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Well, I think I drained my supply of good karma last Thursday and finished it off completely today. I'll have to be on my "Best Behavior" for quite a while now. Here's the story:
Some of you may recall that I race sailboats in N.O. and across the Gulf Coast. Last Thursday I was part of the Race Committee for the International L-16 Championships held on Lake Pontchatrain when I was incredibly careless, stupid, and LUCKY in the same nanosecond. While using my VERY sharp Leatherman to cut a plastic ziptie I managed to cut myself pretty damn badly... 5 stitches to close an 1-1/2" x 3/4" laceration on my forearm. The Doc said that due to the location of the cut a variance of 1/4" would have meant arterial damage, venal damage, or nervous damage! Holy Cow, thank you Lord for NO PERMANENT DAMAGE! Just a funny story to tell about my visit to the doctor's office (the Doc was going to "butterfly and Dermabond" me up - his wife, the office manager and an RN - said to him (with the tone of voice a wife uses to chastise an errant husband) "Kent, you can't use GLUE! You gotta stitch that boy up! You know he races and look how it opens and closes when he rotates his arm. For Pete's sake, glue... Get the suture kit, I'll help you. Meanwhile, very quietly, Kent is saying "yes, Dear" as he fishes out a suture kit! Ah, sailor's, their sailing doctors, and their wives).
Today, I learned how strongly built and well designed Saab's 2.3 NA engine is. While I was driving through a 6" deep puddle (more like a mini-lake) that always forms during a heavy rainstorm, an SUV coming towards me and pushing a major bow wave managed to choke off my Saab's engine air supply and the engine died. Upon coming to a stop and waiting serveral moments, I re-started the engine. Chugga Chugga nothing. Try again... Chugga THUNK! Oops, THAT didn't sound good. After being pushed over to the side of the road, the first thing I checked was the air filter. It was soaked, with water filling the base of the filter chamber... Uh oh. Check the oil... doesn't look bad, but...... After waiting a while for the engine to cool, I removed the plug cover and all four plugs. Flashlight. Yep, water in # 2 cylinder... sinking feeling now. Try to "spin" the engine. HOORAY! no adverse noises, just a smooth as silk spin. Now for crunch time. Replace plugs 1, 3, & 4 and start up (I figured leaving # 2 open would allow any water left in that cylinder to blow out. So far, so Good. Replace plug # 2. Start up. Engine's running, rough as hell, but running. Clean, smooth, and steady at 1,500 RPM, rough enough to die if left to idle. Wait 15 minutes, try again. Clean, smooth, and steady @ 1,000 RPM. Still dies when left to idle, but better. Wait 15 minutes; try again. Engine runs smoothly and rev's cleanly through 4,000 RPM and idles Ok. Replace air filter (which has been "drying" in a friendly biz's office kitchen oven) and take a test drive... oh oh, lotsa white smoke. CE light blinking on and off. Remove air filter, still very damp and there's a small pool of water in the base of the filter's tray. Check oil dipstick, still looks good, no apparent water/oil mixing. Dry off air filter tray, replace cover (no filter this time), test drive again. Eureka! clean, smooth, and strong accelleration. Next step, change oil, oil filter, and air filter. Tonight everything seems OK.
So, do I have Good Karma, or Bad? Do I LOVE this car, or what!
Allen in New Orleans
"swimming" '94 900s
120K on the clock and still ticking!
P.S: Don't forget JAZZFEST on WWOZ's Internet website (see link below)
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