***"Also when I turn the flywheel slow counterclockwise it makes a sound like "phphphphssss" almost like a soda bottle when it is opened slowly. Sounds like something is draining."** Is this happening when the spark plugs are removed from the engine?? If yes....is the "phphphphssss" coming from the fuel pump??? ............................................. To define "UP" & "DOWN" as relating to piston movement, learn this: When a piston is moving TOWARD the cylinder head, the direction of movement is referred to as UPWARD, or UP. When the piston is moving AWAY FROM the cylinder head, it is referred to as DOWNWARD or DOWN. This applies to all reciprocating engines regardless of the engine configuration. Just remember that the terms are for one specific cylinder at a time, no matter the total number of cylinders the engine has, or which direction they may be pointing (clock position). ...................................................... With both cylinder heads removed, turn the flywheel while watching either of the pistons. As you turn the flywheel, is this piston moving in its cylinder (meaning: traveling upward or downward). Turn the flywheel until it reaches the point of "abrupt stop". Now, watch the same piston while you turn the flywheel in the opposite direction. Does this piston move in the opposite direction JUST AS SOON AS YOU TURN THE OPPOSITE WAY? or does it seem that the flywheel rotates a few degrees before the piston begins to move in the cylinder? Continue turning the flywheel until it abruptly stops again. Now, watch the same piston as you turn the flywheel again in the direction you first turned it. Does the piston begin to move in the opposite direction immediately? or does the flywheel seem to rotate a few degrees before the piston begins to move? Go to the second cylinder and repeat the steps above for that cylinder. What we are doing in this "test" is determining whether the piston, connecting rod, and crankshaft are still intact (I only mean they are still connected together as an assembly). Due to the "1.25 turn" you cite, I expect you to find that one of the pistons will have a "dead zone" of movement in its travel. This is when the flywheel rotates a few degrees without the piston moving. The "dead zone" of movement will be at the max UP and max DOWN positions. If you find this to be true, the connecting rod is very likely "burned up" from loss of lubrication due to the oil being thinned out by gasoline contamination. If you find the "dead zone" of piston travel, you will want to compare the piston travel distance of one cylinder to the other. Using a ruler or other device, record the depth (position of piston at its max DOWN point and at its max UP point) of each piston and cylinder. Measure from the top edge of the cylinder to the top of piston. Do this for both cylinders and compare the depth figures. The cylinder having the lower value (shorter travel) will be the affected cylinder. If you detect a "dead zone" of piston travel on BOTH CYLINDERS, that means BOTH connecting rods are likely burned up. In this case do the following. Turn the fly wheel until one of the pistons reaches the max UP point for that piston. When it is at max UP, measure distance from top of cylinder to top of piston (or mark the cylinder at the top edge of piston with a crayon or pencil) Next,turn the flywheel in the opposite direction until the piston "just begins to move". When this piston begins to move, stop turning the flywheel. Using a non metallic tool (hammer HANDLE, piece of broom handle, or a dowel), push downward on this piston (hold the flywheel stationary when doing this). The piston will move in the cylinder and then stop. Measure the distance the piston moved in the cylinder and record that. Repeat the steps on the opposite cylinder. .......................................................... While each piston is in its DOWN position, inspect the cylinder walls. Are the cylinder walls nice and shiny, and smooth with a glossy surface appearance? Or are they full of rough, scratchy looking grooves that run up and down the cylinder walls? Do the above "tests" and report back with your findings. .............................................. To respond to the post by johntommybob about the possibility of the starter causing the engine to "abruptly stop" when it is being turned. Consider that the drive pinion gear on the starter is very small and has few teeth compared to the engine flywheel ring gear. This means that the armature (rotor) of the starter must turn many revolutions in order to turn the flywheel one revolution. Conversely, when turning the flywheel by hand, one revolution (or 1.25 revolution) of the flywheel would cause the starter drive pinion gear to rotate many revolutions. If the "binding" or "abrupt stop" cited in this case were due to a locked up starter, I would think that the flywheel would be "un-turnable" at all. AND it would require that the starter drive pinion gear be "stuck into" the ring gear as well. Since the starter might be burned up (remember the smoke), it would not hurt to go ahead and take the starter off the engine anyway. I just don't expect to find the starter as the cause of the "abrupt stop" symptom seen here.

Thanks for the thoughts, I think it is not resource overload, and I'm using only the XP home firewall, pretty transparent I understand. I'm running on a recent Gateway Notebook, in this case and on a recent Dell Desk Top in the other, the DT has no problems. I will admit my Gateway does have some difficulties on Com1 (simulated via USB, of course). I'm still using dial-up and it uses Com1, as does my Palm Z22 sync connection. I can not run both at the same time for that reason. Further, and Gateway did send me a prepaid shipping carton to send the Notebook back for repair as the dial-up will establish only one connection per boot. When I hang up the phone line, I have to reboot to get it to work again. I'm about to go DSL here and decided not to send the Notebook in, loss of data and a lot of other concerns being top of my reason for living with the Com1/Dial-up problem. I suppose this could reflect back into my new MS Office problem The installation of MS Office was a purchase DVD. The Notebook did come with Office 2007 ready to install, but I uninstalled that some time back as I was using Open Office, need commercial use. So, Gateway believes the machine has enough resources to run Office 2007. I can take a look to see what's going on with the resources when in the stuck-state. As noted, Control/Alt/Del will not allow me to kill Word, for example, also I note Work knows it is in trouble and tries to send an error report to MS, I think it sometimes succeeds sometimes doesn't. The only way I can get Work (or PP, or Excel) to release is to hang up the Dial up. I may try a reinstall, but am reluctant as I have still to update Office via the Dial-up, about two hours of download time.

Yah. There is something wrong with the web pages lately. I've have lost the right side scroll bar too, and not always with ads. I've had to excuse the page and reload it sometimes more than oce to correct the problem. I'd see the bar and then it would suddently disappear. I think it was a bad web page design. Here's a tip that helps protect you from getting hung up from a bad web page. When you wish to read a post, do it in a new window. Instead of left clicking on the post, right click and a drop down menu appears; Choose "open in new window". Once you have finished with the current window, close it by clicking in the "X" box or by right clicking on its icon in the tray and choosing "close". After you toss the current, temporary window away, the older window will show. Using this technique will allow you to toss away a bad page and return to where you were without having to restart the "That Home Site" page again.

Load shedding/demand management is not a new idea. It's certainly an appropriate strategy when user demand for electricity exceeds transmission capability--irrespective of the cost of electricity or what state you happen to live in. Whether it's appropriate for a particular user to volunteer to participate in a load shedding program requires them to weigh a number of factors including their lifestyle and health needs and the performance of their particular home. Bumping a temperature setpoint up or down in a well-insulated home, for example, will have different implications than a poorly insulated one. Shedding the hot water heating load will have different implications for a large family or a single person and for a system which has a large versus a small tank. As for me, I'd rather have the set-point of my air conditioner raised a couple of degrees than the alternatives if the alternatives are a loss of a power grid or rolling blackouts. But, that's a personal choice.