Pellet heads!! What's up today?

X2

Isnt that prepping for cleanup?

 

Woke to a cold stove and cold house as I had the oil 2 stats turned way down. About 25-30 lbs of 802's in the hopper and a nice funnel down the middle. Last bag of those are in there now and then on to the Crabbe which are nice and slick pellets. I do have another ton of 802 for next year and will likely mix those with whatever else I buy to alleviate this condition.

I was actually thinking of having my dealer take the last ton of 802 back and pay the difference to replace with LaCrete but with LaCrete being 275 on spring buy, I will keep the 802 for the 225 I paid for them. Great pellet but the surely dont feed well.

 

Who pays for the busted equipment if the customer doesnt set the schedule?

 

Cold and raw out. snow flurries are in the forecast. Poor peepers won't be singing tonight!

 

Worked yesterday, wanted to get home in time to work on the scooter a bit. Stayed later than I wanted, trying to get an engine back together in a stinky garbage truck. Setting in piston and rod assy. #5 out of 6 and the piston and ring compressor slipped out of my oily hand and my pinky finger was between the piston and liner. Cut my finger pretty good, almost decided to go get some stitches but didn't want the insurance/workmans comp. hassles. By the time I got home the weather had gotten cold and windy and my finger was not having a fun time. So I watched Barrett Jackson while waiting for wifey to get home from taking her sister to the airport.
Today its 36 deg. and threating rain. I should be getting the lawn picked up and working on the bike but I'm not feelin it . Gonna cheer on wifey as she cooks up some breakfast, play with/work with our pup now that all the other pups are gone. (her sister took the last one back to Reno) and maybe later I'll wrap up my finger and try to get some work done before the heavy rain starts.

Doggy

 

Not much going on here.

Did a deep clean on the big Whitfield the other day as the draft through the grate was pretty feeble and this was causing heavy clinker buildup.

Yanked the exhaust fan and all the baffles and went after things with a WA WA brush and the vacuum.

Spiffed up the exhaust blade, oiled the motor and put the unit back together.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER
We have been running the biggun off and on and even had a couple nights that we left the fire off.

Chilly in the morning though ....

Running the little Whit through last night as the weather is wet and chilly.

Not much else happening.

Waiting for the snow to get out of the mountains so we can make a trip to central Washington to get a Studebaker Weasel.

The Weasel has the rear axle needed for my CATVAN project.

And the rain comes down Arrrrrrgh

 

Hey Doggy

Been there with the ring compressor trick and cut fingers.

Yup...seriously no fun at all.


Was out yesterday and discovered that the cargo door seal on the back of the Suburban had sprung a leak and had allowed a bunch of water to get into the carpet/pad in the aft section.


Arrrrrrgh

Decided to yank the trim off and get the soaked carpet out and hang it in the basement to drip out and dry.

In the process of getting the plastic trim all off I managed to find a sharp spot and then bled all over things


The issue was simply a lot of crud accumulated around the seal where it slides onto the pinchweld and this eventually causes water to seep past the seal and...well then its a mess.

At least the water had not gotten more than about 18 inches forward from the rear doors.

And this morning the finger is SORE

Oh well...all in a days work eh //

 

while it was still warm out yesterday, shut the P43 down and did a full cleaning. Fired it back up last night, got down to about 30*.

Got up to go do food shopping this morning, so far have seen sleet, freezing rain, then some spitting snow. Figured it's a good day to roast a turkey. I make a mini Thanksgiving 4-5 other times during the year, nothing better on a chilly, raw day than that lovely aroma of a turkey in the oven.

Sam

 

The local fox station just updated to 18" and still coming. It's the 40+ winds gusts that make it terrible.

 

The town I live in just posted this on social media.

 

Dug my furnace pipes out of a 5+' drift. Combusting pellets currently but gotta have the back up ready.

 

Not here yet but tomorrow will be a different story
Toronto was hit yesterday and still having full effect today
Calling for a repeat of a Ice Storm of a few years back
Power outages are creeping about in the province

 

Looks like the econolodge in town couldn't handle the snow load.

 

I liked your post, but no liking that - hitting those cuts w/ lots of Hydrogen Peroxide always helps here.

Hope you feel better Doggy.

Made good progress on the Intrigue this week: was 65F on Thursday, got to put the 5/8" Heater hose bypass in between the thermostat block -> Heater Core return: got out the garden hose, and back-flushed the Heater Core, all was good:

* Lower radiator hose promptly sprung a leak Friday afternoon, after picking Betsy up from work. At least it happened in town so I could get parts ordered quickly, and I was able to spot the leak on pavement.

Got parts ordered in town Friday (both Lower and upper hoses), purchased a long-reach 90 degree pliers for the lower clamp, spent an hour Friday evening unsuccessfully trying to maneuver every other pair of pliers or vise-grip between the trans. cooler line and lower hose port w/o trashing the trans. cooler line.. ('Cause I'm an idiot & should have figured after the 1st (5) didn't work, to go purchase the right tool for the job..)

More flushing w/ the garden hose Sat. am, the Radiator was not flowing well at all at the start: spent a good hour flushing and back-flushing from the bottom port, flowing good when finished,

Back-flushed heater core & upper engine water jacket again, same deal: started slow, much better when finished 30+ mins. later,

Pete: I inspected the interior of the upper Radiator block port as best I could w/ a flashlight after removing the upper hose, it looked the same as Thermostat block ports back in Nov' 17 - all clean / appeared new..

--
Cut the new (Dayco) lower radiator hose to size, fitted on the radiator lower port -> thermostat block, and spent the next few hours cleaning up / filling / and purging air from the system.

Temp. was 53 F when I started, was 33 F when I finished about 5pm yesterday, It be chilly here.

I still have to replace the upper hose: it wasn't leaking, and I need to another pair of long reach pliers (45 degree this time), to clear the airbox, etc. in the way. Not.shocked.at.all. I will remove the air box anyway, to get more clearance.

With the extra water in the system right now, it's a 70/30 mix of water / antifreeze - I'm going to add a (25%) dose of coolant flush & run it for a day: then re-flush everything, when I change out the upper Radiator hose, this week.

No overheats or temp. spikes when purging air / or idling in the driveway yesterday: no issues on the 20 min. test drive after hosing all the system coolant off myself @ 5pm, so we'll see.

I suspect the metal heater pipe, running from the thermo. block -> under the intake plenum -> heater core return, was leaking also. The visible part I saw last week when doing the TB gasket & TB hoses showed some 'blistering' of the epoxy paint they coat the pipes with, can only guess it's worse: somewhere under the plenum.

Bypassing that heater pipe sealed the system, in-turn causing the lower radiator hose to show leak / failure when pressurized.. Why not (!) - just about every other freaking hose has leaked on this motor. Sigh.

The Lower/Upper radiator hoses were original (145,000+ miles) , still have the GM "LX5" logos on them.

The factory 'spring clip' clamps they used on the hoses are all spent, and truly suck. I'll have every clamp replaced, by the time I'm finished.

So no "MacGuyverism" w/ pumps, etc. yet - every time I think the system is sealed: it goes and proves me wrong, LOL.

Getting closer though.

Freezing rain, snow, and more freezing rain here today.. Welcome to Spring!

Have a safe day traveling all.

 

damm Smoke you guys are getting smacked real bad , when is this Chit supposed to let up ??

 

Not until it's finished here Your guess is as good as mine

 

Tomorrow morning. Another roof collaspe.

 

Glad you're making progress. Yes, once one part is fixed, you'll find the next weak spot. 145K on the hoses is about right. Just the way it goes w/ an older car. Keep us up-to-date on your progress.