– turn the ethereal into your reality –

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

As many of you may know, I’ve been working on starting an eCommerce business selling waterproof bags and luggage. Just today, I listed the very first product for sale. I’m pretty excited about this. You can check it out here: www.WhenItPours.com

-Martin

My friend posted this picture on facebook:

And I got to wondering about how the US cities would overlay, so I spent the 5 minutes to create an overlay.  Here’s the result:

Being from Western Massachusetts, I most certainly say “Soda.”  Living in Southern California, I still say it.  :)

This explains why no one could ever agree on this while I was going to school at RIT in Rochester, NY, as it’s right on the line.  Other locations of note are St. Louis, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City… and where else?

So, what do YOU say?

—–

*Writing this post reminded me of a video I saw MANY years ago, in the early days of the Internet, before youtube. One of them, was a video of a guy drinking his first “soda pop” and I believe it was set to “Bitch” by the Rolling Stones. It may have been directed in a “Tarantino” style. It may have been called “pinecone.” My memory is surely questionable, but if any readers know what I’m talking about, please forward me along to the video as I couldn’t find it on youtube!

In December, 2009 I got two page-a-day calendars for 2010.

Today, November 11, 2010, they’re both still showing February 12th.  Why did I save them, and why do I feel guilty at the idea of throwing them away now?  Why do I feel obligated to use them?

When I packed them up almost exactly 9 months ago, I felt the need to save them.  When I was cleaning my desk out just a few hours ago it struck me that it would do a disservice to the people who gave them to me to throw them away.  Yes, I feel guilt at the idea of throwing them away, unfinished, before the end of the year.

But the truth is I don’t really like page-a-day calendars.  I think they represent gasping for air while in a job, situation, or just generally smothering life.  They supplement real experience, and real enjoyment for “good enough” by taking away just that little bit of mundane and giving a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how faint.  Or maybe they’re just kinda annoying.  Let us not forget the fact that I let them sit idle without a second thought for 3/4 of the year.  In fact, for those 3/4 of a year while I was actually living life I don’t think I gave them a second thought.

And here I am, debating whether I should throw them away, keep them, or go through every page I missed one by one.  The only reason I’m looking at them now is because I’m cleaning out the clutter from my life, starting with the material clutter.  Since I evidently don’t use them, and in some ways they cause me more stress than pleasure, it’s time to throw them away.

I apologize to those who gave them to me.  I value you in my life, but a page-a-day calendar just isn’t the right thing for me, at this time.  I do hope you’ll understand.  I don’t understand why I feel I need to apologize, but I do.  Thanks for the thought, but next time just give me hug or something.