– turn the ethereal into your reality –

Yep, that’s it.

2013 Man burn, in GIF format.

It’s 24mb, so rather than load it in the page, you can just click on this here link:

2013 MAN BURN.

CHEERS!

Well, in my previous post I wrote about some interesting cylinder marks on the #2 and #3 cylinders. Today I measured the head and found .033″ runout on the plane. I was so surprised, I literally measured it 9 times. The tolerance is .004″

After accepting that it was badly warped, I decided to do a more thorough inspection, and quickly found these little treats on the #2 and #3 cylinders:

#2 head crack

#3 head crack

So that explains it. #3 had the worse looking cylinder, and also the bigger crack.

For what it’s worth, I was never expecting to find this in my engine. The car burned oil, but it’s well documented that these engines seize their oil control rings. It never used any coolant as long as I’ve had it, and thought I was just going in for some routine (every ~150,000mi) maintenance.

Boy was I wrong.

Well, I guess I’m in the market for a new head, and seriously considering getting some more extensive work on the bottom end. I was content with just deglazing the cylinders, but now I know that the engine has had some bigger issues in the past (probably overheating) and it makes me much more suspect about the bottom end.

For starters, these are just pictures of some weird issues in Cylinders #2 and #3 that I’ve never seen before. Photos of Cylinder #1 provided for reference.

1994 Mazda Miata engine with 180,000mi. Rebuild due to burning lots of oil. Found the oil rings on all four pistons to be seized.

I may update this post in the future with more info/pictures to make it a real post, rather than just a placeholder to share images.

Good looking cylinder #1

Another angle of Cylinder #1

Cylinders 2, 3, and 4.

Close up of cylinder #3

Different angle of Cylinder #3, showing marks in sidewall

Closeup of mirror-like finish in cylinder #1

I’ve seen a bunch of these sorts of things:

This type of image is always wrought with selectively biased points, yet always attracts a coo of agreement from anyone who isn’t a tweenage girl. In other words, while the statements are true, the point is quite misleading. I could go on a tirade about how the internet has made music much more expansive than it’s ever been in all of history, but I’ll just leave it at this:

Tonight I found a note. A note I had not recalled. Forgotten notes excite me to find bits of wisdom I once had so that I may think of it freshly.

This note was more curious than most. It was folded up as a peace crane; an oragami pattern I know well. My gravitation towards the peace crane lead me to unfolded the carefully creased crane assuming that it contained a particularly strong message, meant for a me which had finally matured.

As I uncreased the crane, I thought about how it was carefully placed in a book a friend of mine had given me long ago, none other than The Meaning of Life by the Dalai Lama. This note must be special indeed. What bit of wisdom lay await under so much toil of life, love, and peace?

As I carefully unwound the words, I noticed it wasn’t very long. I gazed upon the paper to find a date;  09/06/2002. I had just started my junior year in high school, a time when I’m sure I had many thoughts about the world which might differ from my present self, a self which is nearly a fully functional, working, adult. I began to think that this must be a poem. It must be a great poem which would give me insight to my thoughts of yesteryear. Possibly full of hope, possibly full of angst. I was looking forward to seeing what I thought was important and if I still found it important today – and if that were the case – to do justice to the youthful version of me and pursue those importancies with the entire financial freedom and independence I have only recently attained.

I unfolded the last fold, and noticed it was a numbered list. “Oh!” I excitedly pondered “this must be a list of things I must do, or goals that I have for my life. It must be a list of what I thought was truly important”

As I looked down the list, the very first line was curious;

1: walk

I began to realize the purpose of the note as I read down the list…

2: sit down

3: stand up

4: jump

5: door

6: table

7: window

8: jump point

9: desk

10: television

“No” I realized “this is just an in-class quiz.”

I carefully recreased the crane and placed it back home, to realize that this note says more about me, my state of mind, my attitude towards school, and my entire attitude towards life in general than any cognitively written note could ever say about me:

I was and am to this day the kid that folded his classwork up into a Peace Crane and stuffed it into The Meaning of Life; a book that he never actually read.