Still going

 Hello everyone,

Managed to sneak in an overnighter and saw a very cool Doors tribute band called “ An American Prayer “. They were very very good.

After that back to business. They delivered the stuff for the roof thing for the van, but shorted us one piece, which should be here tomorrow.

Plus cutting wood, while waiting on the piece and the cylinder head for the Kia project. I’ve been trying to put a video here but I’m not having any luck. I hope we’ve cut the last tree down for this year. It’s on the ground and mostly cut up, now just splitting, picking up and stacking. The weather has finally turned into winter here, so progress outside is a little slower.

I talked withe the guy who has my cylinder head yesterday and he said it looks like just the two valves are bent, no other damage. No damaged guides or seats or more valves. Pretty lucky with that one! So hoping to get it back next week and start putting it back together.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

Slowly but surely

 Hello everyone, 

Making progress on both fronts this week. Managed to get some more wood cut split and stacked and finished getting the cylinder head off the Kia.

You can see in the middle pic where the valves hit the piston, the damage is minimal, the valves on the other hand, are bent pretty badly. The two valves pictured are the intake valves for #3 cylinder which was why I had zero compression.

I took all the pieces and sensors out of the head this morning and dropped it off at the machine shop. Should hear from them next week hopefully.

This week is looking like mostly cutting wood although, all the wood for the roof setup to park the van under this winter should be delivered this next week, another project to do before I can get back to the car or the bike. Well, at least once we get the frame up my middle son can take over the roof project.

Well,I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI 

Started the car project

 Hello everyone,

Got the shop all cleaned up and things moved around enough to make working on the car a little easier. With some help from everyone here we got the car pushed up into the shop.

I spent some time on YouTube, and did some reconoitering on my own and got the car jacked up and the front cover and stuff out of the way and found what was left of the broken timing belt.

After that I went to town and picked up a new timing belt and a compression tester. Put everything back in time and installed the new belt. Ran a compression test and CRAP! Number three cylinder has zero compression. Thought maybe I’d get lucky. So the cylinder head has to come off. After I get it off and hopefully no major damage just some bent valves, I’ll find an automotive machine shop and get the bent ones replaced and the others ground and hopefully be back in business.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI 

Been a little too busy to post

 Hello everyone,

I’ve managed to get the wood stove completely cleaned and resealed( with the proper rivets!). So it’s ready to go. Got more wood cut, probably about 3 more trees should finish me off. 

Unfortunately, I have acquired a new project that needs my particular skill set. My youngest son was out in Denver for work/ vacation and his car broke down! Turns out he lost the timing belt. If you’re familiar with “new” engines, they have interference engines and non-interference. What that means is if you lose a timing belt or chain on an interference engine, you probably bend your valves, and a non-interference engine, you probably don’t. Guess what kind he has?

So, the wife and I had tickets to a show over in Illinois by St. Louis to see Heartsfield and decided to go to the show and then leave the next day to go “rescue “ the car. Actually, it was a very nice trip.

The show was great, as always with those guys. The theatre had wonderful sound and was sold out!  

The place was called the Wildey Theatre and it was in Edwardsville, Illinois. We had packed enough stuff for the trip and left there on Sunday to head west.

As I said it really was a pretty nice trip. We had to pick up the car tote on Wednesday morning in Wellington, Colorado, which is just east of the Rockies. We had kind of curved around and up into the mountains, just to add a little adventure to the trip. We took a nice scenic route up to Estes Park on Tuesday and then came down the mountain and picked up everything on Wednesday.

The pictures of the elk were taken in Estes Park, they were walking around the town! I didn’t realize that that area is considered high desert, thus the pictures of the wild cactus.

So, we loaded everything up and drove home without a single issue. Kind of surprising but none the less it happened.

Got back yesterday, and today is cleaning out the shop and making room for the car so I can pull the head off and see how much damage is done. Hoping just for bent valves and no big broken bits. We’ll see if our luck holds out!

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI