Why do I never get any smarter?
When I was in my teens Schuck's was a great place to buy auto parts. Grandpa and I would drive to Puyallup and buy parts at the Schuck's on Meridian at 120th. We would stop at KFC and get fried chicken and eat lunch and then head home and do whatever job we were working on. Now, Schuck's is part of O'Reilly Auto Parts. O'Reilly is the Wal-Mart of auto parts. They're based in the Ozarks, they sell mostly Chinese-made crap and they claim to be the cheapest even though they really aren't most of the time. Almost every time I got to Schuck's I get the wrong part or if it's the right part it fails immediately. The people who work there have almost no automotive knowledge.
Today I had planned to complete the Pontiac engine reassembly. I got up early and went to Sumner to pick up the head. I got most of what I needed from the machine shop. I went to Napa in Sumner to find the rest. They had the serpentine belt but not the new head bolts. The bolts were in their warehouse in Tukwila. Rather than wait until the delivery at 12:30 I decided to drive up to Tukwila myself to pick up the bolts.
I got the bolts and returned home. My friend Jim Leonhard was waiting for me and we started putting things together. After about a half hour we started installing the exhaust manifold mounting studs in the head. There are six studs; we only had four that were in good condition. We decided to go to Schuck's to get new studs. That was our first mistake. I called ahead and they said they had some in the warehouse. I went to the store and paid for the studs and got directions to the new O'Reilly warehouse in North Puyallup.
It was about an hour and a half of driving to get the studs from the warehouse and then drive back home to Graham, including a stop at Fred Meyer to get a sandwich. We ate our ham & Swiss baguettes and then went back to work on the head. The studs were the wrong size. The morons at Schuck's sold me exhaust flange studs instead of what I needed. An hour and a half wasted.
After returning the studs I called Parts Plus. There used to be a Parts Plus on 152nd & Meridian; close enough that I could make quick parts runs without giving up a couple hours of my day. Now the closest one is 128th & Canyon which is about an hour round trip. The guy at Parts Plus told me that he had hundreds of studs and could find the proper stud for the Pontiac if I brought one in. When we got there he immediately found the right stud and got me two matching nuts and washers. Bingo.
The difference between Schuck's and Parts Plus (or National Auto Parts or Baxter or Lincoln or any other independent store) is that independent stores have a combination of parts and knowledge. Schuck's has parts but little or no knowledge. Parts Plus has a guy who knows about exhaust manifold studs and can look through a bin to find the right studs with the proper threads and matching bolts. Schuck's has pre-packaged studs and the computer tells the sales person which package goes to which car. Actual knowledge trumps the computer every time.
By the time Jim and I got back to work on the Pontiac it was nearly 4pm. We put the last two exhaust studs in the head and then put the head on the block. There are moments in time when pure beauty arises from the otherwise mundane surroundings. Seeing that beautiful, fresh cylinder head sitting on top of the engine block was one of those moments. Imagine a gleaming gemstone sitting in a pile of charcoal briquettes. That was an amazing moment. Jim's help was invaluable. He used to race stock cars and has spent much time building up engines for racing. He made sure I checked the tightness of the head bolts before putting the final torque on them. The first four bolts were not up to 37 ft-lbs by the time I tightened the last four so I retorqued them before the final spin. I'm used to cast iron heads with high-torque bolts, up in the 130 ft-lb range. Jim reminded me that these are aluminum heads and will not take such extreme torque.
We got as far as installing the pushrods and rocker arms before it was time for Jim to leave. After he left I pulled the thermostat housing off the intake manifold and discovered that there was no thermostat in the car. That's crazy. I suspect that some earlier ignorant mechanic removed the thermostat to try and address an overheating problem. When I first started the project I decided to replace the thermostat while the intake manifold was off the car. Now I'm incredibly glad I made that decision because I never would have figured out that the thermostat was missing. I cleaned up the mess of RTV silicone that had been left behind by the previous mechanic and installed the new thermostat.
In the morning I'll return to the reassembly, possibly with Jim's help if his wife lets him come back over. Hopefully by the end of the day it'll be running. I will have learned a lot from this job. The most important thing I will have learned is that it's never a good idea to go to Schuck's. It does not save me time.
Ever.
Today I had planned to complete the Pontiac engine reassembly. I got up early and went to Sumner to pick up the head. I got most of what I needed from the machine shop. I went to Napa in Sumner to find the rest. They had the serpentine belt but not the new head bolts. The bolts were in their warehouse in Tukwila. Rather than wait until the delivery at 12:30 I decided to drive up to Tukwila myself to pick up the bolts.
I got the bolts and returned home. My friend Jim Leonhard was waiting for me and we started putting things together. After about a half hour we started installing the exhaust manifold mounting studs in the head. There are six studs; we only had four that were in good condition. We decided to go to Schuck's to get new studs. That was our first mistake. I called ahead and they said they had some in the warehouse. I went to the store and paid for the studs and got directions to the new O'Reilly warehouse in North Puyallup.
It was about an hour and a half of driving to get the studs from the warehouse and then drive back home to Graham, including a stop at Fred Meyer to get a sandwich. We ate our ham & Swiss baguettes and then went back to work on the head. The studs were the wrong size. The morons at Schuck's sold me exhaust flange studs instead of what I needed. An hour and a half wasted.
After returning the studs I called Parts Plus. There used to be a Parts Plus on 152nd & Meridian; close enough that I could make quick parts runs without giving up a couple hours of my day. Now the closest one is 128th & Canyon which is about an hour round trip. The guy at Parts Plus told me that he had hundreds of studs and could find the proper stud for the Pontiac if I brought one in. When we got there he immediately found the right stud and got me two matching nuts and washers. Bingo.
The difference between Schuck's and Parts Plus (or National Auto Parts or Baxter or Lincoln or any other independent store) is that independent stores have a combination of parts and knowledge. Schuck's has parts but little or no knowledge. Parts Plus has a guy who knows about exhaust manifold studs and can look through a bin to find the right studs with the proper threads and matching bolts. Schuck's has pre-packaged studs and the computer tells the sales person which package goes to which car. Actual knowledge trumps the computer every time.
By the time Jim and I got back to work on the Pontiac it was nearly 4pm. We put the last two exhaust studs in the head and then put the head on the block. There are moments in time when pure beauty arises from the otherwise mundane surroundings. Seeing that beautiful, fresh cylinder head sitting on top of the engine block was one of those moments. Imagine a gleaming gemstone sitting in a pile of charcoal briquettes. That was an amazing moment. Jim's help was invaluable. He used to race stock cars and has spent much time building up engines for racing. He made sure I checked the tightness of the head bolts before putting the final torque on them. The first four bolts were not up to 37 ft-lbs by the time I tightened the last four so I retorqued them before the final spin. I'm used to cast iron heads with high-torque bolts, up in the 130 ft-lb range. Jim reminded me that these are aluminum heads and will not take such extreme torque.
We got as far as installing the pushrods and rocker arms before it was time for Jim to leave. After he left I pulled the thermostat housing off the intake manifold and discovered that there was no thermostat in the car. That's crazy. I suspect that some earlier ignorant mechanic removed the thermostat to try and address an overheating problem. When I first started the project I decided to replace the thermostat while the intake manifold was off the car. Now I'm incredibly glad I made that decision because I never would have figured out that the thermostat was missing. I cleaned up the mess of RTV silicone that had been left behind by the previous mechanic and installed the new thermostat.
In the morning I'll return to the reassembly, possibly with Jim's help if his wife lets him come back over. Hopefully by the end of the day it'll be running. I will have learned a lot from this job. The most important thing I will have learned is that it's never a good idea to go to Schuck's. It does not save me time.
Ever.