Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

If you are in the process of buying a new home, or are considering it, be sure that you have it inspected by a licensed inspector.

As big as the house is that I'm looking at buying, and as old as it is (built in 1964),...there are a bunch of potential unknowns.

This house is gonna cost 285k. After the dust settles.
The offer/counteroffer process out of the way,..the last thing we stipulated was for the seller to fix all of the issues an inspection brought to light.

There were 84 items of note.

We asked that 63 of them be fixed.

The most critical of them being the fact that the house is wired completely in aluminum wire instead of copper. Evidently,..in the mid-sixties copper was super expensive. Aluminum was offered as a cheaper alternative, and for about 5-7 years, houses in the US were wired in aluminum, instead of copper. Because of the softness of aluminum, the fact that it oxidizes and loses conductivity, and that it expands and contracts more than copper,..the wires that were tight when they installed the light switch loosen by themselves over time. Once loose,..like all loose connections,..they arch.
Arching leads to fire,...fire leads to a burning house,...burning houses lead to dead occupants...

I'm not thinking that's such a good thing.

No,....This is a bad thing. So bad that in some states, you cannot get the house insured. There is a listed, approved fix, but it requires a complete replacement of every switch and receptacle in the house (a process the call "pig-tailing") and possibly a similar fix at the breaker panel, if not a complete replacement of that.
An online search of the cost of doing that reveals a range between $100-350 each for every outlet and switch in the house, and who knows how much at the panel.

This house has probably 50-75 switches and receptacles. (are you adding it up?)

There is a monster oak tree that needs several big ass dead limbs that are waaaaay the phck up un the air cut off.
(let's say add a couple of thou to that)

There is a hot water heater leaking,(ching) there are slow drains in the basement, (ching) there are "wood-pecked" holes in the house siding,(ching, ching)
and a potentially old roof w/ a very short remaining life expectancy on both the main house, and the Monster barn.
( we didn't ask for a re-roof,...I just wanted to have a roofing guy tell me how old he thinks the roof is, and estimate it's remaining life to be)
The HVAC system isn't keeping up,.....the inlet air temp and the outlet air temp is too far apart despite the fact that there is a 4 ton unit trying to cool this pig. (Ching, Ching, a-mutha funking Ching Ching)

Just guessing,..I'm thinking that we asked for close to 15-20k, maybe more worth of reparations. Now,......I don't know if the seller knows that yet, but he's got electricians and plumbers in there today and Monday giving him a quote to fix,..so he'll know after this weekend. A tree guy and a roofing guy...I don't know yet. I kinda expected them to tell me to go fly a kite, and hope for a cash buyer that'll take that on himself,....but they appear to be fixing stuff.

Our house is supposed to be on the market today, but when you plug in my address to realtor.com....you get the house across the street.
That's not for sale.

So we're starting off on the right foot here at least.

I have my reservations about this whole process. The wife seems to think that this house is worth more than I do (about a 15k difference) I think 205k, she has it listed for 220k. The house up the street is 209,...the one down the street is 199.

If we land anywhere near 199, we're phckd. Even at 205k, we move from a nearly perfectly appointed, nicely refreshed place, to one needing a complete facelift w/ barely enough money to pay the movers, much less improve anything currently in the George Jetson house we're buying.

I'm going on record as overly skeptical of this whole deal.

Well here we go....

The state of Alabama, and it's red neck lawmaker contingency do not enforce any code that stipulates replacing all of the outlets, switches, and fixture connections w/ aluminum rated replacements.
Nor do they require that the pieces of crap rolling on the roads be safe.

An old house built in the 60's w/ aluminum wire is "grandfathered" in, and no upgrades are required to bring that house up to a safe standard.
As far as Alabama state, county, and municipality are concerned.

So when the seller had his electrician out to inspect,...Ol' Sparky tells him that he was OK, and he didn't have to replace anything except the two prong, non grounded outlet in the basement, and install a cover plate on the open connection box in the attic to be compliant. The electrician tells him that the current code will not allow them to add ANY circuit to a system wired in aluminum w/o upgrading the entire system ..but the existing system,...as long as it's left alone,...... is good to go.

"Fire hazard?......What a bunch of baloney!....If the house is such a fire hazard, how comes it didn't burn down 50 years ago?"
"How'd it make it this far?" "You're good to go Jeeter,....that's just another case of liberal corporate carpet baggers trying to git in your pocket book!!"

Except no insurance company will accept that.

I called several insurance companies to verify that. Unless dude replaces all of the "devices" w/ alum rated replacements, and wire nuts that are tieing the light fixtures to the aluminum wire, no insurance company will write a policy on the house.

I told my agent on friday via text, and again by phone on saturday that he was to get in touch w/ the sellers agent and tell them that unless they comply w/ the insurance companies standard, the house will be un-insurable, and therefore the contract will be void. I'll have to wait till Monday to hear what they have to say on that.

I find it laughable that the state doesn't require a standard enforcement that increases the safety of it's occupants...in the house that they live in, nor the cars that they drive.

Rednecks....

But on a more positive personal note, and after several days of internet SNAFU's,...our house is finally on the market..

You know you want to look......you'd never guess that I live in this house.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/220-Russet-Woods-Dr_Hoover_AL_35244_M72237-21735

Took the Monster out for the first time since the all mustang auto show a few saturdays back.
(He's very dirty)

I cranked the adjustable boost controller up two turns past where it was last set where it was only showing me 7 p.s.i. (which is wastegate spring pressure). Since I had oil pressure issues the last time, and now that I'd added another qt of the 5-30,..I wanted to see where the pressure was gonna end up when it got hot. I also wanted to re-calibrate the speedo that hadn't ever been right since my last scatter-brained attempt.

So I throw the computer in the car, and set off. First things first, I get the speedo in the "cal" mode and travel my "mini-measured" mile. I set it.
Perrfecto amigo....Venga! We go now.

I get to my test track, start the datalog, and just as I always do, roll into the throttle. This time however,..I'm hearing the turbo spool, (and that ain't ever happened before) and no sooner do we get rollin' and I hear a loud WHOOSH!......
The hose blows off of the throttle body.

That D/L shows 8.2 p.s.i right before it blew off.....(tell me that it wasn't divine intervention)

Cause I turn around and head back, get into the garage remove the clampi-dudes that are holding the hose, move some things around, reclamp it, and back that boost controller off 1/2 turn just to be safe.

Back to the test track, I start the log again,...and roll into the throttle...definitely more kick than before and now the hose is staying on and......we're rollin...
I make the turn,...there's a freakin school bus coming....(I'm not getting behind that damn thing) I pull out.

I roll into the throttle again and again were honkin....I get way out in front of the bus and slow to an almost stop and mat it. Tires screaming, engine bouncin' off of the rev limiter,...and all of this for the benefit of the bus driver and the little school children that WERE coming up behind me.

The oil pressure stays well above the scary assed 5 p.s.i it had hit last time out, and was now staying around 25 at a 205 degree idle...whatya gonna do,...it's 5w30 syn,....... that sht's like water by now.

I get the thing back home and pull the datalog...

The current boost control setting shows a peak of 11.8 p.s.i . AFR looks to be around the 12 to 1 range when I roll into it, but looks like the Himalayas when I stabbed the gas...You can see the injectors literally say "What The Fck!" when I stand on the gas...and the AFR is all spikey and sht while boost goes straight up to 10.6-11.8.

Now where do you spose' that boost would've been the first time if that hose hadn't blown off.

But it's like.....The Monster takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'