Blog #12, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014, "Not Bus Related" Toyota Corolla Update

Hey Everyone, 
I have been off the writing mode for a few days, I have been working by little ole butt off still on my new (Money Pit) my 1982 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon that did not and still does not run that I traded my perfectly good 1995 Saturn SL2 for. 

I have some information I wish to share with you in case you may need it, I come over it by accident and it saved me a lot of money and I hope to do the same for you if you need it one day or are a mechanic and can use this information.  I will get to it shorty, yea right Gary!!

Anyhow I am trying to remember how everything happened as it did for the past few days.  As you remember when I traded even / steven for this car I originally almost bought another Toyota Station wagon that was on the front lot of the car dealer for sale that did run but needed to have a new manifold gasket installed, it had a bad leak.  The driver and passenger seats were badly worn and had seat covers over them to camouflage the terrible shape they were in.  The dash had 3 big cracks the entire length of the dash.  My car I now have has none of that but enough of that, I just wanted to remind you what I almost bought but luckily there was two guys making a deal just ahead of us by 30 minutes that got the car.  The only reason for this was because My precious wife took her time getting dressed to go get this car after I seen it the day before and dreamed of it all night and decided I wanted it all  night.  But someone else wanted it too, a mexican fellow and his brother and they love Toyotas as it seems. 

Well we missed out on that deal but I got these guys business card that just bought this car I wanted originally as they said they know a lot about Toyotas and I know very little, mechanically.  I know they are a very dependable car as I owned one and I never had any problem with ours and we had it over 10 years and still had the same exhaust etc.  We exchanged pleasantries
and they went on their way but not before I got their business cards.  Now a little later that same day I made a deal with the car dealer after they left for a car that was in the back field of the building, non running but better looking as far as body than the one in the front lot that we originally wanted, and nicer interior etc.  It just did not run, (Money Pit to get her going was going through my brides head at this moment for sure, remember the Eagle, 13 years nearly on blocks now)??

Well I started to pimp out our car from the engine first, I wanted to get the car nice and clean in the engine area and think of my options to get her running again.  I was all excited, (as usual and it don't take much on these kind of projects for ole Garylee to get excited).  Well I got to looking at my Vacuum hoses and man on this car there is a bunch of them, about 30 or more, all over the lot.  Well, they are the original hoses, they have the Japanese logo's all over the hoses and they were tight, tight on the fittings from drying out over the years etc. 

I decided I wanted to replace all the vacuum hoses right then and there and went to O'reilly's auto store.  I took one of my original hoses with me to match it up, the girl brought me a piece of what she thought looked close and I bought 8 ft. of it, really cheap I thought, only $4 for 8 ft.  I would see how far this would go and get more after.  Well I started to take off the old stuff, one piece at a time so not to get mixed up as it sure would suck to get the hoses crossed etc.  As I was putting them on I said to myself, (self, this hose seems too loose to me to have a good seal) but I used up about 6 feet of the hose and I accidently hit one of the new hoses already replaced and the new length just fell off!!!  Hell, that ain't gonna hit it, that isn't going to be good at all.  I took the rest of the new stuff and the piece of original Toyota hose back to the store and to research what to do. 

Well what it turned out is, the length I had was the original Toyota OEM brand of coarse, Stevie Wonder could have seen that for Gods sake.  Any how O'reilly's tried to sell me 5/32 and it does not have enough shrink power to hold onto the  shaft of any of the fittings to stay in place as I found out.  The shaft diameters of all the vacuum fittings is .165.  O'reilly's wanted me to try to use 7/64 but that would be too small and too tight and too restrictive for air flow as it would only be .109 inside diameter.  so here is the break down in dimensions of what I really needed. 
Vacuum shaft diameter is-     .165
USA 5/32 tubing diameter is .156 = only .010 holding power and could easily loosen and all off.
USA 7/74 tubing diameter is . 109 = .056 too tight holding power, too tight and could break plastic fitting very easily and you could never remove in later time. 
Metric tubing needed is 3.5mm = .140, =. 025 holding power over shaft is us used on and sufficient to hold and not vibrate off at any time. 

OK, now that is solved, now I go to Autozone, Napa, O'reillys, pep boys, Greenville Toyota.  No one has Metric tubing.  At Greenville Toyota they would sell me a 3 foot piece off a roll at $1.50 per foot, Well ok, but that won't go far so I said I would look around for more as I need about 18 feet.  Well I never found it any place.  I called Toyota of Easley and they said they could order it for me, it comes in 8 ft. lengths special OEM Toyota Brand Vacuum hose like what was on my 1982 still, and some of it was still useable but not much.  So I said Ok, how much, and he said it would be Are you ready for this now??  He said it would cost ($63.68) for a 8 ft. length!!!!  I said Toyota of Greenville said it was $1.50 per foot and he said not OEM stuff, it must be like Napa and must be 5/32 and they repair their cars with that stuff!!!  So be warned what you get in your foreign cars, I just gave you some valuable information that could one day be worth remembering if your care runs crappy.  Japanese cars have to have Metric Vacuum hose and not USA vacuum hose or you will pay in the long run.   See what Toyota of Greenville must do, they cannot sell OEM hose for $1.50 per foot when it cost $63.68 for 8 ft. of it. 

Ok, what in hell do I do now, I ain't paying that price, I need two pieces of it, that would be $128 freaking dollars for vacuum hoses, good grief.  So I went on line, and searched and searched and found where I could order Silicone vacuum hose, 3.5 mm, in 3.3 ft. lengths for ($3.60 plus $2.00 Shipping Direct from CHINA) and I did, I ordered 6 lengths of it.  $33.60 and I get it about March 4-10, 2014 if I am lucky when coming through customs. I am getting the color blue to pimp out my engine compartment a little as you will see when I get it all done, no sneak peaks till it is done though.  I am all excited about this project, but I got to get back on the bus, there has been a lot of nice days here but I don't care, the bus can wait, I need a second car now, so my wife says!!!  Only kidding me, but she will be nice pimp car.  

Now I go and see the guys that I wanted to approach about rebuilding my carburetor, and they said their father rebuilds the carburetors, and at his house.  I ain't moving this car to get my carburetor rebuilt.  Another nice guy they work with asked me what I wanted them for and I told him and asked him if he rebuilds toyota carburetors and he also said he does but would take the carburetor off and rebuild it at home. I don't mind that, he come over with his wife, a pretty little girl, they just had their first baby, only two weeks ago, and he he took off the carburetor.  Luckily I loosened up every hose for him before he came and it only took 5 minutes to get off the carburetor after marking the hoses the way he wanted.  Off he went.  I was tickled, he gave me a good price, I got a price of a guy down the road to  rebuild it for $250.!!!  JC.  That seemed high.  And my newest best friend -Domingo said he would rebuild it for me and get the car all tuned up and running good for $100!!!  I did 3 back flips again, damn arthritis kicking my ass. 

Well Domingo called me later last night and said he took the carburetor apart and someone already had taken it apart and screwed up a lot of parts inside and it was not fixable without buying a lot of new part and I needed a new carburetor in place of it.  JC.  Here we go, the new money pit.  

I called O'reilly's to see what new carburetors would cost, $369, + tax and 90 day warranty.
I called Advance Auto to see what a new one would cost, $437, +tax and 90 day warranty. 
I went online and went on ebay etc. and all over and finally by accident I found a place you will not believe and am passing on to you guys in case you ever need it.  Make it a favorite for you or a friend as it is important to find a place like this.  I will give you the link in a moment.  But here is the skinny, go and check for yourself.  In my case, they do not have my carburetor in stock so they have sent me a shipping notice to sent my carburetor to them and they will rebuild it in two days and then send it to me.  I will pay them for it when they send it back to me.  This carburetor rebuild is GUARANTEED FOR LIFETIME!!  Where in hell you gonna get one like that.  Anyhow here is more information on this.  They will charge me $178.00 for the rebuild plus the $36.00 shipping round trip.  That is all!!!!!  The carburetor will be set up to install immediately, they will do a flow check and all set up to run so you do not have to set anything when it comes, supposedly, I am ecstatic and hope to help someone else out after telling you of the prices way above for only a 90 day warranty. 

Go to their website I am going to post in a moment, check on your carburetor if you want and see what the price is for yours.  I still can't believe it and am so tickled for the internet or you would not know of anything like this.  Look at the price difference and the Warranty for gods sake.  Here is the link I hope you can use one day:
http://importcarburetors.com/contents/en-us/d2_toyota_cars.html

Another good thing that happened today, remember me telling you that I got pissed off at the dealer that I used to get my cutting wheels and acetlyene and oxygen from and they jacked their prices way up??  I wrote on that in one of my first blogs I believe, well yesterday the manager of the local dealer I used to deal with called me and asked if the corporate office had called me as yet.  I told him one corporate division had because I sent a long 7 page letter to them and told them they were greedy etc. and way out of line with their prices and I was ordering stuff on line from now on.  Well One corporate manager did call me but his division is not in charge of the stuff I was complaining about and he forwarded that 7 page letter to the correct corporate manager that was in charge of that complaint I made.  But I shrugged it off, like yea, yea, yea.  Bla, bla, bal, smoke up my ass.  

Anyhow, the manager of the store here in Greenville called me yesterday and said, Gary Corporate has called me and said I am to give you a new bottle of acetylene full of gas at no charge to you and would you like it delivered or come pick it up?  I wanted to gloat a little so I  said I would come pick it up tomorrow meaning today.  And I did, well, everyone in the shop was milling around listening, the manager recognized me right off, addressed me as Mr. Gary, damn, I had to turn around and be sure he meant little ole me and he did, I was all alone.  He shook my hand, told me that was brave of me to write that letter and that corporate was re examining all their pricing policies of all their products because of me and many prices had already been reduced more than I could imagine and he thanked me to making their shop becoming more competitive as they notice lots of business leaving them.  So I guess I did good.  Anyhow they carried a new bottle of Acetylene to my car, and it was the next bigger bottle at that, and placed it in my car for me, no charge, another hand shake and off I went.  So it only shows that sometimes a complaint made to higher levels can sometimes make a big difference, all you have to do is believe it is important enough to you to fight for and I did. 

I am gong to show you only one photo today, it is of my 4 spark plugs I took out of my toyota, they were black, black with carbon, and had a .050 gap in them.  I bet this baby will run like a bear with new carburetor, new fuel pump, new plugs, new wires, new vacuum lines, new paint inside the engine room, and a happy new owner.  That is all for tonight. 

Don't forget to tell those that you love that you do and mean it. 

Garylee

Here is photo of the 4 spark plugs I pulled out today and installed new ones.  .050 gap in them.

Blog #11, "Not Bus Related", Rambling Thought Day, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014

Hello Everyone,

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth, I have been real busy since my last post as I have traded my 1995 Saturn SL2  for a 1982 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon that to me is in Pristine condition but when purchased the Toyota did not run!!!  I know, I know, what in hell is wrong with this picture Gary??   Well I just wanted to have this car to simplify the answer and it should be running real good by Monday, I hope.  I am having the Carburetor rebuilt this weekend, and I am putting in a new fuel pump because of the age of my new toy car and that way for the rest of my life I should not have to worry about it any more.  The car was sitting for quite a long time and this is not good for buses or cars.  I posted a few photos of this deal on my FB but will re-post them here as well to show you what I started with and when I am done by the middle of next week you will see the end result and see what I have stored in vision in my head all this time.  Here is photos of this anyhow: 

My Saturn the day it was to be traded, even steven for my Toyota.

Only thing wrong with inside, the upholstery on driver seat was dirty, my work car but a goody, 30 MPG

Mileage when I traded her in, run good right up untill I pulled the key out of the steering wheel for the last time

The engine compartment, not all dirty etc.  clean enough to work on if you needed to, I hardly needed to

Now the 1982 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon the day I traded for her, Even / Steven

No dents, NO RUST< NO RUST< NO RUST any place

Front view, just wanting a wash job after sitting for who know how long in the back field

Even the back end was in great condition, I am a happy camper to find such a good condition car just for Garylee

Now a few photos of how she looked after her first bath, now she will look better after awhile but just getting off the field where she sat many months if not longer

one wash job and she looks better, notice the wire spokes on wheel covers, never seen them before, the spokes are removeable for cleaning, very easy to do too. 

Front seats, only tear on driver seat, need to see what can be done to fix, I hope to salvage the original seats as they are, put covers over them to keep in original condition, I just love this car.  Almost has a new smell to it when it is in the sun. I know, it is all in my head!!

Back seat, looks as if never been sat in, all in great condition

Front dash, I will keep stock, install maybe a CD player under dash but not do anything to original dash, all in excellent condition, the dash itself is not faded from the sun, no cracks in it or nothing!!

5 speed transmission, hot dam, ought to get some good mileage on that baby, all rugs in great condition, all foot pedals are in pristine condition.

I want to believe this is the original mileage, the car is in too good a shape not to be to me but what do I know.  I bought a bus I been working on for 13 years now thinking I was going to travel cross country the previous owner  said she could do it, yea, on a railroad car!!!

Well I have been working on this car all week as well as going for two days to help my sister in Augusta, Ga to recover from the horrible ice storm they had that knocked down many, many trees on her property that she needed help in removing.   I love her so I just had no choice but to go with Linda and work for two days till my back could not work anymore to help her out.  We did real good getting the wood stacked near the road for the city to come and remove this week some time for FREE.  But man what a lot of work when you are 68/69 in a few weeks. 

Well today I spent the best part of the day trying to find a place to buy new Vacuum hose for my new Toyota and I went to every auto place in Greenville, Auto zone, Napa, pet boys, every place I could think of and all they had was 5/32" which is a hair too big or 7/64" which is more than a hair to small!!  I need metric tubing, I think 3mm.  None here in Greenville, SC.  I even went to a Toyota Dealer and told him I wanted about 18 feet of it, I already used 8 feet of 5/32" I got from O'reilly's, they thought this would work but I was not satisfied with it.  It went on too freely which meant to me that it would come off too freely or leak.  So I went looking for the stuff I need.  The Toyota Dealer had it, but would only sell me 3 feet of it!!  What to hell??  He did not want to short change the mechanics supply if needed,  The new cars don't use it for gods sake, only old ones, like MINE!!  So I knew 3 ft. would not do crap for me and traveled on and went on the internet to try to find it, good grief, it was and still is difficult to find even here,  What to hell??  I gave up a while and went to work back on the Toyota.  I will look later tonight on the net.  I am mellowing out right now anyhow.  I hate when you want to do a search and you get millions of pieces of crap for only one little item you are looking for even with quotation marks around it.  Oh well. 

Anyhow I was thinking as I worked all by myself, AGAIN, about the past, how fast time is flying by and how glad I am of doing this blog really.  I am saying things not just for me but at times I hope I am speaking for some of those going through the same circumstances as we have and I am just venting in public.  Some people probably think, why tell all this stuff in public.  WHY NOT??  This is my Blog, you do not have to read it for sure, I write what I feel at the moment or my thoughts for the day, sort of like a diary you might say but something everyone can relate to if they want and delete or omit if they don't.  That is what is good about this stuff, you do not have to read it, it is not required to be read.  Some enjoy it as I get a few emails saying so and it only takes one to encourage me to continue. 

I have a good friend in the state of Washington, Dave Brawdy who encouraged me to write a Internet blog as he seen me write long post in Busnut Bulletin boards and sometimes I would get negative attitudes or negative comments from others that do not approve of me or my thoughts.  He knows this bothers me and knows sometimes I enjoy passing on information I have learned on my own and enjoy paying it forward to others so they will not make the same mistakes I have made or could have made but no matter what it is I still love doing it.   But now I can eliminate negativity, and those that do not want to read my blabbing etc. can just go on and do not have to see my name daily in a bulletin board that probably pisses them off.  That happens you know, even to me. 

Anyhow enough of that.  Today I was having mixed thought of things good and things bad of relationships I have had in the past and I like thinking of the good things that come out of them.  I made a post a few days ago to a relative that was complaining about walking 6 miles to work because of the bad weather.  I told him I used to walk more than that when I was younger to go see my first girlfriend and would of walked further if needed and think I did.  She was a real nice girl back when we went out and I am sure is still today.  I have made contact with her on the internet which I am grateful we have for a tool to make contact with those in our past like we do.  Anyhow you never really forget your first girl or boy friend you fell in love with, I have no idea why that is but you just don't.  She was always good to me but I was just too immature and things after awhile did not work out and we broke it off but it was mutual, even today we have the highest respect for each other.  Linda, my wife knows all about her, I have told her Just about everything about her and even when we go up North again I wish for us all to get together just so Linda knows everything nice I have said about my first girlfriend is true.  

I know right off what you are thinking and correct me if wrong, you think, Oh, Oh, Gary your gonna rekindle the fire and crap will happen, right??  That is not my intention, anyone that knows me and Linda knows that I am just so nuts in love with her it is not funny.  Why would I jeopardize my happiness I have had all these years with someone so loyal and loving as she has been, someone who understands all my mood swings, up or down, someone who ask for nothing for herself, someone who has been my best friend for 32 years now, someone who still makes my heart skip a beat at times when I look at her unbeknownst by her and makes that feeling inside just make me want to do a back flip if I could knowing I sleep with her.  Why would I jeopardize that with what few years I have left,  Meeting my first girlfriend with my wife is going to be wonderful as I have made Linda know just how wonderful my first girlfriend was way back then.

I went to my high school senior prom with a girl I cannot even remember her name even, but we double dated with a fellow and he was with the prettiest girl I saw and knew at Beekmantown Central School to me.  All during the prom I could not keep my eyes off her and her boyfriend suggested we just swap partners as he was attracted I believe in my date.  We did not do that as I thought he was kidding, but if swapping was the thing in those days I would of done it, she was hot.  Well as things turned out, I turned on the charm and we dated, fell in love and got married.  Man I was crazy in love, AGAIN, but this was the real deal as we got married.  

We ended up having two beautiful sons, Gary ll, and Darren.  If we ever did anything right together we sure made two beautiful boys.  Well things happened as they do and I promised myself not to ever be hurtful in why our marriage failed.  I know a lot of it had to do with my attitude, I never really got over having to get out of the Navy as I did as I loved the Navy but it is not a life for a Married person when I would be as sea a lot.  Well, maybe not to a lot of women I would say and I had that chip on my shoulder for many, many years and then I become a very jealous person and that's all it took as you can suspect.  So I know of some of my mistakes and I have tried not to repeat them with my beautiful bride Linda.  

My oldest Son Gary, and I had an argument the day before Linda and I moved with our family down to Greenville, SC in 1987,  I went to Gary's place of employment to say my last good-bye as we were all packed up and leaving that moment but I just wanted to try to patch up things with him but it did not work.  We talked a few moments and I got in the big ole U-Haul truck I was driving with all our belongings in it and started to drive out of Gary's employments drive way.  I looked in my driver mirror and saw him in my mirror wave to me as I drove off, with tears in my eyes like right now running down my face.  That was the last time I saw my son alive.  

You can't imagine, not for a moment the pain of remembering that last view of my son in that mirror as I drove off.  Well we were not in Greenville, SC 8 months and I got a call at work from Linda saying to come home ASAP.  I know something happened, What???  She would not say.   Well when she did after I got home I just went blank, fell to my knees and what happened after that I can't remember even today.  That was on February 12, his 21st. birthday was January 11th, he was 21 years old only 31 days.  Boy he was a good looking boy, just like a model, tall about 6'2'', blue eyes that could see right through you.  

I can't write much more about it now but will tell you that it was 10 years that I was grieving so bad I can't imagine how Linda stayed with me but she did and now I remember all I put her though and you think I would ever jeopardize that, not a chance in hell.  For 10 years I could not stand Christmas music, I hated Christmas, my attitude just sucked,  Sometimes for the first 2-3 years after Gary died from his automobile Accident I would be on my way to work or someplace and just have to pull over and have a hell of a cry, I was so freaking depressed.  I prayed to God to let me trade places with Little Gary but that never happened as you can see.  But anyone losing their child grieves differently and deeply, it is so hard to express and others to understand if it has not happened to them.  At times I would go to town and forget where I was going and why and forget how to get there.  I was a real mess, I got lost so many times, your whole world just seems to die with your child.  You become a zombie just walking through life barely knowing what in hell you are doing.  I had a real difficult time doing my job at GE for many months and man what a attitude I had with guys on the floor and management.  It was a wonder I did not lose my job but I think my son calmed me down when things got real bad, sometimes I can't remember the stupid things I said or did.  I pray you never go through any of this.  Now maybe you can see why I am writing this stuff down, it is like therapy for me to talk about and sadden up about as well but feel better seeing it in words to share with others.  

Now my Son Darren, That is a horse of a different color, he is so full of life, so much like his dad, (Bet his Mom loves that) and I am so proud of all his accomplishments.  He has such a beautiful family, good job and does things with his family I only wish I had to opportunity to have done with both him and little Gary when they were small.  I worked and worked and worked all the time at GE all the hours I could, What did it get me.  Better not go there Gary!!

Linda and I together have no children together, but she brought into my life 3 children from her previous marriage and I brought them into my heart and life like they were my own.  We went through a lot together, for me to be accepted as part of their family took awhile but worked out quite well.  Dominick was my right hand when we lived in Mariaville, NY, we were inseparable and even to this day he calls me Dad and he is not hard to love back.  Linda's Two daughters, Nancy and her great family live in Ga, where they all have great jobs and take lots of family trips together which I again did not do for quite some time because of trying to make a living etc.  Dominic's twin sister Lisa has two great kids that we used to see very often, and now because of SC no grandparents rights we no longer get to see, visit or talk to these grandchildren anymore again.  This is like a grieving time again we are going through, but now we are older and it hurts even more but there is millions like us in this country, and many thousands here in SC that legally this is allowed to happen.  Nobody prays harder than we do, in the meantime our grand-kids get older, so do we and we have no idea what to expect when we finally get to see them LEGALLY again when no longer can this be prevented from happening, EVER!!

Again, you are wondering, why is he airing this in public?  When you hurt, your heart is broken like ours is and you fall asleep nearly nightly with tears in your eyes till they seal shut you realize you are not alone in these feeling and to bring awareness of this cruelty to grandparents and the grand children has to be exposed and not hushed like it is.  This is ludicrous, for this to be kept quiet because the for-fathers of SC felt grand-parents caused more problems in families than good.  That was because Incest was the thing to do in the south in them days and if grandparents caused family problems trying to prevent this type of abuse from happening it broke up families etc.  What a bunch of freaking crap, what marbles in their minds they had.  Now days if it was not for grandparents in many, many instances some kids that run away etc. because of abuses such as molestation and who knows what other deviate crap by law is allowed to happen the kids would have to place to go.  We were told (by police) that no matter what, if a child runs away, they will be brought back to the parent who has the custody unless it is proven that abuses have been committed.  GOOD LUCK WITH THAT TOO!!.  Everyone turns their backs on grandparents, they believe that Grandparents are trying to get monies for support and who knows what is in their sick deviate minds.  Pisses you off to see kids in the middle all this time over a freaking legal age limit, the kids are a Carrot on a string just dangling there if this situation is in your life I feel for you and that is why I am airing our frustration.  Something just has to happen about this, Don't give me any of that (Guardian ad-leitem crap) either.  Been there and done that, That position is just job security for some relative of a politician that makes it sound like they are there to represent the kids but that is a LOT OF CRAP!!

OK, Starting to say things that I should not, I think I will call it a night, thanks for reading and remember one thing out of this if anything, tell those that you love that you do and MEAN IT!!

Garylee

  

Blog #10, Bus Related, Cleaning the new 8V71 from Ed's, inspecting to find out what is needed to assemble before testing engine.

Well This week in Greenville, SC and most of the South East Seaboard it has been a real bummer weather wise.  Records are being broken for cold, snow, sleet and loss of wages for people not having vacation time to cover this time off,  Kids out of school, yippee, yea right, and just a damn mess because lots of us have been and probably are still without power.  We are spoiled and I am sure will all be glad to have our normal life back, our I pods, and all those toys working normal again. 

Well I did not get much work done on my engine this week except for going last week to Gene Russel's and getting two used aluminum valve covers for my new engine to replace the 2 steel one's I had on it when I purchased the engine from Ed.  The Steel valve covers don't seal down very good and allow the engine pressure to push fuel out the valve cover gaskets and down the engine making a mess.  so I cleaned them up, I had to remove a vent cover from one of them and a oil fill opening from the other and blank off the valve covers with aluminum, then I painted them with Chrome Paint to make them nice and clean to at least look nice when I put the engine back in anyhow. I would hope the chrome paint will stick for a while anyhow but it has to be better than the old raw aluminum look that they had before I cleaned them up.

Ed's steel valve covers on his/my 8V71 engine, these gotta go, they leak and look like heck

one aluminum valve cover with turbo vent in center from Gene Russell's

Vent cover removed, hole plugged with aluminum cover

 Aluminum valve cover plugged in center and painted with Chrome paint with Detroit Diesel letters darkened for effect, I like it!!

After bringing back Ed's engine, Now Mine, I had to repeat what I did to my old one, I had to pressure wash it and inspect it for anything missing or needed.  What I had to replace even though this engine was rebuilt 49,000 miles ago etc. I had to find out now.  So I again capped off every opening possible in preparation to pressure wash.  I had to rig up a gasket under the covers that Ed made out of wood to take the place of the exhaust manifold that was removed to give to Kentucky Steve as he needed some.  I did not want water from my pressure washer to get into the engine as I washed it down.  I got out my pressure washer and for over an hour I washed and washed all the grease etc, off that I could to get a good look at what I had to do. After the engine dried in the sun I started the duty, again of looking deeper at what I had to work with.

I removed all the air box covers on both sides of the engine under where the exhaust manifold is supposed to be.  Since I did not have any Manifold Exhaust on it  had very little problem removing the air box inspection covers.  There was absolutely nothing in the air box covers which was a relief to me for starters.  I temporarily put the air box inspection covers back on knowing I was going to put them back on with new gaskets and new bolts.  All external bolts were going to be replaced and all those internal that I would be working with also would be replaced, that is just me, and each one would be tightened to a Detroit Diesel Bible torque spec.

I knew I had to change out my old oil pan on my old motor to the the motor as we damaged the new engine oil pan trying to turn up straight the new engine while at Eds.  That was no big deal changing out the oil pans.   I made my cradle just big enough, to slide out the old oil pan and after cleaning off the gasket surface real good, put the new oil pan and new gasket on the new engine.  I did not tighten down the new oil pan as I knew the oil pan had to be lowered to assemble the bell-housing to the engine and attach the oil pan to the bell-housing.

I started to remove all the gears on the drive end of the engine, using  2 harmonic balance pullers I bought from from Harbor Freight.  You need to use 2 pullers at once to pull the 2 interlocking camshaft gears at the same time as the gears inter- twist together when they come off. Package of 2 that I bought of pullers to pull of engine gears.

The engine camshaft drive gears have to be removed to remove the 3/16" thick safety protection plate behind the gears to install a new sealing gasket from the engine to the plate. You have to remove the gears and protection plate to install the new engine to protection plate gasket other wise you will have a mess all over the bell-housing with engine lubricant on the outside edge of your entire bell housing and have another oily mess.

Engine with gears I need to dis-assemble to remove protection plate behind the gears

All gears removed from engine, next thing to remove is the 3/16" protection plate

Protection plate removed, gasket surface now needs cleaning for re-installation of protection plate and new gasket

3/16 drive gear protection plate ready for cleaning of gasket surface and installation of new gasket and re-assembly to engine

When you remove these gears they have to be kept separate so you reassemble them on the same side as they were removed for proper timing and engine gear alignment.  Time has to be taken to remove everything, bolts are of various lengths and have to be either replaced using the same grade and lengths like I did or if you personally choose to reuse the old bolts in the same locations as removed.  You will need to clean all parts as removed, bag the small bolts and small parts, gears etc. after cleaning and identify them with magic marker.  Do the cleaning of each removed part as you remove it, do not place in a pile and then clean at one time.  You will screw up here, but this is your engine and not the way I do things. 

This is an investment well worth the money for a engine rebuild, repair or anything for cleaning of parts.  Purchased from Harbor Freight 10 years ago, just now using it!!!

This will be enough for tonight, I do not have my photos posted to photobucket as yet, there is too much to do, will post them tomorrow and update here on this blog where you can go directly to more photos to view of my engine clean up and the findings I found.  Actually I will make a full post as I have more to say and just include those pictures to these for you to view.  

Have a good night, Hope the weather does not cause you or anyone any harm in your Family.  Tell those you love that you love them and mean it. 

Garylee

  

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 tank.  Nope, 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:

http://s629.photobucket.com/user/busconverter101/media/Removing%20the%208V71%20from%20the%20our%20bus/Picking%20up%20our%20new%208V71%20Engine/P1000463.jpg.html?sort=2&o=0

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