Are you ready for a vacation???

If you were to go on a vacation......
Where would you go?
What would you do?
Who would you see?

Let me offer you an exciting and unique vacation idea. Have you ever thought of chasing storms on your vacation? Let me introduce you to http://www.extremechasetours.com/ ECT is owned & operated by veteran chaser & good friend Lanny Dean, who has witnessed over 250 tornadoes! Check out his website and book a tour. You will not be disappointed. Yes, a tour is expensive, but when you think about it, most family vacations can be very costly and ECT offers many tour options and discounts!! I understand that not all people are fascinated by severe weather and tornadoes therefore a storm chase tour would not be for folks wanting to sit at the beach & watch the pretty sunsets. It is for those wanting to witness stunning views of our planet's wildest weather and those that want to witness the exciting thrill of the chase!!

No, Lanny didn't pay me for this, but he is a good friend of mine and Lanny is a stand up guy. There are lots of chase tour companies, but ECT will treat you right and your money will be well spent!! Who knows, you might even see me out there chasing!! Book your tour today!!

Pics from ThunderJam 2009 Tulsa

Tulsa International Raceway was a blast Saturday! TJ, Clay, and I went to see the hot rods that were there--they had a couple of jet powered funny cars, a jet powered fire truck that holds the land speed record at 404 MPH., and a couple of top-fuel altered rides, among many other sweet rods! Oh, yeah....and the Cool Bus!!!!

Maiden voyage....take 3!!

This was the view from Oologah Lake as the sun was setting last night. The boat ran great!!! Don't laugh at the pics--I took them with my cell phone....lol.

YYYYEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!

Just fired the boat up!!! She runs!!!! TJ and I worked all day Saturday and then just when we were ready to fire it off we ran into a stumbling block---no spark!! I finally figured it out a few minutes ago--I had the neutral switch installed incorrectly!! Just a quick adjustment and....VROOM!!! She runs!! I ran it on the water-ears for about 5 minutes and I'll probably take her to the lake tomorrow after work to test & tune on her!!

Boat saga--The $500.00 Carburetor screw!!

Well, you have been wondering what I had found wrong with my boat engine. After much investigation and scratching of heads, here is what I found. First, let me rewind just a tad….

My last post I wrote that I suspected detonation as the problem, eating away the #2 piston. That was a pretty good call except for the fact that the 5 metal “chunks” that I found in said cylinder were steel (as demonstrated by holding a magnet near them) pistons are aluminum and not attracted to a magnets. There was a possibility of the “chunks” being parts of the top compression ring in the piston, but disassembly of the block revealed the piston rings intact. These steel chunks were not more that ¼” long, and sort of round-ish. I thought the worst….I thought that I had dropped something down the intake when I built the engine despite being very meticulous about it.

After consulting with many of my mechanic customers and a wild dream, I went to the garage to inspect the carburetor- a Rochester Quadra-Jet. I picked it up, turned it over and was amazed at what I saw. One baseplate screw was missing!!! I realized then that I was at the machine shop’s mercy—they had nothing to do with the problem therefore they didn’t have to warranty their work. I was kinda sick. I mean, who would have ever checked to see if those screws are tight—outta sight, outta mind, right?

Well, after calling Jay at Custom Motors and revealing the truth (after a little objections from others) he said that he would treat me right and was glad to know the cause. Well the head took a lot of work and the block had to be re-bored and the one cylinder sleeved but it’s finally ready! I am going to pick it up at lunch today!! The total bill? $497.00!!! Well below what they could have charged me! If you need an engine, take it to Custom Motors!!!

Boats-r-fun!

Well, I pulled the motor and then pulled the head off of the junk 4.3....looks like a detonation problem that grenaded my brand new engine! Looks like I'm in the market for a big bomb, or a new engine. Don't think that the machine shop will cover this one.....oh the joys of owning a boat....

Boat saga....

Well, I pulled the valve covers and didn't see anything wrong so I decided to pull the spark plugs...DUM-DE-DUM-DUM! Cylinder #2 is the culprit. The spark plug was smashed and that cylinder only has 30lbs. of compression---it had 200lbs. of compression just one week ago. Something came apart in that cylinder, valve, valve seat, top of piston, something. Regardless, the engine is coming out tonight, then I will pull the right bank head and find out exactly what happened....

I have about 6 hours on a boat that I bought in May----something is way wrong with this picture!!!

The ballad of the Big Fat Boat!!

Guess you probably know what's coming with this title, huh??
Here's how this story goes.....just whistle the Beverly Hillbillies tune while reading.....enjoy!

Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jeff...
Poor crazy dude pullin the hair out of his head...
Tries to make his family happy by buyin' a big boat,
Then he can't even get it to float....
Motor that is...
Heap o junk, goes "ker-chunk"!

Y'all come back now, ya hear???

...guess you can tell I'm kinda bitter. Well, here's the story. The boat was finally fixed! All my problems were gone...until last night. We took her out after church last night for a quick dip in Oologah--had a blast!! We were returning to the dock when, as I powered down into the no wake zone, I hear "funny" noises coming from behind me. The boat starts missing, and metallic noises grow louder. Then it dies! As I grow more upset, I finally get it to restart, engine is now "hammering" loudly at me. We limped it to shore, and got it on the trailer. I bowed my head in defeat and drove home. Tonight I will run a compression check and pull the valve cover to confirm my suspicions of a dropped valve......later.....