About The Tools & Just In Time

Here are a few comments about the tools I needed to clean the manifold and drop the oil pan on wifeys car:

The intake valves were all closed because I pulled the intake cam shaft. When I wasted several cans of carb cleaner, brake cleaner, starting fluid, and anything else I had into each inlet port, I needed a way to empty each valve cavity of the primordial black ooze that was just created.

I tried using an old turkey baster and it lasted one suction. The chemicals went into the bulb and melted a hole through the bulb sidewall. This anti-freeze checker turned out to be more reliable than the old turkey baster. The next time I am in the market for a turkey baster, I'm heading to the auto part store.

Who has never used a turkey baster for some odd job around the work shop? I could have used my shop vac but it is in the land fill after I destroyed it while using it to clean the furnace. This is a whole 'nother story.

I could have used compressed air, but this would deposit carbon black on everything, including me, so I settled for the  more conventional approach.

After each pool of black goo was suctioned out with this make shift boogie puller, then I deployed the compressed air. As I was air lancing out each inlet the counter flow of air, pointed in my direction, pelted me with grit containing grains of sand sized black paint balls. My glasses and field jacket took the brunt of the splatter.

Here is a pic of one make-shift work table. At the end of the day or after a major task was complete, I would carry the tray of tools and parts into the basement. Then I would come back outside this a new empty board. This occurred four times.

Moving on to the oil pan removal, things went along smoothly. The re-installation, however, was different. There were three bolts that were at nearly impossible to get back in the holes. I would get a bolt in but it would immediately cross thread. I always wondered why they made ball end Allen wrenches. Now I know.

Except I didn't have one. But I did have a file. The car is all metric but I needed a slightly smaller wrench so the clearances wouldn't be too much of a pain when tilting the wrench sideways in the socket. So I sacrificed my 3/16" English wrench because the next size lower in metric was too small.

The most used tools were the telescoping magnet and the grabby thing. I fished out more tools and bolts than I can count. One bolt went down the air line to the turbo. The grabby thing has magnets so I was able to retrieve the bolt w/o taking the whole turbo air line apart.

 

The car is back together but the mess in the basement is a disaster area. I know there is a grace period for  cleaning up such things. I am thinking by next week end. Wifey will overrule this, I can predict with absolute certainty. Nuclear physicists say you can only predict velocity or position of charged particles. I can predict both the speed and position of this cleaning operation.

The car rolled out of the bay with minutes to spare. An hour passed and then the global warming moved in. You can see the tire tracks if you look closely.

A heated garage would be nice. In the next house maybe. This gives me an idea. Garage with room above on my side. Kitchen with other rooms on her side. Possibly, even someplace even warmer than here.