How'd it go today?

Lookin' good Sean!

Pat, it was waaay too hot today to be dealing with paving. That's good winter work.
 
At the end of the day the boss wanted me to help him with his bobcat. The muffler's broken, and the last rain filled it with water. He wanted help vacuuming the water out. Well, we got there and most of the water was gone. It apparently went into the motor. I drained the oil, which was in appalling condition, installed a new filter, and now it's waiting on oil. Nobody local had enough to fill it :^/

Question... Is there anything that should be done before adding oil? If there's any water left in the crankcase, will that matter?
 
Usually you pull the plugs or injectors and cycle the motor (with the starter). This will expel water sitting in the cylinders so you don't hydro lock it. Get some wd40 in it, cycle some more. Check oil, maybe drain if you have water there. Then fill it immediately and run the shit out of it to burn out water. A motor does better full of water rather than drained, sitting, and rusting. Tell him to get oil now and run it.
 
Hopefully it's not an interference motor, as valves have a tendency to hang up when you get water. A really cool trick is to remove plugs/ injectors, shove rope or string into the offending cylinder, then cycle the motor by hand :/: to push the valve back down. Doing this trick a couple times might save pulling the head.
 
:^D This is getting pretty far outside my pay grade. I've never fooled with a diesel, and my regular mechanical skills are somewhat lacking. I'll take a look at it tomorrow, and see if I can apply your words to the machine :^)
 
Hopefully it's not an interference motor, as valves have a tendency to hang up when you get water. A really cool trick is to remove plugs/ injectors, shove rope or string into the offending cylinder, then cycle the motor by hand :/: to push the valve back down. Doing this trick a couple times might save pulling the head.

Ninja chit
 
Apparently I called someone’s bluff today. Storm damage job. I gave a price, he told me I was a bit high. He had a price for a third of that amount. I told him that’s nice, this is what it will cost for me to reschedule customers to clean up your tree tomorrow and if someone can do it cheaper than he should use them. He then told me he was going to tell all his neighbors I was trying to price gouge because of his situation and make sure we never work in that area again. I again told him that this was my price and have a good day. An hour ago I got a message from him saying he was agreeing to my price and wants the job done. I’ll call him in the morning to let him know that the crew won’t be there till Thursday now.
 
O9, re the motor thing, reminds of something. Ages ago when I was logging in CT, probably around 1980, was in the woods, the forester came out to check things out, he was apparently having some issues with his Jeep, think it was a basic CJ5. I don't know the exact problem he was having but he said the only thing that fixes it is, with engine running, pouring water directly into the carb after removing the air cleaner for access. I watched him do it, poured at least a 1/2 gallon in there from a plastic milk jug. He said ''you are going to think I'm insane for doing this," but in fact, I knew so alarmingly little about engines then that it didn't amaze me at all.

So anyway, just wondering if you have any idea what ninja chit/voodoo chit he was doing with that jeep. :|:
 
My life got a lot less stressful when I stopped GAF. Of course, being independently poor, I can get away with that. I can be poor and happy, or I can be poor and stressed. I treat all jobs as if it's a favor and a hassle, and that it's a major inconvenience, and people give me a lot less BS. I know, I'm an asshole. It's my calling. :/:
 
The old ac on my truck would quit working, and it could be fixed for a whole day by pouring water over it. Learned that by driving through a deep puddle once, and the ac started working again. Took it to the shop for something else, the mechanic looked at it, and whatever he did broke my fix. Had to get a new compressor installed.
 
@cory i just looked it up, and definitely learned something today! Apparently it's an old school trick to clean the carbon out of an engine, the water flashes to steam and steam cleans everything. Fixes knocking and rough running caused by carbon build up, but like anything, can also eff it all up if you don't know what you are doing :lol: I'm gonna try it on some stuff, ill report back
 
Way back my very smart buddy (smartest guy I have ever known) said he had put dry rice (the grain, not frozen water) in the cylinders and run the engine before...it broke down the carbon deposits.
 
. Took it to the shop for something else, the mechanic looked at it, and whatever he did broke my fix.

Lol! And don't ya just hate that?? Took my chip truck in to a good mechanic for some work having nothing to do with the radiator etc, got it back and the temp gauge hasn't worked since:X
 
@cory i just looked it up, and definitely learned something today! Apparently it's an old school trick to clean the carbon out of an engine, the water flashes to steam and steam cleans everything. Fixes knocking and rough running caused by carbon build up, but like anything, can also eff it all up if you don't know what you are doing :lol: I'm gonna try it on some stuff, ill report back

Wow, good stuff!! Thanks for cracking the 30 y o mystery!!
 
Apparently I called someone’s bluff today.

I'm surprised you didn't tell him See Ya when he gave you the price gouging chit. I wouldn't work for a butt licking tool like that, but I have a small treeco, I'm not selling to keep 10+ guys busy.
 
That might be an easy fix cory. He probably disconnected the wires to get where he needed to be, and forgot to hook them back up. Look around for an empty socket, or a plug just hanging. Might be near the waterpump.
 
Holy chit, dats a lot of estimates. What rate do you close, maybe 50-60%?
 
Back
Top