Week 2 In the Bank

Another week at Summer Camp and I'm still alive. All is going well, learning more than I can process but it's cool stuff so it doesn't slip my mind too quickly. This week went fast even though we had some long sessions of getting yelled at for not being up to expectations. I will survive.

Last day of work before "Summer Camp"

Celebrating my last day of work. Today I said goodbye to my co-workers that I've been around for the last 5 years. Kinda sad to leave them behind. Pretty much all of them are good people and I wish they could all break through the barrier that holds people at that company. I guess it just suits some people though.

The anticipation of Calif. State "Summer Camp" is killing me. I haven't had nightmares like I would before doing a route that I didn't know at my current/last job, but my heart beats hard every time I think about Monday; a bit of excitement, a bit of fear, and a bit of pride. I just can't wait for all my questions to be answered and my curiosity to be satisfied. Let's get it ON, AND GET IT OVER WITH!!!

Happy St. Patty's Day

Now that's a cool idea!!!! Happy St. Patrick's Day! Drink a greeeeeen beeeeer for me!

Vegas, The Palms Hardwood Basketball Suite

WOW, I want to go to Vegas and stay in this suite. It's got a half court basketball setup in the living room. The sad thing is that at only $25,000 a night, I'll never stay there :( I'll dream about it though :)

• Basketball Half-Court
• Professional Locker Room
• Scoreboard
• Pool Table
• Lounge
• Full Bar
• 2 Master Bedrooms
• 3 Extra-Large Murphy Beds on the Court
• Extra-Large Jacuzzi ® Tub
• Rotating Loveseat/Booth
• Dining Area
• Living/Media Room
• PS2 TM
• Plasma TVs
• Superior Sound System
• Creston Controlled TVs and Drapes
• 10,000 Sq. Feet
• Capacity - 325
• Nightly rate: $25,000

Bye, Bye Barbara Anne

She's gone :( I'll miss her, but it just wasn't meant to be. We had our good times though and the memories will last forever. Sold her to a good guy. He'll take care of her now.

Heads sold!

Yup, time to order Pistons!!!!!!

YES PLEASE!!!!!

Actually, I'be be just as happy (0r maybe more happy) driving something with a Hemi!

I'm in

Whew!

Crank is sold

Crankshaft has been sold. A mere 7 hours after posting :) I'm happy and thank you Craigslist

I'm on Craigslist

It's a posting for the Big Block stuff below. Here's the link: http://sacramento.craigslist.org/pts/275980629.html

We'll see how it goes.

New look

Hope you like it.

Inline 4 barrel carb by Barry Grant (of course)

GENIUS STRIKES AGAIN!
Craziness in a Popular Hot Rodding article
Ford apparently tried it once in the '60's in racing but no street applications were manufactured.
INLINE FOUR BARREL CARB

Big block Chevy stuff for sale

Used Big Block Chevy Stuff for sale. Chevrolet 454 block, heads, forged crank, ceramic headers, JE 502 pistons. BBC.

All parts are best offer, so feel free to offer.

Parts for Rat motors:

BBC headers - Silver Ceramic coated big block Chevrolet Hedman Corvette headers, Part Number 68090. Fits Year: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82. $200

JE pistons - J&E 502 Big Block Chevy pistons. JE700 bore size is 4.466” Dome height is .075” for 1cc of volume according to J&E pistons tech. $250

454 bare engine block - Chevy Big Block 454 4-bolt mains. O-ringed! Head gaskets seal better, costs $150 to $200+ for a machine shop to do this. Just got checked for cracks and has a very tiny crack in the number 2 main journal, can be repaired for about $200. If you only want around 500 hp I’ve been told by 2 machinists that the crack doesn’t need to be fixed. This motor was making around 1000 hp and was in a dragster. Bore is 50 over with plenty of meat left. Will need machine work. Casting number 14015445. $150

454/502 crank - Forged 454 crankshaft, cross-drilled, 1053 steel. Just got checked for cracks and is good to go just needs machining. Standard main and rod journals. Two piece rear main oil seal. 4.00” stroke used on ’70-’90 Mark IV 454 or Mark IV 502. Part number 7416. $150

454 heads - 454 oval port heads, 122cc chamber. Just checked for cracks and they are good to go. Casting number 353049. $150

futon out, couch in

We got a couch from some friends so we needed to get rid of our futon. We decided to just put it in our front yard and label it "free" since we get so much traffic on our street. The funny part was that after about 20 minutes or less some lameo pulled up, opened his trunk, threw the futon pad in, closed his trunk, and drove away.....!!!! We were very disappointed because we thought that we were now stuck with a futon frame that no one would want. Oh well, we just laughed because he got a very flat, used futon pad. After about another 20 minutes a lady walked by and decided she'd try to take the frame down a few houses to her daughters house. She couldn't move it. So I carried it down for her. So we now have a couch to comfortably sit on :) END OF STORY

Got help

Dipstick Drama!

So the dipstick on my transmission in the '71 Nova has leaked since put the TH400 in it a couple years ago. So I've single-handedly been driving up oil prices by purchasing massive amounts of tranny fluid to keep it topped off and out of harms way via overheating. This weekend I took on the task of changing what I thought was a cracked O-ring. Sounds simple, but it requires dropping the trans to get the dipstick tube out because of the nice curve it has. Got everything down and out quickly on Saturday and went to purchase the new tube. After hours of trying to finagle the new tube in I discovered that I must completely take the trans out, not just lower it. Then I discovered that the tube didn't fit by snapping it in two while trying to force it into trans. Broken $20 tube and no fix..... So I grabbed a new O-ring and put it on the old tube to throw it back in......I put it in, tipped the trans. sideways to see if it leaked and discovered that the old tube had a nice crack in it. So it had been leaking from a crack not from the O-ring. Well, I sulked around for a bit on the verge of crying and it dawned on me that I had 2 other different tranny's in the garage. I found the tube for one of them and it happened to be an exact match, although not nearly as beautiful, it is functional.........now to get it all back together again.....Lets go Humpty Dumpty.

Whew, It's over! (Long Post)

X-mas, the "worst" time of year! :( Hopefully some day I'll have a job that doesn't make me feel that way, but until then I'm just so glad the rush at FedEx is over. Time to get in a few things that happened recently..... Most memorable, Dad's 60th Bday. Sister S. set up a nice "treasure hunt" around Santana Row in San Jose. We went to several stores and let them know that Bob was there and he was given a gift card at each store, then the card would tell us what store to go to next where there would be another gift certificate and another place to go to. Somehow we hit the Cohiba store twice :) Here's a few pics:




NEXT Christmas Lights!



New Years Eve: PAINTBALL! The post-paintball-playing-day-paintball-throwing-in-the-parking-lot-finale



LAST:New Years Day at the State Capital

The Search is On

I am hunting for pistons! I'm looking for the best price on JE custom pistons. They have a sportsman line known as SRP. The machinest told me to get part number 142995 by SRP. The best price I've found is about $517 for all 8. Nice that it's cheaper than the $700 JE pistons that I was looking at :)

502 update

Crank maged good, no cracks. Block needs to be bored .30 over. That's a bummer because the parts are expensive and I'll have to buy new pistons. $$$ + $$$ = $$$$$$

"OPEN"

Isaiah said his first word on Thanksgiving. "Open" was his word of choice. He has said it 3 times so far. Then yesterday he said "bye" and waved several times. I think he's planning on doing an open reading of the Declaration of Independence next Saturday if anyone is available.