Latest Buffalo INstallment

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: SoCalTraffiCast

- - Tim and

Bitchin

Check out these guys on an all carbon 52 riding it like it was a dinghy!

Found it on www.sailinganarchy.com

Aliens motivate us go "GO HOME"

Did I say how nice it was to stay with Marcia. I hope so, we absolutely had a great time with her and her hospitality was neverending. Of course that's been the underlying story of this trip, Heidi and Adam went all out for us. Adam let me basically destroy his tool box, it'll probably take him a month to put everything back in the right place, Heidi and my Mom made dinner everynight for all of us. It was awesome and I appreciate all of them so much, so if I haven't said it enough yet. THANK YOU.

From Marcia's after a killer breakfast she made us we head west on the 380. Not the main road, this is the road that was the road before the main road came. So it's filled with small towns, most without even one stop sign, that supply the local farmers. The drive was beautifull and I doubt it took any more time because we couldn't go any faster than about 70 anyway so we were doing about the speed we would have done on the highway but had much more interesting scenery.

The only way to experience the country is through the side roads, corporate america owns the highways, the side roads belong to main street. Take a shot, experience it, it's worth it.

We pulled into Roswell, NM about 7:30 at night and decided to spend a little extra for a Holiday Inn express with the indoor pool and hot breakfast. Well worth it. This time we got the free internet and breakfast even though we paid over $100.00 which is usually the rule, over 100 no

extra's, under 100 lots of free stuff.

I was expecting more from Roswell, being the Alien capital of the world. I thought this religion had believers! Anyway we went to the International UFO Museum and looked at all the parafinalia in around the idea that Alien's have visited our planet. I saw a lot of Aliens, but I think they were of the illegal sort.

Out of Roswell we had a choice, Highway or Biway. We were tired and ready for home and thought that the highway might be faster but ultimately elected to continue on the 380 through backroads of NM on the way to phoenix. Google had the road taking an additional hour but the miles driven was about 50 less.

The road was nice, a little slow at times but we went through Capitan NM which Kari thinks was where Smokey the Bear got it's beginnings. I'd research it to see if she was right but let's just assume she is!

More small towns with neat 'Main Street' style down towns, some with all brick roads which really slowed you down as it was like cobblestone. Most of the towns weren't tooo run down as I kind of expected but none of them catered to the traveler and I was dissapointed that I couldn't find any good dried fruit stands or vegetable stands, kind of weird considering we were in farm country. The other neat thing is that every small town seemed to have one house that looked like Dorothy's house after it was dropped back in Kansas.

We really liked crossing the continental divide at 7750 feet in NM we came across Pie Town we'd been licking our lips for 100 miles expecting to be able to sample some great local pies when we pulled into town and discovered te two Pie places in town which doubled as either a post office or grocery store were closed. One's sign ironically read "Pie town was created when weary travellers crossing the divide needed a break and the local pie's earned a reputation for being fantastic." Turns out that there's only a demand on Fri, Sat, or Sunday.

The trip down from the divide led us through the Valley of Fire and then onto Show Low where all the street names were named after Poker hands, it took me a while to put the too together. Show Low is surrounded by vacation ranches and we really loved the country, matter of fact I always think of NM as Hot Desert, but most of this trip was above 6000 feet and the outside temperature in the first days of August never rose above 85 degrees. It's only about 8 hours from our house so this actually might be a possiblity for us. I think we'll try renting a cabin up there first!

Finally our decent into Phoenix through White Mountains, a beautifull red rock and Pine Forest drive through Eastern Arizona. Upon getting to Phoenix we decided that there's nothing in Phoenix we want to see because our attempt to contact friends that live there failed and we decided to push on the last 4 hours to get home to our own bed. After a stop at Cracker Barrel for dinner, something Kari's been hinting at the whole trip, we hit the road and headed home.

This is familiar territory so just get on the 10 and get home, nothing to see here. Kari drove for the first time a bit after dinner and was a little uncomfortable with the size of the rig, but she settled in behind a truck running at a good speed for her and did just fine. Matter of fact because she kept it slow and drafted I think she got 2 MPG better during her drive than I did at any point. While she drove I tried to sleep, unable to I usedthe Aircard once more to watch some TV on the laptop. Man that thing works great and was able to hand Hulu television most of the time.

We finally arrived home at 2:30 after a freeway closure, detour, and switching drivers several times because we were both hitting sleep walls barely able to keep our eyes open after 15 hours of driving. All in all this was a great trip, no trip is truly grand without it's difficulties and the car problems are classic. I am closer than ever to my wife and son as they make the best travel companions, the car thing will work itself out and I'll update you if it's anything interesting. Toyota Corolla POS $3,250. Trying to fix the car $1,200.00, Renting a Uhaul + gas to get home $1800.00. Seven More shot glasses to add to your collection, PRICELESS!

That Didn't Work

The next day I went with my Dad to the parts store and picked up the tap I needed to chase the threads. Waste of time really as it turned out I also needed a special too to get the tap deep enough into the holes to do any good. Blowing them out with the Air Compressor would have to do.

On the way back from the store I stopped to get Kari her special drink, a Chai Latte with three extra shots of Vanilla. My Dad, Mom and I were talking on the way back from the coffee place and I didn't realize that I was sipping away at this candy bar like drink. By the time we got home I had finished 2/3's of it, Kari was none too happy.

We got the head bolted on easy enough, working on an Aluminum block engine is interesting though. Here's a little boring tech. Most Steel blocks the heads will be tightened down to 65 to 100 foot pounds everything on this little aluminum engine was 36 pounds or under. It just seems like the whole thing is just barely held together.

After getting the head on Dad and I started putting on the timing chain and a critical part that was going on with some difficulty broke. After trying to figure a way to get around it, we realized it was not possible and I had the shop that did the heads order a new one and overnight it to me. Another day waiting around but in the meantime we were able to complete almost all of the rest of the engine and save that area for last.

That night we all went out to the best restaurant EVER! Monte Ne' sounds french I know but it's not it's Arkanfrench. Mona Ne' is an area of Arkansas that used to be a town and a resort but when the state wanted to create Beaver lake it was one of the areas that was flooded to create it. The whole thing is now under water but occasionally when the lake is real low you can walk down in the ruins of the resort and amphitheatre. This guy did a nice job explaining it and putting pics up so go here http://jamesmskipper.tripod.com/jamesmskipper/MonteNe1.html.

But where we went they served food. Monte Ne' is a restaurant just outside of where the town used to be, they serve fried chicken, mashed potatoes with country gravy, green beans, corn and desert. All Family Style. I've heard 'family style' before but usually that means simply the portions are bigger or the atmosphere of the restaurant is a little country. Here it means there are no menus, no waiting to place your order. Sit down shut your mouth and eat what we serve you, that's family style! Oh yeah it was GOOOOOOOOOD. Of course the restaurant had the old rusted farmware hanging on the walls, you couldn't call it country without it.

Here's a pic at dinner from left to right around My Mom, Sis, Her Daughter, Her Husband, Kari, Jacob, Me and Dad.

We also celebrated Jacob's Birthday that night as my parents will be on the road on his actual birthday. Chocolate fudge cake, Blackberry and Peach Cobbler, and Ice Cream in a bucket came out. We were already stuffed but it was soo good. Price was reasonable, $100.00 for all of us and that price went perfect with the plastic table cloths.

So the next day was a big waiting game for the most part. I helped Adam pick up some brick and sand for some guys putting in steps at his house. We just sat around and watched them labor in the 99 degree heat with 85% humidity. I kinda felt bad for them, but I've been working in the same for the last 5 days so not too bad. About 4:00 the part arrived and I got back to thrashing.

Just after dinner at about 7:00 I was done, got it all together and it was the moment of truth. Cranked the engine, it fired and immediately the engine ran out of control as if the gas pedal was pushed through the floor. Shutting it off quickly we went through a bunch of things that night, I called friends for advice and other things but ultimately gave up. It got to the point where it was time to figure out how we were going to get home and what we were going to do with our POS.

Kari made some calls, and she has been such a trouper through all of this. Never complained, never got mad, and always stayed positive she simply got on the computer and phone and came up with the best option. That was to rent a Uhaul and car dolly and just go home. It would be less money than renting a car, we would get a full 7 days to get home and the only draw back was that the gas mileage wouldn't be good at all. It was about $300.00 less than renting a car.

So Saturday morning came and I still was uncertain but that morning as usual I was up before the rest of the house and was going over the pictures that were taken as we disassembled the engine. There I saw a bolt that didn't look right. Once I checked it out, I realized there was a support bracket attached to it and it was jammed under part of the intake manifold creating pressure so the intake although feeling like it was tightened down properly wasn't and left an air gap. That's our problem right there! HOPE, I love hope.

I release the bolts for the intake and bolt everything back on, another try and crossed fingers and wha la she starts and idles fine, except for the pile of blue smoke billowing out of the exhaust, engine bay and the ticking I can still here in the valve train. WTF I just fixed this I just paid $1,000 to someone to go through this head and order parts to fix this problem. Now it's Saturday and I can't even call him to ask him WTF. That's it throw in the towel somebody I'm out of time, just out of time. I know I can figure it out given some time but I've got no more. We got 1800 miles and Kari has got to be back home by Wed so I can't wait any longer.

So here I sit at a kitchen table just outside of Dallas TX. 350 miles down and a bunch to go looking at an empty 17 foot Uhaul with a car dolly that is getting us 8.5 mpg and trying not to think about what the last 1800 miles will cost in gas. We came down here to see Kari's cousin Marcia and she promised us some good Texas BBQ, and we had it. Shadey Oak BBQ. Not quite as good as BBKings but good all the same. Here I really liked the fried Okra.

With that lets do a quick food recap before I close this. Buffalo NY, forgot to get wings until we were in Ohio.... Duh. Memphis, BB Kings ribs, Beer and Hush Puppies, absolutely the best. Adam made smoked pulled pork the day we arrived in Arkansas, we ate that with different sides for 3 days it was AWESOME. Monte Ne' fried chicken family style, totally cool and good, CA should have some of these. Texas BBQ, Fried Okra rocked the house, I had the meat sampler but the ribs, beef and sausage were really just average. I could have eaten a whole plate of that okra.

Today we head for Roswell, NM on back roads through the middle of TX. Should be the longest 9 hours in a car I spend in my entire life. I'm going to try to get Kari to do another show or two during it, we also have the kid riding with us so who knows maybe he will do some podcasting too.

When working on anything tools and knowledge are generally the only obstacles standing in your way, in this case, due to the fact that this car comes from the north there were a few more rusted bolts that also stood in the way of progress. Some took hours of creative thinking, and some cutting, and some just simply broke off. In the end they all came apart and I was lucky that Adam has a good stock of tools which made running to the store for some special thing I needed less than it would at many peoples homes. I got most of the motor cleared off that first night and finally went to bed when two bolts that were completely rusted and out of the way provided me such a problem that sleeping on it would be the only solution.

The next morning my Dad came over and helped me work on the car. I enjoy working on this stuff with my father because we seem to have some sort of telepathic communication. There's little need for words and both of us are thinking about the problem in front of us so generally there's a solution right around the corner. The rusted shroud bolts were a perfect example, I had already decided to disconnect the exhaust below the header and started working on that, but the bolts were frozen and the O2 sensor that you had to pull out before taking off the other bolt was not coming out. We literally fumbled around with this thing for HOURS, I was expecting to drop off the head by 12 on Monday but by the time we finally got the exhaust off (only 3 bolts) it was 4.


The next challenge was the realization after the head was unbolted and the timing chain loosened that the timing chain cover was going to have to come off in spite of what the book said. There was a bolt down in the timing chain that we could get off to remove the heads but would not be able to get back on with the cover in place. The problem was now we had to break the crank pulley bolt which is put on with over 100 ft lbs and is rusted with the motor freely spinning. We finally got it by removing the heads and configuring a stop plate with a 2 X 4 and some smaller wood pieces, what a pain.

The places I had spoken to so far had given me a two day turn around if they didn't have to order parts, luckily enough someone had referred me to Paul's Machine Shop in Springdale, AR and he told me the next day he would have it done and could have any parts I needed over nighted. All the prices were similar but with the extra parts I needed to do the job right this head job was going to run near $1,200.00 with me doing the labor. That's some serious cash, in CA I think I could have gotten an exchange motor for around 700 but it's too late now.


For the rest of Tuesday Adam took us out to the local shooting range. Adam has two bitchen' AR223 Semi Automatics, one is converted to shoot 9mm and the other has a very cool 22 conversion on it. The 22's are the same size as a 223 but

1/4 of the grain and the nicest thing about the 22 conversion is that 22's cost 1/10 or less than 223's so you can just blow off shots with the only consideration of having to reload the clip all the time. We shot off at least 200 rounds and it didn't cost much.

The best part was when Kari shot the 9mm Springfield XD9 handgun. As soon as she shot it she jumped back and shot off a big F bomb right in front of Jacob, you should have seen his face it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. She went ton to shoot a few more and Jacob did real good on his shooting. He had a good cluster around his target at around 25 yards with the BB Gun. We also let him shoot the AR with the 22's, the first time he was nice and steady shooting off one at a time the looking to see where it went. The next time after seeing me pull off a couple fast volleys as soon as I gave him control of the gun the spout off about 20 rounds in succession. He did good though, held the gun steady and was pretty much on target consider he had to stand on his toes to hold the gun up on the rail and it was too heavy to hold by himself.

on Wednesday we went out on Heidi and Adam's pontoon boat, did a little fishing, swimming in 85 degree lake water and Jacob did a little tubing. It was nice to get away from the car problems for a bit and just hang out. At about 3:00 I talked to Paul and he said the parts and the motor would be ready after 4:00 so we headed over to pick them up. The only thing he didn't have was 2 replacement bolts for the exhaust and he referred me over to a bolt place to get them, after that stop we headed back for dinner.

After dinner and drinks I started working on the car myself for a little bit, got all the gasket areas cleaned up and ready to put on the heads. I got stopped by not having a tap to chase the threads on the block and finished early for the evening so I could get one in the morning.

Leaving Buffalo Smoking

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: SoCalTraffiCast

- - Tim and