4/13/09

Want to know what I think is the least motivational “motivational” cliché ever? “Failure is not an option.” Whenever I hear that, I DON’T try my hardest, just to show whatever douche bag drill sergeant wannabe is making the speech that, in fact, whenever humans are involved, failure is always an option. Up yours! Anyhoo, I'm not sure what set that off but we’ll move on now. Friday I spent the whole day at the shop stripping Shichi to get ready to pull the engine and transmission. I think I got started around 1100 h after stopping at McDonald’s for a couple Southern Style (read “Chik-Fil-A” rip off) sandwiches. I started by removing the center console. Of course to remove the center console you have to disconnect the parking brake. To disconnect the parking brake you have to remove the boot liner. To remove the boot liner you have to remove the roll hoop. These things I did. I then realized that to remove the center console you also must remove the rear bulkhead cover. To remove the rear bulkhead cover you must remove the upper seatbelt anchors and tonneau cover rail and boot cover. These items were removed. I then disconnected the wiring and finally got the center console out of the way. Not wanting to get going on the shifter mechanism just yet, I moved on to removing the nose cone. With that out of the way, I rolled the car out to drain the coolant. Happy friggin’ Earth Day! I shoved the car back in and removed the radiator and fan assembly along with all the hoses. No wait, I removed the carburetors and intake and exhaust manifolds before draining the coolant. I remember this because I thought, “I wonder if I should drain the coolant before taking this intake manifold off.” I'd forgotten that I'd had them weld up the coolant passages from the head to the manifold when I had all that work done last summer so it was moo. At some point Pat arrived to watch. I disconnected the hot lead but left the battery in place. I pulled the alternator and distributor out and set them aside. Finally, I was ready to pull the head and have a look at the innards. I removed the valve cover and nothing struck me as odd so I moved on. I loosened the rocker assembly and searched out a socket to remove the nuts on the head studs. It wasn’t until I was loosening the front two studs that I noticed the “Chocolate Milk” on top of them. “Ooh, that ain’t good,” I said to Pat. Well, I knew the bottom end was toast so it really didn’t matter all that much. I moved on. With all the nuts removed from the studs, I grabbed the head and pulled up. Schplork! It popped right off. I took it outside to have a look and assess any damage, but it looked good. The number four piston on the other hand… There’s a chunk missing down to the top ring. I guess that WAS detonation I was hearing from time to time. Oops. Pat helped me get the shifter mechanism out and the driveshaft disconnected and I think that was about it. It wasn’t until I was driving home that I realized where the “Chocolate Milk” came from. I don’t remember changing the oil after replacing that head gasket. There was still a bunch of coolant in there. I don’t think that contributed to the demise of the engine, but it sure as hell didn’t help it any. With all that work done, I called it a day. I got home to find my fiber-optic sights for Big Millie had arrived so I planned to install them Saturday morning before we pulled the engine. I checked with John to see what time he was coming to the shop and we agreed on 0800 h. I'll pick up the story there tomorrow.