Still Kicking.....

[ffuries]

Steve aka SA1911a1 reached out to me via email checking on me, as I haven't posted in a while. Just checked apparently I've been MIA since 24 Jan, and I admit 2 months is a long time for me to be silent, and not check in.

So here's my check in.

Yeap, still kicking, although a lot slower. Been under the weather, plus still trying to get the GERD under control, and the meds dosage dialed in. Can't do a damn thing after I eat or the acid reflux hits me like a sledge hammer.

Don't sleep worth a damn lately. Normally still awake at 0500/0600 tossing and turning, only to finally fall asleep and sleep till 1300. 

I've had a few Afib incidents since August, ended up with two Cardio Echos back in Jan/Feb one normal, one with contrast dye. Didn't say much other that the doc saw something and ordered the second one with the dye. 

Not testing positive for COVID, but I've been sick a couple times since Dec, flu like symptoms bad enough to lay me up for a week or so and to wish I was dead. 

Other than that we found out our middle child (32) and his girlfriend are expecting. I'm not too happy with it, as his GF just rubs me wrong with her clinging, separation issues, the way she tracks his every move, etc. But we can't live their lives for them.

This will make our 8th grandchild, so far there is 6 granddaughters and 1 grandson, and 1 unknown.

What else is new....

The Beast (2006 Expedition) went in for the plugs as it was misfiring on one cylinder. There was paperwork (Threw it away after I documented the needed stuff) showing the truck went in and had the plugs changed about 12,000 miles before we bought it, add another 10,000 since we got it so that would be about 22,000 miles on the plugs.

I honestly believe the plugs pulled by our shop were the frigging factory plugs and the other shop charged the previous owner for work not done. I can't fantom these plugs having only 22,000 or so miles on them. That was a nice $1,050.00 maintenence bill, but she runs like scalded ape now, and CINC Household is gonna get a ticket if she isn't careful.

[Darryl]

Such odd looking plugs. I have to admit I haven't workoned on any thing new in a while now but, those are odd.

I had a company Chevy PU that one day wouldn't keep running in the morning to work. When we took it in, they told us that those were the original plugs. 182,000 plus miles! Got my moneys worth out of those!

Since I retired, I bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee (2019). It doesn't need plugs and I doubt it will in my life time. Four year old now and has 4,600 miles on it.

Darryl

[ffuries]

Such odd looking plugs. I have to admit I haven't workoned on any thing new in a while now but, those are odd.

I had a company Chevy PU that one day wouldn't keep running in the morning to work. When we took it in, they told us that those were the original plugs. 182,000 plus miles! Got my moneys worth out of those!

Since I retired, I bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee (2019). It doesn't need plugs and I doubt it will in my life time. Four year old now and has 4,600 miles on it.

Darryl

They are the crappy two piece plugs that Ford used for a few years and they are known for breaking during a spark plug change making the job even more expensive.

Link to an article on them, oh and some pictures showing how/where they separate.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1507- ... plugs/amp/

[Darryl]

I was in charge of the fleet for our company. We had about 6 of those Ford "Triton" big block engines in about 20 service trucks.
Those damn things were always blowing a exhaust gaskets or spitting out plugs. One of then stripped the threads on the plug.
We dumped them pretty fast and went to diesels.
But, I had never seen a plug from one till just now. Almost look like the two piece plugs they used in the old "hit and miss" engines originally. It was to make cleaning them up easier.
We found out how to stop the exhaust gaskets from blowing. We machined the exhaust manifold surface and mounted the manifold on without a gasket. They found out it worked pretty good.

Are they the same ones that had an individual coil for each plug mounted over the top of erach plug? Brilliant, I wonder who came up with that crap of an idea? Seemed like every time you worked on it that it needed a new coil.

Darryl

[ffuries]

I was in charge of the fleet for our company. We had about 6 of those Ford "Triton" big block engines in about 20 service trucks.
Those damn things were always blowing a exhaust gaskets or spitting out plugs. One of then stripped the threads on the plug.
We dumped them pretty fast and went to diesels.
But, I had never seen a plug from one till just now. Almost look like the two piece plugs they used in the old "hit and miss" engines originally. It was to make cleaning them up easier.
We found out how to stop the exhaust gaskets from blowing. We machined the exhaust manifold surface and mounted the manifold on without a gasket. They found out it worked pretty good.

Are they the same ones that had an individual coil for each plug mounted over the top of erach plug? Brilliant, I wonder who came up with that crap of an idea? Seemed like every time you worked on it that it needed a new coil.

Darryl

Yeap the same Triton 5.4-liter, 300-horsepower, V-8, with the Coil Over Plug, and known for ejecting plugs. Expensive engine to work on more so when something breaks, which is quite often.

Picture of the COPS.

[steelbuttplate]

Those have to be factory plugs . 22,000 they would still look new. Just before I sold my Nissan Frontier two years ago, I changed the plugs in it. 21 year old factory plugs ( I bought the truck new) and 145,000 miles on them, still cooking.

[Junk Yard Dog]

They had a lot of teething problems with the triton series engines when they first came out with them. By 98-99 the blowing plugs issue seemed to get better. I have the V10 in my '99 Fleetwood Bounder, it's never blown a plug, but it's only got 30,000 on it. I don't mess with this sort of modern crap, I would prefer a big block Chrysler or Chevy in there, big block Ford only if it was one of the early ones. Then I would have to put up with one of the crap built earlier RV's with lots of cheap wood in it's construction. I remember seeing a lot of 5.4's in the early years coming in with head gasket issues, knocking because they hydralocked. Same issue more than once with the earlier 4.3's , a problem later corrected because we started seeing taxi's and airport town cars with 500,000+ and still running. Still kicking even if there is an issue or two is better than the alternative. Can't help with the potential shit relative problem, I had enough of my own, all gone now. Lived, got old, sick, and died without any assistance from me, mostly due to my self control getting the better of me.