First: I took the throttle body off the old engine and put it on the new one. Theory: stumbling was caused by bad throttle position sensor.
Result: no change.
...there was a lot of black sludgy oil behind the throttle plate on that thing. Jesus. For an engine to spit oil out the intake--never mind. There's a label on the IAC that says "do not clean" but there's no way I was going to leave all that shit behind the damn throttle plate, to get sucked into my freshly-rebuilt engine. It says there's a special coating inside the throat; I figured that meant "do not clean WITH CHEMICALS". I hope I'm right.
Anyway.
Second: I went to the parts store and after spending 'way too much time dealing with < rahm emmanuel > a fucking retard < /rahm emmanuel > I got the plugs I wanted: AutoLite 5144.
They wanted me to pay $4 apiece for spark plugs. NO F-ING WAY. Gimme the cheap ones; that's all I need. (Hell, the cheap ones worked fine in the old engine.)
I put new $1.79 AutoLite 5144 resistor spark plugs into the holes vacated by the platinum plugs I replaced in around 1999. They didn't have more than 50,000 miles on them and they looked great when I pulled 'em. Still, having eliminated just about goddamned everything else I figured $8 worth of spark plugs was worth a shot.
Result: NO STUMBLING.
The throttle response of the engine is still not what I'd like; it's still stumbling when I open the throttle too quickly. But the engine sat there and idled as smooth as you please with one stumble in about a ten-minute period.
Okay, here is a basic tip for those of you who wish to replace your own engines: ALWAYS REPLACE THE GODDAMNED SPARK PLUGS EVEN IF YOU THINK THEY'RE IN GOOD CONDITION BECAUSE YOU'LL BE TEARING YOUR HAIR OUT OVER IT LATER; I CAN ASSURE YOU OF THAT!
*sigh*
...there is still the matter of the mystery hose. I have its port capped, but somewhere in the engine compartment there is a fitting to which this hose is meant to connect. I am thinking the remaining stumbling issue is due to that port being open to ambient pressure rather than manifold vacuum.
But as I said, during yesterday's work the "CHECK ENGINE" light never illuminated. And I cannot find anything the mystery hose can reach which is missing a connection.
I had a feeling that there was some incredibly simple thing I was missing, some petty tiny detail I'd overlooked. Spark plugs. Jesus.
* * *
This sounds extra-Constitutional to me. How can the House of Representatives just decide that the Senate bill passed in the House without putting it to a vote?
What the fuck, can we just "deem" that McCain won the election in 2008? How about, can we "deem" theres a law saying the President can be booted unceremoniously from office if U6 rises above 16%?
If Republicans had a majority and tried to pass something the Democrats didn't like with this kind of bullshit, the screaming would be audible on fucking Pluto.
(Via Michelle Malkin.)
* * *
Mark Steyn is great. But explaining physics is not his strong point and I had to think about what he was writing in order to figure out WTF is going on in Australia.
It seems that people are installing some kind of foil insulation down there as part of some kind of government program. And apparently the insulation installations in several homes have electrocuted several people.
...ground?
Look: if you construct a huge flat electrical conductor and you don't ground it, the thing's going to build up a hellacious charge of electricity, and sooner or later that electricity will seek a ground. If you're in the way, it's not going to notice. Or care.
One electrician (!) was electrocuted while the thing was still being installed. It doesn't take a very long time to build up a huge charge when you're essentially building a giant fucking capacitor.
Stupid, stupid econazis. *sigh*
* * *
I had a beautiful day for my work outside, too. It's 70° F outside and I have the windows open.
Such a spate of warm weather is not unusual for early March around here. The temps will drop again and it'll be cold and wet and miserable before the weather warms up again. But this breaks the cabin fever and reminds us that winter is not forever.