After an 0 dark 30 start yesterday the slightly less than 600 mile round trip came to fruition with me bringing home a wonderful old engine at less than advertised price, which was already listed as quite the bargain to begin with.
The first half of the drive down to Hell-A was about as good as it gets. Fresh snow on majestic peaks as I was cruising along a highway that was nearly deserted with the sun coming up and kissing the peaks with pale pinks, changing to subtle reds and finally brilliant gold before going to simply daylight white. Had a fair tail wind to sweeten the deal as well. A drive south through the "Deepest Valley" under such conditions, is an experience not soon to be forgotten, even for one who has lived most of half a century here!
The second half of the drive down was as diametrically opposed to the first as is possible, it was nothing less than hideous, and terrifying to boot. So many changes have been wrought upon the face of the Mojave desert, and none for the better. Add this to the inconceivable numbers of people and cars on the unbelievably badly maintained roads, and the total lunacy of those people. It is just mind boggling, even to one who is fully aware of the juxtaposition of the divergently opposed cultural norms. Having just come from a rural, almost remote country setting, and driving (if you can call that fright-fest actual driving) into the heart of the beast where anything less than 75 mph in any 65 zone makes you a traffic hazard, while traveling nearly bumper to bumper at such speed on roads with serious potholes that you can't avoid because the first you know of it coming is when the car just ahead of you takes a bounce, and there's no time, way nor place for you to dodge it, even if you knew which way to dodge (lost a wheel cover to one somewhere along the way), and you might well dodge into worse instead of better, or worse yet into another car dodging a different one (or an extension of the same one) in the opposite direction. Hopeless, pointless and fruitless!
Now I try to drive so that there is a reasonable amount of space in front of me to allow a little for reaction time, but they simply will not let you do that. For every car space you try to trail the car ahead of you, at least two cars will try to slip into from the next lane. Then there are the people (not sure they actually qualify as such) that weave at higher speed (think 80-90 mph) through the traffic, trying to take advantage of any little opening in the traffic, real or perceived, that they think will get them there faster, because they are far more important than you. I had people in full sized pickups with way over-sized wheels come blazing out of my blind spot from behind and three lanes over, who then tried to crowd into the undersized space just ahead of me, whether they could actually fit in there or not. So of course I had to take my foot off the gas for an instant to allow them the room they require, but only for an instant as the car that was on my rear bumper probably wasn't going to slow down in concert with me. I got to live about four hours worth of that pure TERROR, besides trying to navigate to the sellers house, which actually went fairly well until I got to within a few blocks where road work disallowed a critical right turn that I needed, and forced me off into an exploration adventure that hadn't been planned for nor expected.
Finally found the guy, and had a brief chat and exploration of his man cave of wonder. Clearly I wish this guy was a very near neighbor as he and I would get along famously I'm sure. Picked up the engine, loaded it in the car, and headed back out on the highway, because at that point the only thing I truly wanted in this whole world, was to be safely home again, and I didn't want to be anywhere near a rush hour situation that was certain to be coming soon to a locale near me.
The drive home was pretty much a reversal of the drive down, starting out in Hell-A and driving back to PARADISE! The middle third of the trip was plagued with demon crosswinds that required close attention to prevent inadvertent lane changes, but otherwise it was relatively uneventful once I was out of "the PIT". Did note an inordinate number (in the hundreds) of commercial jet liners park at the Mojave Airfield, due no doubt to the ravaging of the economy by the Wuhan Flu.
As to the 1/2 HP G. Sipp engine itself ............. well, it does have very many issues, as suspected, but seems to be solid generally and all there except the iconic brass cylinder cover plate, that it seemingly has never had, as the mounting holes for it have never been drilled and taped, though the casting has the indexing marks for their location. I suspect this engine was built from castings, which was an option back in the day. There is much work ahead on this one I'm afraid, but perhaps I'll get a chance to take it apart some and actually see what is what in the next few days, and if so I'll report back. For now I know that it has a valve rod that has been intentionally slightly bent into an S shape, that doesn't need to be. Even though the engine appears rather clean generally, there is a lot of "gunk" in most of the motion joints and bearings, that is probably nothing more than old oil turned to gum. The D valve in the steam chest does not properly seat on the port face as there is a great amount of blow by coming out of the exhaust port. There is also a slight but noticeable bind at one point in the flywheels rotation, along with an equally slight wobble in the flywheel as well, such that I suspect a bent crankshaft, so I'll have to set that up on the lathe and index it along its length to see what I actually have there. Many other "little" things that may or may not need attention, but one step at a time, and a tear down and clean up will likely tell me much.
Still, for 550 (50 off original asking) and about 50 in gas and a day spent that may well have taken a few years off of my life ..... I do now have a 1/2 HP Sipp, to join what has become my "little brother" 1/4 HP Sipp. Overall a great monetary bargain, that I hope will prove to have been worth it all in the long run!?!?
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