Leaking P-trap

 The metal nut on the p-trap cracked when Mom leaned on the sink when she spent the night.  Or it might have been cracked before, because the cabinet seemed a bit warped.  I was able to find another but at HD, but it was a real pain to put back together and it really needed to be torqued.

Fix up the old 4 wheeler

We have had a 4 wheeler at the cabin since I started coming up, but we only really used it for pulling out the dock.  Maddie went to a friends cabin and rode around on her 4 wheelers and had fun, so we thought it would be fun to get a little more use out of ours.

But it isn't much fun to go by yourself, so we wanted to fix the older one that Joanne had in her garage at home.  It was in pretty bad shape, but the Nick cleaned it up, then tried to clean up the carb.  But it would only run with starter fluid, so we ordered a new carb and he put it in and it has been running pretty well since.

 

Chris the Chimney Sweep

 I am not sure the last time I swept the chimney so I did it this morning while watching some football.  Pretty glad I did since there was quite a bit of build up.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture while it was piled in the fireplace, but here is a (reused) gallon ziplock that I fill up.

Redo the Pontoon

The carpet and the sliding on the pontoon was looking pretty tired, so we decided to freshen it up.  We had to take off the rails and edge trim, put on the new carpet then put the rails back on.  You can see the old white and red fence (we called her the speckled queen).

We put new vinyl on the pedestal as well.  I have been working on the new blue fence over the summer, the girls aren't thrilled with the results, but I think it looks pretty good.  I was trying to use the old holes in the rails, so there are a couple wavy spots.

I was able to complete the simple fences over the summer, but the fence that curves up I need something to cut it with easier.  

Sonic Engine

We started in earnest end of July.  It took us most of August to get down the head gasket.  I am not sure why it took so long to take it apart, but it went together much quicker.  Our favorite bolt is the banjo bolt, we had so much trouble with that!

We also had to redo the timing chain 5 times till we figured out the trick, you have to do one of the cams first then the other.

This is the head with the valve cover off, Nick is taking apart the timing chain here (I think).

Here is the block with the head off, kind of dirty.  The head looked like that as well for the most part...

We took the head in to a machine shop to check compression and make sure the surface is flat.  D&D auto did a great job.

We also replaced the turbo because the impeller was no longer attached.  The coolant was running a bit hot when we got it all back together, so we did some reading and found that people had purchased a thermostat and replaced the existing one by taking the old one apart...  I ordered a new metal one (as suggested) and found out that the thermostat didn't fit in the new hosing.

So I just put in the new metal housing and thermostat and it seemed to help keep the temp down pretty well, so we are happy with that.

Then I noticed that some coolant was leaking near the water outlet, so I ordered the metal water outlet and when I put that in I saw that the old plastic one was all broken, so that was a good fix as well.

Initially, we had some white smoke, but it cleared and I haven't seen a lot of it since.  I am planning to get the PCV kit and put that in, since I see a bit of oil on the valve cover.  Also, the value cover I ordered had a flat oil cap, which leaked, so I put in the original one I had which seemed to resolve the issue. 

Costs:

Sonic Engine Timing Tool Kit: 27

Fuel Line Disconnect Tool Set: 6

Torx Bit and Socket set: 17

1/4 Torque: 13

Feeler Gauage Set: 5

OBD II Scanner: 16

-- $84

Head Bolt Set: 23

Engine Gasket Replacement Set: 43

Gasket Maker: 6

Serpentine Belt: 20

5 Oil Filters: 16

Turbo: 200

Coolant Return Line: 25

Oil Return/Feed Pipes: 27

Exhaust Manifold Nuts: 19

Valve Cover/Gaskets: 37

Coolant Thermostat Housing: 23

Coolant Housing Water Outlet: 23

-- $462 + $280 for machine work on head.

Old Purchases from Northern Tool

 I was looking back at my Northern Tool account to see when I bought the sprayer, and it must have dropped off my account history, so I thought I would add what is on there, so I have some record of it.

• 20211130, Garage Heater 50k BTU Model F260550 - 419.99 - 50 gift card.
• 20220513, Cement Mixer 6 Cubic Ft Drum Model 600DD - 599

I thought I would be renting out the cement mixer, but I haven't been able to do that.  We don't use the garage heater too often...

The sprayer pump stopped working this year, which is what caused this trip down memory lane.  I was able to find a replacement on amazon that didn't quite fit in, but was able to work.

It hooked up fine, but the screw holes didn't line up correctly.  I was going to use some self taping screws, but the drain on the pressure seemed to secure it well enough so I used it like that and didn't see any issue.

Our Engine Project

My car has been operating at reduced capacity for a couple days, I am pretty sure the turbo had stopped boosting my power so I was limping along into work.  I started looking for a new car with limited urgency.

On May 13th I took it into Mauer for a diagnostic appointment ($234 dollars), to be informed a needed a new engine, radiator, and turbo.  The next day I drove into work and when I left it was blowing white smoke.

On the 8th the pope was elected, and on the 14th the sonic wanted to get in on the fun and elect a pope as well.  On the 15th I was able to find a new car a Toyota Corolla.

Since I wasn't going to spend 15k on the sonic for a new engine.  Nick and I thought we could take a crack at replacing the head gasket...

 

New Car...

My 9 year old, 80k mile chevy sonic decided to start billowing white smoke from the exhaust this week.  I need to get to work so we started looking for a new car.  We have been happy with our Toyota so we started there.  I looked at Prius or rav4 PHEV, but landed on a corolla hybrid because it was in stock, and reasonably priced (all in 30k, more then the 15k for zippy, but hopefully this one will last...).  I financed at 5.99%, which is OK...  I might try to pay it off early we will see what the world does.

I went to pick up Maddie with zippy/smoky from school and we had to wait till everyone had left before we could start it up again.

Nick is going to try to change the head gasket on zippy and see if that fixes helps.  The dealership told me I needed a whole new engine for 12k, which didn't make any sense.

 

First trip up North

 We had some hot weather so came up to open up the cabin.  We worked on taking the rails off the pontoon and I worked on fixing the motor.  I am going to need to retap the threads on the drain plug.  Brainerd marine didn't seem too interested in helping with that project, so I will try DIY... 

I did get the thread chaser and was able to clean it out and get the plug back in.  We also, got the new carpet on the pontoon and started replacing the fence.