Granted, he and his wife had a pretty busy weekend and they were kinda burned out.
So anyways, the Red Sox had a nice win last night, beating the Mariners 8-3 and taking game one of the three-game series.
It was Bello's first game and he started out like crap but after two innings, he got his act together and was unhittable. He faced 22 batter over five innings, giving up four hits, one earned run, three walks and struck out three. Not a great line but not bad for his first outing of the season.
With that win, the Red Sox are now in second place in the ALEast, half a game behind the New York Aaron Judges.
Newcomb gets the start tonight. First pitch is at 6:45.
I am once again in "fix my machinery" mode.
Over the last three years, my snowblower, "The Beast", has had an issue. It runs strong for about 15 minutes and then suddenly starts losing power until it finally stalls.
I had the thought that it was lack of fuel so I replaced the carburetor but that didn't fix the problem.
Then I had the thought that maybe the gas cap wasn't allowing air into the tank and a vacuum was being created but when I loosened the cap, the problem still arose.
It was at this point that my brain said, "You know what this is, you just don't feel like fixing it. You know this is a valve issue."
So today I bit the bullet and took some tins & the carburetor off the engine. Then I took the valve cover off and set the cylinder to top dead center. Then I tried to slide a .004 feeler gauge in between the valve stem and the lifter.
Not only could I not fit the .004 gauge in the gap, there was no gap at all. I couldn't even fit a .001 gauge between them.
So I dismantled the remainder of the tins, the exhaust and the pull start. Then I marked and removed the head cap bolts. Trust me, you want to mark them so you put them back on correctly.
I gave the head cap a smack with a piece of wood and it came right off. Unfortunately the head gasket tore.
Once the cap was off, I put two fingers on top of the intake valve and tried to turn it. Then I put two fingers on top the exhaust valve and tried to turn it. Both valves turned with no problem. For the record, valves should not turn when they are fully seated.
Tomorrow I will remove the spring caps from the valve stem so I can remove the springs and pull out the valves. Then I will very, very carefully try to grind just enough off the stem to give the required .004 clearance. It is this step that make me nervous because if I grind off too much, I'm screwed. This machine is so old that I don't know if I can buy replacement valves.
Once I get the right clearance, I'll put a little valve lapping compound on the valves and lap them to fit the seats. I'm sure that over the years the gap between the valve and the seat has caused carbon build up on them.
After I put this thing back together, I'm hoping it works just fine. This is a great snowblower and to replace it with something similar would cost me a little more then $2,300. As a matter of fact, I don't think I could replace this machine. It's a 10½ horsepower monster that cuts through pretty much anything, hence the name "The Beast"
So far I'm into it about $20 for a new head gasket and some lapping compound.
Here are some links:
- Attention Cardinals: When you are picking your pope, you should keep in mind that the catholic church used to have a sense of humor.
- Hegseth is not alone. Little Marco is another guy who is in over his head.
- Attention researchers: You should be focused on important stuff like this instead of this worthless crap.
- Finally! An Easter hunt for adults.
- Yes, alcohol was involved.
- Key line in this story: "...on average, between 12 to 15 years old."
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