DAY 1

I have to replace my 16 year old Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.2L V8 engine. It no longer passes emission testing and smokes like a mosquito fogger!

Being this engine swap-out project will take several days I’m going to post each day’s progress below with a DAY Number heading marking each day’s work. Unfortunately this will not be a full tutorial but rather just some eye-candy photos and progress blurbs. You will learn what is “generally” involved in replacing a motor and you may realize it is something you could do someday instead of junking out a nice vehicle and taking on 5 to 6 years of new car payments.

In the past I normally pull my motors, tear them down and replace and rebuild as need be. But that takes a ton of time so for my Jeep I decided to order a fully remanufactured “long block” from Engine House in Phoenix, AZ. They have a great rating with the BBB and everyone I asked recommended them.

Below is a photo of a remanufactured “short block” which does not have cylinder heads installed. With a short block you would have to use your old heads or get new cylinder heads and install them yourself.

I chose to use a new “long block” like seen below which has new cylinder heads already installed. 

If you need new cylinder heads its cheaper to just buy a long block, plus its a big time saver not having to put the cylinder heads on yourself.

READ —>:

A project like this, done yourself and done right, will cost about $3,000 for the remanufactured motor, worn out parts, sealants and fluids. The remanufactured engine should come with all the gaskets you need for the complete replacement, but you should have some engine assembly silicone sealant, thread sealant and thread lock tight on hand.

DO NOT trade in your old engine until you have fully assembled and tested your replacement engine. You may find you need a bolt, stud, adapter or even an oil filter plate from the old block in order to assemble the new engine, so KEEP that old engine until the job is done!

Let’s get to replacing the engine. Here is a quick photo of the motor compartment before starting. Actually I took a dozen photos from all angles as well as close-ups of the wiring and hoses. I will be labeling everything as I disassemble but having tons of photos comes in very handy later on when trying to remember the routing of everything.
 

In the below photo the hood is off as well as the radiator overflow reservoir, battery, battery tray, air intake and air filter box.

My nephew, Andrew, is helping when he can which is a great opportunity for him to learn how to replace a motor.  Not too many young people get to learn about engines anymore, which I find strange being we can’t do anything in our lives without vehicles anymore.

The front plastic grill cover is off as well as the top radiator retention bracket and fan cowling.

Gone is the fan belt, fan clutch, fan, alternator, radiator and some linkage to the throttle body.

If you look close at the below side photo you will see 4, maybe more, yellow tie-on labels on some cables and other parts.  These are great labels when you’re taking so much off at once.  You can tie them to wires, hoses, parts and even poke the string through the side of a Ziploc bag and tie the bag to the part with nuts and bolts in the bag. 

This not only keeps everything together but I number each label sequentially and even added some quick notes to the label that maybe important for reassembly like; which length bolts go in which holes, torque values or just a page number in the service manual showing the torque and torque sequence. 

I also keep a notebook on the side with each number I used, what the part was and any special details not on the label like wire routing or a file name of a special photo showing complicated routing or installation sequence details.

Take your time and don’t get in a rush with the disassembly! Good labeling and documentation will give you a 100% accurate roadmap for your reassembly later, even if days or weeks pass and the parts get shoved all about in your garage.

I assembled the shop crane at this point because I used it to get the remanufactured motor out of my truck and onto a “roll-about” engine dolly. I have had this crane for over 10 years but you can buy one at Harbor Freight for under $200, which is less than what I paid 10 years ago .  I store my crane in the back of a shed all disassembled into bits that hang on the back wall on some pegs.  Storing a shop crane like this takes up no space at all and it’s ready for work in mere moments.

You can also see parts of my engine stand on the garage floor.  I will not need the engine stand until I pull the old motor with the crane at which time I will transfer the motor from the crane directly to the engine stand for further engine disassembly.

This is the remanufactured 5.2L V8 motor I’m going to be putting in shortly.

DAY 2:

I had to finish building a computer for my sister today so I only had time for 3 hours tonight but here is the progress.  The AC is off to one side, no need to open the AC system to pull the motor.

The power steering pump is off to the other side, no need to disconnect or drain this either. Sweet

My nephew is removing the lower radiator hose but you can also see that the following have been removed: upper radiator hose, AC and alternator bracket, exhaust heat shields and some wiring which has been labeled.

Below is the final photo for the night.  The idler tension pulley and bracket have been removed along with the main power harness assembly from the battery to the starter and alternator.  The throttle body has been removed and it’s wires and hoses labeled.

Tomorrow should be a more productive day.  I will try to post another update tomorrow evening. 

DAY 3:

Once again I spent most of my day doing something other than working on my Jeep.  It was my last day of vacation so I spent it playing video games with my 6yr old son. My nephew did come over after his shift at the movie theater around 7pm.  We worked on the Jeep from 8pm to about 11pm.

As you can see in the below photo the top of the engine is ready for pulling.  The main electrical control harness is removed and labeled, all vacuum lines and hoses have been removed, and the fuel lines are disconnected as well as the fuel rails and fuel injectors.

We still have some work under the Jeep before the engine is fully ready to be lifted out such as removing the starter, flywheel shield, flywheel to torque convert bolts, exhaust pipes and transmission cooling brackets.  I will add a C-clamp to prevent the torque convert from coming out of the transmission.

We can then remove the front engine mounts, slightly lower the engine with the shop crane, support the transmission with a transmission jack and unbolt the transmission from the engine.  At this point the engine should slide forward and come up and over the side of the Jeep.

My nephew and I were debating on how best to connect the shop crane to the engine.  We didn’t get any help from the Haynes service manual and I also have the official Chrysler Service manual for this 1994 Jeep, which is like 6 inches thick.  Neither covers any details on actually pulling the motor with a shop crane.  They both say to do it but not how to prep and connect. 

Normally this isn’t a big deal. Once you get all the major wiring out of the way you just connect a chain to the back and front of the engine and then connect the shop crane to the chain and pull. The problem with this approach for this vehicle is that the back of the engine is 8 inches back and under the top of the engine compartment, kind of like one sees with a van engine but only 8 inches instead of 30+ inches.  These 8 inches are a big deal because if we connect a chain to the back of the motor the angle the chain must take to get to the hook on the shop crane and to clear the fuel system would require it to go through the upper back frame of the engine compartment.

We hence took more stuff off than we would have liked such as the fuel rails and injectors.  Doing this extra disassembly should give us access to put on a very short chain which would just clear the frame.

For fun we are also exploring pulling the engine from the intake manifold using the 4 throttle body bolts.  We took a 1/4 inch circular steal plate and punched 4 holes in it using the plasma cutting torch and the old throttle body gasket as a template.  In the below photo you can see it looks great.  

Tomorrow we can weld a bracket to the top of the circular plate and blow a hole in it for the shop crane hook. Then I have to get some new shorter high strength bolts to bolt this plate to the top of the intake manifold. 

I’m not sold on lifting the engine from the intake manifold just yet so if I can get the short chain on from the front to the back of the engine block I will do that instead. Either way the plate will still be quite nice to keep junk from dropping into the intake port.

DAY 4:

A week has passed since I last worked on my Jeep. I was just too busy with other activities like; piano, taekwondo classes and general playing around with my kids.

The next phase of this job requires we raise the vehicle so we can drop the exhaust pipes and remove other components from underneath. Normally one can just disconnect the exhaust pipes at the exhaust headers but I knew I had to also replace the catalytic converter (CAT).  So in this photo you see I have the back passenger side of the Jeep raised up for access to the exhaust pipes and CAT.

The CAT was quite a bear to get out.  After removing the U-clamps on either side of the CAT and some tail pipe hangers it wouldn’t come apart.  That was kind of expected so I followed the traditional approach. I fired up my welding torch and heated the junctions cherry red one at a time then pulled my heart out.  This didn’t work for me because the joints cooled by the time I could turn off the torch and get into a safe place to pull.  It was time for some team work.  I got my 18yr old daughter, Veronica, to pull while I heated the joints and it all came apart easy.

As you can see in the below photo there is nothing in my old CAT.  That’s not good, you shouldn’t be able to see clean through a CAT.  I last passed emission testing by only a hair so a new CAT will help come next emission testing cycle.

My 19yr old nephew, Andrew (a.k.a AJ), came over in the afternoon and was able to help for the remainder of the day.  It sure is super handy having extra help.  My voice is gone today because I spent many hours explaining what all the car parts we took off do and what and why I was going everything.

In this photo you can see the exhaust pipes have been dropped away from the engine and in the background you can see a bit of my transmission jack stand (red & black with the chain) which will be used to support the weight of the transmission once it’s unbolted from the engine.

I get a bit safety crazy sometimes as you can see by the 5 jack stands and transmission jack under the vehicle.  I don’t like being under a vehicle unless I know I’m super safe.

Transmission jacks are very handy for such work but one could just carefully support the transmission with blocks or simple jack stands.  I really don’t recommend that being these transmission jacks are much safer and they are not expensive. I got this one at Harbor Freight for ~$89 on sale about 4 years ago.

My transmission jack has controller gears built into the head of the unit which you use to adjust the level and angle of the transmission.  These controls make easy work when it comes time to realign the transmission with the engine during reassembly.

I didn’t pull the motor by the intake manifold as you can see in the below photos.  My Uncle recommended against it and it just didn’t seem like a good idea. 

I wanted to fabricate a custom bracket out of 1/2 inch thick bar that could be bolted to the back of the block and would be bent up and out toward the front clearing the framing.  That didn’t workout because once I got the bar bracket in place I couldn’t get a wrench behind it to install the bolt. 

My nephew, Andrew, championed the more traditional idea of just lashing a chain overtop of the intake manifold from the front to the back of the block. Turns out his straight forward idea solved all our problems quite elegantly. My Uncle also recommend just using a chain but I didn’t think there would be enough clearance for the chain unless I removed the intake manifold.  Turns out I was just wrong.

I don’t pull motors very often and normally prefer to use an engine balancer with my shop crane which was not going to work without my custom bracket approach.  If I could have made the bracket idea work I would have been able to pull the motor with the fuel rails and injectors in place. It was a bit more work getting the fuel components off but that’s ok being the simple chain idea made for easy pickings.

The motor is OUT and resting a bit of it’s weight on some jack stands and blocks of wood for the night.  I have to get some new longer high straight bolts before I can mount the engine to my engine stand you see to the right.

Some diagnostics show where my annoying little engine oil leak was coming from all these years.  Oil was spewing out of the electrical connector of the oil pressure sending unit.  Go figure that, I guess I have to order another part.  

And my endless coolant leak was coming from this rusted out coolant plug on the back of the motor between the block and the flywheel.

Tomorrow I will work on tearing down the engine and starting the reassembly of all the bits onto the new long block.

DAY 5:

Today I got started taking the old engine apart.  I didn’t really start until around 7 pm and only worked until 10pm so not too much progress this evening. 

I got my new grade 8 bolts with the right length and threads to mount my engine to the engine stand.  I figured I could do this myself before my nephew arrived.  I was wrong in two ways. 1: It takes two people when the engine is hanging sideways on the crane.  One person has to hold the engine at an angle while a second person bolts up the engine stand to the back of the engine.  2: My 1000lb engine stand just couldn’t bear the load. 

This 5.2L magnum V8 fully assembled is just too much. My little orange engine stand was clearly going to buckle under the weight so we left the crane chained up to take half the load for now. 

Turn your head and cough! Sorry for that but with a photo like this somebody had to say something.

I do like to use these nitrile gloves because they are resistant to oil, fuel and other chemicals. You can’t really tell you’re wearing them and it makes for super fast cleanup when you’re done for the day. Their cheap too; ~$6 for a box of 100.

I’m either going to weld up some kind of cradle support or buy a new 2000lb engine stand. I like the later solution being I got my Harbor Freight flier today which had the 2000lb engine stand on sale for $99 , plus the flier came with a 20% discount for one item.  I know Harbor Freight stuff can be junk but if you use their stuff only infrequently and with care you can get along fine.  In a way their stuff pays for itself if you can do just one job.  If you get two or three jobs it’s like printing money compared to the thousands of dollars you can spend on good tools.  There are some tools I will not buy at Harbor Freight but those are normally tools I need to work every time and for years and years.

On to other problems, there are alwasy other problems.    I had one bolt on my exhaust manifold that wouldn’t budge even after soaking overnight with penetrating oil. I rounded the bolt’s head off trying to get it out. 

What was my solution?  MIG weld a big fat 3/4 nut onto the rounded off bolt.  AJ started this job by grinded a clean surface on the head.

Then he test fits an old rusted up junk 3/4 inch nut.

I manned the MIG welder. If anybody is going to crack or warp my exhaust manifold it might as well be the guy who would have to replace it.

Here is a short video of the welding job.

Job well done! AJ gets the stubborn bolt off with ease.

My 6yr old son Alex shows everyone that the exhaust shield is now off.  I guess I have to go shopping for a new exhaust manifold bolt.  How can anybody do this for a living, I’m always out shopping for parts.

WOW! We finally got some work done.  In the below photo you might notice, behind the intake manifold, AJ has removed the sparkplug wires, distributor cap, rotor cap, distributor pickup coil, oil pressure sending unit, EGR valve and the pipe routed from the exhaust manifold to the EGR valve.  Here he is removing the exhaust manifolds after a good soaking in penetrating oil.

To my surprise there were no exhaust manifold gaskets.  I don’t get this because both my service manuals state you have to use gaskets, but there were none to be found on this engine. I kind of thought this block was 100% factory original being I bought this Jeep like 9 years ago when it had fewer than 70k miles and from the original owner.  It shouldn’t have had any major engine work where the exhaust headers would have had to come off.  I will have to make some phone calls to Chrysler later to see if this is optional or something.

The engine is starting to trim-out so it won’t be long now.

Well that’s it for tonight. I might not be getting back to this project until next weekend but if you’re following this live you might check in around mid week.

DAY 6:

I have almost nothing for today. It’s Friday and after work I took a nap and then watched a movie.  It wasn’t a total waste of a day. My wife put together my new 1 ton engine stand while I was at work (see below). She can cook, clean and assemble an engine stand, sweet! Of course she does have a PhD so she does a lot more than just cook and clean. In fact she will be back teaching this fall, like in one week, so I have to finish the Jeep or I’m going to be taking the bus to work

Best thing about this new stand is it cost me almost nothing.  This 1 ton stand was on sell for $99 at Harbor Freight, I had a coupon for another 20% off one item and they also gave me back 100% on my old 1/2 ton stand, which I had for over 10 years, being it was not meeting its 1000lb rating. I swear, people complain about Harbor Freight’s crap and a lot of it is crap but I wouldn’t be able to afford to do half the stuff I do if it weren’t for their cheap tools.

Around 10pm I thought I best mount the engine to the new stand but once again I have to get some new even longer high straight bolts.  The face plate and standoffs add another inch so my old bolts are too short.

Other than that the only update would be that I called Chrysler and they confirmed that the exhaust manifold gaskets are optional on this vehicle and should only be used if there is warping. Wow, I never heard of that before.

DAY 7:

Wow! What a waste of a day. Well that is not entirely true, but still.  Alex and I had Taekwondo class in the morning after which we all went out for lunch.  That wasn’t bad but then I started my hunt for longer bolts to mount the engine to my new stand.  Turns out the auto parts stores I normally buy large grade 8 bolts don’t sell anything larger than 4 inches and I needed 4.5 inches.  I drove place to place for about 2 hours before finally trying the True Value hardware store. True Value has just about any size bolt and nut you could want. I don’t know why I always forget about simple hardware stores.  I guess I’m so acclimated to the large home improvement department stores I forget that the little Mom & Pop hardware stores still carry all the hard to find stuff.

Then things got worse. Turns out my new engine stand has front legs that splay out and so do the legs on my shop crane.  This means my engine stand can’t get close enough to my shop crane in order to mount the engine.  The damn legs between the two block each other. I thought I could use my two floor jacks to just jack up the front legs of the shop crane but then the jacks are in the way.  Andrew and I then tried to block-up the front legs so we could move the jacks away but as you can see in the below photo there was still noway the legs of the engine stand could squeeze by the blocks. 

In these photos it looks like You might be able to move the bricks out to the edges of the shop crane legs and squeak by, but when we tried that the legs were too unstable and would have slid off the bricks when mounting the engine.

Then I remembered I had saved some homemade adjustable welding cart legs I made for an old cart I don’t have anymore.  I found the adjustable legs and sure enough they fit the bill.  Andrew chopped off about 15 inches from the two old leg brackets and we then drilled and bolted the adjustable legs to the shop crane legs.  Being these adjustable legs fit on the outside of the shot crane legs they allowed the engine stand legs to squeak by with an inch to spare.

The adjustable legs could have been a couple of inches longer in height but nothing some bricks on the outer edge couldn’t fix.

Now everything fits!

Once the engine and engine stand was pulled away from the shop crane I just used my air wrench to lower the adjustable legs and move the crane out of the way.  These adjustable legs will have to come off right before we put the engine back in the Jeep because these threaded rods will get in the way when we slide the shop crane legs under the Jeep.

There, the engine is ready to be disassembled. This new 1 ton engine stand is having no problems holding up this big engine.

The only other thing I got done today was cleaning parts in my parts washer. Not really anything to take photos of but you get the idea, all the parts have to be cleaned. When Andrew comes over tomorrow morning we will start breaking down the old motor, cleaning the oil pan, valve covers and intake.  Then start on the reassembly with the new long block.

DAY 8:

I’m late posting day 8. Day 8 was actual last Sunday and it’s now Saturday so very late would be a better statement.  We did get a lot done.  In the below photos you can see we have removed (water pump, thermostat, thermostat housing, main pulley, harmonic balancer and the valve covers).

Now the air intake manifold is off.

The engine rolls over nicely with the engine stand to give easy access to the bottom. Time to remove the oil pan.

The oil pan is now off and here I’m using a seal puller to remove the front crank shaft oil seal from the timing cover.

And the seal is out.

The pipe sticking up in the back is the siphon pipe for the oil pump.

This pipe and screen sit down in the bottom of the oil pan so the pump can suck up oil and push it throughout the engine at about 40~80psi.

When you rebuild or replace a motor you should always put in a new oil pump.  They don’t cost much and you don’t want to take everything apart again just to replace an old oil pump. A new oil pump normally comes with the long block anyway but if not then order one from the dealer; no auto parts store parts PLEASE!

The oil pump is off. It was mounted to the rear crank shaft bracket.  A small shaft comes down to the oil pump from the cam shaft through the rear crank shaft bracket.. A gear on the cam turns this oil pump shaft that in turn turns the oil pump. The top of this same shaft connects to the distributor and maintains your engine spark plug firing timing in synchronisation with your cam shaft. Sorry, that might be getting a bit too deep for this blog posting.

The motor is right site up again and I have taken off the timing cover.  With the timing cover off you can see the timing chain and timing sprockets. The large sprocket is connected to the cam shaft and the small lower sprocket is connected to the main crank shaft. This chain keeps the cam shaft and crank shaft in exact synchronisation.

This is a back view of the motor on the engine stand.  It is now all stripped down to a “long block”.  This is all the further you need to go in the disassembly because we are swapping this old “long block” with a new remanufactured “long block”.

This is the pile of parts which are all bagged and tagged.  I have to spend a day or so cleaning most of these parts before I can start the reassembly.

I have my 20gal parts cleaner running and I have started cleaning the oil pan.  All the gaskets on all the parts must get cleaned off and all the bolts and nuts need to be cleaned and brushed. Everything needs a good degreasing.

Here are some tips for parts cleaning. 

I use some strong detergent parts cleaner which you can get at an auto parts store.  I don’t dilute the detergent but I do soak the detergent jugs in a sink of super hot water for 30 minutes before pouring it into my parts washer.  The hot detergent cleans and degreases the parts much better than room temp detergent. 

Also, as you see in the below photo, I have added some used anti freeze jugs filled with hot water to help raise the level of the detergent in my parts washer without diluting the detergent’s concentration.  This saves money on detergent and the hot water in the jugs help keep the detergent warm longer.

For super dirty parts like throttle bodies and crusty bolts I soak them overnight in a big can of carburetor cleaner.  Carburetor cleaner is very expensive and you have to wear very thick gloves when using it but it can clean parts like nothing else, if you let it soak overnight.

DAY 9:

Another late post, these photos are from last Monday and today is already Saturday again! We really didn’t do anything productive on day 9 because all we did was further teardown the motor.  Like I said in day 8 we could stop the teardown at the “long block” but Andrew wanted to see the inside, I wanted to see if I could identify why I was burning oil so bad and the engine refurbishing house said they would appreciate it if we completely tore down the block as long as we labeled all the parts with the location they came from.

The first to come off was the heads.

There is some carbon and burnt oil deposits on the passenger side pistons.

But on the drivers side piston 7 was a dirty oily mess! Yuck.  It looked like the head gasket was blown at the top allowing piston 7 to pressurize the crankcase as well as suck oil from under the intake manifold where the cam and pushrods are located. I’m not an expert at this but I’m thinking this was my oil problem.

Photo of Andrew holding the last piston to come out.  Actually we took the pistons out when the bock was upside down so this is more of a photo-op for the scrapbook.

Here AJ shows how easy it is to just pickup a v8 block once it is striped down.  It isn’t hard to move around at all and that’s a good thing being we have to move this aside and make room for the new “long block”.

The new “long block” comes with fully assembled heads but just for the learning and investigation Andrew takes all the valve and valve springs out of the old heads.  We put the valves, springs and retainer clips in separate labeled Ziploc bags. These heads where overdue for service so it’s a good thing they’re being replaced.

Onto the NEW!  Andrew and I chained up the new “long block” to the engine balancer which is hooked to the shop crane. I’m steadying the engine and engine balancer with my hand as AJ pumps up the shop crane.

The balancer will make it much easier to align the block with the engine stand.

That’s it for day 9.  The new “long block” is on the engine stand and ready for all the old bits to be attached.  I still have a lot of parts to clean and I will clean all my tools before starting the assembly.  You don’t want to get dirt in a new motor so you MUST clean all your tools and workspace before starting the assembly.

Today is Saturday and Alex and I have Taekwondo testing for our brown belts.  Once the testing is over, around 1pm, I will get back to this project and I hope to post day 10 later tonight. 

DAY 10:

For cleaning the really crusted parts I soak them over night in “Chem-Dip”.  This is a Carburetor and parts cleaner that comes in 1 gal cans. This stuff is not cheap being each can costs $25.  I had to soak some big parts so I needed 4 cans. There goes another $100, but you can reuse it for years.

I soak stuff in large plastic tubs keeping groups of bolts for the water pump, timing cover, exhaust and such in separate baskets.

Here I’m using Chem-Dip to soak and clean the intake manifold. What a crusted up mess!  I had to use all different size hose brushes to clean out all the EGR galleys, fuel ports and you name it.  This must be the most complicated intake manifold I have ever worked on.

After the Chem-Dip and for all general dirty and oily parts I clean things in my parts washer with a concentrated parts cleaning detergent from AutoZone. 

The detergent works much better if it’s hot so I soak the jugs of detergent in a sink of 125F tap water.  This brings the temp of the detergent up to ~120F without diluting it.  If it cools off when using it just drain it back into the jugs and repeat the heating process.  The hot detergent saves a ton of time and a lot of scrubbing.

This detergent is not a solvent but still the fumes are nauseating so wear a respirator and thick gloves.

Now that all the parts are clean it is time to scrap all the old gasket material off.  It turns out this was the most time consuming job.  I had to use about 100 razorblades and work about 1/4 inch at a time on the aluminum parts.  The old gasket material was baked into the aluminum and I had to work very slowly with very sharp blades to prevent scratching the mating surfaces.  The steel and cast-iron parts were much easier being you could just use a wire brush.

This is the pile of parts to clean. In this photo we have about 1/2 cleaned up.  Remember to keep the labels and baggies tied to the parts after cleaning.

I took off each fuel injector, cleaned and added new upper and lower o-rings with a bit of clean motor oil for lubricant.

I put a thin film of engine assembly silicon sealant on the water pump before sticking the gasket to the part.  This helps hold the gasket in place during assembly.  Do not add silicon sealant to both sides or you’re never going to get the parts apart in the future.  But if you have some pitted or scratched areas on the mating surfaces you could put a thin layer down in those areas to insure the gasket does not leak.

Here the timing cover gasket is stuck to the timing cover and a clamp just to keep the gasket in place while the silicon sets up a bit.

Follow your manual carefully during the assembly process so you know what torques to use and in what sequence.  You will be instructed to put thread sealant or thread lock on curtain bolts.  In this photo we put thread sealant on the bolts for the timing cover and water pump.  The book didn’t say this was necessary but I could tell by looking at the parts that the bolts would be in the water jacket or exposed to oil galleys so I knew to add some thread sealant.

In this photo the timing cover, front main oil seal and water pump is now on.

Andrew is holding the intake manifold, upside down, showing the newly assembled plenum pan and gasket.  For this engine you MUST use new bolts for the intake plenum pan or you risk the old bolts vibrating out and dropping into the cam!  I think I paid ~$5 for new OEM bolts from the dealer.

Andrew is test fitting the intake manifold, but after the test fit we had to add all the gaskets and silicon sealant.  You MUST follow the manual carefully here so you get the sealant in the right spots and torque everything down correctly.

Andrew is installing the distributor. At this point make sure your engine is in the compression cycle at top dead center on number 1 cylinder and the distributor timing gear is in the correct place so the distributor rotor will be pointing at the number 1 spark plug in the distributor cap.  Just follow the book on how to set the distributor timing gear and everything will workout just fine. Of course newer engines don’t have distributors so you will have to follow your service manual for any engine assembly timing procedures.

The harmonic balancer and main pulley is now on.

I put on the water pump to intake manifold bypass hose and Andrew torques down the valve covers to spec.

In this photo I have put on the water pump to heater core bypass pipe and the radiator raiser pipe on the intake manifold.  Andrew is putting on the exhaust manifolds and sparkplug boot shields.

Nice job Andrew!  The sparkplug wires, EGR and new valve cover grommets are now installed.

That’s it for today and the Engine is ready to be craned back into the Jeep for final assembly!

DAY 11 (last day!):

It is time to put the engine back in the Jeep.  This is the engine compartment the motor has to go back into.

My teenage assistant had to go back to college this week so my wife stepped in as a substitute assistant and helped lower the engine safely into place.

While Pam steadies the engine on the crane I bolt up the transmission to the engine from underneath.

The transmission is bolted to the engine and the engine mounts are on.  Pam is helping unbolt the chain which was used to lift the motor from the back end of the engine. She has smaller hands which help when the engine is crammed up against the fire wall like in my Jeep.

The engine is in and we are ready to reconnect all the wires, hoses, pumps and every thing else.   We had taken detailed and numbered notes when disassembling and we labeled all our parts and wires so we simply follow our documentation in reverse.  Easy peasy lemon squeeze.

First thing is to jack the Jeep up and connect the exhaust, starter and other parts that go on underneath.

Once the underneath work is done you lower the vehicle down and onto its tires. Then start the top assembly work. In this photo the fuel rail and injectors are on as well as the main control wire harness, exhaust heat shields and some mounting brackets.

Halfway done!  Now we have on the throttle body, AC, alternator, power steering pump, idlers and some radiator hoses.

The job is all done, except the hood. Time fire up this beast and see how we did.

Not so good.  I made one very poor decision along the way.  I chose to use the 16 year old water pump during the rebuild.  Dumb, dumb, dumb!  What was I thinking?!  I was thinking if it lasted 16 years it must be bullet proof.  Well the weak point in water pumps are the bearings.  This photo shows the backside of the old pump where you can see the impeller that pushes the water, coolant, around the engine.  The impeller and its shaft are on bearings and the bearing seals had failed and the pump was leaking coolant through the bearings.  This shows up as coolant leaking out of the front of the water pump at what is called a weep hole. If you see any coolant leaking from the weep hole in a water pump you have to replace the pump because the bearings will not last long if they are being washed in hot coolant.

I had to take off just enough parts to gain access to the water pump again and put on a new OEM pump from the dealer; no AutoZone junk here! There goes another $160.  Well it’s still cheaper than a new 4×4 Jeep Grand Cherokee by a long, long ways.

Now I’m done, again, and ready for another test.

It lives!  I finished my Jeep just in time to take it 300 miles across the deserts of Arizona chasing down a high altitude balloon payload launched by a group of electronics hackers I was helping.  We found the balloon payload and the Jeep worked marvelously. As of today I already have 600 miles on my new engine and have even completed the 500 mile break-in oil change.  Check back in 16 years for take II. Hehee.

Thanks for following along!  I hope you enjoyed the journey and learned a little about what is
involved in swapping out an old engine with a remanufactured long block. 

THE END!

Final cart modifications: Large plate steel top for MIG welding, bricks for oxygen-acetylene welding and firebox for plasma cutting.

Converted to oxygen-acetylene welding and plasma cutting:

Converted to MIG welding:

READ —>:

Links to some build materials:
  Large cart converted to welding cart.
  Small cart used for firebox.
  Heavy duty swivel locking wheels.

Steel sources:
I get new and scrap metal from American Metals Co. in Mesa, AZ and Industrial Metals Supply Co. in Phoenix, AZ. But if you need a small amount of material for a project you can get what you need at just about any home improvement center like Home Depot, Lowes or Ace Hardware but be prepared to pay a lot more at such stores.

Welding tools and supplies:
  Harbor Freight Tools
  Phoenix Welding Supply
  Welding Depot
  CyberWeld
  Welding Supply

Construction details:
The first modification is to the wheels. You want your cart to move in any direction without having to be a 3-point turn master. Change out the wheels with these 8” x 2” swivel casters with brakes. Yes, you want them to all have brakes because you don’t want to be hunting for a brake when a 100+ lb cart starts moving around. Also, if you have to start pounding on something you really want the cart to be solid.

Now you may have wheels that support the load but the thin sheet metal the bottom cart tray is made from will not!  Two 24″ x 7″ x 1/8 inch steeel plate will stiffen up the bottom of the cart. You could weld these casters to the plate but being you have to bolt the plate to the cart it’s best to drill and bolt everything together at once.

Here I’m pointing at the original wheel bolt holes so as you can see you will need to drill new holes for the larger wheels.

When you drill your new holes make sure you’re close enough to the edges so you can access the brake lever.

I wanted bricks laid out in the top tray for oxygen-acetylene welding but when I tried standard bricks they were too short to be level with the top and they also deformed the tin tray making a concave layer of bricks.  I needed to construct a stiff bed for the bricks so they would lay level.  As luck would have, it turns out 1/2″ x 1” tubing stacked crossway raises the brick to exactly level with the top rim of the cart.  I cut one set of 6 tubes 33” long and another set of 12 tubes 23” long then cross welded them into a grid. A Harbor Freight handheld band saw and a bench vice makes short work of the cuts.

The recycled chimney brick lay in 4 by 6 if you want to fill the whole bed. I know these are not firebrick but they work for now and I will replace them with firebrick someday, if I ever find a cheap source.

The cart is now ready for oxygen-acetylen welding.

I want this cart to double as my MIG welding cart too, so below you see a large 1/4″ thick 31″ x 33″ steel plate top which hangs from one side of the cart on some makeshift hinges. I got the large plate steel top as scrap from American Metals for $32.00 which is quite cheap.  If you call around to metal supply shops asking for scrap to use for a welding bench top you may also get lucky.

The hinge is constructed of some stacked tubing welded to the underside of the steel plate and a steel electrical conduit pipe bolted to the side of the cart with conduit clamps.

Make sure the stacked tubing is about 1/2” wider than the cart’s top tray and DO NOT weld the tubing to the steel plate in a continuous bead or the plate will warp!  Make short tack welds and let it cool frequently.  I did it wrong and warped my plate a bit.

With the hinges it’s easy to lift and lower the 80+ lb steel plate top.

Now the cart is able to be used for both oxygen-acetylene and MIG welding, but I need to make one more modification so I can safely cut with my plasma torch in my garage without the worry of stray sparks staring a fire.

I had this old utility cart that I didn’t like so I chopped it up and reassembled it to construct a firebox trap.  I don’t recommend using this small cart to make a firebox but it had a handle, was metal and I had the time and tools to do the modifications.

First thing was cut the cart in half just under the middle tray.

The cart was too long so I chopped it in half so the two ends could slid together to make a shorter box 23″ long.

Before they will slide together I cut off about half of both trays’ rolled edging on one side.

It was a tight squeeze so I used my air-nibbler to cut a relief slice down the middle of both trays on one side.

Then I used short self taping metal screws and a screw gun to zip both halves together.

No need to put any screws in the middle being that will be getting cut out later.

The firebox needs to hang from the bottom of the top cart tray so I welded up a rectangle of angle iron and bolted it to the top of the firebox.  I also used my grinder to thin up the top edge of the angle iron so it will slide smoothly in some homemade brackets.

The under side of the top cart tray needs a matching rectangle hanger so the firebox can glide in and out to be emptied or to retrieve any items dropped in the firebox by accident. I constructed this hanger out of a sandwich of angle iron and strap steel.

This is upside-down but shows the final sandwich of angle iron and strap steel.  The gap is where the angle iron bolted to the top of the firebox will slide.

Once again this is upside-down but shows the final hanger.

This is just a photo of the hanger bolted to the underside of the top cart tray.  Notice I rounded all the inside edges before I welded the parts so it would be easy to align and insert the firebox.

Now I have the makings for a firebox / drawer.

Time to use the air-nibbler again to cut out the bottom of the cart tray.

View from the bottom showing the hanger and new hole.

The firebox needs to be fully contained. I cut some tin and used more metal screws to zip on some sides.  The tin goes on the inside of the low tray and on the outside of the upper tray. You have to cut the tin just right so that all edges overlap leaving no holes or gaps where sparks could escape.

Finally just cut the bottom of the upper tray so all the slag and sparks can fall to the bottom of the firebox.  You can see I have already been making good use of my firebox (fire trap).

Some photos of the firebox hanging in place.

Of course to cut metal you need a level surface made from some sacrificial material.  I constructed a 16” x 16” grate from 1/8” thick by 2.5” wide strap steel lightly tacked at the edges.

You could make this grate the full length of the cart but I chose to only use one corner removing only 8 bricks.

Here is a view from the bottom showing how the tubing and grate spans across the opening to the firebox.

One last tip: the cart handle comes in very handy for hanging all your clamps and there is a small 2 inch gap between the brick and the tray edge on this end for storing your metal brushes, markers and other such small welding supplies.

How to build a “Trampoline Soaker” for only $26.68

What is a trampoline soaker you ask? Well it’s a name to describe any contraption that sprays water over a trampoline. It’s great fun for the kids on days when it would otherwise be way too hot to play on a trampoline.

I’ve seen this done before in many simple ways but found all examples quite difficult to put up on the trampoline, take down, control direction and change the type of spray. My first few builds were failures in all the above noted difficulties. I needed something much simpler, more functional and still flexible enough so my wife could take it down to spray her plants along the side of the house and then hang it back up on the trampoline.

My solution solved all the difficulties, and best of all, the kids can set the spray angle and the spray pattern too: (Soaker, Mist, Flat, Angle, Fan, Jet, Cone and Shower). Here is what I came up with and it works GREAT, as you can see in this photo it is very easy to hang up on the bars that hold up the net.

It sprays nicely across the whole trampoline and has an off switch on the wand.

And the wife can still water her plants with ease.

What follow are some photos and a quick run down of the exact parts so anybody can build their own DIY Tamp Soaker.

I’m going to start with a short “summary shopping list” followed by a more detailed shopping list with photos of each item. The hardest and most time consuming part of this build was finding just the right items and contriving the assembly so that everything fit. The hard part is now done for you so all you have to do is buy these exact items and do some simple assembly.

“Summary Shopping List”: All prices in USD from Home Depot:
   1 Sprayer wand $17.88
   2 Pipe grounding clamps $1.46ea
   2 Threaded rods (1/4” – 20 x 2’) $1.47ea
   2 Nuts & 2 Bolts – for mounting ground clamps (#10 – 24 x 1/2″) $0.98bag
   4 Washers – for mounting ground clamps (#10) $0.98bag
   4 Nuts – for mounting threaded rod (1/4” x 20) $0.98bag
Shopping Total: $26.68

Once you put this all together the connection to the neck on the wand will look like this:

“Detailed Shopping list”: All prices in USD from Home Depot:

To tell the truth I had everything in my junk pile except the sprayer wand, but for this documentation and pricing I took photos of all new stuff. (Never throw out anything, well not if you think you could ever use it that is.)

Sprayer (1): doesn’t come with the custom hooks of course
  Make: Garden Blooms – wc92007
  Model: Multi Pattern Telescoping Wand with 180 deg. head adjustment
  Spray patterns: Soaker, Mist, Flat, Angle, Fan, Jet, Cone, Shower
  Manufactured by: Melnor Inc. Winchester, VA
  Purchased at: Home Depot
   Sku: 716-270
   Bar: 42206-92007
   Cost: $17.88

Pipe grounding clamps (2):NO! There is no electricity to this. I’m just using one piece from each bag to make a simple pipe clamp.
   Zinc bare wire 1/2″ to 1” pipe grounding clamp
   Manufactured by: Halex Company
   Sku: 621-708
   Bar: 51411-16010
   Cost: $1.46ea

Note: I recommend the zinc clamps for this projects because the bronze ones are very expensive. I used the bronze only because I had them in my junk box. If you really want the bronze here are the details:
   Bronze bare wire 1/2″ to 1” pipe grounding clamp
   Manufactured by: Halex Company
   Sku: 404-627
   Bar: 51411-36019
   Cost: $4.39ea

Threaded rod (2):
You will need 2 threaded rods each 2 feet long. One for each hook but you will be cutting about 8 inches off each with a hacksaw when you are done with the bends. These rods bend real easy without heating but you should wear gloves and use a vise if you have one. I got lucky and found a 3 foot 1/4 inch rod that was threaded about 1 inch on each end, so I was able to just cut my rod in half to make my two hooks. Once again I had this in my junk pile but these threaded rods will work just the same.
   Threaded rods (1/4” – 20 x 2’)
   Manufactured by: Grown Bolt
   Sku: 671-088
   Bar: 30699-17160
   Cost: $1.47ea

Here is my best attempt at drafting out the bends.

Nuts & Bolts – for mounting ground clamps (2 of each)
This is a bag of 8 nuts and 8 bolts. You only need 2 each but the whole bag is under a dollar so why not get extras. The grounding clamps come with bolts but they are too long and it’s just easier to get the right size for this project than to cut bolts.
  (#10 – 24 x 1/2″)
  Manufactured by: Grown Bolt
  Sku: n/a
  Bar: 30699-27721
  Cost: $0.98bag

Washers – for mounting ground clamps (4)
  (#10)
  Manufactured by: Grown Bolt
  Sku: n/a
  Bar: 30699-32481
  Cost: $0.98bag

Nuts – for mounting threaded rod (4)
  (1/4” x 20)
  Manufactured by: Grown Bolt
  Sku: n/a
  Bar: 30699-19471
  Cost: $0.98bag

Your final connections using the bent rod, nuts, bolts and washers can be seen in this photo. I did grind the clamps just a bit where the nuts pinch the rod in place so that the nuts would fit flush against the clamp collar.

We have used our Trampoline Soaker for over a year now with no problems at all! I hope you build your own Trampoline Soaker and don’t forget to drop a comment sometime to let me know how it worked or how to make it even better.

The diamond edition has all the extras including gold leaf on some internal design features

Schimmel crest design

Side view of the interior detail, WOW is all I can say.

Top view showing the gorgeous red bird’s eye maple finish

Fall board which shows the maker in the center and the model at lower right.

Another view of the Bird’s eye maple finish.

It’s big but we never had anything in the grand room other than Alex’s toys for 5 years anyway. We waited a long time for this and it fits prefect and sounds great in our vaulted grand room. The window behind the piano is north facing so it doesn’t get any direct sunlight.  Never put a piano close to a window with direct sunlight or you could destroy it in no time, plus you will have a very hard time keeping it in tune.

Alex loves the new piano! Update: Alex started taking private lessons the week he turned 6 and he is doing fabulous!

Alex starting to play: Age 5

One of the best things I added to my piano room was lighting. I always hated shadows on my music and keys or bright spotlights in my eyes or reflecting off my paper. To solve this I installed track lighting with 5 defused direct-able lights on the ceiling.

The track I picked was flexible. I designed the install myself so that two lights would be focused directly down and just in front of each of my shoulders evenly lighting my music and keys with no shadows or reflections. The other 3 lights on the flexible track circle around the side of the piano and direct lighting into the opened lid. Strangely the design came out to be a perfect shaped bass clef sign on the ceiling so I added two cheap white styrofoam balls to complete the bass clef look. It turned out really sharp looking and extremely effective lightly for a grand piano if you ask me.

I got the track lighting at Home Depot for $99 and Pam and I installed it ourselves with a dimmer switch so we can play with all 500 watts or dim it down to a soft glow for evenings. This photo shows the lights with the dimmer turned way down. We found this track lighting as a kit with 5 lights at our local Home Depot but the closest I can find online is to buy the Hampton Bay White Finish Standard Flex Track Starter Kit for $79 (free shipping) and then buy the 5
Hampton Bay White Finish Light Flexible Track Fixture at $19 each. But try to find the full kit like we found with the 5 lights included because you will save a ton of money that way.

This is the best photo I could take showing both the piano and ceiling light combination. This lighting solution is a must have for any grand piano owner and it cost under $150 for lights, wire, dimmer, light box and dimmer box. My wife and I did the install ourselves but I’m sure a pro could do the install for under $150 in labor. If anybody wants to know more about the lights or the way I calculated the design so it would perfectly direct light, just drop me a line. I’m sure I could come up with some figures you could use for a similar layout.

The piano came with a Dampp-Chaser Humidistat. This is the only part you see which tells you when to add water. Yes, I have to water my piano about once every 3 weeks. This keeps the humidity just prefect in the piano so it stays in tune and doesn’t dry-out or age to quickly. I would like my Schimmel piano to last more than 100 years and climate control is one of the best investments for a piano. My Dampp-Chaser came with my piano but if you don’t have one “GET ONE”.

Water is added through a tube to the black box hidden under the piano. There are also 2 heater bars that will heat the piano if the humidity gets to high. You can see one of the long black heater bars in this photo.

Photo of the Dampp-Chaser computer control module that is also hidden under the piano.

I took the extra time to install a longer cord to my Dampp-Chaser which allowed me to run the cord behind one of the legs and under the carpet.

This is where the cord for the Dampp-Chaser comes up from under the carpet and into a 90 degree plug I added. Having a cord dragging out from under a grand piano wouldn’t look so good so I wanted it to be as invisible as possible.

We used a two part dimmer switch rated for 1000 watts from Home Depot for $66 (free shipping). The top part is a dimmer slider and at the bottom is a sideways on/off switch. I thought this was the best designed dimmer switch on the market for my application.

The lines in the below photo were drawn one at a time by hand if you couldn’t tell (very sad looking). Each line requires changing colored markers, capping and uncapping as well as drawing each line itself. I was doing this every night for my 5 year old’s homework assignment and believe me it got real old after a couple of weeks. This is when I started devising a tool that could draw all 4 rule lines at once.

As it turns out this project was not as easy of a build as I originally thought. The requirements meant it had to be very easy to use and the markers needed to be replaceable as they wore out. Most importantly the tool had to increase the efficiency which meant it couldn’t be fiddley to get working and keep working. What follows is one of my failures as well as my ultimate solution.

The below photo is my first solution which failed. I just drilled appropriate sized holes at 2 inch intervals in a section of PVC pipe. After a week of using this I hated it. Every time I took the caps off the markers changed position in the pipe and the tips were impossible to line up. I thought about gluing the markers in the holes but then the markers wouldn’t be replaceable. This along with the capping and uncapping of each marker individually frankly meant it wasn’t useful at all. I found myself just doing each line one at a time again.

Below is just a photo showing the failure of my first solution. The straight edge shows that the tips are at different depths so the tips just don’t line up. I would always get a missing line or two even after taking the time to align the markers each and every time. Not a solution at all (sad).

Same photo of the first failed solution closer up. The tips must be aligned perfectly and thus the solution must allow for the markers to be adjustable in the mount. I sometimes find solutions to build problems just by walking around a hardware store, so it was time to take a marker to Home Depot and let my imagination roll. This is exactly how I came upon my finial solution which follows.

It turns out that a standard fine point “Expo” marker threads tightly into a 1/2″-13 x 1-3/4″ rod coupling nut. This means that each marker can be adjustable independently and still be replaceable at any time. I then discovered the caps thread nicely into a 12mm-1 75 hex nut. So the plan is to simply thread the markers into rod coupling nuts and the caps into standard nuts and epoxy these to some scrap wood using 4 minute J-B weld. What follows are photos of the materials and some tips on putting it all together.

Use some 120 grit sandpaper to scuff the nuts on all sides so the epoxy will hold tight.

Scuff just one side of the rod coupling nuts but remember which side you scuffed because that will need to be the side you add the epoxy.

On a white sheet of paper mark out 4 long parallel lines at 2″ increments with one perpendicular line through the middle. These lines must be very exact and very straight because you will use these lines to keep the markers centered while the epoxy dries. Cut a piece of scrap wood about 1-1/2″ by 6-1/2″. Tape the wood to the sheet of paper so that one side lines up with the perpendicular middle line.

Screw one marker into each of the 4 rod coupling nuts to about the same depth stopping about 1 or 2 turns past when they get tight. This will cut some threads into the plastic of the marker making the markers adjustable in the nuts. Dry fit the markers on the board, if all looks good you are ready for epoxy.

I used 4 minute J-B weld epoxy because I have no patience, but if you use this remember to only mix up enough for 2 nuts because it sets up fast and you want time to make sure the markers line up with your parallel lines before it starts to harden. This is a photo of the two part epoxy to make enough for all 4 nuts but I almost ran out time before it setup.

Leave the markers in the nuts and apply a liberal amount of epoxy to the scuffed side of the nut.

Before the epoxy sets up put the rod coupling nuts on the scrap wood and align each marker with its respective parallel line. Try to make sure the front of each nut is lined up with the front of the scrap wood.

Now for the caps. I want all 4 caps to come off at once because fiddling with each cap one at a time is a pain. To do this I wanted the caps securely epoxied to another piece of scrap wood. I was afraid if I just epoxied the caps directly to a stick they would not hold up to all the capping and uncapping. I figured I would increase the surface area of each cap by screwing them into a hex nut. Then I could epoxy the caps to the nuts and the nuts to some scrap wood. Being only the markers wear out and not the caps this still meets my design requirements.

Thread each cap into a hex nut so it is exactly flush with the far side of the hex nut. Then use an exacto knife to scratch hash marks into the smooth shiny plastic cap all around the top of the hex nut. This will guarantee the epoxy holds tight to the plastic cap.

Mix up some more epoxy and use a toothpick to spread an even layer around the cap where it meets the nut. Once again only make enough 4 minute epoxy for 2 nuts at a time so you’re not rushed.

When you’re done let the epoxy dry.

Just a close up of one of my caps.

Screw the markers back into their rod coupling nuts in the correct color sequence and dry fit your scrap wood cap stick. Adjust each marker so each is tight yet slightly adjustable, in and out, as well as exactly flush the the scarp wood cap stick.

Mark the exact center of each cap nut on the scrap stick of wood. These spots are where you will put a glob of epoxy. This time you MUST mix up enough epoxy for all 4 nuts because the cap stick needs to be put on all 4 nuts at once. After you get the glob of epoxy on each center mark, place the marker holding fixture with markers on top of the wooden cap stick and let dry.

At this point I would let the epoxy dry overnight regardless of the type of epoxy you used. Once the epoxy dries a quick and even tug on the wooden cap stick will uncap all 4 markers at once. This greatly adds to the efficiency of the tool.

A perfectly working tool but it does need some paint, don’t you think?

I took the markers out of their rod coupling nuts and masked the markers with painters tape. I first painted my “Teachers Aid” tool flat black but I didn’t like it so I did it again in glossy blue.

Blue looks much better, don’t you think?

I tested it on some white poster board to get the markers at the same depth and now it’s ready for hours of hard work.

Add a dab of hot glue to each bit of dog food.

 Glue the dog food to the pan and go set your trap. (BAM!) works first time every time.

This is a collection of photos I took when rebuilding a friend’s carburetor. He had two and both where previously rebuilt or reassembled incorrectly.

Start by going to NAPA or other auto parts store and getting a carb rebuild kit ~$20 and a new float ~$12. Make SURE the rebuild kit has not been opened because these get bought for just one broken bit and returned to NAPA for a refund WITH THE PARTS MISSING that you will need. Pictured here is the Choke.

You will follow the rebuild kit instruction to the “T”. DO NOT skip any steps or reuse old parts which are in the new kit. I like to clean everything up with brake cleaner before reassembly. Pictured here is the Step-up piston linkage

Throttle linkage

Throttle linkage and plug
Hose to Choke diaphragm pull off
Choke linkage
bottom view of carb
Original screw settings
Original linkage positions
bowl vent and step-up piston screws and linkage
Top view of bowl vent and step-up piston linkage
bowl vent spring and linkage (see dirt in bottom of bowl!!!)
See dirt in bottom of bowl -BAD
Closer photo after removing set screws
close up with pump counter shaft removed
step-up piston assembly
side view of step-up piston
back side of step-up piston (note spring in wrong position!) This is how I found it.
View of bowl vent, top of accelerator pump saft and spring under step-up piston
Center is accelerator pump and spring, brass is the floats. Note original damage to main fuel jet in center just above lower float!
Retainer spirng and floats, Note MISSING main fuel jet just to the lower right of float!
Damaged main fuel jet. I tried to remove it too so there is fresh damage as well.
Missing main fuel jet on other side of bowl!!!
Photo of disassembled carb bits. I recommend using these convenient plastic bins during disassemble because you can close the lid and get back to the project later without losing parts and you simply follow the bins in reverse order for a simple step by step reassemble.
Disassembled carb bits from lower left to upper right.
Work area, seen is main throttle body and choke.
Parts cleanup area

The call went out for others to help in the search. I was going to be in the area on a vacation to the Pacific Coast a few months later so I got the new projected targets, my GPS and a team to help search. (See our results posted at Make Magazine). The following larger photos are boring snapshots of us at the target areas. Sorry to say we too did not find the payload.

The balloon

The payload

Graphic of the GPS data from launch to cutaway

Original search area that Bre searched by air

Photo from the original search area

The new projected targets I searched

Veronica Harrison and James Ziska at Point B

Point A – Just a dirt field

Todd Harrison at Point C

Todd and Veronica Harrison at lost dozer

Veronica Harrison at Point C

Veronica Harrison near point D

Veronica Harrison at point D

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Veronica Harrison on seeder near point D

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Lava rock at Emrys Hall’s projection, not trees!

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Emrys Hall’s projection point

Todd Harrison found a ballon at Emrys Hall’s projection

I found the balloon! NOT!

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Emrys Hall’s projection area, those are lava rocks not trees!

Lava rocks