The Head Gasket Chronicles Day 4

Back at it today. 

And, not a work day, so I can hopefully make some real progress.

I got my morning coffee, shook off the antipathy for the project, and dug back in.

Here we go.

Day:

What am I going to do on day 6? Too cold to take off my shoes.

The state of affairs at the start of the day.

Depressingly similar to the day 1 engine.

But I have a bunch of wires hanging out to show for it!

 So, I got started. I fought with the fan shroud some more. Whatever evil Nazi bastard designed those plastic rivets should be forced to listen to his favorite band played as elevator music for all eternity. I couldn't get enough room to do anything. 

Frustrated and wasting time, I switched tactics. Let's take something else out.

I freed Allison from her wiring harness

I'm guessing this is an electronic brain for the transmission.

I pulled out an easily accessible wire and labeled it. I had to get my confidence back.

 It ran between the alternator and the grounding bracket. Then, I thought I might just have better luck from underneath.  So I crawled under and pulled off the splash pan. I think that is a 12mm socket. That was my tool for much of the day.

Gloves for the knuckle busting moments.

Then, we got a delivery.

We are getting our wood-burning stove installed this week and thought it would be a good idea to get some wood to burn. 

We had a cord delivered which we then had to load into our semi-truck trailer/woodshed.

That's a ton of wood.  Or maybe a little more. He said it weighed in around 2400 lbs.

Time for lunch.

I really didn't want to go back to working on the truck. Wouldn't it be nice to just take the rest of the day off and watch some football?

Of course, I don't really have a TV. And the truck won't fix itself.

Sigh.

Back to work.

I still couldn't free the fan shroud, so I decided to pull out something big, something that would make me feel better.

I chose...

That big hose-thing!

Of course it attaches way down there in that hard-to-reach location.

Nothing was going to be easy.  I just wasn't getting this.  Something needed to give.

So, I took off the easy upper radiator hose and labeled it.

Then, I started eyeballing how to get the bigger one out. 

I found this hose clamp type thing and loosened it to no avail.

I got the top half free, but not the bottom.

Frustration was reaching a boiling point.  Of course, that's when learning happens. 

I thought, my problem was access.  So I looked for something easy to access.  I found this bracket on the top of the engine for the oil-filler tube.  Came right off.

Easy to access, just a couple of bolts.

Magnetic parts holder free from Harbor Freight.

Bolts stored in parts bin.

Step written down, success!

We can build on this. 

I started looking around for another easy target. I spotted the fuel filter.

Two bolts, two hoses, a sensor wire or two.

Note where the wires run.  Pointy fingers.

Note the connections for the water sensor

Label all parts taken out, log the step into the notebook. 

Progress.

It seems I need to pull things out of the way to access the other things.  Hmmm..

Let's try something a little bigger.

I pulled out the wheel well on the driver's side so I could access the bottom of the electronic module that was attached to the battery tray. It looked important, like it wouldn't like being bathed in water and coolant when I disconnect the upper radiator hose on that side.  I forgot to take a picture.

Driver's side front tire view.  Tackling the object on the top left. 

Pulled out this thing. Took it away from liquid exposure.

 I think this is the moment learning occurred.  The whole job here is removing things to get better access to remove things. 

Anything that is impeding access to another part that needs removing has to go.

Fine.  It comes out.

Starting, now on the passenger side, with the tray that holds the airbox.

Fan shroud and downpipe taunting me.

 Fine then.  Passenger wheel well has to go. 

More of those Nazi inspired plastic rivets

Now, that's better. Now I can see things

That doesn't look good.  There shouldn't be oil there.

Ewww, or there. Perhaps we found our problems.  

With improved access, I got the downpipe off.

and then, I had access to those dasterdly plastic rivets. They come right off when you can reach them.

 I pulled off the fan shroud, finally, and saw something weird down by the bottom of the radiator.

Is that?

Yep, dead mouse.  Happy Halloweeen everybody.

That was all I managed. The next three days are work days, so limited progress expected. 

Enjoy the holiday folks.