Buying forest land, implementing solar

[swbluto]

Turns out that I'm able to run 4.5 mph @ 12% incline with little ill affect, but start getting nauseous when running 5 mph @ 12% incline (Turns out getting nauseous when 'working out too hard' is normal). According to this calculator -> http://42.195km.net/e/treadsim/ -> It seems like I start getting nauseous at about 13 mets. Doing a conversion of kcal/hr to watts, it looks like the 'getting nauseous' point is about 1000 watts continuously. Interestingly, the same calculator suggests I was doing my 1.5 mile runs at around 16 Mets 1.5 years ago. (9mph jog/run on flatland)

I find it highly suspect that running 9 mph on flatland requires in excess of 1000 watts. I should look at other power calculators...

http://www.athleticslog.com/calculate_workpower - Looks like this guy is estimating 354 watts to run 9 mph. Now that sounds more likely.

Man, all I want to know is the watts/power of running 5mph@12% incline. It doesn't feel like I'm breathing particularly hard, but yet I get nauseous, presumably because of the increased blood flow to power those calves/trunk muscles that wouldn't otherwise be needed as much on flatland. It just seems weird I'm getting nauseous, because I wouldn't normally think that running 5 mph@12% incline would be nausea-inducing. But, I don't really have any basis for comparison.

Well, it looks like http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html is telling me 5mph@12% incline is 12.8 mets, roughly what the first calculator told me. I guess it just isn't accurate for flatland estimates.

That calculator seems to be estimating 9mph@0% incline at 14.8 mets. That's not too far off from the first calculator. I wonder if Mets doesn't directly convert to Watts? Because 354 watts is believable, but 1000+ watts isn't.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2976557/How-long-left-live-Treadmill-test-predicts-chance-dying-ten-years.html

Well, this is interesting. Let's fiddle with these calculations.

score = (12 x METs) + (% of maximum predicted heart rate) – (4 x age)

score = (12 x 13) + (100) - (4x30) = 136

If you score 100 or higher, you have have a two percent risk of dying over the next 10 years, while those with scores between 0 and 100 face a three per cent death risk over the next decade.

If you have a score between negative 100 and 0 had an 11 per cent risk of dying in the next 10 years, while scores lower than negative 100 have a 38 per cent risk of dying in a decade.

It appears I'm in the lowest risk category. Interesting

Doing a quick calculation of what my mom's score /probably/ is (Based on anecdotal reports of her hill climbing capacity on the treadmill), it appears she has a 3 percent risk of death in the next decade according to this. Not bad, of course, I'm assuming she's capable of 7 mets. 5 mets would have a different outcome.

Also, I'm not entirely sure how they decide what mets value to use. Is it the point at which you get nauseous, or is it the point at which st-elevation/st-depression ECG patterns show up?

Following this guy's self-eval, it's the point at which you "give up"/"Can't do it anymore". If that's true, I can probably assume I could do 15 mets, just that I'll be feeling really nauseous as I'm doing it. 13 Mets doesn't 'feel hard' by any means, but I start getting nauseous.

Oh, well, look here: They define when the test is stopped.

The test is stopped once a person reaches the point of exhaustion or develops chest pain, dizziness or heart rhythm abnormalities.

Those who have normal readings and no alarming symptoms while exercising are said to have 'normal' results and typically do not require further testing.

Interesting. "Chest pain, dizziness" suggests the test is stopped when cardiac symptoms happen, and nausea is one of them.

 

[marty]

x
Taking baths.
x

Soaking in dirty water is not a good way to clean your self. Shower. Do you have any toys that you like to play with in the bath tub?

http://superheroyou.com/bath-v-shower/

•Warm baths can reduce feelings of loneliness. They can also help moisturize your skin, as long as the water’s not too hot. Plus, baths are stress-relieving.
•Hot showers can also ease anxiety and loneliness. Hot pressure on your back is good for sore muscles, and the steam showers create is a natural decongestant when you have a cold.
•Cold showers have the most health benefits. Like warm showers and baths, they are good for your mood. But they also wake you up, stimulate weight loss, don’t dry out our skin or hair, increase the speed of muscle recovery AND can boost immunity.

 

[Dauntless]

Turns out that I'm able to run 4.5 mph @ 12% incline with little ill affect, but start getting nauseous when running 5 mph @ 12% incline (Turns out getting nauseous when 'working out too hard' is normal).

That's not running, that's known as the 'New York Walk.' Didn't they used to have that in the Olympics? A lot of what you're describing as your near death symptoms aren't terribly abnormal. When working out it's normal to exhaust yourself, that's what it's about, though they have a problem with convincing people of that at gyms. Women especially resist working hard enough to even sweat, hard to say what they think they're there for. As a guy from my old gym said, a good gym smells bad, if it smells good it couldn't possibly be a good gym.

EVERYONE has more than a 2% risk of dying in the next 10 years. Something closer to a quarter of the World's population will die in that time, replaced with more or less as many births.

 

[swbluto]

D-Day is coming soon. Wrapped up the second day of the garage sale, made a few sales. Got some ear droppers, appeared like they were nearly immediately effective, possibly found my culprit. It's plausible that it might've turned into a mild form of MOE (Malignant Otitis Externa), but too early to tell. By the time I can tell, I should be gone.

Wikipedia says...

The hallmark of malignant otitis externa (MOE) is unrelenting pain that interferes with sleep and persists even after swelling of the external ear canal may have resolved with topical antibiotic treatment

Something has definitely been interfering with my sleep for the past few months, and I've definitely had these jaw/ear-pain symptoms all the while. Wikipedia mentions the antibiotic of choice is often ciproflaxicin. Me is like, "ZOMG, NO.". Ciproflaxicin is the devil. Severe symptoms are 'uncommon' (1-2% affected), but when they get severe, they are irreversible, untreatable, permanent and extremely debilitating. Things like... Tendon rupture. Yeah, imagine your tendons splitting in half. That's not natural by /any/ stretch of the imagination. The closest natural event corresponding to tendon rupture might be a lion ripping your appendages off, even then, it's doubtful the tendons would rupture.

Anyway, I looked more into this bacteria that causes MOE, and it's almost always 'Pseudomonas aeruginosa'. Apparently it's multi-antibiotic resistant, like, this bacteria didn't exist 200 years ago, but instead came of existence during the age of antibiotics.

I thought about that because I'm not exactly in a hospital (I had this before the 4 hour hospital visits), so I found it a bit curious how exactly I contracted this pathogen in the bathtub. Source - My brother. He's been hospitalized in a hospital, in ICU and beyond, many times so he's got all the superbugs.

Anyway, it's hypothetical at this point. But, if true, that so sucks. It looks like "the unnatural things" got me before I could escape them in the wild.

 

[swbluto]

x
Taking baths.
x

Soaking in dirty water is not a good way to clean your self. Shower. Do you have any toys that you like to play with in the bath tub?

http://superheroyou.com/bath-v-shower/

•Warm baths can reduce feelings of loneliness. They can also help moisturize your skin, as long as the water’s not too hot. Plus, baths are stress-relieving.
•Hot showers can also ease anxiety and loneliness. Hot pressure on your back is good for sore muscles, and the steam showers create is a natural decongestant when you have a cold.
•Cold showers have the most health benefits. Like warm showers and baths, they are good for your mood. But they also wake you up, stimulate weight loss, don’t dry out our skin or hair, increase the speed of muscle recovery AND can boost immunity.

I've figured the only bath one should take is a salt bath. Epsom salt for the additional magnesium.

Coincidentally, I think I've decided on using salt for my swimming pool/water-storage container. Would probably use earplugs, anyway, as a precaution.

 

[swbluto]

I think I've decided to build a wine cellar. Some other folk were trying to convince me to build a 'root cellar', but it seems to be essentially the same thing, only a little bit deeper. I figured a wine cellar is a great option in an area that reaches 96+ degrees in high humidity, and running a refrigerator/freezer in the wine cellar would be more energy efficient. Could probably run the refrigerator off a dedicated solar panel and battery. And, while I'm at it, I'm thinking I could also possibly turn the wine cellar into a fallout shelter for a little extra. Would have to install additional ventilation, I would think. Also, just a great place to store canned fruits and the such. Also, battery storage.

I want to install a gate on the property, and I wanted to do it /right away/, but I realized I wouldn't want to start it until I've removed trees at least 30 feet in /just in case/, so that'd likely be a delayed project. In the meantime, I'm just going to hope no one bothers me for the first week or so.

Anyway, I figured the most time consuming part will probably be stump removal. Luckily, the trees aren't that massive, so it's probably not /that bad/ to remove the roots. And, wouldn't think it'd be too difficult to remove brush roots.

 

[Dauntless]

Y'all ain't gonna need no wine seller, that thar Thunderbird keeps nice like in the crawlspace unner th' house. Even underthe trailer, if youse gots one of dose. Mebbe you find space 'nuff for some corn squeezin's next to it.

 

[The fingers]

Rental yards usually rent stump grinders which make short work of tree stumps, leaving only wood chips behind. The hardest part is loading and unloading the portable machine in and out of the truck. An old friend that I worked for several years ago liked the results so much that he nicknamed me "Stumpy". :lol:

 

[DAND214]

Can't wait till you have it all done! :lol: :lol: :lol:


Dan

 

[shineon102]

You posted that there 'Building Restrictions', and that you should probably check that out. Have you? You have some big ideas for what is actually a small lot. People are
naturally courious. I just hope you realize what you could be getting yourself into. Utopia, probably not. Wish you luck!

 

[swbluto]

Found out a new way to yank stumps out of the ground.

[youtube]N01tLiN60-o[/youtube]

$49 on harborfreight's website.

As to building restrictions, I'll concern myself with those when I plan to start 'building'. It's kind of obvious to me that you're allowed to chop down trees and remove brush in this area, so I'm not concerned with restrictions on that step.

Anyway, I found this forest service manual the other day. Techniques and safety on chopping down trees, limbing them and even turning them into usable pieces of logs with an adze! (Never knew that's how log beams could be made.) [This manual seems to pretty much tell you how to construct a log cabin with a few hand tools.]

http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf99232823/pdf99232823Pdpi72pt06.pdf

Like that, instead of the other page saying "Cut in the direction of the lean", this manual tells you how to get that tree to fall in the direction you want with an axe.

Anyway, picked up my greenhouse. Yay, I now have a base for operations and a natural place to unload my crap (Keeping it secure is another matter... I mIght just rent secured storage for a month. The rental price is really a small price to pay for insurance.).

I was going to leave tomorrow, but I had a surge in business in the last couple of days, so I'm busy fulfilling those orders. I should be ready to set off on Saturday, I think.

Anyway, the greenhouse is going to be sized so that 'it takes up whatever room is leftover', however small or large that might be. It's looking like that will probably be about 5000 sq. ft. or so. With a spacing of 50 sq. ft. per banana tree, and a planting density of 66%, it looks like I could plant around 66 banana trees. Although, it looks like these guys can really pack together, so maybe a little more. I wonder if that will be enough banana trees?

I would assume two harvests per year per tree. It looks like the average mature tree produces 40 bananas per harvest. So that's about 66*2*40= 5280 bananas a year or 101 bananas per week. Assume 50% loss (organic methods), about 50 bananas a week.

Looking into the banana tree lifecycle, these seem to be interesting critters. Not really an average fruit tree (Only produces fruit once then dies).

I'm hoping to have two or three walnut trees (Or other nut trees).

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/4-types-of-greenhouse-plastic-to-use

Seems like an interesting site on DIY greenhouse construction.

 

[DAND214]

What kinda banana tree produces 1 banana? Do you mean bunches? I sure hope the trees are real cheap.

I have a few stumps to pull. Small things about 24 to 36" wide. I sure don't think the jack will cut it.

5000 sq ft greenhouse? That is a big one! I thought the lot was 1/4 acre. I guess I missed something.
Dan

 

[Dauntless]

He never said anything about just one banana. He's talking 40 bananas per tree per harvest. I guess that would depend on the type of banana tree. Do you know that what were considered the best varieties of bananas became extinct in the 20th century? There's a question of which if any might survive the coming decades.

Ma planted banana trees I think before I was born, they were around making a mess while I was growing up but what few bananas actually sprouted seemed to die off. There must be a definite way to make them productive. My tangerine tree requires no care and I give away many every year.

The closer you plant the trees, the smaller the harvest. But then again I look at these pictures and they're damn close together. I've heard they love to have your old newspapers and magazines dumped right at the base of the tree (They don't have broad roots) and it's like fertilizer to them. The same with your sewer water. Of course you want to check that out for real before you try it. Although I know mushrooms grow well on cardboard. I wonder if bananas can decontaminate soil the way mushrooms can.
Last I heard the lot was going to be 11,250 sqft.

 

[swbluto]

Had set Friday as the target departure date, and after two days of pure all day busy-ness, I was finally ready to leave Sunday. Only problem, couldn't access my money in my local bank. I have cash on hand, but having access to it on the road would be nice. I have no issues with doing an ACH transfer once I get down there, but it's the travel expenses I want to cover in the meantime. I tried accessing the accounts online, but couldn't (Site is too rudimentary). I already have cash on hand, but I don't really know what kind of fuel efficiency I'll achieve, so I don't know the gas expense.

So Sunday wasn't the best day to depart. Monday it'll be.

Anyway, as to bananas. I know that bananas love...

High Humidity
Heat
Soil rich in magnesium and potassium.
Plenty of water (60-80 inches annual rainfall)

Same with cocoa. I know with this location, I just have to concentrate the rainfall and heighten the winter temperatures, and I can grow just about any tropical fruit. Think I might grow pineapples. I'll probably try out cocoa.

 

[marty]

Good luck and have a safe trip!

 

[swbluto]

Thanks! I would've needed it.

Turns out the very first hill in the northern idaho mountains killed my truck that I recently traded my car for. Kind of predictable, except kind of not.

It's kind of predictable, because the guy I traded it from said that he rebuilt the engine and replaced the piston heads. So, it's not hard to imagine that a blown engine head just happened again, due to whatever problems with the engine. Okay, that's a new rule for me.

Don't get vehicles with a replaced head gasket. (Reason being that water/oil typically mix. However, this one didn't, suggesting the seal on the engine was tight.)
Don't get vehicles with a rebuilt engine.

The vehicle drove fine up the hill I tested on (I accelerated up the hill with pedal to the metal), but I didn't test the vehicle on /this/ hill with /this/ kind of load (I'm guessing I had about 600-1000 pounds of material in the vehicle).

Anyway, I'm going to have to think about how I'm going to pull this off, now. All I needed was to get my tools/battery/engine/generator down there. I'm thinking about sending those down as packages to a UPS store address and getting a flight there. However, I need to think through the logistics, like getting a car.

If only I had done that when I had perfectly functioning car (Drive down there, ship the material down), I would have the goods AND a car. I just thought it would've been /so/ nice to have a vehicle that could tow an RV, since I'll probably need to move it a few times, so a vehicle that could take everything down there AND could tow an RV was a logical choice. If only it worked.


-------------------------

Okay, here's what really happened.

Going up the first foothill in this mountain range I was going through, I noticed my speed dropping to 50. So, I put the pedal to the metal which apparently causes the 1987 K5 Blazer to go into 'crazy mode', which caused a rather slow increase in speed. I was looking at my gauges just to make sure everything was OK, and I saw my oil pressure went from 40 PSI to 0 PSI (Radiator temperature was 170, slightly elevated). Without oil circulating in my engine, I figured that it would probably overheat and kill the engine, so I stopped as sclueoon as I could (About 1/5 a mile after I first noticed it; first shoulder that became available.). So, I stopped the vehicle. Got out, looked around the engine bay, nothing particularly notable. I checked the oil levels and they looked fine, however, it was strange there was white smoke coming out of the oil tube. I tried turning on the engine, still 0 PSI, and... this time... the engine stopped after 2 seconds and "Service engine soon" light came on. Well, this light is kind of useless. It might as well be the "Your engine is dead" light. Tried again. Let the engine cool for 15 minutes. Tried again. No dinero. This time, I noticed a leaking sound inside the engine. Not underneath the engine, inside of it. Oh, that doesn't sound good.

Don't really know what's going on, but I'm guessing the fuel and oil are mixing somehow. My best guess is blown piston head. Maybe rod. Sounds like "Junk engine" to me.

Checked online. Faulty oil pressure sender seems exceedingly unlikely. What good timing if that was the case.

The other clue is the exhaust was emitting white smoke from the exhaust earlier. Might have something to do with this 'failure'.

---------------------

Hmmm.... The battery is now at 12.3 volts and the 'reading' is 'noticeably less than 13V' according to the car's voltmeter, and I noticed that after 5 tries at starting the engine, it became harder to start and the voltage went down to 8volts (Temporarily, it warmed back upto 12.3V). I wonder if the problem is essentially a 'bad battery'? And maybe that's why it wouldn't restart on the hill?

Well, it did restart the engine, but the engine killed itself after a few seconds. The battery is now having difficulty turning over the motor. It's very possible that trying to restart the engine 15+ times has been killing the battery, and the engine was really dead, like I originally thought.

 

[Dauntless]

The engine doesn't have to be junk, it might not even be expensive to fix it. But then you continue your trek and live on your own with no help around and the engine is going to be questionable for awhile, no telling what else could be wrong under there. But on the side of the road any little thing seems like a disaster in the making. I can't imagine how the fuel and oil would be mixing. There'd be something strange going on.

Here's where people most often screw up the rebuilt engine:

Picture this is a straight 4 cylinder engine. Each cylinder has 4 bolts around it, all but the bolts at the very end shared. So there's 2 rows of 5 bolts. The proper way to torque the heads back on is:

1) With a torque wrench. You can actually measure how tight those bolts are.

2) Tightening each bolt 1/3 at a time. Let's say the spec is for 150flbs. You go 50 the first time, 100 the second, then you finish at 150.

3) This is the most important. If you number one row the odd numbers, 1 3 5 7 9, the other the even, you might do something like 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, then down the others for the first 50 pounds, then start over. Basically the first on one side, the second on the other, the third on the first side, etc.

If you tighten one bolt completely without having tightened any others, you are likely to crack the head. If you tighten without a torque wrench, no telling how tight any bolt is and where there's less pressure you can get a gasket leak or even an all together blown gasket. I'm always amazed at all the time, effort, money people will spend to do this themselves without putting in any reading, etc., to understand what they're trying to do. But the main bearings, the crank, people screw up the torquing everywhere. Just a guess but the heads must be the most vulnerable. So I was helping a guy I know rebuild his little 2 cycle motorcycle, he decides I'm being too picky about this torquing. Afterall he rebuilt the engine on his old car just fine without doing that way. So I asked "Yeah, what happened to that old car again?" Blew up in less than 10,000 miles. He still wasn't ready to accept he had anything to do with that. The bike meanwhile has held up just fine.

No oil in the water draws a lot of opinions, but certainly it's good, but that probably only means there's a small about of WHITE steam blowing in there. But there being a little steaming is not extraordinary, I didn't see it so I don't know if there was enough to worry or not. At the point that there's more coolant than the heat can keep evaporated, it gets uglier. But the brown sludge doesn't instantly destroy the engine, you're better off with that than no oil at all.

If you lost oil pressure, of course the temperature went up. The oil does more cooling than lubricating. If it's not circulating it can be unusually cool down there in the sump, but it's an art figuring that out and if you're not a mechanic it's hard for you to be the judge. The thermostat CAN be out of touch with the real temp situation. A big reason I don't really work on cars anymore is all the electronics have made an understanding of chaos theory vital to dealing with something like this. A lot of sensors and controls won't work right when there's too much heat. Steam and cool oil, that would mean things, right? What you call a "Leaking" sound (Maybe like a drip hitting sheet metal?) is probably what I call a "Ticking" that is telltale of differential temperatures as they cool, one part too hot another too cool. But this can be one of those sounds that's there normally and only gets worse when there is an engine overworked going uphill, etc.

I can think of things going on in the past where I had whoever's car going again and it was fine. One time it was my old Jeep Cherokee that that was running tens of thousands of miles afterward. You went uphill and lost oil pressure. Is your oil pan on backwards? Some subtle little thing not being right can eventually destroy the engine but you fix it right away and there's no ongoing issue. Is there white or blue in the exhaust? That would be either coolant or oil. He rebuilt the engine, so it had to get clean, right? Is is still? I've heard people CLAIM they're rebuilt it but it sure didn't look like it had been rebuilt.

You're not describing a situation where there'd be a thrown rod, most people here those. Usually they hear it coming, too. But maybe they don't notice. But I'd expect you to talk about other sounds you heard if the oil pressure was gone. There could be a "Misunderstanding" there. (Loose connection on the sensor.) There's a sensor you can remove and see if oil squirts when you crank it, but you might not understand how to do it.

When there's a vacuum leak the engine doesn't like to idle once it heats up. There are so many vacuum lines going to the carburetor anymore, one could be off completely and when it's cool that engine sounds so strong but it's gutless when you drive. Some people think they're clever and try to sell it with the loose hose. When it dies you get a check engine light that's telling you that the engine isn't running. Running lean causes the engine to overheat because unburned fuel carries heat from the combustion chamber and since the head is then conducting it a thermostat that is on the head (Normally but not always the place) would then be getting more heat.

Does the engine crank with the same enthusiasm as it did? (If the battery hasn't been cranked down.) I don't understand, are you back home? If you're in a motel somewhere it's costing by the day in the time that they take to fix it. If you can take spark plugs out and look at them, this can tell you something. Might spare you spending a few thousand you don't have to. But like in 'Pirates of the Caribbean' don't view these things as laws, just as guidelines.

If there IS a leaking head, I have put how many given up for dead engines back in use for a time. I recommend this ONLY for something old that you doubt you want to sink the money into, of which there are many such cars on the road. But if the engine is tightening up you dump some transmission fluid in each cylinder, maybe some B-12 chemtool with it, once it sits a bit you put a wrench on the crank in front and turn it, it ends up running. Then you get, of all things, some K&W Permanent Metallic Block Seal. DO NOT just dump it into the radiator, you'd finish the engine off that way. CAREFULLY drain, flush, etc., follow the instructions right on the can. In fact there is sodium sillicate in there, which gets harder and stronger when it's hot and under pressure, that's why they use it in sand casting iron. It also gets more solid in contact with radiator fluid, hence the careful flushing first. But when it's done it has saved (Temporarily) the cars of many poor starving actors and wannabee filmmakers who had the good fortune to know me when they just needed the dang thing to last another year or two. I imagine that sodium silicate makes the rebuild a bit more painful if you do decide you want to keep it on the road. But if the engine is removed and replaced with a factory rebuild, not your problem, right?

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi567.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss120%2FjacksonMS30%2FSparkPlugReading_zps9f2f50dc.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.focusst.org%2Fforum%2Fedge-autosport%2F4526-little-spark-plug-tech.html&docid=SCVL8aYl_oNacM&tbnid=uwm0r6K5gIwskM%3A&w=1024&h=933&bih=929&biw=1252&ved=0ahUKEwjSupDm5IbQAhXIh1QKHQcpAy4QMwgdKAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8

 

[swbluto]

Thanks. Going around town, I never noticed this white exhaust, but after getting on the highway recently on this trip and going up a few hills and straining the engine (Could smell the burning smell from something during high load), it seems I started noticing this white exhaust during regular driving and became concerned. I was told it was 'fuel burning' by the autozone guy, and I half believed him.

Anyway, Google...

One of the main causes of white exhaust smoke and coolant loss is a cracked or warped cylinder head, a cracked engine block, or head gasket failure caused by overheating. A cracked head may allow coolant to leak into one or more cylinders or into the combustion chamber of the engine.

Yes, it would seem that a cracked/warped cylinder head/cracked engine block would probably implode under high load, which is exactly what happened. Pedal to the metal, engine goes into 'crazy high rpms' for 5 seconds, and then the rest of the issues that ensued within the 10-30 seconds after -> oil pressure drops to 0 and engine will restart, but it dies after 2 seconds. Engine never recovers.

So, it's likely one of those issues. Those are pretty serious issues. So the engine was overheating, eh. It's funny I wasn't seeing that in the radiating temperature, but it seems possible that the core could quickly increase in temperature under really high load without a proportional increase in radiator temperature (radiating temperature is a lagging indicator), possibly to the point of overheating->cracked cylinder head/cracked engine block/head gasket failure. It seems kind of unbelievable, though, that a chevy blazer wouldn't be capable of climbing hills with 1000 pounds of goods; I would think a 350HP 5.7L engine could climb a hill, regardless of pedal position, with a small 3500 lb. trailer without a hitch (Not literally, lol). 1000 pounds should be no problem.

Anyway, the fact I had white exhaust meant the engine damage was already done by the time I got to the mountains and it wasn't 'easily recoverable' at that point. (I don't think of head gasket replacement as being particularly easy) So, the engine was toast. It's rather miraculous how vulnerable this engine was to higher power output.

Anyway, I'm in a motel and I'm getting a tow back home in the morning. I'll examine the spark plugs, maybe they're fouling.

 

[Dauntless]

Fuel smoke is unburned or improperly burned gas, will be black. Blue smoke is oil, that includes coolant oil in a 2 cycle engine. White is steam from coolant.

Old cars with breaker points I saw just enough of to notice a pattern where overheating could weld the points together and either they stayed together or broke apart and didn't have a good spark jump. Easy enough to fix but certainly a vulnerable thing. Problems with electronic ignition from overheating are not so simple to identify or fix.

I want to suggest things like making sure the distributor has been properly tightened. I've encountered that having shifted and keeping the engine from running on a badly rebuilt engine. I just have the feeling that if you drove it out there and didn't have problems until you hit the hill it might not be so bad.

 

[marty]

Same as human medical issues. You all are typing way too much. When I fix a car I don't listen to anything anyone says. I only listen and look at the car.

white exhaust

burning smell from something during high load

speed dropping to 50

oil pressure went from 40 PSI to 0 PSI

checked the oil levels and they looked fine

white smoke coming out of the oil tube

"Service engine soon" light came on

restart the engine, but the engine killed itself after a few seconds

Pretty sure that what ya need is a tow truck.

 

[marty]

How far is tow truck trip?

Suspect engine is cooked. Compere junk value of truck with cost of tow truck. Paying $800 to tow a $200 truck don't make much sense. When I need to rent a truck, I always wind up at U-Haul.
https://www.uhaul.com/

 

[marty]

Suspect engine is cooked.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Might want to get a second opinion from a real mechanic. Bet there are some excellent, honest, car/truck repair places in the northern Idaho mountains.

 

[swbluto]

I got advice from a real mechanic, and he suggested looking at the air intake. We removed the air filter, and the same problem happened. Air intake not the problem.

Then we gassed the engine while turning the ignition (Pumped it), and it would run, but pretty rough. Sounded like some hefty slapping/knocking from the engine while the fuel pedal was being pulsed.

Checked the oil, looked empty. Adding two quarts didn't change the level (Vehicle was tilted about 10 degrees clockwise). Looked like it was leaking from the right valve cover and was dripping down the right exhaust manifold. Suspect that this is what was causing the burning smell during high load; higher valve temperatures -> increased leakage from the valve cover -> leaking onto the hot exhaust manifold -> burning oil smell.

Air filter smelled like fuel.

Don't have a definitive diagnosis, but will check the spark plugs and possibly do a compression test tomorrow. I personally suspect there's been a valve/rod/piston/piston-head failure of somesort, which has been causing an unbalance and increased resistance during the turning the crankshaft, which manifests in increased engine turning resistance (Enough resistance to kill the engine during low-power idle, but not enough to kill it when it's being gassed (Pumping the gas pedal)) and the hefty slapping/knocking sound which is a pretty new sound. Never heard that before.

Perhaps it's just needs more oil, and it'll work like new. No permanent damage. I did kill the engine pretty much within 15 seconds of noticing the oil pressure flatline to 0 PSI, so there's a chance there might not be significant irremediable damage. But, of course, maybe there is. Thick white exhaust suggests there was significant engine damage allowing coolant to leak into the valve chambers at least one hour prior to the oil flatlining to 0 PSI going up that steep hill, and failing to keep idle after.

Anyway, a /real/ mechanic is coming tomorrow. I got a tow ride back home via a family friend's AAA premier package. The tow truck driver thought I was my family friend the entire time, lol. He never really asked any questions about confirming my identity or anything. He was contracted out by AAA, and he told me was being paid $150/hr for this 4 hour trip. Nice.

Anyway, some brainstorming needed. This property definitely requires a vehicle to operate from.

 

[Dauntless]

Suspect engine is cooked.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Might want to get a second opinion from a real mechanic. Bet there are some excellent, honest, car/truck repair places in the northern Idaho mountains.

You mean---you're NOT a real mechanic, posting online~? (GASP!)

Meanwhile, S---. I don't even know you're real name, I missed it if you posted it. I'm Doug, by the way. My father nicknamed me Dauntless when I was little and people have always said he had great foresight. You're starting to give good info. You can lose plenty of oil from just a loose valve cover. Air filters have a way to smelling like fuel. You drive among so many vehicles giving out unburned fuel and it sucks that air in. The HC in your smog test (If you have to get one) is hydrocarbons, unburned fuel out your exhaust.

The way you described it running. When the engine gets hot, it can be hard on silicone plug wires. When those go off, sometimes instantaneously, it can put up one hell of a ruckus about accelerating. The engine becomes very imbalanced, asynchronous, whatever you want to call it. But as our UNMASKED not a mechanic points out, posting for answers is no way to get this done. Especially if you're not really going to work on it yourself.

My realness as a mechanic is growing up in a car family and helping work on cars from gradeschool, rebuilding lawnmowers, etc., growing up, 80 units of high school autoshop, (3 hours a day for 2 1/2 years) as well as a vocational school class in motorcycle repair, helping how many friends who just had to rebuild the car, motorcycle, etc. from age 15 until well into my 20's, etc. Oh, I was actually employed as a state licensed smog mechanic (NOT some silly tester) while I was in college. In short, one of those guys who depends on those NOISES when he's figuring things out.

 

[marty]

checked the oil levels and they looked fine

Checked the oil, looked empty. Adding two quarts didn't change the level

Getting conflicting information here. Oil is important
Add oil to the fill mark BEFORE starting engine. Use the correct type of oil. Read the owners manual for what type of oil to use.

Yes I am a real mechanic. My name is Marty and I am a real human.

Swbluto - You have left the nest. Do your parents want you back? The adventure has only begun. To keep with the theme of cutting trees in a forest with a ax, how about transporting yourself with horse and covered wagon. No oil needed. If something goes wrong with one horse? Ya still have a 1 horse power vehicle.