while on the subject of oil catch cans...

Mokume

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First Name
Jeff
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Honolulu, Hawaii
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2000 Ranger Supercab (sold 12/19) , 2002 Honda CR-V
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Retired Firefighter III, Honolulu Fire Department
Funny, but true story I'd like to share
Some time back in 1977 when I had just started my automotive repair career with a Lincoln-Mercury agency here in Honolulu I had a call from a good buddy of mine's wife.
My buddy Steve had been suddenly called to Guam on a job related issue, he was to report there in a week's time and was to be gone for months.
Steve was leaving his wife and then 1 year old son behind here and asked me to help Karen (his wife) with any issues on their '71 Pinto Squire, their only mode of transportation. Since they were a young couple and struggling financially a new car was out of the question. When they bought it used it already had close to 100K miles, it was a mainland car and pretty much clapped out.
The Pinto had a penchant for oil consumption, both internally and externally, Steve knew this and had shown Karen how to routinely check the oil level in the well worn 2.0 OHC motor and how to add oil to it. Indeed, he had a case of Havoline SAE 40 motor oil just for this purpose.
Service stations in 1977 still provided "service" a fill up of the tank and underhood check revealed the oil level to be low, Karen told the attendant that she would add oil to it when she got home.
So Karen calls me that afternoon and asked me to please stop by her house on my way home, the Pinto would not start and makes strange noises when trying to do so, "no problem Karen, be there about 5" I responded.
Arrive at the house and noted that there were many opened cans of motor oil on Steve's work bench, by many I mean 8 or so.
Karen explained that the motor was low on oil (as the attendant had informed her) so she "filled" it, filled it until it started to leak out the dipstick tube !
As for the no start/funny noise complaint, you guessed it, the motor was hydrolocked, oil had seeped past the well worn valve guides into the cylinders.
An hour's or so work later of clearing all 4 cylinders of oil and restoring the oil level to normal I got the poor thing running. Although it was dark out already, the neighbors thought the house was on fire such was the volume of smoke coming out the tailpipe.
Steve and Karen have been married for 40 years since, are grandparents, still blissfully in love and own a beautiful home in an upscale area of Honolulu. He works as a highly successful IT consultant and drives a 2019 Navigator, Karen has a 2020 Aviator on order and is a freelance artist, they've remained faithful to Ford products through all these years. We remain very close friends to this day (I was the best man at their wedding).
I made a solemn promise to Karen back on that day in 1977 not to tell Steve about it, for fear of serious bodily harm.
I've upheld that promise, though Steve is puzzled as to why I sometimes refer to that car as the "Valdez"
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