drizzly sonday
Kinda ooggy weather out,, not cold, mid 60’s, not high winds like yesterday.
And Bloo’s engine is dead. Well, not dead, dead, only somewhat dead, sort of alive-ish currently, but
CONDEMNED
I loosened two of the bolts holding the AC/PS bracket on, and fired her up,, Smoked a little, but I was expecting that since the last time she ran, she was smoking A LOT. Let her get to operating temps while listening in on valve train and crankshaft (Stethoscopes are wonderful for us hard of hearin’ types)
No smoke after 5 minutes, or so little as to not be anything but trace amounts.
Shut her down,,, tighten those two bolts back up and fired her back up.
looks good,,, looks good,,, NOPES!!!! Smoke and in copious amounts!!! DAMMIT!!! I was so hoping I would be wrong!!!
Granted, it takes very little oil to make LOTS of blue tinted smoke. That she is not getting oil in the coolant sort of blows my mind, (and the HC test is always negative) But there is definitely some passage between a cylinder and the oil galley’s: one that gets opened up when those bolts get torqued down.(and because of where they are, what they hold, they MUST be tightened to some degree. They could easily walk out and rip apart the fan and radiator if not tight.)
So right now, my mood matches the weather quite well. Drizzly grey and BLAH!!!
I know now which direction my future holds. And I’m ok with it now. Just a matter of time. She can stay where she is: I’ll fire her up on occasion, move her around so the tires are getting ‘excersize’ and other components aren’t ‘rotting away’ (brake discs, clutch, etc etc) I’ll even leave the insurance in place for now, as i may need to run a smokin’ truck for fuel at some point.
and of course, WATCH THAT OIL LEVEL like a hawk.
Not gonna give up. Too much invested, and other than engine troubles, she is a good truck, one that isn’t buried under onerous amounts of computer controls and federal regulations of ‘remote kill’ features.
and parts are still readily available (so long as the JITdelivery system holds together.) (and even if that fails, these trucks are littered everywhere,,, parts is parts!)
Time to visit my happy place in my head,,,,
More tomorrow
Live
Learn
Laugh
Love
LOAD!!!
Dio's Workshop 
Dammit man! Wuz hoping that wouldn’t be the case with Twuck!! Well, at least ya got an idea which way to go now. At least she’s still operable.
Don’t blame ya either. An en-jine ya can’t trust is not to be used – much, anyway, and only short range.
You can throw things at me if’n ya want, but gotz to ask (cause I can’t $%@!#%$^*in) remember🙄), but have ya run a compression test?
Gotz to say, that there ‘Happy Place’ is a dandy, it is! Wouldn’t mind being there, or somewhere similar, meself – just watchin the clouds roll by. Keep on keepin on, Bro!
L’s!!
Y’all take care,
Mike in FLA.
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March 8, 2026 at 2:29 pm
comp test looked good. right around 105# and all close together. Nothing glaring, and why I ruled out rings.
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March 8, 2026 at 2:50 pm
Just wanna make sure yer aware, but ~100 psi is usually figured as the minimum? I wuz more concerned with the head gaskets maybe leaking a bit of earl into the (or just 1) cylinder(s). Looks like yer bolt test ruled that out, though. Well……. sheeiitt!
Y’all take care,
Mike in FLA.
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March 8, 2026 at 4:13 pm
I’m resigned to the fact. Be better in the longrun and is good lessoning towards “better listen to your betters” at me. Both Fred and Spud said something early on about getting a long block, and I dinnit listen
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March 8, 2026 at 4:16 pm
Gotz to say that if’n I wuz workin on it, Id’a gone that long block route, meself. Just figured I shouldn’t be too dam argumentative.😉
Y’all take care,
Mike in FLA.
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March 8, 2026 at 4:21 pm
Shoulda. I mighta listened had there been a consensus, ROFL. Or not, contrarian me. Woulda saved me about 3000 though
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March 8, 2026 at 4:24 pm