3/22/10

So it looks like I'm going to remain a Dingleberry guy, for the time being at least. Saturday morning John picked me up and we planned to go have breakfast before heading to the shop. Well, I needed to go bleed for an upcoming doctor’s appointment so we went there first. Turns out, I had an outstanding balance with the vampire’s office and they wouldn't poke me until I paid it. I didn't have it. We left. I decided I'd face the shit storm later at home. As we pulled into Mimi’s parking lot, it was suggested that rather than buy me the superfluous i-Phone, John would pay the vampire bill for me instead. We went back. He paid, I bled, we left again. Back at Mimi’s, we ate. We then went to O’Reilley’s for oil, oil filter, and coolant to fire up The Seven. I think I might have gotten ripped off too because I seem to remember the charge being like $60.00 but that doesn't add up in my head. Of course the receipt is in the bag at the shop so I can't even check it now. I'll deal with that later I guess. At the shop, I began dumping the oil in the engine. Of course the valve cover leaked. I was beginning to get pissed off when John noticed the nuts were only finger tight. I tightened them and the leak “stopped.” you know how it is with a valve cover, they always leak a little. Anyhoo, with a gallon of oil in, I filled the filter and John installed it. We then moved on to filling the radiator. Once that was “done,” we checked the timing and tried to fire it up. No luck, weak battery plus new engine equals way too much friction and compression. We hooked up the charger/jumper thingy and tried again. She whirred up real nice on that. After a few tries, and some carburetor cleaner down the throats, she fired up and idled, granted it was at 2,000 RPM, but she idled. As the temperature climbed, we decided to shut it down and let her cool a bit while we discussed things. We reset the idle screws and timing again then fired her up. The temp climbed to 220 degrees so off she went again. We had another go at timing and tried again. No luck. We decided to jack the nose up to see if a big air bubble would glug out of the head. It did not, at that time. We left it nose high and called it a day. John dropped me at my house and that was that. Maybe later in the week I'll give a review of the two really “not good” movies I watched Saturday night, “Screamers, The Hunting” followed by “Screamers.” Yes, they showed the sequel first. No, I do not know why. Sunday I decided to go hoon in Lil' Wiggly. It isn't much of a story, but I'll save it for tomorrow anyway.