8/21/07

When we last left our intrepid adventurers, Gregg had arrived at the shop and John was working on his 510. We made sure John was going to be all right working alone and headed out to the Motorsport Ranch. Gregg asked that I drive so he wouldn’t put more miles on his truck than he had to. I agreed but said we’d have to stop immediately for gas in Matilda. We decided to take Stinky instead. We roll to the Motorsport Ranch to meet with Ray. Did I mention Ray wants to sell off a bunch of his stuff? He acknowledges that he’s never going to finish most of these projects so he wants to get his money back out of them. Gregg is interested in the 510 racecar and the A-14 that Marty built, while I want Marty’s old 1200 back. Ray came up with some numbers and we all agreed to make it happen. We talked for a bit and then Gregg and I headed north again. John had finished and was gone when we arrived so Gregg and I went to our respective homes as well. Sunday morning I waited around for mom to get home from church and then we went to Red Hot and Blue. I ate too much. My plan for the afternoon was to change the oil in Mr. Wiggly and Stinky. I was full and didn’t really want to after all. I think I took a nap. Eventually I did head for the shop with the intention of changing some oil. I took Fifi since it needed gas. After filling up I drove to the shop and hopped in Mr. Wiggly for the trip to the store. There, I looked up the part number for Mr. Wiggly's oil filter but they didn’t have the Fram. I looked up the Wix number but they didn’t have it either. I looked up the Microguard, or whatever the house brand filter is at O’Reilley’s, and they had it. I grabbed it and headed for the oil shelf. I picked out six quarts of Valvoline High Mileage 20W/50 and started looking for the Rotella oil for Stinky. I didn’t see it so I called Gregg to see if the Valvoline Diesel oil would suffice. He “insisted” on the Rotella. I did finally find it in gallon jugs and grabbed two of them. I looked up the filter and grabbed one. They had the Fram for that engine. At the counter I paid for the three and a half gallons of oil and two filters then headed for the shop. Since Mr. Wiggly was all warmed up I pulled him in first. I changed into a pair of coveralls and got to work. I found the right sized wrench for the drain plug and took it out. Yes, I had a catch pan under it. While taking the doghouse out, I noticed that the filter was located in such a way that it would dump a quart of oil on the ground when removed. I decided to wait until all the oil was drained from the sump before moving the pan under the filter. I replaced the drain plug and moved the pan. Inside the cab I removed the filter and, sure enough, dumped a quart of oil into the waiting pan. The nipple seemed loose so I tried to tighten it with little success. I'm sure it isn’t going to fly off so I'm not too worried about it. I oiled the gasket and installed the filter. Usually I'll dump as much oil as I can in the filter before installing it but all that would have done was pour fresh oil into the drain pan. I figured the bearings could take a few seconds of dry idling while oil pressure built. With the filter on and the drain plug in, I began dumping oil in the valve cover. I got five quarts in and checked the level. A tad high, so I figured it would level out when the filter filled. I started the engine and watched for oil pressure. It finally arrived, much later than I would have liked it to but it arrived nonetheless. I looked around for leaks and found no new ones. I messed with the idle mixture setting and probably have it in exactly the same spot as before. John and John showed up to do something, we chatted for a bit, and they left. I decided against changing Stinky’s oil and parked Mr. Wiggly. I washed up, changed, and went home. John and I are supposed to get together some evening this week to take some pictures of Stinky so I can list it on e-Bay. As “fun” as it is, I really want that truck to go away. Well, I want to make a little money on it too. Ok, I guess that’s about all I've got or today. I think I'm going to take a nap for a bit since I was here at 0700 h this morning. Toodles.