Rip-offs and deals…
I think I’ve mentioned that I had problems with the Defender a few weeks ago. It needed a head gasket replacement. The pic on the left is what we found upon opening the engine. Pretty nasty. I guess the previous owner thought oil changes were a suggestion. The pic on the right shows what things looked like after a local shop cleaned them up for me. Much improved.
After a couple of weekends of work for my father and myself we got it back together tonite. To our amazement and delight it started on the first crank. It belched smoke, the rockers clattered, and things thumped as lifters re-seated but it started.
On to the rip-off. During the rebuild I broke the air hose from the air filter to the plenum. It’s a 3“ diameter hose that runs 18â€. Nothing special. When i broke it I wasn’t concerned as it should be a cheap part. Boy was I wrong. I went to the Land Rover dealership on Saturday to grab a new hose and say ‘Hi’ to a couple of mechanics I know down there. the parts guy looked up the part and said it’d be $275. I laughed at him and asked, ‘No really, how much is it?’ ‘$275’. He looked stunned also and checked it in another computer. I told him ‘no thanks, I’ll find something else.’ I went to Lowe’s and picked up 3 feet of 3“ aluminum dryer hose for $6. It worked perfectly. Tomorrow I’ll get to road test the truck to see how she runs.
The visit to Lowe’s is where the deal comes in. At the front of the store they had a couple pallets of stuff from the back room they needed to get rid of. I glanced at the humidifier you see on the left there and then did a double take. Lowes’ list price, $119, current price, $10. The box was beat up badly so we opened it up and looked in. It was all there minus a manual. I think I can figure out the intricacies of a humidifier without a manual for $100 savings. It is an 11gallon/day whole house humidifier. Perfect for our dry Austin winters. It’ll help keep our house from becoming the shock box it normally is in winter.