Acres of Sage: Cheap Labor

Friday, September 13, 2013

Cheap Labor

Back in June on a trip across the state, and at 340,000+ miles, the Camry we have been driving "unexpectedly" broke down. As liquid poured and steamed out of the car my husband spoke the words which we did not want to hear, "That's not good." Since he is an optimistic and positive person, when he says something is not good, it really means the worst. But even at 340,000+ miles the little purple car really only had one major problem- a dead engine.

With some research and time on the internet my husband soon found an engine for us to buy. Originally from Japan and taken out of a car there with only 50,000 miles, our solution rested in Canada and my husbands words, "I think I can put it in myself."

After we imported the engine from Canada we embarked on a Labor Day adventure down to my dad's place- who graciously let us work there and use his Skid steer- with a Chilton Manual for a '98 Camry and a lot of hopeful thoughts towards getting the engine put in over the long weekend.

Once my husband dived into the whole process of the engine replacement we began to ask ourselves questions like: What if this engine doesn't work? What if we don't get it replaced in the amount of time we have? Are we crazy for thinking we could even do this?

Ease that engine out of there!

My husband has never replaced an engine before. But he does things that he has never done before quite often with a high success rate. After many, many laborious hours on his part and help from my dad, the engine miraculously turned upon the first crank of the key. The car even moved down the road. We were thrilled! And I was amazed, once again, at all the talents my husband possesses. Our scheme of cheap labor certainly paid off!