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

This & That

 

Here's the deal. An ebullient Sergeant's walked through the door, a couple of Churchmen have dropped a new/used 5.0L V8 motor into the rig and all is well, so far. And guess what, the new engine even works, and didn't throw any codes when fired up. Yes, it married the transmission.

That in mind, hope you all had a beautiful Sunday, worshiping God who is Word from Word, Light from Light, very God of very God. Yes, ET INCARNATUS EST. And we beheld his glory, full of grace and truth. Is there, per St. John's Prologue, a more majestic piece of Scripture? I doubt it.

Love & Peace,

LSP