Already 88F and sunny @ 11:15, DP 68F, HU 55%, feels like 96F. Calling for an actual high of 92F for the day.
A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible ... and would certainly be welcome.
Should have left the AC running up in the shop last night when I finished up. Need to get up there and turn it on.
Woman fixed me a couple of BLT's for dinner last night after She got back ... which was very much appreciated.
After dinner Her and I headed up to the shop and pulled the ROPS, sitting it on top of the fuel tanks leaning up against the seat.
After that we came back down and I got the last 2 eggplants planted and the SD card re-installed in the game cam.
Should have been only 9 eggplant but several were "doubles" so there's like maybe 12 total. I didn't bother to try and separate them as they were too large to easily pull apart.
As I suspected ROPS removal gave me enough clearance to remove the valve cover bolts and do the valve adjustment.
There was one bolt however that was really difficult to remove due to lack of clearance - had to use an undersize Torx bit (T27 vs T30) ... so I could cock the bit at an angle to get it into the bolt to unscrew it.
Got the valve adjustment all done - several valves were pretty loose and only 1 was near the spec (0.004" - 0.006")
Set all of them to 0.005" (go), 0.006" (no go), got the set screws tightened for the adjustment nuts and clearances and torque checked twice.
Checked the gap on the spark plugs and put those back in and torqued them down to spec after applying a little anti-seize on the threads.
Then cleaned up the mating surfaces on the head with a little Scotchbrite pad.
The valve covers on this engine are the composite ones which use an o-ring for the seal to the head so there really wasn't much to clean up on the heads.
Reinstalled the left valve cover and got it torqued down but there was that one bolt on the right valve cover that has the clearance issue.
Got it removed but getting it put back in is problematic and is going to require a modification to the frame to remove some material so that I can get the bolt in the hole and then get the proper sized Torx bit on it to torque it down.
Got out the right angle die grinder and a 8" rotary burr ... and that was where I left things around 02:00.
Figured I was tired and could use some sleep before diving in and hacking on the frame.
Was going to just reuse the old o-rings for the valve covers but it looks like they aren't that expensive ... so if they have them in stock at the mower shop I may run down there and pick them up and go ahead and replace them ... mainly because I don't want to have to pull the ROPS again to replace them if the old ones don't seal.
Once I get the valve adjustment all buttoned up, I'll probably move the MoJack up to the shop and get it out of the garage and install the sharpened set of blades I have sitting up there.
Got to get moving now as I'm sure it ain't getting any cooler.
Happy (belated) birthday to Ron !
Hope everyone is having a decent Thursday ...
