Chelone, you can slam things around. That is what I do when I am having a crabby day. It must be something going around. I got up this morning just plain angry! And I don't recall having a bad dream that brought on the anger either. Saucy, I sure know what you mean about "getting the furniture presentable" before taking pics of anything. I have an additional problem....most of it is so surrounded by other items that I cannot get a clear view to take pics. I have several pices of furnishing I would like to add to that thread, if it were not for the above drawbacks. It will be fun hearing the name of the new member of Marie's family. One of the couples in our congregation have a very large family, and new great grandbabys arriving frequently. The latest is a boy, and I cannot remember the unusual name that the poor child will be living with. I am seeing a nickname in his future. Oh my! Mary, what a bummer. My sister is prone to having Strep throat almost with every cold. I do not recall ever being diagnosed with it, although it used to be thought a forerunner of Rheumatic Fever, and I 'was' diagnosed with that. Sister was not, so who knows? Thank goodness there are great antibiotics now that nip it in the bud. I hope you are already feeling better. I hope Scarlet Fever is not going around. Our Tim was telling me about a bout that he had with a "blazing red face", etc., just a week or so ago. LOL, V ! An Agave preparing to devour you! It does look rather menacing. :-) Ah, taxes...that is one perk of being in the financial condition that we are in. Filing a tax report has been a thing of the past for many years now. I certainly do not miss attempting to make out Nolon's self employment taxes. I would literally get sick every year that I did it. He was very bad at not keeping good records of any of his work and income. I always feared we would be audited and I would be hard put to come up with proof. I was very careful to err on underestimating our deductions and depreciations. After putting out extra bucks (only once) to pay for the filing, a good friend (my former employer) taught me how to do it myself. Julie, my mom was the neatness freak. If she saw us so much as to pick a piece of link off our clothing and drop it on the floor she would admonish us to " Pick that up and put it in the coal bucket"! Her house was never dust and debris covered like mine has become. :-( Part of mine is the hair clusters (like Chelone frequently speaks about). :-) And then there is all the residue from the wood stove, not to mention plant debris, and tracked in stuff from both of our shoes. I must sign off and tote in the firewood for the day, before getting ready for my Tuesday's trip to town. Marian

Hey, you can't have all of this fun without me!! VBG Seriously some of what is being said about piston slap is true. Piston slap alone is NOT a reason to tear an engine down and do a repair. Piston slap is in fact normal on a cold engine because aluminum expands faster than the cast iron engine block. if the piston is tight enough cold, it will be too tight when warmed up. Piston slap should a repair actually be indicated actually does not even mean that a piston needs to be replaced! If the problem is a collapsed skirt, it can in many cases be "knurled" and reshaped to take up the slightly excessive clearance. A knurled piston is one that has many tiny marks made into it's surface, that cause the outer edges of the mark to rise up. Sort of like the way a center punch makes a "crater" in a piece of metal. These two links give both a description of knurling, and an actual application. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knurling http://www.hastingsmfg.com/ServiceTips/international_v8_engines.htm Now the one big problem I have with this thread is the idea that $100 in parts, a saturday, and a twelve pack of beer is all that is required to make the noise go away. I do understand the perception that to the right person pulling and reinstalling a piston isn't difficult to do but the reality is to do it right is in fact much different. This is a job where a very simple mistake can cause a major engine failure after the attempt. Plus if it's 4WD just getting the oil pan off and back on will take up most of your staurday, and that's if you have a hoist. People have been successful simply replacing a piston(s) in chassis but not always successful at eliminating piston noise or slap. That's because the piston is only half of the equation, cylinder wear or taper could easily be coming into play, and I would leave those checks/measurements up to a qualified machinist. Plus we still have the little issue of pressing the piston pin through the rod. Very few shops have the equipment to do that, let alone DIY's. There are many traps lurking in this repair that can make the whole attempt go south in a hurry. One common trap is as simple as not torquing the intake manifold in the correct order! An incorrect torque sequence distorts the engine block, and that changes the line bore of the engine resulting in main bearing/camshaft bearing wear. The $64,000 question from there is, does the resulting wear end up causing the engine to actually fail? Sometimes it does, and sometimes it does not. Lastly, stroke length plays a role in piston slap issues. The longer the stroke, the more often a piston skirt has to be shortened for clearance issues. Cylinder block deck height and other design issues can also impact piston design. The longer that the skirts can be, the less likely it is that piston slap is likely to occur. Although think about it, the longer the skirts, the greater the piston mass and you start impacting engine efficiency due to inertial, and frictional losses. Plus you can impact RPM and horsepower. It's all an intricate dance that even the manufactures are not going to be perfect at every time. That's why we have tolerances, and some things (noises) are allowable even if they are not completely desireable.

When a shop posts a help request similar to what is above, the normal reply is to tell them to substitute a known good technician. VBG... Test this and change that is not how to diagnose and repair a problem like this, well, by now you probably realize that because it simply doesn't work. Now sure there are times that this method does work, and occasionally you don't even spend a fortune doing it. But as a pro, you'd fail so often you would not last as a technician. A "noid" light is not an accurate test of the systems ability to turn the injectors on. The injectors initially start to draw current at such a level that if they were allowed to stay turned on long enough they would each draw twenty amps+ of current. To prevent overheating the injectors the computer uses what is called a peak and hold system. How it works is one transistor (also referred to as a "driver") turns on and starts to open the injector. Once a sufficient current flow is reached, a second transistor turns on that has a resistor in series with it, the first transistor turns off and that limits the current flow to around 1.8 amps. The "peak" part of the voltage waveform causes the injector to open, and the hold portion allows the injector to remain open long enough to dispense the right amount of fuel. A noid light will flash with as little as 1ma, or .001 amps. This type of testing has tricked just about everyone who relies on it at least once. The right way is to measure the current flow with a low amps probe an an oscilloscope. You can also use the scope to monitor the ground side of the injector to watch for both drivers signatures, and their inductive kick on turn off which is an indicator of the strength of the magnetic field that was created when the computer turned the injector on. Now just because current is flowing that does not mean that the injectors physically opened, nor does having fuel pressure guarantee there is fuel at the injectors under sufficient pressure to be injected into the engine. There are screens on the injectors themselves that serve as a last defense filters, as well as there is usually an inlet screen to the throttle body just inside of the fuel inlet nut. Once you prove that electrically the injectors should be opening, by measuring the current flow with them connected, and/or measuring their inductive kick. Plus you re-confirm that there is fuel pressure, AND volume. Then you have proven that problem is inside the throttle body, and you will need to take it apart to find out what is going on.

If you have the owner's manual, there should be directions in there on how to get the old bulb out, as well as exactly which model of bulb you need to replace it with. You also can go to your FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store), tell them you have an '05 Blazer, and they can look up which bulb you need. Generally, you will have a bulb holder which either screws into or locks into the back of the headlight itself. It may be kinda tough to get in there unless you move something else a bit. Two words of advice: 1) Don't touch the bulb! Oils from your skin (or grime from the engine, for that matter) will severely reduce the life of the bulb. And 2) Don't buy those stupid blue bulbs. They may look spiffy, but they don't provide as much usable light for you and they are harsh on the eyes of those who have to look at your headlights. I've had good experience with Sylvania's "extended range" or whatever bulbs. They're a strong, clear white.