jporter12

Yes, they were (still are) known for cylinder head sealing issues, and cracking as well. The problem that I have seen with the 2.2L (OHV) timing chains is more often the tensioner than the chain.

The brisket is pretty much ready, I'm keeping it on low heat to keep it warm for a while now. I pulled one of the corners off on accident, and had a taste, and I think it's going to be the best brisket I have done to date! On to the ribs in a couple hours!

It is unfortunate that sometimes we get into some big dollar amounts just to get a vehicle into a state that we can properly diagnose. I had a 2003 K-2500 plow truck come in the other day for a few issues. I went out to test drive it and pull it into the shop, and it wouldn't crank. They drove it to the shop, so this is a new problem. To quote a co-worker, "the starter looked like it had been on the bottom of the ocean" referring to the amount of corrosion on it, and the battery cable running to it. It was several hundred dollars just to get the truck running to where I could check it out for the other concerns, which were power steering, brakes, and fuel gauge. The customer must have been very understanding, because the bought the starter and battery cable, then we called them back and they bought a steering shaft, power steering pump, and front wheel speed sensors. All of the above issues are mostly due to the fact that it's a plow truck, causing the corrosion.

Project "Big Smoke" is under way. We're in phase 2 right now. Well, it might not be a big smoke for some, but for me it is! For phase 1, I have 20 pounds of pork butt (already done, and pulled), phase 2 is a 9 pound brisket (in the smoker now, started around 3:30 AM) and phase 3 is 6 racks of ribs. Total of about 45 pounds of meat for a get-together that we're having here this evening.

That's the device that the NSA installed in your head. Ok, it may have been the aliens. Aliens... NSA... Not much difference!

Jasper's are pretty good. The warranty cannot be beat! I've seen a few problems with engines and transmissions from them (not a high rate by any means) and they are really awesome about taking care of things. The other thing to look into is an engine from GM. Same warranty, and possibly cheaper than the Jasper. They're also covered by any GM dealer, and I believe the original can be installed by anyone to have the warranty (be sure to check with a GM dealer parts dept, first.)

Form the Chevy shop: I can't remember the last time I saw a timing chain let go on one of those engines, or other variants of it. What I HAVE seen is broken camshafts in them. Not a high failure rate, but more often than seeing broken timing chains. I'm not doubting the chain failed, I AM questioning the root cause of the failure.

I love threads like this, that show the community that Ohio Riders is! Similarly related story, for the helpless part: A few years ago, we found out that my now 4 year old son has cerebral palsy. That in itself gives us a bit of a helpless feeling at times, although he functions pretty much as a normal kid of his age. Anyway, upon being officially "diagnosed" we were scheduled for all sorts of tests. Most of them were pretty much just interacting with him, measuring angles of motion in some of his joints, etc. The first test they did was a bunch of blood work. I forget how many vials they had to draw, but it was a bunch! That was awful for me. the next one was the really trying one, they wanted an MRI of his brain. For a child, they have to put them out, and that scared the crap out of me. I'll never forget that, sitting in the MRI room with him while it's running, scared about a 2 year old being under general anesthesia. I was SO relieved when they finished, and as soon as they started him out of the machine, he started to wake! The fun part came over the next hour or so, with him wanting to walk, but being still effected by the anesthetic! The other scary part was that my wife was pregnant at the time, so we had all sorts of questions running through our heads, could this same thing happen to this next child? Also, I had a situation where I almost punched a doctor. If I had still been in his office when I realized what he said (calling us, and their physical therapist liars!) I probably would have at least been yelling. I guess I should be thankful for the car problems, and other things that were going on that day, that they kept me distracted enough to not say or do anything! We have not returned to that Doctor, and now drive to Cincinnati 2-4 times a year for my son's CP related care. (I guess I needed to vent that out since it all came back to me after reading all of this! LOL)

There is nothing more frustrating than having something wrong with your child that you can do nothing about!

Congrats! Parenthood is awesome! As others have said, enjoy him now! My son turned 4 back in Feb, and our youngest 2 in June. She has grown up so much since her second birthday. it's amazing! There (many) times that I wish they both were still little and wanting to just be held and fed a bottle! Now, just wait a couple years until you're fighting with him to get him to eat dinner.

I don't think you'll have to worry much about Pauly "needing" the cops. Seriously. I believe what he says here:

Must resist the urge to buy another knife... Seriously, I have 4 Kershaw's, a S&W, and a CRKT. All have seen extensive use except the CRKT, which is sitting here on my desk, bought from a previous Woot deal.

A taser is a "Less Than Lethal" device... Usually.

We need to ban spray paint, too. If this kid wouldn't have had the spray paint he wouldn't have vandalizing that building, which is what got him killed...dead.

That's it. It's time to ban all tazers.

I have yet to see an XDS in person. I'm very happy with my XD!

We've been using some branded Adenna at work that are doing pretty well, but they're not as easy to reuse as the diamond grips are. Turning them inside out is a PITA.

Quick? That's not very quick for a thread to go to shit on ORDN.

That's been an ongoing issue on that stretch of road over the years.

Microflex gloves are pretty much the best out there!

Ok, here's my desktop specs: AMD FX 8120 Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 8 GB Kingston Ram Geforce 8800GT OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD for the OS and a few programs 2TB Hitachi Data/storage drive 320 GB WD "Backup" Drive (Music, pictures) LG DVD burner Antec Sonata 2 case Antec Earthwatts 500 Power Supply Some external drives, flash drives, MS media keyboard, Logitech wireless trackball, Asus RT-13u router with DD-Wrt on it, etc... Dual 22 inch Acer AL2223W monitors (until one died recently) Windows 7 Chrome Presonus Studio One DAW MS Office 2010 (Or something like that)

Please don't let me know that you have anything in 120-260 GB range for a really good price. I don't know that I can resist buying one, since the 60gb OCZ Agility 3 is almost full, using it as my OS and a few applications drive. I've even move Office to the D: drive recently!

And still get an external for backup, or at least backup to another computer, if you have one. For example: I have all of the photos that I've taken over the years on at least 2 computers, with the exception of the the most recent ones, which reminds me that I need to copy the newest ones over.

For a DJ gig, you really want the files on the laptop's hard drive. That is the most reliable option for a gig. What you need is a backup solution, which pretty much any portable hard drive would be sufficient. From what I remember of DJ software, it works much faster if you have all the files indexed in the program, and for that you would want the files to be local on the laptops hard drive so that it doesn't mess with the indexes when you use the laptop without the portable connected.