garagerog

This is for those over 70 years of age contemplating joint replacement surgery involving general anesthesia. Even some 55 yrs. ago when I took my pharmacology class the dangers of developing dementia in the elderly that had general anesthesia were beginning to be recognized. Over the years there has been some refinement in the cautionary warnings, avoid general anesthesia if possible if you've had close to 10 priors, especially over the age of 70 and/or a family history of dementia. I'm not including the twilight anesthesia induced by propofol often used in cytoscopies or colonscopies. Seriously think about seeing a neurologist and undergo cognitive testing before proceeding if any of those criteria apply to you. Spinal anesthesia may be an option in some cases. I'm in the above camp and although I could use a new right knee, I get fidgety according to a prior orthopedic surgeon when the bone saw spools up or maybe it was the smell of saw blade meeting bone, anyhow I may have one general anesthesia left in me which I will pocket for now and I'm choosing mind over mobility, anyway where did I leave my damn cane!

First time it really happened to me was when I was 69 yrs old and I was called "Old Timer" by a complete stranger. Then in rapid succession came the aforementioned "Old Man" and my favorite of all "Pops".

To make things simple, general rule of thumb is not to exceed 80% percent of manufacturer's stated max towing weight to avoid white knuckle driving and that is with a WDH.

Up until now Nascar drivers have done a pretty good job recently of self-policing their health before buckling in, e.g. Alex Bowman stepped out of the 48 car for several weeks due to vertigo issues. If Kyle would have stepped back from racing after experiencing symtoms at Watkins Glen and sought aggressive medical treatment he may still be with us today, I guess one could say it was his competitive spirit that was his true cause of death. On a different note, good luck to Katherine Legge, the Englishwoman attempting the "Double" tomorrow. She's more of a road racer rather than a circle track driver. She has attemped some NASCAR road races with rather dismal results as I don't think she's all that used to those heavy cars. I admire her grit and fortitude for even attempting such an arduous task, you go girl!

Local Chev dealer sent me an e-mail with their featured vehicles. Every single one of them was an $80K+ p/u truck and sure enough when we drove by there this am on the way to an early am med procedure for my wife, same ones were lined up front row. I would dehydrate so I wouldn't have to pee for a good while, buy a base Stingray C8, drive the snot out of it and have some fun before they had to use an engine hoist to get my old bones out. I'd rather take the depreciation on a "lightly used" life long dream than pay $80k for a gussied up utilitarian vehicle.

Anybody remember tecumseh small gas engines? Although the company is still in business it's all in totally different product lines, maybe they couldn't compete with B & S and later Honda. Had an old mower at the ranch that had a tecumseh engine, had a rather interesting induction system. The carb air filter drew air from under the engine shroud so the rotating screen above the fan kept out the big stuff and my intial impression was kewl it's mini supercharged! Upon further reflection I'm sure that very hot engine air that it drew more than negated any mini "supercharger" effect. I wonder if tecumseh did dyno testing? Doubt it. Sold my 11 yr. old JD D130 last week, never had any trouble with the B&S 22 hp V-twin, but it didn't have many hours on it. I have no doubt that the V-twin would have outlasted 2 Hydrostatic transmissions however. Small yard, gave up the push mower when I started feeling it in my lower back, a few years later my back made weed whacking and edging a 2 day project so I said the hell with it all, I can afford the $70 every 2 weeks my neighbors son who has a landscaping business charges me, especially with the cash money after waving the Johnny Popper goodbye.

Not to mention that in Y2K not many gas stations had back-up generators of their own, so once your gas was gone then what? In rural areas 100 yr. old windmills were better than gold, even to the point of outright theft of them.

A common affliction among husbands everywhere Donstar, here's my theory and breakdown: 50% of the time wifes expect their husbands to hear what they say when they're in the kitchen or laundry room when you're actually in the garage or can on the other side of the house, 30% of the time they're actually talking to a pet, 15% they're mumbling under their breath about some nonsense (don't mention cognitive testing unless you want Lorena Bobbitt nightmares) and 5% of the time they might have something actually worthwhile to say facing you and within normal hearing distance.

All good examples of average mileage Atlas, maybe I was alluding to vehicles that last into the realm of hyper-mileage. Now beat this one: last Friday I sold my Johnny popper D130 lawn tractor to a guy that pulled up with cash in hand and trailer in tow. His tow rig was an old chevy p/u that badly needed a new paint job as that old black paint was beyond long in the tooth. He proudly says to me, "I have 468k miles on that 4.3." As my jaw was dropping and not knowing what really to say next, I mumble something about the 4.3 being a good motor and then I ask him how many miles he got out of his transmission. One rebuild at about 260K he says. Obviously a guy that cares more about his p/u's maintenance than it's looks, in another words I guess a guy that uses a truck for it's intended purpose. I never got a good look at his p/u's grill area, so I couldn't tell you if it was from the carb or spider injection era, I would guess carb tho. So Grumpy, this is for you: the bar has been set, will Pepper make it to 468K miles with GDI, even with your beyond meticulous maintenance and pampering?

2010 is when GM adopted GDI and since this is a GM forum that's my baseline, 16 years. Tell me do you think that the average owner takes a sniff of the dipstick let alone get a UOA to check for a leaky injector or HPFP? I think not. As an old farmboy I believe that for engine longevity DI belongs on diesels only and I'm sticking with that premise. BTW, I see you drive a diesel p/u, so feel free to share when you have skin in the game.

And this my friends on why GDI has a multitude of wins for the manufacturers. Keeps the EPA happy with emissions and mileage and keeps the average consumers coming back for new vehicles after fuel dilution has killed their engines by the 100K mark. The rust free '05 K1500 that I inherited from by Dad will probably outlast me also. Plenty of gitty-up with the L33 5.3 MPI which has some factory goodies like LS6 heads for starters. Impressive hp for the era, but a little lacking in tq, so not a heavy towing machine.

$4.20 for 87 at top tier stations, dime cheaper at non-top tier, Goose Creek SC

I'd be willing to bet you wouldn't lose much in the mpg dept. with a 3.42 ratio, if you can't find a good used one with the G80 locker and you know somebody with a stick welder, you could always do a Lincoln Locker, lol. I know you probably don't drive Pepper in the snow, but for those that don't know with a nose heavy 2wd you want an open differential on packed snowy roads, a posi-trac or locking rear end will slide your ass into the ditch quicker than snot on anything other than a dead flat road, even the crown on a highway will do it.

What is your rear differential gear ratio Grumpy? I've seen instances of people with low numerical differentials actually gain mpg by going up a notch. Or you could go crazy with the gear ratio, get an E-85 tune and go out and smoke some V-8's!

I sure hope you have a mis-placed decimal point, if not it's time to get a mule or horse and wagon.

Wondering if the manufacturers aren't reconsidering going back to flex-fuel vehicles? First one that does might see a substantial bump in sales, at least in the I states. Maybe the corn belt isn't a big enough market?

Only us old geezers remember the long lines, every other day fill-ups, and the wasted time of the early '70's, and yes the increase in price too. Not worth my time to research the price increase in percentage terms as I really don't care as much about price as availability, thankfully we're not dependent on the middle east for our domestic supply any longer. I was reminded of this a few years ago when we were almost stranded in Maggie Valley,NC when Russian hackers shut down a pipeline from the Gulf that supplied a good part of the SE with refined product. All flow valving had been converted to electro-mechanical switching controlled by computers and all the old geezers that had a clue how to bypass the new valving had retired, so the pipeline company payed the ransomware hackers. There are only 4 gas stations in Maggie Valley, tourist town with mainly hostelry, restaurants, and curio shops. Fortunately for us the owner of our Air BNB had just seen a tanker at a Citgo station, so we hustled on down there and filled up. You hear lip service about how our critical infrastructure is vulnerable to foreign adversaries, but the solution seems to be all about "hardening" our critical systems against computer attack. It would be expensive to install and train the personel but I believe we need MECHANICAL redundant systems at all our critical points, a mechanical switch that could actually be thrown by a human at a substation or an actual valve that could be turned by a human at our domestic water supply station, but that's just me, since I'm old my only worries are for my children and grandchildren and their world.

My thinking on the tariffs w/o getting into the politics of it has to do with the refunds. How much of the refunds are going to trickle down to the end consumer, pracitically none would be my guess with most going to the companies bottom line. It would be great if GM did bring back those 3 vehicles mentioned. I'm to old to get a Camaro, ever since I was a kid I've wanted a Corvette but family needs negated that, too old and arthritic for one of those also, besides the chief cook and bottle washer threatens me with divorice even if I mention seeing a beautiful one on the road. Off topic here but if GM doesn't bring back the Camaro I wonder how long NASCAR will keep going against it's own rules, used to be a manufacturer had to make at least 500 cars of a particular model for sale to the general public yearly before they could race in NASCAR, hence so few Dodge Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds, especially the Daytona. Rumor has it that NASCAR is rethinking going to E-Racing and maybe going to CUV's in the O'Reilly's mid-series. Might sound strange but at least that would get back to the mantra win on Sunday (Sat. for O'Reilly's) sell on Monday.

Sweet! Looks Penske NASCAR ready

Stories like this make me long for the days of Sears and their line of Craftsman tools. Not high end but quality tools with a guaranteed replacement policy. Guess I could never justify the cost of a dedicated set of impact sockets as for example on lug nuts I'd get 95% there with an impact gun and then hand torque to finish. Once I was overzealous or just not paying close enough attention and over torqued and sure enough split a chrome Craftsman socket. Sears replaced it, no questions asked. One of the most used tools that I have over the decades is a little 4" Craftsman crescent wrench that my uncle gave to me as a birthday gift when I was a relative tyke, fits in your pocket taking up no more room than a set of keys. I've always coveted the high end tools like SK and Snap-On that professional mechanics use, but hate spending money on myself. I decided when my son was a teenager I wanted him to get off on the right foot tool wise so I ponied up and got him a nice variety of SK tools as a Christmas gift, they have served him well to this day in the harsh environment of Alaska where he has chosen to reside.

Thought I'd better update what I've gleaned over the last several months about the RPO V92 towing option on the 3.6 Blazers as related to HD cooling. In addition to larger electric fan blades there is an auxiliary trans cooler located in the "chin" of the grill below the radiator and a/c condenser with it's own dedicated air flow. Also an oil cooler unlike any I've ever seen, coolant is T'd off the lower radiator hose and routed thru a small heat ex-changer with oil apparently entering and exiting from some gallery in the block.

Back in 1984 I factory ordered a HD 3/4 ton K20 camper special. Phase out era of leaded gas so it had a 8600 gross rating so it could run regular leaded gas. Ordered with every HD option available,quad front shocks, dual batteries, even an air cleaner pre-cleaner which was available for awhile in the NW with Mt. St. Helens a not so distant memory. Camper was a 9'3" Conestoga 3000 lb dry weight which gave me about 10 mpg while hauling it. Filling both saddle tanks at once at a gas station was a bit of a PITA, especially with a camper aboard so I set about a solution. Ordered some neoprene fuel hose and used copper plumbing T's to link the tanks together. Stupid me I forgot about the vent hoses, was reminded of that when I first tried filling both tanks from one side and that displaced air needs to go somewhere. Once I linked the vent hoses together the system worked beautifully and I could fill both tanks at once from either side I chose so I had about a 350-380 mile range while hauling the camper. Sure made things easy at the gas station without jockeying around. FIL had a '17 ski boat for the grandkids, when towing that and hauling the camper I got about 8.5 mpg. If I could have found a spare tire tank I would have installed that too and located that heavy ass spare tire to the cargo area of the camper with a come-a-long. Forgot to add, 350 with mechanical fuel pump actuated by a pushrod off the cam, HD manual transmission with compound low first gear so you normally started off in 2nd gear, 3.73 gears.

They should have kept the 3.6 V-6.