Hola, folks. 🙂 Happy Friday!
I was supposed to have my alarm wake me up at 6:30, or something like that, but it never went off. I even had backup alarms set a little later, but… none of them went off, so I slept until like 7:30 or so.
I was trying to get up early to go to Oklahoma and pick up an engine for the Dodge Ram, so I could then get back in time to work on cars for the day.
Obviously, with the alarm not going off, the day didn’t quite go as planned, but that was fine. There was a thunderstorm over night that dumped a pretty decent amount of rain, and I got the last little bits of it sprinkling down as it blew on by as I headed into Rogers.
Just a few blocks before the junkyard in Oklahoma (just west of Fort Smith, AR), the road was completely flooded out with a FedEx truck flooded out in the middle of it. Gratefully, there was a dirt road around the main road, so I took that. As I passed the FedEx driver, I got out and tried to explain what to do and what not to do, but they either didn’t understand or didn’t listen, because when I picked up the engine and was heading back, they had already done exactly what I told them not to do, risking blowing the motor.
Speaking of blown motors, after I got back home, I decided not to do any cars today (I didn’t have anyone I’d promised to take care of today). Instead, I worked on getting the Dodge ready for the motor swap. I removed the wiring harness from the one I just picked up, and I disconnected a few more things on the truck itself. I also pulled off the offending head of the busted engine, looked inside the block, and what did I see?
The piston was… missing. 😶
That’s what happens when you drive through water and suck up a bunch of water into your engine while it’s running.
It destroyed the engine. The force of the motor smacking solidly against water (as I imagine you know, water doesn’t compress, so…). The piston came up with massive force, hit the water, and the force was so strong that it blew the piston off the wrist pin, after which it mangled the spark plugs, cracked the engine block itself, and sucked the piston into the case and out of sight.
What was left was a messed up connecting rod with the wrist pin still… attached but bent and wedged into the side of the cylinder bore.
Can’t even use the block anymore. Rebuilding not an option. Completely blown.
Spent a little time trying to clean up the garden area a bit (putting patio stones back where they used to be, moving cinder blocks back where they used to be, and moving the job box (that we’re going to be using as a package drop-off box) down to the base of the driveway instead of by the garden.
What else… mom’s at the ER with my brother-in-law Steve.
It’s closer to 2 a.m. than 1 a.m., so I’m gonna head to bed.
G’night all!
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 