"I don't have time to mess with it, it runs and I gotta go to work!" -Said my Dad, and proceeded to drive an inline six into the ground...

Normally a very reliable engine, this one had a blown head gasket, and was causing the radiator to overheat...
(Hmm, I recently posted about that kind of thing didn't I?)

Blown between #4 and #5, the cooling lost, it bowed the block and the head. But waht stands out in my mind is that the combustion gasses burned a channel between the two cylinders that was later repaired by depositing new metal with a TIG welder, and having the block decked at a machine shop...

And it still had to be torn down to fix it. Much further than it might have originally


"What's supposed to hold this in place? Isn't there a ridge or something?"

(This one I found tonight)

'89 Ford Fiesta -

She done quit runnin' one day, and the owner sold it to another friend of mine who was still under the hood 5 days later.
I checked on it, and he had been replacing the timing belt. He said he had it all together, but it sounded the same as before - so something wasn't right obviously.

On that motor, the cyl head cam drive pulley is aligned by a dowel pin in the end of the camshaft.

I felt around (it was at dusk), then looked at the pulley...
Hmm, an extra hole...

Putting a light on the end of the cam, I saw a sheared-off pin. Then I heard that the cam bolt had been pulled with an E-Z out set...

I wrapped a rag around it, and tried to turn the cam. -No way Jose!

That whole top end was locked up tighter than slick ******* love letters...

Only one thing does this, lack of oil.

Then I heard that the car was notorious for running low on oil, and although it had been added to by the guy who had it now (he had borrowed it before, and realised it needed some), we doubt the lady who owned it ever checked on it.

Suprise, suprise...
Gotta maintain what you own, or it doesn't last, does it?


~Life goes on...