6/25/12

Well, as much as I'd like to tell y'all that Lil' Wiggly is back on the road… it isn’t.  Saturday morning John and I lapped the rest of the valves and installed them in the new head.  We put in the intake and exhaust studs and any other accessories we could before installing the head on the block.  We chose a head gasket and dropped it onto the studs.  Of course the head only dropped halfway down.  “What the fuck?” I said and we had a look around.  “Fartknocker!” John said, “You screwed this intake stud in too far.”  I began the process of threading the stud back out and John said, “Be prepared for the head to drop once that stud is out of the way.”  I bit my tongue to keep from placing a bet that it wouldn’t.  It did.  We torqued the head and began installing other bits.  When we got to the valve rockers, we noticed that the lash, instead of being in the 0.013” range, was something like 0.250”.  Yes, that is correct, ¼” of valve lash.  Again “What the fuck?” was uttered.  Well, to make a short story long, we discovered that the “Shrouded Port” head uses a shorter valve due to (tee hee, I said "doo doo!") the depth that the valves are set with regards to the surface.  By installing “Shrouded Port” valves in a “Non-Shrouded” head, we were a full quarter inch shy of making contact with the rockers.  We searched the shop and found a set of valves Marty Mary had been prepping for a head and decided we’d use them… next week.  We cleaned up and went to Wasabi for lunch.  There I did make a foolish wager and wound up having to pay for the meal.  Apparently the re-made “Dumb and Dumber” after I saw it and replaced Dave Coulier with Jeff Daniels.  Anyhoo, after lunch we called it day together and went our separate ways.  I went home via Fort Worth Nissan who was having a Used Car Liquidation Sale.  They were advertising cars as low as $49.00 drive off.  I wanted to see what a car dealer would sell as a $49.00 car.  Of course all the $49.00 cars were gone by the time I arrived so I had a look round for something which might pique my interest.  I found a 2003 MINI Cooper in BRG with a five-speed.  When a salesman approached, I asked about it.  We took it for a test drive and I asked, “How much?”  They wanted $8,950.00 or something.  That was too high for that car.  He asked what I'd offer on it.  I said I had no clue and he countered with an offer to ask the manager about a $5,000.00 offer.  Ii stopped him saying that if he did that, and they went for it, I'd then have to come up with the money.  I was in no way sure of that eventuality.  I said I'd cipher and figger on it for a bit and let him know.  I went home and laughingly told mom the story.  I began with, “I am not looking for a new car, or even a different car!” and basically told her what I just told y'all.  She said she’d write them a check if they’d sell it for $5k.  I went on line and looked it up on Kelly Blue Book dot com.  An ‘03 MINI Cooper, in that car’s condition, otter sell for about $6,500.00 so we fingered $5k would be a “go for-able” number.  I called John… well, I texted John to see if he were free and he called me back, and asked him his opinion.  He said he’d probably buy it from me later if I got it for that price.  I headed back to the dealer.  To make yet another short story long, “they have $6,500.00 in it” and had to get that much at least.  I asked what it would be after the T’s.  $7,100.00 would drive it off the lot.  I said I'd have to think on that some more as well.  John was incensed that they were baiting and switching because of the lack of information I gave when relating the “final” number, and mom just said, “Too much.”  I agreed but waited by the phone in anticipation of the call just before closing time saying, “Ok, we’ll take your $5,000.00 for the MINI.”  I wound up calling them at 1955 h to ask one last time if they would take $5k.  I said what I said to the Hyundai dealer when buying Fiona, and should have stuck to my guns about but that’s another rant entirely, “You need to sell it more than I need to buy it.”  They stuck to their guns about the $6,500.00 they had in it.  So, I now have a $7,100.00 MINI in the driveway.  No, just kidding.  I said, “Good luck at the auction!” and left it at that.  So, I can hang my hat on THAT story as proof that all of my financial dealings over the weekend weren’t totally stupid.  Yeah, Sunday I was dumb… but I'll tell y'all about that tomorrow.  As a preview, I'll leave y'all with one word: “Boomstick!”