k9sar

Didn't Jim tow a semi? Perhaps not far but I'd call that a load.

Used the rear drivers side wheel to rip the front corner off a 2007 honda civic. Used it's amazing turn radius (not) to do a 3-point u-turn to follow the drunk driver in the civic that had hit me and fled the scene. Used it's height to see over the Saturn in front of me so I could get the license plate of the civic. Used it's size to block the civic in between a parked SUV and a tree about 3 miles from the accident Used it's engine to heat the air inside and keep my son warm while I spoke with the police on scene Used to crystal clear drivers side window to watch as the driver of the civic was taken away in handcuffs. Used my BFG TA/KOs, as I drove home, to run over (multiple times) the body parts that were left at the accident scene

I love the alignment tool. I've MacGyver'd many specialty tools myself and appreciate innovativeness

my middle seat belts are usually under the seat and all of my clips are intact. I even still ahve those stupid hinge covers that always pop off when you flip the seats forward.

Yep, mine leaked there too but only when it was cold outside. Tightening the clamps fixed it for me.

I've bought the spectra rads from rockauto and put them in 2 vans and a pathy with no fit issues other than figuring out the little clip/spacer doohickeys that position it properly for your application. Not too hard to figure out.

I tend to just break them off then piss and moan as I try to drill them out. Seriously though, I would slot the head and hope it holds to a screwdriver without snapping off one of the edges. If that happens, you could try the weld solution or drill it out. Good luck.

left it in the driveway while I taunted it by driving a borrowed minivan in plain view of the pathy

finished putting the engine back together then drained the water out of my headlights.

You did it all wrong. When mine was that muddy, I just wait for the next good rain and look for the puddles... that or drive into the creek.

One of the problems with the frams on the WD21's is that they are designed to drain... which also means they can be filled. There is no good way to combat rust that occurs from the inside which is how most of it progresses. It's too late for my 95 but the next new vehicle I get will have its frame filled with expansion foam (Great Stuff). Hell, if the water can't get in, it won't rust, right?

I hit mine with a grinder to find good steel then sprayed rubberized undercoating into the holes to try to coat the back of the frame. I reground the contact surface and welded a plate over the holes. once done, I sprayed the entire area again with undercoating. The northeast loves road salt

After a few long cold nights of working on the truck, It's back together... but all is not well. besides the fact that I had the disty off by tooth which made it impossible to set the timing, there is a loud pecking from the passenger side head. The truck was noisy as hell when I first fired it up. A combination of the disty being off and having pulled apart, cleaned and reassembled all my lifters before reinstalling them. I double checked my timing belt to make sure the RH cam was not off a tooth and tapping the intake valve on the piston. That all looks good so the only thing I can think is that one of the lifters has failed to inflate (or I forgot to put the little spring in it when I rebuilt it). I have 9 more available that have been through my workbench rebuild so I'll pull the valve cover, set the cam with no load on the rockers and check for gaps before pulling the arms and replacing the offending collapsed lifter(s). Probably get to it tonight or tomorrow. And the original problem was definately a blown head gasket. This was a junkyard engine when I put it in and both gaskets had a similar failure area. The passenger side head gasket was the worst and had actually split the steel ring, allowing high pressure gasses from the cylinder to get to the water jacket. There was a similar weak spot on the drivers side head that would have blown sooner than later had I not replaced it. I'll try to get some pics posted.

as it is running rough, try wiggling the connector on top of your MAF. I found this to be a weak spot and had to rebuild the connector. Truck ran like crap and died periodically because of bad information from the MAF to the ECU.

Those are for the barrels of the rear-facing paintball guns you need to mount. This will let you shoot the tailgaters without leaving your rear window open in the winter

I ripped it's f***ing heads off

So I tore into the spare engine I had sitting around and removed the heads, rockers, springs etc so I could pressure wash and degrease the whole mess. My plan was to recondition these heads, do a valve job, replace seals etc and have a pair of heads ready to swap in when I disassemble the truck this weekend. After hitting the parts with sodium hydroxide and getting rid of the varnished oil and gunk, I discovered that the valve springs have colored markings on them. The outer springs are marked greenish at one end and the inner are pinkish at one end (or do I have that reversed?). anyway...Here's my question... probably not critical but I want to do it right... Do the colored ends go up or down?

I could also buy the 07 xterra that was sitting next to my truck when I picked it up

the results are in.... exhaust gas in the coolant. There is a breech in either a head gasket or a cracked head. estimate of $3500 to fix. I laughed and picked up the keys. I think my plan will be to order a head gasket set (includes everything), pull the heads off my spare engine and take them to the machine shot for cleaning, pressure testing and milling, seat the valves and get them completely ready to do a swap. Should run me a total of under $500. Then, while I'm there, perhaps a timing belt, cam sells and I'll pull the water pump just to check it. The gasket for that is cheap. The neat part is that I'm not getting coolant out the exhaust. The hole must be the perfect size to let the high-pressure gasses through on the power stroke but not big enough to let coolant be drawn into the cylinder on the intake stroke.

that's why I bought a MIG welder. The northeast eats vehicles.

Thinking of all the money I have saved by being an NPORA member and doing all my work myself, plus recalling the complete rebuild of my wife's van engine when it was in the teens and snowing, I figure I can drop a few dollars for someone else to figure this one out and perhaps I'll even let them do the work (if it isn't unreasonable). I'm getting old and it hurts too bad the next day after laying on the frozen ground for hours while working on my vehicles. I'll still know that I am capable... I've just gotten lazy.

handed over the keys to a dealership for them to try and diagnose the cooling system issues I have been having.

can't see picture so I don't know what "one of these" is. As for pulling from the overflow, it normally would as it cools. I never let it do that since by the time I open it, there is already air in the system and no heat to the cabin. When I release the pressure and open the cap to refill the radiator, I eliminate the ability for it to draw back from the resevoir. If I wait for it to cool, 2 things will happen..... it will draw fluid back in and I will be sitting along the road extremely bored.

Dropped it off for diagnostics. sigh. We'll see what they find. Hopefully something quickly cause it's supposed to be nice weather for a few days and I don't enjoy freezing my butt off trying to do major work in the driveway

The amount seems to be the same. I drain the overflow which is almost at full when I catch it (I have a soda bottle at the overflow bottle's overflow spout and it gets very little in it) and it takes all of it back into the radiator and perhaps a spoonfull more, maybe not. nothing significant. The oil is black and dark, not foamy or watery. The coolant is clear and flourescent, not frothy or oily (except for the chemicals that are supposed to be in it that make it feel oily). I'm sure I have flow... I can tell from looking, the fact that the heater works for a while, the fact that I can geyser out the bleed hole by squeezing the rad hose and when I leave the cap off and rev the engine, it sucks down (tells me the water pump is working also), the temp of the rad hoses, etc. I also stuck my face in the exhaust (cloud cause it's cold here, nothing excessive like when I blew a head gasket on my honda) and I don't smell any antifreeze in the exhaust. Gonna drop it at the shop for a diagnosis. I still refuse to let a dealership do the work