Truckery

 

The Old Offender

Keen-eyed readers, all four of you, might remember that the Compound's motor pool took a serious hit when a 2018 F150 went badly wrong on its way to Dallas for Thanksgiving. No joke, the malfeasant rig juddered and quaked on I35's fast lane into the 'sprawl. Pull off the road, LSP, park up at a sketchy Motel 6 and... the 5.0L V8 beast wouldn't restart.

Long story short, the Waxahachie Ford House wanted to charge a whopping Merry Christmas 16k to swap out a busted long block. Huh. No. Tow the broken offender back to base and hand it over to local mechs. They duly turned up and ran a diagnostic, hoping that 1. There was an easily fixable problem, like a bad fuel pump control module, or 2. The old engine was salvageable.

Wretched Malfeasant - There's a Story Here

No to 1 and 2. A rocker had busted and fallen into the body of the engine, the timing chain had snapped and catastrophic failure ensued. Not unlike the Church of England, when you think on it. Solution? Pull out the old engine via tractor and chains, drop a new/used one in. And that's exactly what happened.

Everything back together, we took the truck for a test drive through the sylvan boulevards of pleasantly sunny rural Texas and, lo and behold, the beast purred along with its newly installed engine, which came from a vehicle with 77k on the clock. So it's a young engine, let's see how it pans out in the New Year.

Skulduggery

Ah, but LSP, I hear you think, trenchantly, what happened to the RAPTOR? Good question, and here's the answer. If this year of our Lord, 2025 A.D., comes in golden, then a jolly old Raptor's on the cards and a Sergeant can have the refurbed One Fiddy. That's one timeline, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Cheers,

LSP

O Sapientia

 

Typical Truckery

O Sapientia, O Wisdom, teach us the way. The way being discernment viz a 2018 F150 XL 4x4 V8 5.0 engine. The Waxahachie Ford house "recommended" a new long block, stating that cylinders 5, 6 and 8 were losing compression. Waxahachie stated on the phone that the "block was cracked."

OK, if so, get a new motor or a new truck. But here's the thing. Local mechs have swarmed around and don't see any evidence of a cracked block, of catastrophic engine failure. They do feel there's an oil issue, apparently a thing on 2018-20 F 150 5.0 engines. So Thursday beckons a new diagnosis to find out the root of the problem. 

Kitchen Glocks. Go On, Shoot The Food

Let's see how that goes, it'd be a relief to not have to buy a new, reman, refurb engine; they're pretty pricey. Seriously, new ones come in at around 10k, refurb at 7 and reman at 4. Cheaper than a new new rig, but still. Stand by for further news in this exciting and developing story.

In the meanwhile, here's the O Sapentia antiphon (sing it this evening if you can before and after the Magnificat at Vespers/Evening Prayer):

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,

attingens a fine usque ad finem,

fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:

veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,

reaching from one end to the other mightily,

and sweetly ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Ave,

LSP