As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
So this is the second installment, as a 3rd is coming, and you should read the second as it is valuable information on a shit subject, because all what is online is bullshit like everything in threads is bullshit.
So I got the soft plugs out of Two Chief's engine block and was feeling good. Got up feeling like I did not want to do this shit in putting in the brass soft plugs, but I thought if I got it done then it is done and I won't have to do it.
So out I go............alcohol, paper towels, Permatex 1, a socket to fit the soft plugs, the extension, hammer, and I wipe out the soft plug holes in the block to get them clean, wipe off the plugs with alcohol to make them clean, and I'm ready to go after a half hour to put the plugs in as I figure, what will it take,...........3 minutes to a plug.
Yeah, the always experts say that you can use a board, a socket which fits the plug, there is a tool you can lease or buy, and in they go.
Here is the reality of big Ford V 8's. There is not any room where the soft plugs are to put in long things, hammers, my hands and arms or anything else.
The first one I tried was next to the engine block mount in the front. My socket was too big. Smaller socket still could not get the angle. So the Permatex 1 is drying past the tacky phase they say and I realize that I'm not going to make any headway on this one, so I quit.
I move to the rear one on the passenger side. I try it. Socket does not work. No room. I try tapping on it, no good as the hammer is too light, and then I'm worrying about rolling over the edge of this round plug.
I kind of get it in there when I switch to a punch, that my old man had. The old man was like Samson. I think he could have broke Samson in half, as the old man used to bend pliers and his hand strength in squeezing was over 300 pounds. If a tool survived my old man, it was a good tool. This punch has the top gnarled over and these punches you can not gnarl over, so it gives you some idea what the old man was up to with a plough hammer and what he was capable of.
So I turn the punch around and hammer on the punch end. Not having much fortune in this or blessing, and I look around for a vice grip to pull the thing back out as I still have a lip exposed and I'm starting to hear Holy Ghost warnings in me of, "DO NOT GET THAT THING WEDGE IN THERE OR YOU WILL BE DRILLING IT OUT AND THIS ONE IS NOT ROTTEN LIKE THE ONES THAT YOU HAD TROUBLE GETTING OUT".
So I put the wood to it, and hammer some more on the lip side and nothing much moves, as my neck aches, the damned flies and mosquitoes are troubling me and I'm ready to give up and get a Dorman copper soft plug that you screw in, and it expands then to fill the hole.
So I'm carefully trying to whack this thing and I still have to hit it hard enough with the bigger hammer to get it to seat in the block. I check with the flashlight as it is dark under there and give it the Helen Keller feel touch test, and by God, that thing finally looks like it seated in there. I declare a hesitant victory and ask TL to see what TL thinks, and TL says it looks good.
So I stop before I knock the thing into the engine which is what I was concerned about along with keyholing this thing.
I did try the front one again, and it was not cooperating so I told TL we were going to get those Dorman copper expansion plugs. This is where it gets revealing.
So we get into O'Reillys and Quinn from Practical Jokers is our guide to all things auto.
We are looking over things and I tell Quinn what I need, and he is looking for what I need, dodging some guy who wants to go mudding tonight from the Brier and other people calling up as it started to rain, so everyone gets on the phone and starts calling the auto store for shit they just have to have.
We are talking and Quinn is looking at the steel and brass soft plugs first, and I tell him that I have them. I want the screw in kind as pictured above, and he measures things and the one I take in is 1.75, so I need the large one, not the 1. 5/8ths, which is what I hope is how things will turn in for the 3rd part of this.
Quinn then says to me, "Yeah, I have only put in soft plugs when the engine is out, as there are always engine mounts or something in the way".
Amazing how Quinn knew, as he put the plugs in, and no one in the threads knew because they have never put a plug in, in their entire lives. Like the part about bending over the lip of a plug and using a vice grip to pull it out.
You hammer on a soft plug, if you can get at while in a vehicle and all you are going to do is drive the thing in further. I actually did drive in one side on the ones I removed, just to break the things loose as they are in their rust welded solid. Otherwise, near as I can tell from the Holy Ghost, drilling a hole in these rusted out soft plugs and then using a punch to pry them out or some other bar thing to get leverage is the only way to get them out. None of the always experts have ever mentioned that, because they have never taken out a soft plug.
So it is Friday, I have a HAARP headache, my six soft plugs in Two Chiefs are, one that I think is kosher under the block mount, one is the block heater, one is a Dorman that was put in by someone, and I have two open holes for Dormans, which I will have to wait until Thursday next week as Quinn said it was UPS, so don't trust their, "It will be delivered on Wednesday" promises.
I had to order 5 for the order for some reason. 10 bucks shipping so was like 40 bucks. Quinn said he could put them on inventory, but I said I would just take them as it was not like it was 500 bucks and then I would have some spares, long with the rubber ones I have and this brass soft plug kit which will go into the shop drawer for I hope I never have to do this again, even as I have become educated again in no one threads knows a damned thing, and I should have just got those screw in plugs to begin with.
As I told Quinn, I get the engine running, if something goes wrong with them, I can bring it to town and have someone else deal with it. I still have to make sure the block is not cracked which I would not be surprised if it is some other place, but that is why I have the plugs going in, just to see if it is still sound.
It has been too much trouble to get this far. I hope to God that there are no leaks and I can go on to some other kind of fun like driving this Little Big Horn pick up.
I dread some more bad news, but at least in knowing, I will know and then I can move on from there to getting this much abused pick up running without donations as people with money have no idea what real life is.
Nuff Said
agtG
