RowdyRebel

The Constitution doesn't tell the government that it has to do anything for anyone, but rather what it cannot do to anyone. As long as you respect the rights of others, there is no reason why everyone can't have it their way. Once you start infringing upon the rights of others, I lose interest in your "struggle".

I always get a good laugh when I read another news article about some thug attempting to jack a car, only to abort mission and flee on foot when they can't get the dern thing to go...foiled again by a manual transmission.

I still haven't figured out how to view new content since the board was updated...

The primary shouldn't be about tearing down your opposition, but rather promoting your own ideas...because if you don't get the nomination, one of them will be representing your party in the general election. If you have a disagreement on the issues or other policy matters, debate those differences without attempting to destroy the credibility of the other guy. Part of the problem with politics in this country is that the people who SHOULD run for office don't, because their good name is more valuable to them than the power of the office. That leaves people who covet the power of the office more than they value their good name and reputation to run, knowing full well their name and reputation WILL be assaulted, their past distorted, and no stone left unturned in the search for "dirt". That is why we are typically left with a "lesser of two evils" decision at election time. There's plenty of time to have your good name dragged through the mud in the general election. There really isn't any GOOD reason to beat each other up in the primaries.

...So it was perfectly acceptable for Trump to back out of the pledge in February, even threatening to run 3rd party if he didn't get the nomination...and yet it is the crime of the century for Ted Cruz to say "Vote your conscience" instead of endorsing Trump? Tell you what...I'll run against you in an election, and have the tabloids print articles defaming your wife and father. Then I'll get up on stage at campaign events and in TV interviews and call your wife a fat ugly whore and your father a murderer (because, after all, I'm just repeating what that "reputable" tabloid rag had printed). I'll expect your endorsement after you lose. If Trump had run an honorable campaign and shown even an ounce of respect towards his competition, I doubt ANY of them would have had a problem endorsing him. Trump slung so much mud in the primary that it would've made Pigpen feel dirty.

The Bill of Rights doesn't give us a damn thing...only spells out certain prohibitions to actions those in government might wish to take. Our Rights come from the Creator, not the government. Second, being against "special" rights being created for some "special" groups doesn't mean you're trying to infringe upon ANYBODY'S rights. Marriage isn't about "love", but rather creating a stable environment to bring children into this world and raise them up to be decent human beings. In some cultures, the betrothed couple doesn't even meet prior to the wedding, as it is arranged by parents or other elders in the society. "Love" doesn't even factor into the equation. So, when since the dawn of time, marriage has been an institution meant to procreate and allow our species to continue on into the future, why now should that be opened up to "couples" who "love" each other when it is biologically IMPOSSIBLE for them to reproduce without going outside of the marriage? No matter how many times it is tried, man + man does not = child...and neither does woman + woman. ONLY man + woman holds the potential for procreation. So now the definition of "marriage" has been altered by 5 justices in black robes. This new "right" created by the court has now stripped away the 1st Amendment right to free exercise of religion held by those who's religious beliefs do not allow them to sanction these same-sex "marriages". You no longer have the right to say "You go live your life, and leave me to live mine." If you're a florist, baker, photographer, own a venue, or any other "wedding related" vocation, YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT to say "No thanks" when asked to participate in a union which you do not agree with. You don't have the RIGHT to freely exercise YOUR reliigious beliefs. You see, the problem we have isn't with new rights being created by the government, but rather the existing rights being infringed upon by these newly created rights. The courts no longer look to the Constitution to form their decision, but rather they form their opinion and then look to "precident" to justify that decision. If you've ever played that game as a kid where you sit in a circle and somebody starts whispering a message into the ear of the kid next to them...and then that kid repeats it to the next kid...and so on and so forth. The message is NEVER the same when it gets back to the one who started it. Same can be said about "precident". Case "A" may have been decided based off the Constitution. Case "B" bounces off of case "A". Case "C" goes a little farther based upon what was said in "B". By the time you get to "D", "E", and "F", the decisions are so far removed from the actual Constitution that they are in conflict with it. That is where we are. So yes, when somebody stands up and says "This is absolute lunacy!" and stresses the need to get back to the Constitutional principals this country was founded upon, I'll support him. When somebody says what they mean in regards to standing up for the Constitution, and follows through on their words with actions, I'll support him. And I can find no fault with a man who refuses to roll over and provide unconditional support for a guy who berated his wife and accused his father of conspiring to commit murder. If he HAD come out and endorsed Trump, I would have thought less of him. Vote your conscience...all of the way up and down the ticket...vote for people who will protect and defend the Constitution. What is so bad about that message? If you believe in the Constitution, there is only 1 choice this election...and it ain't Hillary. That indirect endorsement is the best Trump should have expected after the way he conducted his primary campaign.

If you run for the nomination to be the party's nominee for POTUS and don't get the nomination, and you choose not to attend the convention in support of the party's nominee, you ought to be ineligible to run for office again at ANY level (right down to county dog catcher) as a representative of the party. Essentially by not supporting your own party's nominee, you are implying that you'd prefer the other party's candidate...and if that's the case, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Well, it got us to Nashville & back without any trouble. Cruise set @ 73 most of the way made the trip go by pretty quick. Got 10 mpg on the trip which was a little disappointing...going to have to get with the chip programmer and see if we can't do some fine tuning to get that up a bit. It COULD also be that it's a brand new engine...Mack got a new one of those in December and it was sucking down fuel for the first few months before the mpg's started going up. So, we'll wait & see...but I still plan on seeing if the guy down there in Millington has a Dyno and would be willing to tune in-person if I ran it down there one of these days. Kinda slow returning to idle when you rev it up, and it still feels a hair light in the power dept. We'll see....

REALLY sucks being back at work today...stayed @ the Opryland Resort Saturday night. The view out of the room? MUCH better than the one here at the house...

Then there was this place...

Went on the Sunday Brunch Cruise up the Cumberland on the General Jackson Showboat, too. Food was good, entertainment a pretty good mix of Country & Southern Gospel with some patriotic stuff thrown in there, too. Piano player was the grandson of a famous Nashville piano player, and he played a duet with a video of his grandpa...pretty neat. All in all, a pretty good (albeit pricey) weekend getaway.

...then it dawned on me...WE HAD! Playing with Mike Snider:

...so we grabbed dinner tonight @ the Nashville Palace (right next to Cooter's Place), and a guy in the band looked awful familiar...like we'd seen him somewhere before...

Thought this was a pretty good pic on our way to the show...

...and yes, John Conlee DOES wear rose colored glasses when he sings "Rose Colored Glasses"

Moved a horse to another pasture today and figured I'd snap a pic. Looks pretty darned good, if I do say so myself! Stopped on a fairly steep gravel incline and started easing into the throttle...about 1600 RPM she started moving forward. Pulls pretty effortlessly, but then again it was just around the farm so I didn't really get much speed built up.

I put a brand new GM Supermatic 4L85E in it last year with a US Shift Quick 4 controller. 700R4 would have been more trouble with the different spline counts on the input/output shafts. 4L80/4L85 is the same as the TH400 that came out...'cept for it's got overdrive and a lockup torque converter. Only had to drill new 1 hole in each side to relocate the cross member...rear hole became the front hole. With the lift, the rear shaft didn't mind the extra transmission length, but the front shaft had to be stretched to the 1991 specs (only year the 4L80 was offered with passenger-side drop on the t-case...'92 went to the driver's side). All in all, it's been a fun project. Chip shipped Monday, so hopefully I'll have that in the next day or two...we'll see how it goes.

3200 stall? Damn! I thought it felt sluggish with the 2200 stall converter on there. If I did it again, I'd go even lower...1500-1700. From what I read, that stall speed is the point where the engine just won't turn any faster without a wheel spinning, so for that to happen PAST the engine's power band is useless...want that stall speed at a point where you're still making power, not after you've already peaked and power is fading. Granted, around town daily driving, you shouldn't really feel much difference...but hook to a trailer out in the back 40 after it's been raining and you'll want to be able to use as much of the power band as you can. Then again, everything about this motor I've got is set up to run idle-5000. The "performance" tune on my transmission shifts @ 4000...which was the tune the old motor preferred. This new one likes the "economy" tune I worked up based off the diesel presets turned up a touch. Can't remember if WOT shifts are 3000 or 3500, but it seems happy with that. Of course the chip might change that. Main thing I wasn't liking about the "performance" tune after the engine swap was it seemed to hang onto 2nd gear a lot longer than I'd like, so it's something to work out once the chip arrives and is installed. Other than the lack of power, the wife is happy to have her Suburban back. Hopefully that'll be cured in a couple days when the chip arrives... More importantly, though, I'm happy to have my F250 back. She's been driving it while the Suburban was on the DL...leaving me to drive my old beater Ranger, which is really better off left parked until I can give it the TLC that I've been putting off (it IS just a beater truck, after all...)

Well, I sure hope I didn't just throw away a couple hundred more bucks. Internet search was coming up with a whole Lotta nothin' in regards to chips for vehicles this old...except for one down in Millington..."Motorvation". They seem to be able to do a custom tune, but what has me worried is the "recommended" fuel is 93 octane. I need it to run on the cheap stuff. Hell, if I thought it'd be OK to run the high-dollar go-go, I'd have put a HO 383 in there. A lot of their ready-made chips also recommend a 160 thermostat...I'm running a 195. Told him over the phone, I'm not looking to squeeze every ounce of potential out of this thing...just need a good running daily driver for the wife that can handle pulling our horses around in the trailer. I need it to be reliable on 87 octane, no pinging or knocking. Basically, I want it to run like the slightly modified 96-2000 long block 350 that it is. It ain't a race truck, so it don't need to run like one. We'll see what I get. Should be here early-mid next week.

The exhaust I have on that Suburban ain't too bad...long tube headers, 2.5" into the Y, then 3" through a Magnaflow catalytic converter and a Flowmaster 70 series muffler. Inside, you can carry on a conversation with folks riding in the 3rd row seat without having to raise your voice. I didn't want "loud", because I don't care how much you spend on an exhaust, it's going to sound like crap with an automatic transmission. I LOVE a good, deep rumble from the pipes if there is a manual transmission...listen to that engine sing. The constant drone of an auto, though, just screams "LOOK AT ME! I'M A POSER WHO CAN'T DRIVE A REAL CAR/TRUCK!!!" Automatics are like children...they should be seen, not heard.

Didn't think oil ran through the intake, but I used a Fel-Pro gasket when I put 'er together...not sure the p/n off the top of my head, but it was the rubbery type not the paper ones That and a little RTV at the front & back ought to do the trick, but the torque specs on those intake bolts just seem low. Drove it to town today (all I did yesterday was around the block a couple times) and got a "service engine soon" idiot light coming on...which I halfway expected because of the new intake, heads, and cam this motor has that the last one didn't. Still unimpressed with the seat-of-the-pants feel of this motor over the old one, but may have to find a chip or someone who can tune the computer so that it knows what it's working with.

That's better...tried uploading/posting that from my phone and didn't realize it was a "private" video....should work now.

Well, we didn't set any records and we sure as hell wouldn't make it in NASCAR, but we got it in & fired it up yesterday.

Well, I THINK I finally have everything I need to get it back together. Had an issue with the water pump...Vortec heads block the thermostat bypass tube in the block, but not realizing that and thinking it was a BLOCK issue, I figured a water pump from a newer truck (that this particular engine would be a direct drop-in) would be needed. Nope. So, had to return that pump and pick up another OEM water pump for a 1990. Turns out there's a pipe plug in the housing that can be removed to run a 5/8" hose to one of the fittings on the intake manifold. If the vehicle's heater core doesn't have a valve somewhere in that loop that closes whenever the heater is turned off, that COULD serve the same function....but since I don't KNOW, I figure it's best to run the bypass. Then there was the whole engine mount deal, where the mounts it HAD were pretty well shot....not much rubber left to 'em. So, I had to pick up a couple of those today, too. Then there was the issue with the crank position sensor (which the new block has the hole for in the timing cover, but the old truck doesn't have a wire to plug into it). I was debating about buying an el-cheapo CPS to fill the hole...but when $65 is the cheapest I can find, well, gotta go to plan B. I'm thinking of using some fiberglass resin I have left from fixing a crack in the horse trailer's roof to fill the hole. Can trim the plastic plug they have slipped in there so that it keeps the oil off the fiberglass, and basically fill it in...or epoxy...or anything of the sort....and do it a heck of a lot cheaper than $65. Picked up some longer bolts to press the harmonic damper back onto the crankshaft as well....the one O'reilly sold me yesterday was too short (2-1/4")...so I swung by the local farm store and picked up some 7/16-20 grade 8 bolts that are 2-1/2", 3", 3-1/2", and 4". When all is said and done, the 2-1/4" bolt may be what I need...just can't get the threads started to press the damper back on. Other than that, the motor SHOULD be ready to drop in. First things first, though, got some work to do on the Mack. Them parts I ordered on Friday were in. Sometimes I wish I had new enough vehicles I didn't HAVE to wrench on them. Then I remember that today's "new" vehicle is tomorrow's "older vehicle in need of TLC"...only difference is the ability of the shade-tree guy like myself to wrench on it. Sure, today's "old" vehicles need to be wrenched on....but I CAN wrench on them. Can't say the same about today's "new" cars. Too much computerized crap.