before Winter comes along.  I might be able to get one more 4×4 season out of them, but I’d rather not find out the hard way.

Should get the exhaust components as well as the new engine/trans mounts on Friday.  I’m digging the SummitRacing online portal, its very well done.

I’m walking around the front of my office when I hear a horn honk.  I look to see an impatient jackass from Mediacom passing 2 cars like an idiot, nearly hitting me, and then he speeds through the stop sign to go park in front of his office.

I really don’t get this shit, but I know I’d love to put my foot in that shithead’s ass.

Circuit City Orders All Stores To Destroy Issue Of Mad Magazine Parodying “Sucker City”

Caught this story via DiGG.  Long and short of it, there was an ad in a copy of MAD Magazine sold at Circuit City which was a fairly accurate spoof of a Circuit City ad.  Someone high up panic’d and ordered all the copies to be removed from shelves and tossed.

Well that story got out and made CC look stupid.

What annoys me about the story is that it was funny – until I saw the low-brow political jab that was part of it.  If you look at the image from the ad displaying the “picture in picture in picture in picture” you will see Spongebob Squarepants, then Sean Hannity, then Adolph Hitler.

Yes, the Nazi’s were Fascists.  We get it.  Bush?  Not a fascist.  Hannity?  Not a fascist.  “Patriotic” to a choke point, and rather flamboyant when it comes to hacking away our personal liberties?  Absolutely – but can we please drop the Hitler crap?  At this point I’ve seen him in a broadway show as well as taking a pineapple up his ass from the devil.  The image of Hitler has been diluted from the Fascist dictator responsible for the ordered deaths of millions to a running joke and laughing stock.  Not that I mind people laughing at the guy as he roasts in Hell, but seriously – that joke/zing/point is about as old as Mad Magazine.

How about Mussolini.  He’s another infamous Fascist who I think just doesn’t get the attention he deserves.  Sure, not quite the daydream fodder of Liberal Intellectuals ala Karl Marx, but I’m pretty sure Mussolini knew how to make some wicked spaghetti sauce.

With Mermaid backing me up just in case, I got the pickup down to Jersey on 7 cylinders.  I decided to completely disconnect the spark plug (instead of risking some sort of major mechanical failure).  Still had plenty of power to get me there, but was pretty rough when I had to slow down for lights.  At the higher RPM’s it ran well enough.

Funny side note, the truck always had a nasty kick going from 1st to 2nd gear.  Turns out there’s a cable going from the throttle to the tranny and it was jerry rigged (Probably mentioned it here).  Well anyhow, I adjusted it correctly and wouldn’t you know it – the tranny doesn’t kick anymore.  Shifts smooth as buttah.

Anyhow, I’ll be working on the truck for the next week or two straight, hoping to have it back home by next weekend. 🙂

Pictures will be on the way once I start taking them.

Over the course of the past month I’ve been trying to fix a problem which arose in my pickup’s motor.  Basically it runs rough if you put a load on it, to the point of getting some loud clacking noise from the #4 cylinder.  Off a hunch, I guessed at a stuck lifter – swapped them out – same problem.

What a blast I had though.  I basically had to take the entire top of the motor off except for the cylinder heads to actually get at the lifters.  My first attempt at setting the gasket for the intake manifold was a bust as I didn’t put enough RTV sealant at the front and back of the engine block.  Thankfully I took it apart BEFORE I tried to run it and got to find out what a vacuum leak sounded like.

It took me maybe 3 evenings to get the intake manifold off the truck, removing each component, labeling it, etc…  Then the heat wave struck and I ended up having to work around the 90+ degree temperatures to get the thing back together without killing myself.

I actually gave it a shot last night, starting the truck – but the battery had died and my little VW didn’t have enough juice to jump it.  This morning I installed a new battery and it wouldn’t start.  Turns out I was one terminal off on my distributor cap, so I just moved each wire over one, and it started right up.

Main problem I had now of course was that the engine was still running rough like it was, same problem existed.  So I’ll be ordering a brand new GM L05 V8 for it, and after doing a little bit of restore work under the hood – install it in the pickup.  On the upside, it’s not running any WORSE than it was, and I now have the confindence to undertake even more complex repairs on the truck when I need to.

Good learning experience overall, more to come with the buildup on the pickup and eventual complete restoration.

Cheers

After catching the mostly ignored comments from Obama the other day where he said the best solution for the oil/fuel problem was to ‘fill your tires‘ I could only recall seeing news clips of Carter’s administration where his solution for the oil/fuel problem was to ‘wear a sweater.’

Something tells me either of those two dolts really have any trouble affording fuel or oil.

We Americans are truly deserving of the candidates we have.  One, an inexperienced senator hell bent on implementing Marxist ideas – and the other, a Libservative weeble wobble with no respect for the 1st Amendment and a willingness to say ANYTHING to get elected.

Lastly, if I hear Obama use the “I’m Black!” defense one more time, I’m probably going to puke.  It’s not funny, it’s not cute, it’s tacky and insulting.  Must be why I cling to my guns and religion, asshat.

We’ve been handed a pair of one legged men in the biggest ass-kicking contest of 2008.  Is there ANYONE out there to challenge these two idiots?

“We can’t expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism.” ~ Nikita Krushchev.

I think it was last week when I started to hear about John Edward’s little problem keeping his lil toad in the correct hole. When it first broke, there was a little mention on my vast right-wing conspiracy talk radio stations – but not much more. Anyone asked about it discounted the report as being “from the Inquirer.”

Most main stream media has turned a blind eye to it, no surprise, but now Edwards’ home town paper has caught on and is reporting the story. It may start to pick up steam once Obama publicly rules out Edwards as a running mate.

It’s simple. Someone didn’t want Edwards to be in contention for Obama’s VP spot, so they released this. Factor in a cannibalistic political party, and a media still in the endorphine-induced haze of a week long Obamagasm – and they continuet o deny for the politicos so nobody has to open their mouth. After all, the longest serving Republican senator just resigned. THAT is the story.

Only thing I can think of is that the leak came from the Clinton camp, and more may continue to be produced as we get closer to the Messiah Barack Hussein Obama selecting his first Apostle… But the Clintons are back burner, and no longer the darlings of the main stream media.

A few months back I got a new neighbor at my apartment complex.  Total raving drunk.  Drives drunk all the time.  Walks around drunk all the time.  I won’t give them the respect to call them an alcoholic.

Anyhow, first week, they try busting in through my back door – drunkenly confusing it for their own.

Few weeks later, they trash the bathroom because the toilet is clogged.

Few nights ago, again they’re trying to get in through my back door.

So I call the cops when they drive off drunk with a suspended license.

Cop escorts them back.

Cop leaves.

Cop returns later in plainclothes, is satisfied *cough* that there won’t be a repeat (which there has), and the drunken fucktard GETS AWAY WITH IT.

So anyone who thinks I believe that all cops are angels – think again.  I’m between a rock and a hard place as I don’t want to deal with any small town bullshit, but I don’t know how to get this drunk taken care of before they take out a family of 5 while out meandering local roads.

In the mean time, I’m trying to find a new place to live, the landlord is trying to get the drunk evicted, and apparently drunken driving winos have more rights than ME.  So if anyone happens to know any homosexual state troopers, drop me a line.