"Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast." - Marlene Dietrich

IKEA gone all wrong.

After church yesterday we went to a reception for one of the gals who attends and got married to a fella from out of town. At the table just inside the door was a place for writing marital advice on a 3x5 card to be then put in a binder. Josh was just ahead of us he he wrote, "Two words: 'Yes dear.'" (He learned well.)

I wrote a German proverb:
"To keep the marriage cup brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
When you're wrong admit it,
And when you're right, shut up."

Had I seen that quote up above I might have used it.

It's not a good sign when, as part of your research, you send an email to a denomination's HQ asking if they believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of Scripture (their web site doesn't comment) and you get an email back asking you to define the words verbal and plenary.
I think I have my answer.

My brain was wide awake at 2:30 a.m. and my body couldn't get it to shut down. So by 3:30 I was out in the garage to work on the truck. I need daylight to sand, and do it in the driveway so the fine powder can be hosed away. That left me with one option - start tearing down the engine. The first step was cleaning off the bench and putting everything in its place so I started with a clean, organized workspace. I've never rebuilt an engine before and figured I needed every advantage I could get. This is a "fools rush in" exercise.

Here's what I started with. I'd already taken off all the bolt-on parts and pieces and removed the valve cover. I began by draining the oil from the pan, and was surprised to find it full.

The plan is to buy a rebuild kit that will include new push rods, lifters, rocker arms and springs. But here, too, I decided to err on the side of care and caution by working as though I were going to use all these parts again. In that case all the pieces of the valve train have to stay with their respective valve because over the miles those pieces have mated to each other. (I think there's a marriage illustration there somewhere.) So I got a short piece of 2x4 and drilled holes in it, each with a number from one to 12, to receive the push rods. The rockers were strung in order on a length of electrical wire and the bolts that hold the assembly to the head were labeled by their position. With the rocker assembly off it looked like this:

Then it was time to beat and wedge on the head to get it off the block. That didn't happen easily and required the use of a length of 1" steel pipe, but eventually it came loose and I lifted it off. Heavy! They don't make them like that (cast iron) anymore!

I was curious to see what things looked like inside. The combustion chamber for cylinders #5 and 6 look sooty, and I suspect this thing was burning some oil when it last ran. But none of the valves showed signs of being burnt or excessively worn.

The pistons all look sooty, but #5 and 6 more than the rest. Here again, though, no signs of particular trouble. No cracked pistons, scored cylinder walls, etc.

Tomorrow I'll start tearing apart the bottom end - taking out the crank shaft and bearings - taking lots of pictures, labeling, and writing notes like I did this morning. I'll have to borrow a ridge reamer from O'Reilly's to get the pistons out so that will wait until Wednesday at least.
Or I could go back to sanding.