I am a self described “Jack of All Trades, Master of None”. How does one become part of this nation? My observation has been that there are generally two paths to “Jack”. 1) Be very smart and well studied and carefully try many things, having the resources to continue and succeed. 2) Be very desperate (or needy), having few resources, particularly money, imprudent to the dangers of failure, fail alot, learn from experience, and at last succeed. I am of the latter tribe. In the first tribe are those who have confidence that it will work because of their circumstances. In the second tribe are those who against all odds need it to work or “it ain’t happenin'”.
There is, perhaps, a third tribe, but they are small. They are masters of many trades, but those guys retire early to make YouTube videos with over a million subscribers.
My modest car had a modest oil leak, the kind you might ignore because you only need add a half a quart of oil between oil changes, unless you were at highway speeds for extended times (ring blow by likely as not due to mileage above 200K). I wanted to stop the leak because it was dripping on the exhaust manifold, burning, and smelling. That meant that my wife and I could not open the windows on a cool evening or dash through the mountains because the fumes made us feel sick. It also meant that the leak was hard to find because there was very little evidence.
My son who is training to be a mechanic found the leak that I could not. It turns out that the Rocker Arm Cover Gasket includes rings around the spark plugs. The leak was covered and the oil came out elsewhere in small amounts where it was burnt. Oh, what small problems cause such consternation.
- A fun drive, decent to low power, dependable, hoping for another 50 to 100K.
- Simpler approach than most modern compact car engines.
- Clean engine for 207,000 miles!
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The offending tale-tale indicator of leakage
Over the years I have had many successes at mechanicing, carpentering, plumbing (oh, I hate that one), electricianing, tree felling, and the like. I ask lots of questions of people who know how, proceed carefully, beg, borrow, or buy tools as I can, and get help when I get stuck. I have also failed at times, needing costly bailout. But the need of this tribe member not to fail has compelled me to many paths, however so circuitous, to multiple successes. Because of properties of my personality (flaws?) I am not sure I would want to be so provided for that I had not learned all of these neat skills (unless it avoided plumbing, scraping paint, or completing a project after multiple nights after midnight). Therefore, I am thankful to God for the many, many times He has enabled me to provide for my family by a frugal rework of equipment I already possess. I could learn another way of just “Honey, call the plumber,” but that is not the path God has most usually called me to and I am content. I hope this present fix is just works at length.
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