Friday, February 7, 2014

Blog #9, Bus Related, Going to pick up our new engine from Ed's, Feb. 7, 2014



Well the deal for my new engine with Ed Brenner has been made, all parts I believe I need for the new engine have been removed from my old engine and & I have cleaned up my old bell housing  to bring with us to Ed’s to reassemble to his engine for ease in transporting in the u-haul trailer.  

Days before Linda and I were to leave to go get this new engine I told Ed I would go to my metal supply vendor and try to get him a supply of raw stock metal also as a gesture to thanks for his good deal on this engine.  I went to this vendor and of course I had to dig out metal from a DUMPSTER like I like to do, FREE STUFF!! No shame here though, I am the only person allowed to do this from this particular vendor., what a thing to boast about you are thinking eh??

Well this privilege of dumpster diving  has saved me about $5,000 maybe or more for metal alone in my bus conversion over the period of 13 years now, it has to be more than that but just estimating.  What do you think now???  It was sure worth it to me and still is at the cost of metal now days.  I dumpster picked about 1200-1400 lbs to I would estimate of raw metal for ED, maybe a little more but just guessing.  My personal dual axel trailer wheels were squatting on my trailer.

Ed and I agreed of a date for me to go and pick up my new engine, and I arranged to get a 6X12’ U-Haul trailer for $39 per day with insurance. I picked up the trailer the day before about noon and brought her home and loaded it up with the raw metal and wooden cradle I made days earlier for the engine to sit on when I brought it back to our house safely on the trailer.  I also put on board 2X4’s to anchor the engine in all directions from moving and also the bell housing from my old engine.  In my jeep I had tools of all kinds, nylon straps, sledge hammer just in case, she was pretty packed with everything a guy can think of and I believe we used everything I brought.  I strapped everything down and was ready to go.

Trailer all loaded and ready to go 256 miles to Ed to get engine. 

Well evening started to come and I got a phone call from Ed, OH, OH, I thought the deal was off!!!  NO, something else, Ed said he was moving the engine into position for us to easily load on the trailer the next day when I arrived and when he did the engine rolled over about 90 degrees.  Oh, crap, not again.  This just happened to me the week earlier and I was alone.  Well at least Ed has a fork lift to help us get it back up right!!  All night long now I was trying to turn that engine back up right in my mind, there is only one lifting point to lift from not two.  What in hell to do now.  Not a good night for sleeping, well that is me.  The ole adrenalin was flowing all night long,I had headaches galore.

Linda and I awoke 3am, and left at 4am, pitch black and my mind was just a running all over trying to turn that darn engine over in my mind.  Well we had to go through the damndest hilliest mountains on the way to Murrells Inlet, SC you ever saw and my jeep just seemed to keep struggling to get up these mountain roads, every one of them and there was a crap of them.  My jeep sometimes downshifted and the RPM’s raced up to a speed I have never seen before up to and over 5,000 rpm’s.  Now that was scary and it sure put me on my toes each time I went up a hill.  It did that 5 times I believe but I kicked it down out of cruise immediately, thank God as quickly as I felt it happen.  But I kept thinking, “What to hell”.  Now what is happening, maybe I had on more of a load than I though and here it is pitch black out, no traffic at those hours and all kinds of stuff goes through your mind when you imagine mysterious things happening that never happen before.  Then I notice my fuel consumption was showing up way, way more than normal, so much more that I got out to check to see if I had a hole in my fuel tankNope, all was good there, and the load was not shifting or anything.  So on we went.  It would be a 5 hour trip to Ed’s total.
We got to within 2 miles of Ed’s per our GPS and my fuel light come on, I overfilled the car before we left the house, what to hell, only 256 mile trip total??.  A gas station is on the corner of where Ed lives, I decided to fill up to relax a moment, not sure what to expect with a turned over bus engine and now what is the problem with the car??  Oh God how am I doing???  We filled the car back up with fuel again. The car was nearly bone dry of fuel. There we were, we arrived at 9:30am on the nose and there was ED, pacing back and forth in his driveway near his garage in front of my new engine which appeared turned sideways!!  Here we go.  I calmly backed down the driveway with the trailer like this happens every day and it would be a piece of cake!! NOT!! I backed up as close as I dared and macho me gets out and scanned the situation and wished I were still on my way there but shook it off and said to myself, “Self we got a situation here”.  Well Ed explained all that happened and the poor guy I am sure did not sleep all night either.  I could tell he was all shook up and tried and tried by himself to up right that motor and the more he did the more it turned downward.  Been there, Done that!!

This is how the engine was sitting when I arrived, Gulp!!

Ed and I started coming up with possible scenarios of turning this engine, but disaster in my mind clouded each thought we each had.  We had one big obstacle attached to the engine that really complicated the entire problem, it was the back motor mount bracket that was still attached to the engine and you would have to lift the engine at least 18” high maybe to even start turning the engine and this was a dangerous move.  We had wooden blocks, thank God I brought some 12” ones with me, we had them all over for support in case the engine slipped or dropped or anything happened.  You will see in the photos both here and at the photo bucket website.

The vertical framing attached to the engine was the problem we had in turning the engine, this prevented us from just rolling the engine as we had to get to the height of this arm before the engine would even be possible to turn.

We truly had one hell of a time getting that engine turned over even with the fork lift at the forks were shorter than we needed, with the help of a little ole 2 ton engine hoist and a lot of (gonads and stupidity) we got her done, one inch at a time.  You talk about relieved.  This 2300 lb. cubicle can kill you in a heartbeat, no warning, just BANG, your dead!!  ME!!  I was on the ground!!  Well that did not happen as if it did you would not be getting bored to death at the moment of reading this blog.  We got the engine safely secured on wooden blocks, bolted on the bell housing I brought up and now was ready to put her in the trailer. 

 One of the few photos showing stupid chances being taken to roll this engine over, many more on photobucket over the period of 4 hours or more show all our efforts.  I am tired just thinking of it again.

With the help of a little ole 2 ton engine hoist and a lot of guts we got inched this engine over one inch at a time till it started to turn over in the opposite direction which as you can see pleased the hell out of me.  I no longer could crack an walnuts in my butt, the worst of this part was over, thank God!!


NEW PROBLEM: Fork lift forks too short to push engine on the cradle I made onto the trailer.  We had to re-modify the wooden cradle I made so the engine would go in sideways in the trailer and start the engine into the trailer and I used one of my heavy duty nylon straps hooked onto the front tongue of the trailer hooked onto the engine to pull the entire assembly onto the trailer on click at a time.  It took a little while but we did it.  I pulled  that engine & cradle 10% past the centerline of the trailer and we secured that engine down so she would not move any place believe me. 

Used a heavy nylon strap to pull engine and cradle onto trailer, this took awhile but worked, forks on fork truck too short or trailer was too long?? what ever!!


Ed & I hi-fived each other and as we were getting ready to leave, my inspector wife, Linda said, (that front back tire looks really low on the passenger side of the trailer)??  Huh??  Sure does??  Ed gets his tire pressure gage and sure enough, a tire needing 65 lbs. air pressure only had 10 lbs. in it!!!!! 

Tire on the right required to have 65 lbs. only had 10 lbs on trip up to Ed's, thank God my inspector wife noticed it looked soft.  Probably saved an accident or worse from happening with this cubical on board going home in the dark by the time we left for 5 hrs. of traveling.  

It did not take only a few seconds to realize we were pulling that trailer for 5 hours sideways with the load we had, all uphill, in the dark and used a full tank of fuel to do it.  We could of easily had a flat tire with all that metal, can you imagine the accident with all that metal on highway 26 at 4am in the morning.  Good grief!!  Well we put 65 lbs in the tire, checked the rest which were good.  We listened for any leaks, none at that time, I kissed Ed and shook hands with Claudette, no, I mean the other way around, then we left for home.  I was to tickled about this deal though I could have easily kissed him.  It was about 4pm when we finally left Ed’s driveway.  Oh Man we were going to be traveling during the supper hour in all that traffic with a 2300 lb. engine and my sphincter muscle was so tight I could crack walnuts but off we went.

I noticed a big difference right off the bat, the care handled way, way better, she downshifted way less but this might have been because most of the trip home was downhill too, but we consumed only ½ tank of fuel altogether as well on the way home.  I sure felt a lot better about that.  When we returned the trailer, I told U-haul of the tire being down in pressure, did not get huffy or anything and they subtracted 1 day of use from the bill which again saved a few dollars.  Being respectful can pay off many times and did this time as well.  I will surely recommend this shop to anyone needing a rental u-haul just for this gesture.  It does not take much to please me, just showing respect and believing what I told them to be truthful as I was willing to pay full price anyhow.

Well we got the engine home, now how in hell was I going to get this monster off the trailer, ALONE!!  Never thought this far ahead.  But again I have a vendor that I have befriended over 8 years that has a shop 2 miles from me.  One hell of a good guy, he is a struggling bolt and nut selling vendor, he sells me all my bolts and nuts for his cost, can you imagine again the bucks I have saved.  I mean every bolt I need.   I have repaid him for this by giving him free labor for a few days several times sorting out and doing inventory work and anything, I mean anything no matter how demeaning it may be to others to just show my appreciation for his kindness and support to me for my bus conversion project.  Well, he  owns a small front end loader that can only pick up 800 lbs. max. and he offered to shut down his shop and come over to help me unload as he knew what I was doing and when I was arriving home with my new engine!!!  Who in hell else would offer to do that?  Talk about a support system, that is what drives me to complete this conversion and I just cannot let these people down, my great supporting wife or myself. 

Todd came over at 9am and between him on one side with the bucket of his front end loader on the side of the trailer and me on the other side with my little ole 2 ton engine hoist we slid that darn ole engine out by me pulling out the trailer with the jeep, a little at a time supporting one end of the engine cradle on blocks and pulling the trailer out with the jeep a little at a time.  Todd’s front end loader was at a maximum lifting capacity (800 lbs) and we just made it. I almost tipped over my engine hoist.  I have no idea how in hell I would of done this without Todd’s help. I just have not idea; God can’t do everything for us.

We got the engine completely out, completely supported on 12” or higher blocks and had the trailer completely pulled out of the way and again I did 2 more back flips.  Oh my poor back is killing me.  Todd was such a ray of sunshine in my life that day, maybe really saved my life to be honest, I am sure I would of gotten hurt with only a 2 ton engine hoist to pullout a 2300 lb. engine, a solid cube of man killing metal for sure.

engine off the trailer and still on her wooden skids sitting on wooden blocks waiting for connection to her semi permanent home on the metal cradle for all the work to be done before assemble to the engine compartment. 

I returned the trailer to U-haul, got charged for only 1 day as I explained earlier, (saved more money again, yippee) and it seems I just keep getting a little help here and there every day from the good lord one way or other just to keep me honest and above water.  Sometimes I have to ask him, “How my doing”, he is probably just smiling down stroking his beard if he has one, amazed at my perseverance and thinking one day I will be rewarded, big time.   I have been with a wonderful wife and family, the rest is just perks I have to earn and those friends I meet on the way are ones I need to thank one day, one at a time, I really want to do just that.  I am getting mushy here, sorry.

After all the commotion and moving around of stuff and I was finally alone with my new engine I got to sit down and just look and see what I got to work with.  First thing again was to tape up everything and get ready to pressure wash her and see what needs to be done next, and putting her on the new cradle after I remove the old engine from it was the first thing to do.  So out come the duct tape again, closed off all the opening and out come the pressure washer and 1 hr later she was drying in the sun.  I had a little trouble getting the new engine off the wooden shipping cradle and onto the metal assembly cradle but I did it with that little 2 ton crane where the engine sits even today.

New engine sitting on her new cradle ready to be be cleaned up, prepped for paint and anything needed for being put back into service, yesssssssssss

 The engine is now secure, easy to maneuver around by myself and work on, assemble parts and paint and soon rig up for the home made DYNO test of mine to make sure she runs good at running tempt. Before I reassemble her into the engine compartment.  That will be a special blog just for that operation, I will not sleep a lick that night, can you imagine the excitement, like the only kid as Disneyland, yea baby!!  Don’t worry, it will be on video for you all to see. 13 years and you hear a 2 stroke that will be in my bus running for the first time, we will bring her up to water temperature, engine running temperature, oil pressure, test of my new air throttle, man what a freaking testing day we will have.  I plan to hook her up to my radiator too, all outside the engine on the engine cradle, that will be a kicker, only a 2 stroke lover would understand.
Well, this is enough for this blog, other photos that go along with this blog are posted on photo bucket at this direct link to view, just click on this link to go directly to them:


Phew, I am tired out, another long darn post eh?  Well remember, anyone that means anything to you be sure to hug up on them, tell them you love them and dam sure mean it.  Love you all. 

Garylee

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