Coffee 9-29 a day early

Looking good Steamup! Nice pond you've got there too! Did you dig that?

Pond has been there since the 1960's. My Grandmother had it dug. I purchased the property from my Grandmother's estate.

Good for you, for keepin it in the family

Just got back from the eye-surgeon's office, my one-week postopp inspection went well. The intraocular pressure is now 7, down from 8 one day after surgery, and down from 13 pre-surgery.. Hopefully this will do the trick to stop the decline in my vision..
The doc released me to drive to Hershey Pa for the big AACA swapmeet..
So now I need to think about what to take to the meet,, or just go and tromp around and buy.. Like I need to buy any more parts !!
But Pierce Arrow parts are like hens' teeth, so I buy what comes up and trade for what I need or want.

It's supposed to freeze and have a high of only low 50's over this next weekend,, I might break down and fire up the AA this week..
Gotta weigh the costs of propane vs coal.. coal is fairly precious.. it's so far away, the transportation costs are high.

OK, time to get to it,, not sure what 'it' is for this afternoon, but gotta get moving.

Greg L

Sounds good Greg, Glad to hear you are on the mend Buddy!

LsFarm wrote:....
The doc released me to drive to Hershey Pa for the big AACA swapmeet..
So now I need to think about what to take to the meet,, or just go and tromp around and buy.. Like I need to buy any more parts !!
But Pierce Arrow parts are like hens' teeth, so I buy what comes up and trade for what I need or want.........

Greg L

Greg, my landlord is also headed there. He's looking to unload his Model T. But he also has a 1913 (I think the year is )Chalmers and an '06, make that a 1906 Caddy that I just painted the flywheel. Damn thing weighed a ton. I had to put a solid 1" bar through it and place that on the jack stands to paint it. It did come out nice and yellow and he was pleased to say the least. Plus he has some memorabilia he also wants to sell.

You may see him there. It can't be too hard to locate 1 person..........



Rick

Glad to hear things are headed the right direction Greg! I'll drink to that!

If I ever hit the lotto, the very first thing I would buy would be some car or truck of that era. Steam powered, if I could find it. After watching Jay Leno's video of his White, and his Doble steamers, I WANT one REAL bad! That's the ultimate survival machine - can burn anything in a pinch! No need for gas or diesel .. although gas speeds the process up quite a bit. WANT!!




Roof is done, so onto the next project - the one that got mega-sidetracked due to said roof - the Blazer engine. Just installed a Comp Cams timing set in it today, and started cleanup of the oil pan & timing cover/ cover gasket mating surfaces. It's downright amazing this timing set has survived to see 160k miles!! It's so lightweight & flimsy looking. Had about 1" of play too, so it was a ticking time-bomb. The Comp Cams setup outweighs it by a factor of 3, at least! Chain is about double the thickness too. Should last as long as I need it to without my fingerprints ever being on it again.

Still have to install the crank seal in that stupid assed plastic cover GM decided to start using in '95 or so. Also, still need to install the rear main seal, head gaskets, and the new Melling High Volume oil pump & screen I just grabbed. I figure the high volume of oil will make up for not replacing the bearings, buying me a few tens of thousands of miles of engine life (that's the theory anyway). Got to check clearance between the screen & pan, as the new screen is at least 1/2" longer than the stocker. Might have to get creative in aiming the screen. Should be fun trying to install the press-fit screen in the pump. I'll probably make a tool out of a scrap piece of 3/4" copper or steel pipe - whichever I can find laying around the shop first. Lots of work yet to be done.

steamup wrote:I opened up the coal pile this weekend and loaded the coal bin

Good going! It feels good to be ready for winter, huh?

steamup wrote:UV destroys the tarps in 1 year.

I'm trying option two.... better tarps! I bought a 100 yard roll of "truck tarp" for about $4.50 a yard and stitched it myself.The price has gone way up since then, but, it's going on 5 years old & still good as new. Should last 12 to 15 years. Time will tell. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

Greg, glad the surgery went well. Sounds good.

<Edit to add pic>

Smitty, You would think that they would manufacture the motors so as not to implode when the chain or belt breaks? Most do, but my old Ranger plow truck motor didn't interfere. It looked like Ford took it out of a tractor anyways. Had the timing pulley outside of the valve cover. It broke at least twice on me and would just stop running. When you turned the starter it would fly over and I'd know there goes the belt again. Dunno why they can't make em all that way? Maybe it hampered performance since mine might have seen 70 going off a cliff . It was a torqey little bugger though.

Jeez Smitty, I thought for sure you would install a gear-drive in that thing. In my drag racing days it was common to hear the whine of a Pete Jackson gear drive in the other lane.

SMITTY wrote:Got to check clearance between the screen & pan, as the new screen is at least 1/2" longer than the stocker. Might have to get creative in aiming the screen

The last time I had to mate a mystery pump pickup and oil pan I taped 3/8" of flatwashers on the pickup screen, loosely tapped the tube into the pump, eyeballed the pickup about an inch lower than the pan, and mocked up the pan with the gasket in place...then you know the screen is in the right spot. Remove the pan, scribe the pickup tube and pump body, and then assemble on the bench with some Loctite "Bearing Mount" on the tube. If you are paranoid, double check the clearance with some modeling clay.