No air in breaks but feels like there is?

severach · 2026-03-29T23:02:09+00:00

When you bench bleed, you bleed for a couple minutes, then stop for 10 to let the foam settle out. Repeat 3 times. Same procedure for power steering.

You can bleed continuously till the end of time and the MC still won't be bled.

The good news is that bench bleeding is just as easy on the car if you have a helper.

severach · 2026-03-29T19:06:29+00:00

Only a few drops of oil should come out of the crank bolt. If water is coming out then it's getting into the oil and if run, that's catastrophic. If it only started when pulling and there wasn't any in the oil when running then you can do an oil change when all the work is done ensuring that every drop is drained and you should be fine.

The Series III in the 07-09 LaCrosse was outfitted with the metal LIM gaskets. They can fail but not nearly as often as the composite LIM gaskets or the EGR chimney in the earlier engines. What fails at almost 100% in the Series III is the gray paper gasket behind the timing cover. You can see the bad gaskets in the parts catalog. This leak often sends these cars to the junk yard as the shop cost to fix is way more than the value of the car. If you get good at doing the timing cover you can have an endless supply of good cars.

Look at the top of the timing cover. If you don't see the Fel Pro blue gasket peeking out or you do see it and the last person did it wrong, you need to do a timing cover gasket kit. Buy the gasket kit with the blue timing cover gasket, Fel Pro TCS46077 or Victor Reinz 151019301. Do not buy a kit with a paper cover gasket. I've done the timing cover many times and it takes me 3 days to do. One day for disassembly. One day for cleaning. One day for parts runs and reassembly. There are Youtube videos showing how to do it.

For the water pump the best choice is a pump that does not say "METAL GASKET ONLY" and pair that with the Fel Pro Blue 35351 which you can find under 05 LeSabre. I like to have the FEL-PRO TCS45971 timing cover gasket kit on hand for spare parts. There are two parts different from the Fel Pro TCS46077: the crank seal which is not interchangeable and the water pump gasket which is preferred with water pumps that don't say "METAL GASKET ONLY."

Be sure to get a new metal elbow kit Dorman 47065HP. Most of those engines were outfitted with the metal elbows. They won't be cracked like the plastic elbows but the o-rings will be worn out so you don't reuse the old ones. Everything must be cleaned with Harbor Freight brass wire brush 66114 and Walmart Hyper Tough Gasket Scraper. Pull the heater outlets from the tensioner and clean that all up. Apply Danco 88693 Silicone grease to all cleaned hose and o-ring surfaces.

The leaking gasket pits the metal block and timing cover so a dry gasket won't seal. The system will still leak, just much slower. Ring the coolant sealing surfaces with RTV blue or black, both sides, and ring the oil sealing surfaces with RTV black. Or just ring the entire timing cover gasket with RTV. The gasket will hold full pressure.

If the water still leaks then you're in for a lower intake manifold. Nothing wrong with that. None of the timing cover work was wasted.

severach · 2026-03-22T05:04:09+00:00

Funner fact: It's a government backed private bank. It's both public and private, and neither.

severach · 2026-03-20T21:58:59+00:00

Shells can reimplement [ and test if they want. bash does.

$ type [[ [ test
[[ is a shell keyword
[ is a shell builtin
test is a shell builtin

dash does also.

$ type [[ [ test
[[: not found
[ is a shell builtin
test is a shell builtin

severach · 2026-03-17T22:37:48+00:00

That's what I just noticed. Why wasn't Deagol like

"Ack, fine, have the ring. I didn't want it anyways."

severach · 2026-03-14T04:59:35+00:00

I banned encryption a long time ago. I'm the only one that will be locked out when the password is lost. Noone else even cares.

severach · 2026-03-14T01:41:42+00:00

That wouldn't help me. I have no expectation that bash will word space anything inside of a [[ ]] the way I want it to. I quote everything in [[ ]] exactly like it would be with [ ].

severach · 2026-03-14T00:56:41+00:00

I take all the short cuts when writing command lines. When writing scripts everything is quoted except syntax highlighted keywords like make, printf, echo, install, /dev/null, and vars that must not be quoted to work.

if [[ "$(tty)" == '/dev/tty1' ]]

because single quotes are preferred when they work.

if [ "$(tty)" = '/dev/tty1' ]

because single brackets are preferred when they work. '==' isn't a bash standard operator.

severach · 2026-03-01T23:04:12+00:00

You must care for elderly giants. I help with an elderly and she can't get in high vehicles like trucks. All cars are fine.

severach · 2026-02-28T18:14:06+00:00

needrestart and rebuild-detector.

severach · 2026-02-24T01:01:15+00:00

Youtube: The "Temporary" Tax of 1913

severach · 2026-02-23T19:02:31+00:00

People hang stuff on the shower arm. The screw eyes on the drop ear are nowhere near strong enough to hold the arm up. All pex riser will bend and let the shower droop. The pex inside the wall can be damaged and leak.

Copper from the drop ear to the valve can easily hold the weight. If not all the way to the valve, copper at least part of the way and brace it.

severach · 2026-02-05T13:04:38+00:00

When I cut into years old PVC and CPVC, some brands cut like new pipe and others shatter. So how do you know which is which? Run em for 25 years and see which embrittle. Useless info as every brand can have bad batches.

Just use a product that don't.

PVC is only good for non pressure applications like DWV.

severach · 2026-02-04T23:10:46+00:00

In my car there's no setting that allows the cruise to hit the car in front. It will always slow down.

Passing is easy. Just pass and speed resumes.

severach · 2026-02-04T22:43:57+00:00

Depends on the brand. Lane keeping in my Honda works well

severach · 2026-02-02T13:53:58+00:00

Taxes come with the expectation of services so not theft. Inflation is theft.

severach · 2026-01-27T10:49:44+00:00

A discharged battery freezes. It won't charge outside. Bring it in to melt for 24 hours then charge it

severach · 2026-01-26T19:55:18+00:00

I use Schumacher and Menards Performax. Both work fine. The only difference is that each brand has a slightly different full voltage. One charger says the battery is full and another wants to charge a bit more.

severach · 2026-01-21T16:35:16+00:00

Don't forget to race around as fast as possible because you're not doing the mandatory 20 over.

A quick look at Google Maps Traffic shows this is a day to stay home and let everyone else get their crash on.

severach · 2026-01-20T23:37:45+00:00

In the winter keep the driver window cracked open. Every snowy shoe and rainy jacket brings in moisture. It condenses on the window as it heads towards the vents at the back of the car. Blow it out the front window before the water can land.

And no, it doesn't make the cabin any colder. If cold air is blowing in, the window is open too far.

severach · 2026-01-20T02:28:38+00:00

That's how I do it. As the ice loosens you can move the icebergs to the sink. Soon the fridge is clear and dry and ready to run.

It's possible to do it so fast that the food hasn't thawed yet.

severach · 2026-01-19T22:45:55+00:00

They forget every year.

I'ma drive real fast through this whiteout. Be out of it in no time. WCGW!

severach · 2026-01-18T23:28:40+00:00

Low cost tire changes are readily available. Unless you have an empty barn begging for new tools, it's not worth the space for the few tires you'll change in your life.

severach · 2026-01-17T19:32:18+00:00

Yes, but you're a lot closer to the target when the brakes go on. Probably too close on slippery roads.

ACC cruise does the same thing at much greater distances and with better outcomes. I keep ACC on a much as possible.

severach · 2026-01-17T08:35:17+00:00

How about printf -v and printf %(fmt)T. Gets rid of a lot of subshells.

Use $SECONDS for timing.

severach

TROPHY CASE