New Painting

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

Been awhile, but I've finally got a new painting to post. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> <BR> <BR><CENTER><IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/messages/19/113.jpg" ALT="Bridled Passion"></CENTER> <BR> <BR><CENTER>"Bridled Passion"</CENTER> <BR><CENTER>12" x 14" oil on canvas</CENTER> <BR> <BR>It's currently hanging in a gallery exhibit. Hope it sells! Mommy needs a new engine for her car. LOL

[Emma (Emma)]

Sheri, your painting blew my socks off! Such detail! I'm sure "Mommy" will have a new engine soon! <BR> <BR>Emma

[Jennifer Gray (Maurine)]

That looks like my Arabian Dynasty. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> Pretty. <BR> <BR>Maurine

[Tina (Trina)]

It is fantastic, as usual. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> How do you make jpg's out of your paintings? Or is this a silly question?

[Rick Santillo (Rjs)]

Wow, another beauty. <BR> <BR>I'm sure this will sell. Can you say, "start your new engine?"

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

Tina...it's an interesting process. I lay the canvas on the scanner bed and scan away! Since this one is oversize (as most of my paintings are) it involves scanning it in several parts. That is, scan the first area, move the canvas on the scanner bed so that the next area is in the scanning bed, and scan that, etc. I do this as many times as it takes to get a scan of every part of the painting. Then I digitially put them back together into one picture. <BR> <BR>This one wasn't too bad...only required two scans. That Forever Knight painting that I posted awhile back took 6 scans. :-) Tricky!!! <BR> <BR>(Note to self for birthday: Need digital camera! LOL)

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

I sure hope I'm able to "start my engine" soon. The next season race is June 16th, and I'm already one meet behind in the points series. Which isn't TOO bad, since we're have to waive one meet in the points total at the end of the season. I just can't miss any other race, nor do badly in them. DANG! <BR> <BR>I'd like to know where I either drove under a ladder or cross a black cat's path. That poor car of mine has been having nothing but bad luck all year. First, my 283 engine quits. The valve stems had worn down so much from racing last year that the push rods kept coming off their rockers and breaking. Not good. So we pulled the engine out and tore it apart. In the interim, we put a spare 350 engine that we'd originally slapped together out of scrap parts. It was never meant to last long. I drove it for a week like that and I tell ya, what a pain in the arse! The engine popped and backfired like crazy (worn out heads) and glugged fuel like a pig. <BR> <BR>Anyhoo, once we had the 283 torn down and gave it the inspection....we originally thought I'd only need to replace the valves on the heads and away I'd go again. Maybe add roller rockers for good measure so they wouldn't wear the valves down so much this time. This would've only cost about $100 to fix. But then we took the pistons out to check them, since we know the engine had a bit of blow-by. (Oil burning through the cylinders) Sure enough, the pistons themselves were scored and chipped badly. Needed replacing. Chalk up another couple hundred dollars to fix THAT. Not including if we needed to machine the engine block again, etc. *sigh* So, I was looking at $600 minimum to fix it all and put it back together. Just to have what I had back in the beginning. hehehe <BR> <BR>Then a day later, I see this 327 (high performance engine!!) in the paper, selling for $600. So I called it and a couple days later, we've got this engine in the garage. Tore it down a little to inspect things...everything SEEMED good on it. It had been supposedly rebuilt by a trade school student while in the class shop, so you'd THINK it'd have been done right. We swapped my racing cam into it, since it only had a stock one. (Sorry for the techno stuff, but I'm sure RJS and Angillas will at least understand it. heehee) Put my high-rise intake manifold on and put the whole thing in my car. Ran okay, but had this mysterious ticking/knocking sound. Didn't sound BAD yet. We checked around the engine compartment and found a few things that were causing noises....all of them not major things. Got it all fixed and put together. Drove it for a week, gently, so as to break the new engine in nicely. Then took it out racing two Friday's ago. That knocking noise was still there, and I was getting concerned, because this engine....which should have been WAY more powerful than my 283, was only pulling ET's of 18 seconds in the 1/4 mile. Not good. (My 283 did low 17s) So after only 5 runs that night, I brought it home. On the drive back, the oil pressure warning light would flicker on and off occaisionally. I was HOPING that it was just because of the low, low idle. Alas, it wasn't. <BR> <BR>Got it home, pulled the engine a week later (didn't drive it all week....I knew it was terminal.) Checked the oil on it and it was silver. Which is very bad. Silver means metal filings in it, and metal filings not be good in an engine! <BR> <BR>So we tore the engine down. I was still hopeful. Figured worst case, I buy some new cam bearings or rod bearings, if the guy who'd rebuilt it put them in wrong. I could bear having to do that, since the 327 has such great potential of being a high performance engine, yet economical to drive. Just what I need for my baby. :-) <BR> <BR>But I got the bad news shortly after. The engine block itself was CRACKED. A big one too. NOT good. What idiot would rebuild an engine without inspecting the block first....*shakes head*. So needless to say, I have a $600 hunk of heavy paperweight sitting in my garage right now. I can't do a thing with it. It's useless!!! To add insult to injury, yes, the guy had indeed put the bearings on wrong. He put in ones that were too big and hammered them to fit. *shakes head* And no, I can't get my money back. "Sold as is". *sigh* On the "bright side", I do have a set of good heads now. LOL Even if they are off a 400 engine. They'll work good on the 267 we have in our station wagon. It needs new heads. <BR> <BR>The kicker of it all is looks like I'll be having that stinker 350 for an engine again. LOL I'll rebuild the heads from my 283 and put them on it, which should clear up the problem it had of popping and backfiring. And it should give it some good high compression, so it at least has SOME high performance. Maybe I'll say screw it to gas mileage and put my Quadrajet carbuerator back on it. I have an Edelbrock right now, which runs very lean, but it's consistent and economical on fuel. But when we had run the Quadrajet just for a test earlier, it hauled @ss! <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> Although, it'll be big time slurpy on the fuel. Ouch. What do I want....speed or consistency? hmmmm ;-) <BR> <BR>And my car's scheduled to be in a parade next Saturday! We gotta get this engine put in ASAP. And it's gotta sound somewhat racey, since I'm in as a race car. hehehe Dang dang dang. <BR> <BR>I have to wonder if my track gives out "Hard Luck Awards" for someone who hasn't even begun the season yet? LOL (They usually do at the end of the year for whoever had the worst luck all year at the track) <BR> <BR>Anyhoo....June 16th in the next BIG meet, and I gotta be there in some shape, way, or form. Even if I putt down the track, at least I'll be racking up points. LOL <BR> <BR>(sucks of it all is I'd spend the last of my petty cash on that 327. I gotta finish up some jobs before I can afford to do anything more. Grrrr)

[Great Taste AND Less Filling! (F_U_N_G_U_S)]

brain...hurts....

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

oh c'mon....you're a MAN, aintcha? ;-) Yer s'posed to know more about this stuff than I do. heheheh

[Great Taste AND Less Filling! (F_U_N_G_U_S)]

hey, I wanna drive one, not build one! :]

[Will Finch (Shetan)]

Nice painting Sheri! What a nice passion to have!

[Will Finch (Shetan)]

P.S. Need a roll of duct tape? Does Bondo work on engine blocks? heehee I hope you make it to the parade, our Nova says he does parades. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)">

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

LOL I only wish we didn't see the crack. ;-) Mebbe the engine still woulda ran ok with it. What's a little coolant in the cylinders anyway? heehee <BR> <BR>Hey, tell Nova he'd be PERFECT in the parade. What better way to say "Black Horse Studio" than riding a gorgeous black stallion? <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)">

[Angillas (Angillas)]

Is the crack on a machined surface? <BR>Is it in a location where welding it would cause problems? <BR> <BR>basically, can it be WELDED??? <BR>(easy enough to do. Use Nickel welding rod, and reverse the polarity)

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

When you take off the intake manifold, inside there....right along it...spans 2 cylinders and then some. You can see a little rust forming, and some coolant oozing. :-\ We didn't see it before, when we did the intake manifold swap, because everything had been cleaned up. Can't see cracks that way. Whoever machined the block shoulda inspected it before the did it up. :-\ <BR> <BR>On the bright side, the block that's going into my car is the same casting. Too bad my 327 crankshaft wasn't salvageable. :-\ Coulda turned this 350 into a 327 if I coulda swapped the crank and pistons over. Damn damn damn. <BR>Hopefully the small chamber 283 heads will help up the compression on the 350 and give it some horsepower. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> (well, first, let's hope the damn thing runs right! LOL) We're still puttin it together. Just finished up doin the valves on the heads (they'd been worn on the ends from the rocker arms when on the 283)

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

An addendum....the 350 block going into my car is also a 4-bolt main...out of a Truck. Heavy duty. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> Should be able to hold up to racing a bit better. The pistons are a little cruddy, but for now, it'll have to do until I can afford to tear it right down and rebuild it up. (Man, the cylinders sure need to be honed! You can feel a pretty hefty ridge along the top of the cylinder walls. I guess when we bore it, it'll technically be called a 355? <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> )

[Great Taste AND Less Filling! (F_U_N_G_U_S)]

So basically, you swap the good thingamajigs from the busted engine, into the good engine, tighten up a coupla whoziwatsis, and it runs faster? <BR> <BR> <BR>(yep, dem's da technical toims)

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

Kinda sorta, yup. More like I take the best whatchamacallits from the old one and stick 'em on the other one, and cross my fingers and hope like hell it all works without any more mysterious banging/knocking noisies. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> At least until I can afford to do it right.

[Lee Phillips (Leep)]

Can I come race?

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

Looks like you've already BEEN racing with the number of posts you posted today. >:-P

[Tina (Trina)]

lol, you are so right, Sheri.... I wonder how long it took you, Lee, to post all of them. At least I can tell you that it takes me hours to read them... <BR> <BR>By the way, Lee, I checked out your profile - and of course read about your *baby-blue* eyes... I think you should give us all the pleasure to see how that looks like! As far as I remember the only picture we know from you so far is a black and white one. <IMG SRC="http://www.electric-ent.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> hehehe

[Sheri Gordon (Sheri)]

Yeah, Lee! And I happen to know he has a webby cam to prove it. ;-)