After waking up late and with a hangover I got a coffee and surveyed the damage. it really wasn’t that bad, the kids had a great time and 21 had everything cleaned up after in about an hour.
It’s nice know they all slept over last night. I will be drinking a lot more water today and getting back to losing weight.
Before I could hit the shop, 17 called asking for help with her dead car. I decided to combine the trip with a quick run to the hardware store for a new toilet. Hopefully this is the last item to fix from the freeze last year. Good news turned out nothing wrong with her car it started right up and after I followed her home it was still fine. Bad news I forgot my wallet so I had to swing back by the house to grab it before getting to the store.
I really need to remember to write down the sizes of fittings or at least take pictures before I get to the store. I couldn’t remember if the Pex was 1″ or 3/4″ turns out the piece needed was 1’X1″X3/4″ Tee. But I did pick up a really good crimp tool to install copper crush rings on the fittings. It will come in handy for multiple jobs. I had a cheaper tool that works with a pair of vice grips, and it works, but it is cumbersome and falls apart every time I use it. This will be a nice upgrade.
Tool and fittings on the flatbed I headed off to find a toilet. Holy Crap! Toilets are $300??? I managed to find a decent one for closer to sane $150. John Crapper would be proud. If they charge by weight turns out they are pretty cheap. That damn thing weighs about 120 lbs. I hauled it all back and backed the H3 up to the patio of the cabana and offloaded the porcelain throne. Hit the house for a some more water and headed straight down to the shop.
Finally down in my happy place (pig sty) I immediately got to work scraping wiping, degunking and degreasing the engine and parts.
The bock is filled with gunk and needs to be thoroughly cleaned. But other than that it seems to be perfectly good. I am leaning towards using this since I know it fits. I find two more reasons to use it. The block is not drilled out for a fuel pump on this block but is on the other one. While there is a block off plate on the other block it is just another place to have an oil leak. The other difference is the lifting bracket on the front of the Vortec. It is nice to have and connects a ground strap on the front of the engine but also connects just below the head on the drivers side. this bolt hole is missing on the CFI block.
I may need to swap the crank with the other one but I will see if the front main bearing journal can be saved. I know I need to use the original heads so I need to get them cleaned up. I just need some more working space since the other block is still in parts all over the shop. I ended up dragging in the stainless steel counter and using the old metal saw horses as a base.
It is solid as a rock and can hold the heads with no issue. So I move the heads and the intake manifold over to it. Now the parts washer is accessible and I put one of the heads in it to soak overnight.
I spray some PB Blaster into the 3 threaded freeze plugs, I think of what I have that will fit the 1/4″ square hole and I come up with the 1/2″ to 1/4″ socket adapter. This was a mistake, they are legendary for snapping. So that is exactly what I did.
Well that is freakin’ annoying. Back to cleaning up the gunk, but I was pretty much done thanks to the tool failure.
I decide to head back up to the house and hit the grill. I need to cook some food for dinner and some for the week. Being 76º and not dark yet, it is absolutely beautiful outside and it is already Sunday night. Tomorrow morning will be back behind my desk, so it is time to relax.
I also threw a couple of NY Strips on the grill once this load was done but failed to take a picture I will blame the low light, but I just really didn’t think about it. The Asparagus turned out nicely and the mushroom pizza was surprisingly good. It basically tastes like eating pizza toppings. Which I guess it is. The steak was awesome and I stuck with the water and I’m back on track with the weight loss. Good week but I need to get going on this truck.
