Whack-a-Mole

Got a fair amount done in the garage today, even despite two visitors - Brian T and his son dropping off the engine hoist and Brian H on his way back from Alan's (not that I don't mind visitors!).

So, let's run down what I got done...

Went to Lowes and got new bolts for the exhaust manifold and plugs for the air manifold. Got the plugs installed, along with a new stud for the alternator bracket.

Then installed the rear main seal. Wanted to try the 2 liter bottle trick, but I didn't have one, so I used a cereal box instead. Worked slick as you please.

Next up was flushing out the block. Lots of brown yuck came out, so despite the old freeze plugs looking like new, I'm glad I pulled 'em. Once done that I put in the new plugs. and used the compressor to blow off the residual crap that was on the engine - leaves, sticks, dirt, etc.

Then I pulled the exhaust manifold out of the Evapo-Rust bath and washed it down.

Put that up to dry and set about changing out the u-joints. The whack-a-mole method of u-joint removal worked great for three of 'em, but the rear-most one doesn't have enough yoke to smack, so I pressed that one out. Snip, snap, their in and back on the truck.

The list is getting smaller...