Post ALMOST anything you want thread

Dewey's wife with Wonder Woman at the New years Eve party last year.

 

I love how they are being "sneaky" wearing those outfits with all the red,blue and gold...subtle. Our party had a lot more plastic cups and passed out drunk people on the lawn, but it's close...my ribs still hurt from halloween but only when I laugh or sneeze.

 

I forgot. It was Halloween not New Years. I'm sure if I was oe of those guys i would have noticed those gals there.
I'd like to have one of those panel trucks.

 

Oh yeah! I would take either one. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Panel Truck ?

 

Oh...those too.

 

A non-Wagon Tale of problems

--------------A non-wagon tale. Or, you think you have trouble?
I’ve written before about some of our youngest son’s disasters with cars. I’ll skip the details and hit the high----or low----points. He had a very nice 1976 El Camino show quality car as his first car. Took great care of it for several years until he got mixed up with rednecks and mud bogging. I believe beer was also involved.
-----He has been an off and on mechanic building custom Rice Rocket race bikes. He was too bullheaded to get ASE trained so works for minimum wages doing $30-$50+ hour type work. He’s very good with electrical work, builds high performance bike engines, adds turbos and nitro kits.
--So Steven decides since he was already doing well at the Gainesville drag strip he’d add nitroes to his 350 SBC. He was sneaky. He used a nigh rise intake and put the injectors in the bottom. Very little of his setup was visible. Well one stage nitroes worked good so he added two more which were kicked in at higher speeds until all three stages were on. I don’t know anything about this except nitroes is not an engines friend.
----Later, after several rear ends and transmissions failed son told me he tried kicking in all three stages off the line. Not a good thing! He ended up doing full engine rebuild, including crank and machine shop built 305 heads. In less than 100 miles the rebuilt engine threw number six rod and totaled that 350 engine.
----Fast forward to a GMC Jimmy with a 327, a Ford Ranger with two different long block replacements, and many other cars, transmissions, rear ends, and dollars. All of those were eventually scrapped for under $80 each. So much for scrap worth $300-$500.
----For over a year Steven has had a 1985 Chevy ½ ton. It needed painted and the flex plate was bad. He didn’t know the 7004R was also soon to go out. Replaced it twice with NAPA type replacements. After the second rebuild and company failing to do anymore son bought a used U-Pull-It 5 speed standard tranny.
----Between his and my money it took two months to get his truck together again a few weeks ago. Also weather, illnesses, and work delayed the work. In the meantime my driveway looked like a redneck junkyard. He lives 20 miles away with a nice little fat gal and her daddy.
----Five speed in and truck back on the road. Drove it roughly 200? miles or less. Called me from a few miles from our house while on his way to work. Lost oil pressure. I towed him the short distance to our house. He started his truck and the engine sounded sick, knocking. We are guessing the two month sitting, possibly plugging passages, oil pump bad, way more miles than he thought on it, caused oil pressure failure.
----Another $400 from dad and a full rebuild. Crank, rods, pistons all looked good. Everything else was replaced, including high lift cam and heads. Yea those heads came of his El Camino. Those speed shop rebuilt 305 heads with around 100 miles on them. This was also the time Steven discovered the hi-per 350 was really a worn out 305 60 over.
------Less than a week he had the engine done and back in. Had the cam bearings installed at a rebuild shop where the guy said the bores, etc. looked fine. Son even painted the engine from black to Chevy orange and detailed everything. Guessing again, he put less than 100 miles on that last rebuilt engine. New fan belt broke at the place it was bonded together. Belt tangled in seven blade fan. Ripped fan from water pump pulley, destroyed the fan and radiator. I loaned him more money for aluminum radiator and all new belts. Used a very large T-Bird two speed electric fan, not knowing for sure why belt came off twice. Yes, damper is new. Explained I am loaned out. No more money!
-----Steven put less than 100 more miles on that rebuilt engine. On his way to visit a friend 10 miles from his home rod number three went threw the pan. Hole in one side as large as a soda can and one in other side maybe half dollar size. Still held 60 PSI oil pressure and the knock stopped. Drove about a mile to friend’s house.
----He pulled the bent rod out from the large hole. He and friend pulled the rebuilt engine. Yes, his friend’s dad has an engine stand, cherry picker hoist, and tools. Son does a lot of work for the dad who buys used car lot rejects and fixes up. Said the piston disintegrated and the rod twisted as it ripped free from the cap and crank. Crank ruined. Hole and crack in bore number three with water leaking out. Engine stopped knocking because rod was no longer spinning and upper piston was near top. Pan full of piston parts and hole in the windage tray.
------Okay son does have some good luck altho he was very depressed. He was able to get to his friend’s with a blown engine. He was able to pull it out at friend’s house. Friend’s dad just happened to have a 350 4-bolt GM performance engine on a stand complete except distributor with documented 50,000 miles on it. GM paperwork shows 330 HP. It was running when the friend’s dad scrapped the Chevy truck. Friend offered it to Steven for $400. Wants $200 cash and work off the balance. Yea right. He’s already broke.
---Friend brought Steven to our house yesterday afternoon. He showed me the upper piston top. Also the badly bent rod with pin still in it. We figured the pin let go. I was looking the upper piston top piece over and saw an indent in the top the shape of a valve……………. Ah ha! I questioned Steven about those heads and what actually happened to his El Camino engine. Number six piston and rod were wiped out. This time number three piston and rod were wiped out. Same heads, different side of different engine. Those were machine shop 305 heads with heavy valves, etc. What actually happened we don’t know. But I made it very clear to Steven to not use those heads again. Take them back to the shop and let them take a look.
----On the positive side, it wasn’t anything Steven did wrong to either engine. After all, he has built many high revving motorcycle engines with no problems. Steven lives 20 miles from us. 30 miles from work. He is broke and needs his truck but has no money. He didn’t ask because I had recently told him NO MORE MONEY. What’s a father to do? I’m short another $200. The engine wiped out Sunday evening. Yesterday evening, Monday, Steven called and said he was back on the road and his truck was doing great.
What’s next?

 

Here you go Xav!

Stumbled across this one today.


Not a big 4x4 wagon guy but this is unique and cool

 

Your a great Dad Cat! Hang in there old friend...it can only get better...right?

 

Nobody knows the trouble I see.....!

Thanks Mr Dewey Satellite sir. Son stopped over on his way home from work. He'd missed a lot of work and we wondered if he still had a job.....again. Sad to say but he's about as dependable as his cars! All I can say is he must be a good bike mechanic.
---I noticed as he came up our quiet little street his truck was noticably louder. Same headers and exhaust. He said because the engine is better with more power.
---We still haven't figured out why number threee piston broke in the last engine and number six before with the same heads........ apparently on opposite sides. He reminded me these were cheap looking flat top pistons.
He also said something else that just makes this more confusing. The remaining piston top was wedged in the bore tightly. The intake valve could have hit then and not caused the failure. All other rod caps were still tight.
---Steven said after he headed home from where they replaced the engine he watched for signs of the old one puking. From his friend's house maybe a mile there is an oil streak. A little beyond where the oil streak began was a small piece of orange metal. That would be a hunk of the freshly painted GM oil pan.
All he swapped this time was he put his Holley on in place of the Edelbrock, his chorme valve covers, air cleaner, and headers. Said that engine had been sitting over five years. Already had a fresh pilot bearing. Apparently they come that way in those replacement engines even though most use an automatic. Fresh oil and filter, a little gas, his distributor and new plug wires, and it fired up immediately.
---Now we need a shadetree mechanic to figure out what happened. After all, many others have GM 350 engines.:confused:

 

Superdad

Your doing just what any dad would to...helping out your son. We've been there.
Hopefully his(and your) lucky will change.

Hang in there Dad.

 

Thanks Fannie. I really wrote about his car problems hoping someone could figure out why two Chevy engines died the same death. I've never had that problem before and have had many small block Chevy engines.
Many early GM station wagons used these same engines so even though it's not exactly wagon related it could be.

 

Wow. I certainly have been left behind here. Unfortunately for FullsizeBronco.com, it's kinda slowed down, a bit boring, more or less. I totally guffawed at the 'chili cookoff' on the first or second page. And I only got through the first 8 or 9 pages before I came here.

 

Easter visitor in Interlachen FL:
After we finished our chores and ran into town for some supplies, I finally had a chance to walk down to the lake.
I spied one of our neighbors enjoying the sunshine after a few rainy days lounging on the end of the dock:

Howdy, neighbor!


Ain't he cute?
The little dock is only 4' wide, so this isn't even close to the nightmare reptile of movies and nightmares..