Its dead allright, but I'm back... and my ankles are so damn sessy that they work on the east slope as well, for the record. Here's the reader's digest version:
So, having had an around-town test day, I decided to give the new-to-me powerplant some highway miles, just to see if it would develop a rear main leak or something of the sort. I'm enjoying a beautiful drive in the La Garita range, when here (Wolf Creek pass just before the ski area)
BOOM, black cloud, oily spray, engine dies... I look under the hood to find a 3" hole in the block, driver's side at the #6 cylinder - threw a rod through the block (picture didn't come out, but I'll update when I pull it). No warning signs, no knock, no oil pressure issues -- my best guess is that #6 got oil starved when Mike had it inverted, just enough to eventually give up the ghost -- who knnows though...
So, it's 2:45pm, and I'm due in Pagosa Springs for a meeting at 5:30... AAA amazingly gets me a tow truck from Pagosa in less than an hour, and at 4pm, I'm at my hotel. Fate is smiling on me (I know, what an optimist to think so when I just threw a rod on the engine installed less than a week ago... I'm like that sometimes:confused1), in that the tow truck diver is a long time friend of my client's representative that I'm meeting in Pagosa, and upon finding that out, he lowers his estimate to get me towed back to CS today from $910 to $480... (ouch!) -- thanks, Frank for working the web on this end while I pimped myself on the other!
It gets better though, my client being a rancher has a flat bed, an F350, and a spare employee whom they offer to allow to drive me back to the springs today for FREE!! BUT..... by this morning it is supposedly snowing everywhere in Colorado at a very rapid pace (my wife informs me we already have 6" on the ground before I even get out of town -- what a fun tow this will be!) We start out at 9am, and the south side of Wolf Creek pass is not so good:
but lo and behold, once we get to the north side of the pass, we do not even see another drop of moisture, either on the road or in the air, until the northern part of Colorado Springs 6.5 hours later.:sunshine:
I'm home, I'm tired, and I'm apparently doing another engine swap next weekend. yeah.
Thanks for the support fellas, I appreciate all your good wishes and sympathy!