Geez! I hate that!

[Citroënbender]

Not quite hate, but a kind of melancholic sadness. Walking past a local house being emptied out for demolition (it’s the thing in my area), in the pile of rubbish councilmen were feeding the compactor was a Casio keyboard, one of the electric piano varieties.

Particleboard carcass swollen by the rains, there it lay in rigor mortis. Somehow it seemed to encapsulate the madness of this above “thing”. Throw away the simple pleasures, discard creativity, retain nothing in exchange for debt and a desperate hope to be seen as better than others - or, at least, not inferior.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Not quite hate, but a kind of melancholic sadness. Walking past a local house being emptied out for demolition (it’s the thing in my area), in the pile of rubbish councilmen were feeding the compactor was a Casio keyboard, one of the electric piano varieties.

Particleboard carcass swollen by the rains, there it lay in rigor mortis. Somehow it seemed to encapsulate the madness of this above “thing”. Throw away the simple pleasures, discard creativity, retain nothing in exchange for debt and a desperate hope to be seen as better than others - or, at least, not inferior.

This reminds me of some news I read earlier this week.

So, after years of feedback, the Victorian government decided to shut down all bar one of the state high schools in my area. The plan was to keep each school running until the remaining site was expanded and rebuilt at considerable cost. In effect, it created a "super-school".

A large portion of the community were deeply opposed to the plan because, not only from parents, but teachers as well. With all of "the bad eggs" being in the one school, there were fears of increased bullying and mental health concerns. Despite the strong opposition, the government pressed ahead and approved the plans.

While I don't have children, I was against it for the reasons outlined above, but for historical reasons as well. Having opened as a technical school in 1966, it was renamed and 1998, I arrived for year 7 in 1999. One of the reasons why I chose that school was because of the focus on trade skills, which differentiated it from the other schools in the area. Many of the teachers had been there since 80's, two from the very beginning. In 2020, the school was closed.

I'm friends with one of my teachers, he told me the day they announced the closure and renamed all of the schools to be under the one banner, they tore down all of the DUX and sporting achievement boards and threw them in the bin. To me, that is extremely disrespectable to those who put in the hard yards and landed themselves on those boards. When it closed at the end of 2019, they boarded the place up and walked away.

In recent years, the local TAFE has recommissioned the old A-wing and started mowing the lawns again. And as of last week, they have bulldozed the sizable E-wing to build a new learning facility. Why they couldn't have refurbished the existing building is beyond me, they were solid brick constructions built well above the flood levels. Yet another instance of the government recklessly spending taxpayers' money, against the wishes of the community. Same as the whole "super-school" itself.

For me personally, its sad to see a place that so many people grey up in being destroyed. I spent a year walking up and down that building, the location of my year 8 home group, graphic classes, home economic classes, engine and social classes. All gone.

[Citroënbender]

Literally the last nut to torque on a very inaccessible turbo exhaust manifold, and it started to feel “wrong” as it hovered around 17Nm without tightening. As I backed off the nut, the stud sheared.

So the manifold and EGR pipe will need to come off again, and the broken part removed from above with a right angle drill.

That’s not good, but I will say with certainty, this happened at the last workshop; they would have felt the nut “softening” but sent it down the road anyway. Look at the dirtiness of the bulk failure zone, it’s been like this a good while. We took the manifold off to resurface and re-seal as it was blowing and warped at this port - now the reason is clear.

[OneMadMan]

@CitroenBreaker he he he..

You 'saga' reminds me of my L20B datto Stanza days.
Blew a head gasket. No problem. Take the top off and check the barrels while I'm in there.
Re torquing the last bolt to 75 el bees it started going 'soft' and I'm thinking, nah mate, she'll tighten up, then next thing I hear was BANG. It pulled the threads outta the block. My initial thought was dam and blast, now I have to buy a new block...
Made a call to ol mate at aka BIG John and he said, naaaah mate, just heli coil it. I said what's a heli coil? Neva heard of them before (along long time ago). He said bring the bolt and I'll get you sorted. And sorted it was.

On a side note...

Pre cross flow 250's and 200's are THE WORST for broken bolts... exhaust manifold. Have had my fare share of them. I feel your pain.. is the gist of my post.

[Interceptor]

Originally Posted by OneMadMan

Pre cross flow 250's and 200's are THE WORST for broken bolts... exhaust manifold

Iron head crossflows werent any better!

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by Interceptor

Iron head crossflows werent any better!

If one of them looked too hard in situ, at least it was easy to take the head off. Not like this job. Front diff and steering rack are just off the bottom of this photo.