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THE REATTA LOUNGE


Ronnie

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1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

I hope you and other forum members up there are safe. It looks like it is bad on TV.

Thanks for looking in, Ronnie.

My town (Weymouth), about 10 miles south of Boston right along the coast, ended up with about 28 inches of fluffy snow...but a lot of drifts.  One drift is close to 5 feet against my garage door due to 50 to 60 mph winds.  Luckly, I never lost electricity, although the Generac generator has been running just fine since it was fixed.  Tomorrow (Sunday) will be a long day with my 3 stage Cub Cadet snow thrower.  Checked on the Reatta in the igloo and all is hunky dory, but I will brush off the roof when done with my driveway and walkway. 

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4 hours ago, ship said:

Tomorrow (Sunday) will be a long day with my 3 stage Cub Cadet snow thrower.

I hope the snow has let up. I've never saw snow like that. We had a little snow on the grass this morning but the road was still too warm for it to stick and all snow was gone this afternoon. It's 19 here right now (12:20a) but supposed to be up into the 50s here tomorrow and most of next week. I feel we have been very lucky so far this winter.

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For the Boston area, the snow depth for the Jan 29, 2022, blizzard is 30.9 inches which is now a new record. 

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Like Ronnie, I watched the blizzard unfold on TV. The blizzard didn't reach into Southwest PA so we skipped all that you (Ship) experienced. Glad you made it through with no major problems, other than clean-up. 

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I have seen a few surveys that seem to point to BMW drivers as the most rude. I found a photo that seems to confirm this, at least in part:

 

D606251D-4165-4ABE-B787-C38033D44268.jpeg

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2 hours ago, ship said:

That is so typical of my neighbor next door...she's a "beamer"

I have never owned one but have driven a couple different series and I do like them, but they are notorious for failure to use turn signals. If you have ever seen the Chris Fix Blinker fluid video, it is even mentioned there.

How to Replace Blinker Fluid - Bing video

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So non reatta related car story to share here.  My brother in law owns a 2001 Honda accord and for some reason it blew out a spark plug a couple weeks back. He took it to a shop and they did a thread insert and sent him on his way about 10 days later he started getting engine codes for misfires. So he brought it for me to look at.

 

At first glance I noticed the ignition coild for the plug that the shop had repaired was not sitting all the way in the tube and was a quater of an inch off the mating surface of the valve cover. The coil mounting screw was screwed in just like that (meaning the shop left it that way). I tried to figure out why it would not go in all the way. Decided to pull that plug out and inspect and it came out mangled thread insert and all (picture). 123_1(1).thumb.jpeg.8986bef4dbae941b30d9c5175984ee08.jpeg

Even left one of the leading threads in the cylinder head. Needless to say I was like ****! We are up a creek now. 

 

Bit the bullet and decided there was nothing for it but to replace the head. Pulled a junkyard head that seemed in decent shape other than some oil sludging in spots. It was real unfortunate because the original head that got messed up was as clean as could be. Whoever owned the car before him took really good care of it.  See the pictures for comparison. 

 

Original Head with 150k miles:

Message_1643471345181.thumb.jpg.280a08aa9c3584deb1dfd36f39523883.jpg

 

Junkyard head (mileage unknown):

Message_1642959003248.thumb.jpg.e92fa28bbd5743f0fa83119ee3a80898.jpg

But honestly other than it seemed that this new head probably saw cheap and less frequent oil changes, everything seemed ok with it. Cam surfaces were clean with no real signs of wear. Rocker arm to valve clearance only needed very slight adjustment. 

 

Got it back together this past weekend. Took me 22 hours but I move slow when working on something new. That and in my haste to remove the junkyard head, i destroyed the wire for the coolant temp sensor, which is tucked behind the timing sprocket, and did not realize until after I got the timing belt and timing cover all back on.

 

But it's running good now. Had a high idle problem that boiled down to the cruise control cable getting out of adjustment during removal and reinstallation to the throttle body.

 

Anyway that is my weekend car story

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Looks like he repair shop did a half-ass job on installing the Heli-Coil or whatever insert they used. They must have known that since they used so much red Loctite on it. If you didn't check the valve lash after changing the head you should do so. If one is too tight it could burn a valve.

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47 minutes ago, Philbo said:

Rocker arm to valve clearance only needed very slight adjustment. 

I missed this on the first read. You seem to have all the bases covered.

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Another Reatta sighting. I was in Oshkosh tonight having supper with my sister and Brother in Law. When I was driving out of the parking lot I had to wait for a car to turn to the lot I was in. He was eyeballing me all the way in while I kept thinking "Hurry up dummy so I can get out on the road and get home". So he gets in and I quickly pull out only to have the car coming down the road heading the same way I am be a white Reatta. He wave as he went by, I flashed my lights at him in acknowledgement. Never saw the car before but it does have one burned out bulb in the taillight.

And here I thought I was the only guy driving a Reatta in Wisconsin winters...

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On 1/30/2022 at 7:28 AM, ship said:

For the Boston area, the snow depth for the Jan 29, 2022, blizzard is 30.9 inches which is now a new record. 

Looks like it's our turn this weekend. Supposed to warm up from last night's temp of -4 to the teens and then snow. Half inch today and half inch tomorrow.

Only question I have is to use either a leaf blower or scraper...

 

Sorry Ship I just had to rub it in. This winter here is not typical. Very little snow [so far] but bitter cold.

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Dave, seems you folks have yet to get a big snow fall.

 

Today, 35 miles north of Boston to the Canadian border is getting 1 to 2 feet of snow.  Ten miles south of Boston (includes me) to the Cape Cod Canal is getting 1 to 2 inches of ice and freezing rain...pretty treacherous stuff and somewhat unusual for my area.

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I hope you guys stay safe and have a backup heat source in case you lose power.

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Ronnie, Since the Generac whole house generator has been fixed, I'm good to go...heat, hot water, sump pump, kitchen stove and refrigerator, etc.

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On 2/2/2022 at 8:06 PM, DAVES89 said:

Another Reatta sighting. I was in Oshkosh tonight having supper with my sister and Brother in Law. When I was driving out of the parking lot I had to wait for a car to turn to the lot I was in. He was eyeballing me all the way in while I kept thinking "Hurry up dummy so I can get out on the road and get home". So he gets in and I quickly pull out only to have the car coming down the road heading the same way I am be a white Reatta. He wave as he went by, I flashed my lights at him in acknowledgement. Never saw the car before but it does have one burned out bulb in the taillight.

And here I thought I was the only guy driving a Reatta in Wisconsin winters...

I wonder if that was Jason from Fond du Lac, not certain if he drives his in the winter.  Where did you go for dinner in Oshkosh?

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Just returned back to WI after a nice visit to Maui where we rented a 2021 Mustang Convertible Ecoboost Premium.  I must say, technology has come a long way and here I am thinking about buying one.  My wife was onboard and then she commented 'what would we sell to make room in the garage'?  Our 1990 Reatta Convertible with 25k miles (and much sentimental value) would be the likely candidate.  I wrestle with selling a car that is increasing in value (arguably) only to buy one that will depreciate rapidly.  Lord help me make the right decision...

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Pondering your dilemma - thinking "what would I do?"  I'd probably do lots of crazy things when it comes to considering buying another vehicle, especially like the one you referenced. But then the destruction of the thought process occurs when your better half says "what would you sell." 

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