Sunday Rant - 3515

PN:

Any questions? Thought not…..

Quote ‘o the Week
“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” – Noel Coward

Bureaucrats
Joe and I have a common dislike for bureaucrats. They are not elected, they have tenure, and they make life less and less free when they tighten the noose of regulation, tariff, licensing, and the plethora of busy-body meddling interventions which choke liberty. Hence we both snickered at Bill Whittle, Steve Greene, and Scott Ott as they lay out the truth – Bureaucrats ban things because they’re dicks. Hope there is no bylaw against snickering:

Nostalgia Porn
Joe and I have attended a large number of car shows / vehicle displays in our time. The “hot rod” category is no longer interesting to us – we really don’t need to see another old car with a small block Chev engine and front clip from a Camero – we walk by any old vehicle if it IS NOT STOCK. “Sleeper”, “rat rod”, “stock”, and “unusual/never before seen/obscure” genres of vehicles are what amuse us now, although in limited numbers at any given venue. Wandering the Internet as we do, the following website gave us a grin. Here is OldParkedCars. Some enthusiasts (nostalgists?) have created a website to post pictures they take of vehicles they see in their gad-abouts in the Pacific North West. Joe and I once owned a 1950 88 inch wheelbase Land Rover. We removed the “F head” engine and installed a 2.3L Pinto engine – gave the old Land Rover a new lease on life. We found this picture of a ’65 Land Rover truck at the OldParkedCars website, and it brought back memories of a truly ugly AND functional beastie – nostalgia porn! –

Joe’s Lament
The latest project in Joe’s shop is to replace the engine in a 1986 F250 dually diesel. The truck is close to 20 feet long. Here’s a picture of it when we brought it home from Merritt in 2012 –

Take a look at this picture of the engine bay – at the bottom of the photo is a “breaker bar” with a select socket working on the rear lower head bolt. A very tight fit indeed –
Here is another picture looking toward the firewall. There is less than 1/2 inch clearance between the cylinder head and the firewall –
Here is a picture of the clearance at the front of the engine. There is two feet from the front of the block to the nose of the bumper –

This is Joe’s dilemma – the truck is damn near 20 feet long. There is 2 feet from the front of the engine to the bumper. WTF??? Why in the entire bloody firmament can’t Ford find an engineer that may have tried to take an engine out of one of these trucks and seen the value in one or two inches more firewall clearance? Or, as Joe said it, Jesus flying through space on a moped with Mary riding side saddle wearing sun glasses could do a better job!
Anyway, the engine came out…….. eventually. Unlike the newer Ford trucks which need the cab lifted to remove the engine, Joe was able to remove this engine more or less intact. The cylinder heads had to be removed because the engine was seized; couldn’t be rotated. Because it has an automatic transmission, the engine had to rotate so as to unbolt the flex plate attaching the engine to the torque converter. Once the heads were removed (with great cursing tirades from Joe), the cylinders oiled for a day, and constant hammering with a sledge and 2X4 for motive force, the engine was loosened to turn and the flex plate uncoupled. Out came the engine, a 6.9L IDI Navistar. The engine put back in is a 7.3L IDI of 1992 vintage.

Job done. Onto the next for Joe…..

POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID

THE CULTURE (THERE IS ONLY ONE)

A cultural delight in debate. The English language is a fabulous medium for exchanging ideas, defining perspectives, arguing positions. Take a look at the attendees of this forum, listen to the speakers, then hear the comments from the floor. Marvelous language! Here is the debate – Motion: Britain and the EU would be happier if they got divorced:

GUNS, GUNNERS, GUNNERY

SUNDAY SERMON

Segment 5 in the series “Brainwash” from Norway, this is “Sex”:

WEATHER (OR NOT)

This week has been a suspension of weather in the sense that so much smoke from the fires in WA, OR, CA and the few in BC caused the sun to go away for most of every day. If the sky did clear up on any given day, it was late in the afternoon. It has cooled to the point of September temperatures. The good news is that sooner or later all the trees / shrubs / bushes / foliage in the pacific north west will have burned up and the sky will be clear again. Two pictures of the smoke from the week – first a picture from inside the shop showing the rosy light – taken at 4:00 p.m. –