jadz

This morning I took some time off work to get my Cadillac STS back on the road. It needed a MVI and required a power steering hard line to be fixed. The power steering return line had chafed against the transmission to the point of leaking.

This is a minor fix in comparison to the head gasket repair that I did during the summer, with a lot of help from my Dad and Tim. The head gasket repair was a real learning experience for me. The actual work on the engine is very strait forward, all the work on vacuum lines and the various accessory systems is where you can get into trouble.

I also found that during my first head gasket replacement I found it hard to decide when certain things were ‘good enough‘, like the head gasket material removal from the cylinder walls and outer block walls. I could still see discolouration from the gasket material, but the surfaces felt smooth. If the engine was out of the car and fully disassembled you could clean the surface thoroughly, but with the engine in the car, and not wanting to contaminate the open engine my options were limited.

All of this auto repair has been an interesting experience and has made me re-evaluate my outlook on mechanics for the future. I enjoy working on cars, but don’t like having to work on my primary vehicle. Similarly, I have always wanted a garage with a hoist, but I’m not sure if I want to be spending so much time working on cars that I would need a hoist. Wouldn’t I rather be out driving the cars or travelling with them then working on them. To that end, wouldn’t it make sense to save the thousands that the hoist would cost and spend that on a vehicle itself? I’ve posted some photos from the head gasket repair below.

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We had to have Cinnamon put to sleep shortly after New Years this year. It was a very traumatic experience, that I realized now I wasn’t ready for. Cinnamon was a wonderful cat and Brittany and I were very lucky to have had some wonderful years with the little fellow. In cat years he was a regal 80 years old.

We’ll miss him.

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I finally got around to performing more of my first motorcycle winterization, for this non-winter we’ve been having (it’s almost midnight on January 8th and it’s 10 degrees out).

Today I took out my battery (no small feat on the ZR-7, you have to move the tank and the airbox to even get to it). I will write up an article, more of a reminder of what I should do next year and post it in the motorcycle pages.

A few picks taken with the Alpha. My first attempt at shooting indoors flashless. Using the highest ISO setting helps but makes for grainy photos.

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You can see the new building, dwarfed by Halifax’s tallest building Fenwick Tower.

I’ll quote the Wikipedia page because it is interesting:

Fenwick Place is a Dalhousie University student residence in the south end of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Completed in 1971, it is the tallest building in Halifax at 98 metres and 33 stories. Fenwick Place occupies a property between Fenwick Street and South Street; it takes its name from Fenwick Street which honours former Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, Sir William Fenwick Williams.

At the time the building was being built the developer meant it to be much taller and even touted it to become the largest residential project east of Toronto. Once financial problems set in, the goal seemed unreachable and Fenwick Place was sold off to Dalhousie University for $5.25 million CAD as a student residence and was never “fully” completed on its interior. The top 2 floors of the building were designed to contain a swimming pool, however the pool was never completed; local lore suggests that engineers and architects never took into account the weight of water in the pool, so it was unable to be filled.