[V8] The Black Mariah departs...

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Well, The Black Mariah has departed on an auto transporter to a new home.
The car was sold to a young Portland, Maine, auto mechanic who works for a
dealer of another foreign car that will remain unnamed, except that it is a
Swedish car that is owned by Ford, but who has a fascination for all things
Audi.  The car was sold in response to an on-line ad placed in the local
private party sell magazine.

The Black Mariah will soon be accompanied by her set of Bentley Manuals,
which the new owner also has agreed to buy.

Now, I have only the front wheel drive type 44 called "The Old Gray Mare",
and am not sure if that isn't enough for now.  

In another revolting development, 'The Runt', the 1992 Ford F150 Flairside
has blown its engine.  No particular reason, really, but it just has lost
one cylinder completely, and the borescope indicates a potential holed
piston.  The truck has around 135,000 and the transmission was replaced last
winter.  The cause of the engine failure is suspected to be stresses placed
on it by driving the 20 miles from her to the two business locations for
plowing.  Suspected in adequate air flow through the radiator may have
caused overheating and possibly detonation that could have holed a piston.

The Ford short bed platform makes a terrific plow vehicle, but the cooling
capacity has always been a question due to the tendency to overheat while
traveling enroute.  

Right now, I am thinking that I will have a used engine plugged in and sell
the truck minus plow, then buy another truck to use for plowing.  The next
one will be a full sized truck with eight foot bed, because the short bed is
always...well, just short.  

The alternative will be to change out the engine and increase the capacity
of the cooling system.  Having extensive plowing experience with a GMC 2500
full sized truck in the same locations as the F150 was used, the F150 is a
much better plow vehicle than the larger, far more powerful GMC.  Only the
Ford's cooling capacity is suspect.

I would much rather frig around with Audi electrical gremlins, but such is
life here in the challenging Northeast, when if your plow truck is working
perfectly, it will never snow, and as soon as it fails to operate, one gets
buried.  

Having watched the "action" for a couple of months now, it amazes me how
expensive used pickup trucks are.  This is especially true on eBay, where
the selection of pickup trucks is smaller than I have ever seen it, and the
prices much higher.  So far it appears that the best prices for used trucks
is in Massachusetts where used Fords are cheaper of retail lots than on eBay
auctions.  The exception seems to be Dodges from 1997-2000 model year.  I
wonder why they seem to cheap relative to Dodge, Chevy and GMC?  How bad can
they be?  Never had a Dodge.

Roger

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