We’re Screwed?
Literally and figuratively.
I was back under the rig this afternoon, hoping to get the oil filter adapter and the new gaskets installed, with the new bolts, and then mount the new filter. And if possible, do the high-idle to check for leaks.
But alas, it was not to be.
I had noticed yesterday that when I took off the 4 bolts holding the adapter on, the first two were really tight, but the second two came out real easy.
Too easy, as it turns out.
I installed the adapter’s 4 bolts loosely to get things started, and went to tighten them down snugly by hand before I torqued them down tight with my torque wrench. But I never got that far.
Two of the bolts, the two that came out really easy yesterday, would not snug down at all. They just turned and turned and turned and . . .
Yep, they were stripped. And the last place that had the filter/adapter head combo off was Dix Diesel Center in Luling last November when they pulled the oil cooler to replace the gaskets. So I guess they didn’t read the specs and overtightened them.
So that means I drove the rig all the way home with only two bolts holding the oil filter on.
Yikes!
The bolts are steel, and both the adapter head and the oil cooler mount are aluminum, so it’s easy to over torque the bolts and strip out the threads.
So now it’s off to the shop. But I’m not really happy about the idea of driving the rig 35 miles north to the Channelview area to the shop on two bolts. So I’m going to see if my roadside assistance plan will tow me up there, since I don’t think it’s really safe to drive it up there and risk the engine.
As far as the fix, I’m hoping that the oil cooler filter mount can be retapped since a new oil cooler is about $1000. But then that would eliminate the whole problem since the newer oil coolers are all one piece.
So I’ll get on the phone tomorrow and try to get everything started.
It’s nice when you go out on a limb and it doesn’t get sawed off behind you.
A while back, based on what I was finding out in all my reading, research, and data analysis, it began to look like, despite all the overblown hype, that that the WuFlu was pretty much just replacing the seasonal flu/pneumonia season.
In fact, thought the seasonal flu was on track last fall and earlier this year to be another bad one, it just about disappeared as the WuFlu advanced in the U.S. And now you can’t even find much about it on the CDC website.
That’s when I posited that the WuFlu would probably not be any worse overall than the 2018 flu/pneumonia season, when almost 130,000 died. In comparison, about 112,000 have died from the WuFlu so far.
And I caught a lot of flack on this, believe me.
Coronavirus Mortality Study Shows: “Things Aren’t Much Worse Than a Bad Seasonal Flu”
Here are some pull quotes from the article.
The NYC/NJ contributions to total mortality have been so high that if they are removed from the current total mortality and replaced with levels proportional to those found in the rest of the US, the current total US death toll would be equivalent to the death toll from the 2018 seasonal flu.
And of course about half of all NYC/NJ deaths were from elderly patients in nursing homes, after the mayor ordered them to take even WuFlu + patients.
And it doesn’t seem like all the ‘social distancing’ made a lot of difference between strict lockdown and lax lockdown states.
Apart from the New England region, there appear no evident effects/deviations from the main expected increase line for states that locked down early and with more stringent requirements,
Social distancing doesn’t appear to have much of an impact on overall mortality. Finally, the actions of the governor and health officials in New York caused that area to explode with cases and death, especially when compared to the rest of the country.
Another online epidemiologist said that that in many cases, the people who would have died from the seasonal flu are now dying from the WuFlu.
Another in our Where We Were 10 Years Ago Today series.
June 7, 2010
Moab and Monticello…
We pulled out of our park about 8 am, heading first right down the street to take on about 140 gallons of diesel. And for a change, the price had gone down.
When we got here, the price was $2.97, then yesterday the price was $2.91. Today it was $2.89. And this is the first time in a long while that diesel is cheaper than unleaded, if only by 4 cents.
We left the station and pulled on to I-15 South about 8:30, heading toward Monticello, UT, about 270 miles away. We had a great time spending a few days with our friends Pat and Judy, and they did a fantastic job showing us around Salt Lake City. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up with them again soon.
The first thing I starting checking after we got on the road was whether or not my PacBrake exhaust brake is working, or at least activating.
I know it’s not working, or at least it doesn’t seem to slow me down any more than just the downshifting than happens. But what I didn’t know is whether or not it’s actually moving into position.
But now I do. Last night I mounted a video camera in the engine compartment under the bed and ran the cable to a small monitor up on the dash.
In the first photo you can see the PacBrake valve in the rest position.
In this photo the valve has moved.
So now I know that the air actuator is working and moving the valve. I think this means that I have one of two other problems.
The PacBrake is a butterfly valve that is installed right after the turbocharger and provides backpressure to the system when it closes. So this means that either the valve is not closing all the way, or I have a leak in my exhaust system.
So now I’ve got to try to figure out where to go next with this.
Actually I was really hoping that the PacBrake wasn’t activating. That would mean that I had a bad relay or a bad air solenoid or actuator, something that would be easier for me to fix.
Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.
Side Note: I found out a while later that this problem was caused by a cracked exhaust manifold. Replacing the manifold fixed the problem.
About noon we hit a 25 mile stretch of I-70 so we stopped in Green River at an Arby’s located in a truck stop so we had no trouble parking.
Along the trip today I noticed that my engine temps were running hotter than normal. Usually my water temp runs rock steady on 175 degrees, with occasional excursion up to 180-185 on long hills.. But today I’m hitting 190 – 195 on the hills with one 199 observed. I knew I wasn’t low on water, so what was wrong?
Then it suddenly dawned on me that it was about 95 degrees outside. This is the first time we’ve seen 80 degrees this year, much less 95. Most of our travels this year have been in the 50-60 degree range. So now it made sense. One less thing to worry about.
During the trip we saw some great scenery along the way. These photos are in no particular order.
This is Wilson Arch, about 25 miles south of Moab, UT.
About 2:30 we pulled into Mountain View RV Park in Monticello, UT. The note on the office door said to find a site and pay later, so we did.
I did have to reposition sideways a little or there would have been some serious ‘slide kissing’ going on. Even now there’s not a lot of room.
This park has about 30 spaces, and is basically an RV park in someone’s large front yard. That’s their house in the back there.
Even the view across from the park was great.
Our daughter Brandi called just as we were getting parked. She and Jan talked a good while going over the wedding plans for the 21st.
We had leftovers tonight so we didn’t even unhook the toad. Just one less thing to do before we leave for Show Low, AZ tomorrow morning.
Thought For The Day:
The fact that Hooters hasn’t launched a home delivery service called Knockers seems like a missed business opportunity to me.
