1 Lucky Texan

on some of the older engines, the screws holding the oil pump in place can loosen up.

yeah, left a little early and skipped lunch so, got in a coupla hours sooner than expected. Some good news on the family front, some not great but, that's how it goes. stuck on the highway with a thousand other people outside raton for 15 minutes or so, both sides blocked. Some kind of road construction or bridge work or rock clearing.....dunno. got 26.3mpg, then 24.9mpg on the next 2 tanks. Drove 1518 miles total. Not sure why the variability on the fuel, other than wind and a/c use.

thanx, leaving Amarillo soon. Probably skip lunch and get back home asap as my wife said my MIL is very ill. Not unexpected but she may need me to take her to visit her Mom or fill-in watching the grandson, etc.

They have been, and likely still are in many places, heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars. G'mint picking winners in the market place. 1/2 the total electric cars sold go to California. State an local subsidies and generally battery-friendly climate. I don't consider myself anti-electric anything. I have a lot of battery powered tools and batt lawnmower. But let the market decide.

next tank, 26.6 . Had some secondary road miles, and trips to see lmdew and traildog. But, the next one will have head/cross winds and a lot of high speed miles. car solid.

what did the old plugs look like?

if the oil was on the plug boots and plug porcelain, that can short high voltage and kill the ignition.

The way the market is, I'm sure they want trade-ins. But, their 'model' is still, make money on the used car lot.

premium fuel? may need live data to see where timing is....?

made it Colorado. got some help from user lmdew with a gummy hood latch. Seems better now. I think a cool morning here was enough to make it not re-latch.

I feel there's a better than 50/50 chance extraction tools could be loaned-out by a parts store. Call around local NAPA, PepBoys, Advance Auto, etc. The cost of even good tools for a job like this is still often less than paying a shop for the work, plus, all the one-time-use tools I have, I figure my SILs will inherit, or, they get sold in a garage sale. Folks show-up at garage sales early to snag used tools. They will still have value.

if it leaks, and fails to pull coolant back in from the overflow bottle, that could be a recipe for disaster. Until this is solved, be certain to check coolant level in the radiator itself, don't trust the overflow bottle's level. perhaps the thermostat is failing to open completely?

CAFE rules are forcing some changes in aerodynamics (my guess), and that seems to mean less visibility. My wife's '21 CR-V would be pretty tricky in reverse without the back-up camera. But I agree in general, it may be the electronics that 'totals' a car in the future, sending more to an early grave in the wrecking yard.

You guys have no clue what an awesome resource lmdew is for parts!. The volume of his home dedicated to them is huge. he helped me with a hood latch problem (I swear, I lubed 20 points on the car before I left, the one that failed was the one I missed....) Nice meeting him today, he is a true fan of the brand.

I learned on a forum, that heating a thread interface, then (carefully, smoke OK, no fires!) spraying with penetrant can pull the fluid into the rust as cooling causes any gas in side to contract. Not as helpful as Jonathan's approach, but you could try it a few times over a coupla days. Also, try TIGHTENING too. You have to bust the rust and working back-&-forth might help.