Haha Patrick, I can picture exactly you, driving...sounds like me when I'm in a hurry. On Sunday after church. When it seems like every person on the whole entire planet is out for a leisure drive with ALL WEEK to get home. On drivers in a hurry: The other day I had one of those "I have to get somewhere" drivers behind me, and who knows?--maybe she was late for a hair appointment or something...Who am I to judge? She came screeching up to the four-way stop sign where I beat her to the stop. I went ahead of her, because...I beat her to the stop. She made gestures like she definitely wished I was still at home. Then, the whole mile into town on this 35 mph street (I'm doing 40-41, my max--I hate tickets--plus there are like TEN CARS in front of me, also all doing 40, so where am I supposed to go??), she's freaking out, rightuponmybumper, screaming soundlessly (from my viewpoint anyway), waving her hands around, yanking on and frazzing out her hair, and making these claw-fingered "I'm going to scratch your eyes out" gestures in the general direction of the whole line of traffic. I just laughed. She looked like she was ready to blow a gasket, poor child. They really shouldn't let teenagers drive...She looked about 16.

I put a new Briggs 16 HP cast iron engine (Model 326437) in our 1971 or 2 Gilson. Did this in 1983, and installed an hour meter at the same time. The engine now has well over 1000 hours and just this summer began burning oil. On taking it apart, the valves and valve seats were still excellent, the bore showed almost no wear, and the crankshaft connecting rod journal looks good and is within the Briggs' manual reject limits. The piston was the main sufferer. It has an eroded top land near the exhaust valve side. I've ordered a new standard size piston, connecting rod, and a set of very pricey chromium plated piston rings. These are no longer sold by Briggs, but I found set from a parts supplier. When the engine was new I added an oil filter and have used Mobil 1 synthetic ever since, 20-50 weight. Also clean the air filter regularly, oil the foam band around the air filter, and change the oil when it looks dirty, which is often much more than the 25 hours recommended by Briggs. I believe that other engine brands would do as well, or better given equal care. My favorite engine is the little Kubota on our ZTR.

LOL @ this thread :) My "truck" is a red, 1995 Chevrolet Beretta (yeah, the 2 door model). It's paid for and runs great. And I can get an amazing amount of crap in there. Of course, I have serious truck envy! I'm just waiting for the F150 hybrid...though I fear I'll have a looonnnggg wait. :) This thread reminds me of a great story (sorry if it's long and slightly offtopic, but I thought you all would get a kick out of it): About 3 years ago I was in the parking lot of HomeDepot and trying to figure out how I was going to get these 3 4X5 sheets of lattice home. I had bought them thinking I could get them in the trunk or partway. (DUH!)I had just decided that I would use some rope to tie the wood to the roof, and put some spare clothes I happened to have in the car between the lattice and the car when the man in the large red dodge parked behind me came out. He said "Honey, do you need some help?" I tried to say no, but all he could do was giggle. Keep in mind it's like 830 on a Fri. night. He said, "if you don't live too far from here, I'll haul that stuff for you". Against my "better judgement" I accepted his offer--the whole way home I kept thinking--oh jeez, what is he gonna want in return? thinking the worst. We get to my house, he unloads the wood--won't let me help him --carries it up to the porch. And won't take anything but my profuse gratitude! Never got his name, wouldn't take gas $$, or a drink of water. That was the day I realized how incredibly neighborly and kind southerners can be. Where I'm from, that wouldn't happen in a bazillion years--or the guy would drive off with the wood, or come back & rob me blind. Someday when I have a truck--I hope I get to return the favor to some other hapless gardener! :)

"The service advisor - he told he's never seen it (radiator cracked contaminating tranny) happened in the 10 year he has been with the dealership" A few things about his comment. One it's quite possible he's never seen that for a couple of reasons. One is this happens more often with older vehicles than new ones, and typically older cars tend to frequent the aftermarket shops (independents). Secondly, while ten years of experience in most fields is enough to have seen just about everything, thats not the case with auto repair. I've been fixing cars for thirty years, and I see something new all the time. As far as the multiple visits, I would of had to see what was happening in order to give a fair opinion. One possibility that always comes to mind first is the fact that "flat rate" (thats the pay plan most dealer techs work under) rewards the techs for getting the car in, making (hopefully) correct snap decisions, doing the repair and getting the car out. Jobs that have an uncommon failure often result in the car having to come back because of poor or improper diagnostics. The funny thing is, if a tech takes to much time diagnosing the cars he works on, he wont be as productive as the dealer wants him to be and he ends up looking for another job. A certain degree of failure is inevitable under those situations, and it's always the techs fault. NOT a VBG Thats one of the reasons I quit working at dealerships almost twenty years ago, and went aftermarket. Now I own my shop, and nothing like that occurs here, I'll guarantee it. VBG. BTW The Toyota sludging problem has several causes. Extended oil change intervals being one of the biggest, but it turns out now that a lot more research is being done and they have found that few oil products on the market had the correct additive packages to permit the oils to even attempt to achieve the extended drain intervals people were trying to use. Some are blaming the oil companies for issuing approval ratings for oils that really didn't meet the manufactuers specs. Oh well, once again I'll say, my daughters Rav4 will never sludge up. Between doing 3mo/3000 mile services, and using top dollar conventional oil from IMO the most trusted auto parts corporation NAPA, I've always been using the correct oil for all of my customers vehicles. Yes it cost more, and I have to charge more for the service when I do it for my customers, but NONE of them are having gelling issues. Thats why they come here when it is cheaper somewhere else.