ah, euphoria
Matilda's back!
and with a shiny new water pump, timing chain & sprockets, timing cover, and several associated gaskets. i'm a good bit poorer, but having my car back in running order makes me unreasonably happy. i found myself paying careful attention to the engine-sound as i drove home -- she sounds different, noticeably. possibly this is because of the new timing chain & sprockets? also, she's a bit loud, and the wet weather means that the rust-hole in the muffler pipe is going to get bigger fast. i need to get that repaired, too, but hopefully it won't be all that expensive. the mechanic pointed out (again) the minor leak in the intake manifold gasket, and said that i should keep an eye on it but that it'd probably be fine for another six months or so. i should go ahead and find out how much that repair's likely to run, so that i can budget for it.
but! Matilda's back and running and i am reminded again why i own this car: she makes me happy. also, car-geeking is fun, and having an old american car means that it's easier to figure out how it all works, and to learn at least basic maintenance and repair. it's neat, too, to realize that i'm getting pretty good at noticing when something's going wonky, even if i still fail to fix the problem soon enough. (the muffler-pipe's an obvious one, but there was also awhile there where i could tell when the coolant level was getting low by the sound of the engine. and then i took clare's friend's advice on how to refill the coolant system, which was a mistake, and resulted in the system being overfull, dumping, and then the leak got much worse. *grumble*.)
and then i came home and had dinner and exercised a little of my perpetual bad luck with toasters. (at the Moneypit, the shiny new toaster that vyrin bought was, as best i can tell, possessed by satan himself, for the purpose of tormenting us by arbitrarily burning our toast and occasionally threatening to set the kitchen on fire. here, well, i think i've figured out what the problem is. my housemate refrigerates her bread, and therefore uses a darker toast setting. if i forget to check, this means that my attempt at toasting fills the kitchen with smoke.) and now the excitement and euphoria has settled down again, i'm fed, and i need to get my ass back to the microlab for one last bit of piranha-cleaning. might hit AK Press afterward for their winter sale, if there's time.
and with a shiny new water pump, timing chain & sprockets, timing cover, and several associated gaskets. i'm a good bit poorer, but having my car back in running order makes me unreasonably happy. i found myself paying careful attention to the engine-sound as i drove home -- she sounds different, noticeably. possibly this is because of the new timing chain & sprockets? also, she's a bit loud, and the wet weather means that the rust-hole in the muffler pipe is going to get bigger fast. i need to get that repaired, too, but hopefully it won't be all that expensive. the mechanic pointed out (again) the minor leak in the intake manifold gasket, and said that i should keep an eye on it but that it'd probably be fine for another six months or so. i should go ahead and find out how much that repair's likely to run, so that i can budget for it.
but! Matilda's back and running and i am reminded again why i own this car: she makes me happy. also, car-geeking is fun, and having an old american car means that it's easier to figure out how it all works, and to learn at least basic maintenance and repair. it's neat, too, to realize that i'm getting pretty good at noticing when something's going wonky, even if i still fail to fix the problem soon enough. (the muffler-pipe's an obvious one, but there was also awhile there where i could tell when the coolant level was getting low by the sound of the engine. and then i took clare's friend's advice on how to refill the coolant system, which was a mistake, and resulted in the system being overfull, dumping, and then the leak got much worse. *grumble*.)
and then i came home and had dinner and exercised a little of my perpetual bad luck with toasters. (at the Moneypit, the shiny new toaster that vyrin bought was, as best i can tell, possessed by satan himself, for the purpose of tormenting us by arbitrarily burning our toast and occasionally threatening to set the kitchen on fire. here, well, i think i've figured out what the problem is. my housemate refrigerates her bread, and therefore uses a darker toast setting. if i forget to check, this means that my attempt at toasting fills the kitchen with smoke.) and now the excitement and euphoria has settled down again, i'm fed, and i need to get my ass back to the microlab for one last bit of piranha-cleaning. might hit AK Press afterward for their winter sale, if there's time.