Mudhole: Eternal

Ok, I slacked off a bit this week...

Off my game last week as:

1. We had Monday off
2. I've been with out a truck most of the week (DEF crap)
3. Had to take off Friday because the youngest one decided to be sick.

Anyways, we did have a leak or two, and an exceptionally muddy one on Thursday.

Main side, lateral leak. Domestic.

What started as a small leak, turned into a giant mud hole. Normally, when you have two services (meters) next to each other, the end up tying in together at a "Tee". Then that tee feeds into the main. If you go back on some of the posts I have had about leaks, you can see this.

Well, we expected this as well with this leak, but... this was not the case.

Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy

It turned soupy, quick.

When digging down on an active leak, it can get a little hard to see what you are doing. Most initial guesses as to what is broken is done with the hands, and not the eyes. This is why we were confused when it felt like a 3/4 inch line was feeding from the main. Normal, as mentioned above, there would be a tee. Tee's are always going to be a larger diameter that the lines that feed off of them (what we call the service). So it made no sense to have a 3/4 line feeding off the main, splitting into two 3/4 services. That would cause a volume issue for the two customers on that lateral line, should they both try to use water at the same time.

ANYWAYS.

We dug on.

Trying to keep the water off us long enough to figure out what is going on.

Is the lateral over here?

Or is it over here

The hole got wetter, deeper and wider as we went. Eventually we uncovered the right service and verified that it was indeed a single service tied directly into the main, with no tee. This would mean the other service would be the same.

The single tap off the main

The service was broke right at the main. She let go once we started missing with it.

After a new service was built and screwed into the main, we could stop the water flow, and build back. I always take this time to look at what broke, and why.

This weird metal/pvc female adapter broke. Over tightened more than likely on install.

Rebuilding each service in poly. 

Ground was still muddy as could be.

Very muddy. A few boots were lost

Made sure the lines were flushed, and and backfilled what we could.

Still wet!

What. A. Mess.

Then on to the most important part of the day. Lunch.

Well, that all for now.

I go oncall this next week, from Monday to Monday. It's my first time as an on call leader, so I'm sure that will be fun and bring it's own challenges. (I hate being oncall by the way.)

Here's to the next time!

Captian's Log: 3

This weekend was a little laid back, not too much to report. Spent some time with family on Friday, and worked on the car a little as well.

This Saturday's project was the beginning of the conversion of MK6 Golf parts onto my MK5 Rabbit. Long story short, my Rabbit came with 150hp/170lbft and a 5500 RPM redline. The late MK5s and MK6 Golfs came with 170hp/177lbft and a 6300 Redline. I will be getting the Rabbit tuned for a 6500 Redline, and in prep for that, I am switching over to all the MK6 parts I can.

First step was the exhaust manifold. The MK5 is an open chamber type manifold. There are hardly any runners at all, and its mostly just an empty chamber full of turbulence. The MK6 manifold is slightly less open, with actual runners. It does open up at the end, but is more "header-like" and almost a true 5-1 manifold. I could have bought an actual header, but they stopped making the good ones years ago, and if you find them online, they are usually $1000 dollars. I would never dream of spending that on a full cat back, much less a header. You can get ebay knock offs, but they are prone to cracking, and I would have to cut up my stock exhaust to make it fit.

MK5 on the left, MK6 on the right. Port holes are the same diameter, MK5 is just dirty.

Swap was pretty straight forward. After removing a few pieces and sensors, everything came up and over the engine with no fuss. About half the studs came out with the manifold nuts, but after a trip to the touch, and using jam nuts, they came right off. The studs were then cleaned and soaked in PBlaster, and all new brass nuts, as well as new OE MLS gaskets were used.

Do not pass go, go directly to torch.



Everything was buttoned up, and then the Rabbit was fired up.

 

Word for the wise, PBlaster smokes like a son of a gun.

 

ProTip: Unbolt the exhaust hanger and the down pipe slides right on.

 I don't have a heat shield yet (one is on the way), so I made do with some reflective heat material, and overlapped it on my fire wall. I'll leave it for added protection once the heat shield gets here.

REVIEW

 

Over all impressions are good! Sound has noticeably changed. Idle sounds more "uneven" (like how I think a 5 cylinder should sound), and under wide open throttle, it is louder. There is almost a trumpet-like blast. Seriously, I picture a chunky kid blasting the hardest note through a trumpet or trombone when I hear it.

 

Power is obviously unchanged for now, but again, this is just a supporting mod for the tune.

 

 

So if you hear something on the Westside that sounds like hells angels blasting trumpets, it's probably me in my pokey VW Rabbit.

 

 

 

More later!



More Mud Holes?

Couple more leaks passed by our way this week. Let me show you their features.

This first one was relatively small. A backflow company was attempting to change out a backflow, and in the process split a piece of galvanized pipe.  We had to cut back on it with a hacksaw, and install a new compression fitting with curbstop. We always try to fix our leaks under pressure, especially the small ones. Fixing the leaks under pressure prevents disruption of service to the customer, as well as prevents us from putting customers under a "Boil Water" notice.

Split right behind the curbstop in the galvanized pipe.

 

Next one was a doozy

 

 

 This leak came in at 4:30pm. Sometimes we let them ride till the next day, but in the case of leaks like this one, we decided to fix it immediately. The water main runs directly underneath the driveway, about where the split is between the dry and wet pavement. Trucks were loaded with dirt and limestone, trackhoe was loaded up, and off we went.

 

 

 

Driveway was cut to gain access to the ground and water main underneath. Once we got down to the main, the leak indeed up being a 5 inch split running inline with the pipe. Looked like the pipe had suffered a hit when it was originally installed, and just wore out over time. 

Strike first, strike hard. No mercy.







Ended up staying till 12am

 

 

The split section was cut out and replaced. Sometimes we can install a repair band around the main, but the position of the crack made prepping the pipe too difficult. Before wrapping a pipe, the ideal way to handle a split is to drill a hole at the edge of the split line, to prevent the crack from spreading. The split on this pipe was on the bottom, so we would have to submerge our drill in the water and mud to drill the pipe.

 

After the main was repaired, the hole was backfilled, and water service restored. Didn't get to keep the water on this time. Total repair took around 6-7 hours. Not that bad, but we could have shaved an hour off if we went straight to the clamps and replacing the piece of affected pipe.

 

A repair band was attempted first

Two hymax couplings were used, as well as a new piece of pipe.

Driveway secured.

Bye Felicia.



Captains Log: 2

What I had planned on doing this weekend involved working on my car. I am working my way up to a tune for the Rabbit, so I was wanting to get in some supporting mods, mainly a revised intake and exhaust manifold, as well as fuel injectors.

 

However,

I went to Ikea instead.

 

The Land of Swedish (USA, Chinese, French, Italian) made wonder

 

Now I'm not a super Ikea fanatic, but I am an Ikea family member, and I do enjoy the establishment. The wife and I wanted to tackle the toy issue in our house as well as clean up our media area. While there might be more "quality" furniture else where, I have yet to see someone tackle storage like Ikea does. Ikea quality is fine as well. I've found it to be very solid furniture.


So I switched the Rabbit into truck/station wagon mode and we headed out. The Rabbit can handle pretty much whatever I throw at it. I usually carry my BDM tools with me wherever I go, and that includes a ladder. It can hold all of it with the seats up. That's for another post though.

 

7'x2' is the max safe load I can fit. More could fit with some tetris skills.

The purchase.
Wife trying to price it out before we check out.



Plenty of room left. The Rabbit didn't even squat. I even folded the front seat back up.

 

 

Everything was loaded up, and after we got our snacks we headed out. This is the part of the story where I discuss the "bomb" scare at Ikea, and us having to evacuate. I'll save all the typing, and just link you to the news article. Watch the video! I was interviewed! IM FAMOUS!

 

BOMB AT IKEA! (IT WAS A BAG OF POTS)

 

While I enjoy shopping at Ikea, I less than enjoy assembling Ikea furniture. However one comes with the other, so after a slight delay I started building. This time around I thought I'd be "professional" so I got out my levels. Wrong move. This probably doubled the build time. I made it my mission to not have a single crooked door, and between the bubble and laser level I think I succeeded.

 

Well, that's about it for this weekend. Hope to get into some shenanigans at work and share them here. I'll leave you with some pics, see you then!

 

People leaving Ikea during evacuation

Hanging out, waiting for the all clear (it never came)



Being pushed back even further

Where I stood for a few hours, waiting for my car. We were eventually moved even further back.