Jeanie Bottle 813
Oct01
on October 1, 2024
at 12:00 am
and modified on September 30, 2024. at 12:19 pm
Chapter: Story 17: I Dream of Home Sweet Home
What in the world could have caused this?
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What in the world could have caused this?
So, this world could be connected through Caley and Araceli shared master genie connection based on their knowledge of love and medicine? But who could have taken apart the engine or who else may be near bye?
It was Blackbeard’s ghost… but seriously, they’re going to have to solve Araceli’s dilemma in order to get it repaired. Neil/Natalie and Rodge are engineers, not a mechanics. Liam is an investment banker, and unless he’s also a motor-head he’s not going to be any help either.
Liam did state that he was a motor-head as a kid, but that kind of damage would have taken a lot more time for a little kid to accomplish.
One poof could do it in an instant, though.
Page #791
Foghorn: there’s somethin goin on here that just don’t add up.
I do declare.
Now boy I say boy
They are one storm and an island away from another cheesy 60’s sitcom.
Natalie seems a lot smarter than her age would indicate. I mean Rog is playing games and muttering she’s not his sister while she’s trying to start the boat and locating the engine.
Well maybe Rodge seemed like a kid on his own maturity.
It seems likely that whatever magic changed these five didn’t have quite the same effect on all of them.
It seems that Natalie has retained most of her adult mind despite having a middle-school-aged body.
Anyway, I think that the boys are the culprits. They probably had some “wicked cool” idea, but then either neglected to put it back together or couldn’t figure out how.
The thick plottens!
LOL !
Poltergeists?
Plotergeese!
How long would it take to reassemble the engine?
Assuming they have the tools, probably all day. I’m not a mechanic, but it looks like the cylinder heads have been removed, that means the pistons are exposed (you can tell by the alternating shadows in the piston wells). By themselves, the heads are not heavy but what else has been removed? Valves? Lifters? Oil pan? If the block is off the mounts they’ll need a lift, and that’s not something they’d have in a toolbox.
Hey, professional race car teams often disassemble and reassemble an engine in under an hour. 🙂
Of course these guys aren’t a professional race car team.
As for tools, unless the engine was taken apart with magic (which is likely), they obviously have the tools on the boat. As for how much heads weigh, iron big block heads weigh around 100-120 lbs, so your average guy should be able to pick them up. Note: I’ve never rebuilt a big block, but I have built and/or rebuilt several small block V8s.
As a side note, it actually looks like their boat has twin inline 4 cylinder engines, which would mean diesels, which is not unusual.
No, I think it’s a big-block V8. Look at how small the valve cover seems in relation to the block. Clearly it’s just not drawn well; the perspective is off.
If a human managed to get it apart, then there must be tools on board. But my bet is that somebody’s errant magic was at work. They really need to get Araceli away from Fake-Neil and wake her up.
If you are referring to the red thing, I think that is a small tank and not a valve cover.
We’ll have to disagree on that one. You can see the oil filler cap on the right hand top of it.
Anyway, what kind ‘tank’ of that shape would you expect to find on a gas engine? It’s too small to be a fuel tank, and the wrong shape for a nitrous tank – besides, who would put a nitrous system on a boat engine? It’s also the wrong shape for a scuba tank, and there’s no valve.
I have seen tanks like that on diesel engines and high performance gas engines as part of a water injection system. They can help cool the inside of the cylinder for gas or to reduce NOx emissions in diesels. It is only tiny amounts so the tanks do not have to be refilled very often.
Given that Natalie has most of the knowledge and motivation for reassembling it, and she will probably will need to enlist Dominic for the physical heavy lifting, it is definitely going to take all day. Liam may have enough technical knowledge to be useful, but he lacks the focus.
Natalie’s an engineer, not a mechanic. Her knowledge of internal combustion engines is theoretical at best. In this scenario, Natalie would need to somehow keep Liam focused, and we already know what he thinks of Rodge’s “sister.”
“Her knowledge of internal combustion engines is theoretical at best.”
We don’t know that. Maybe she/he worked on their own car as a teenager. A lot of kids without much money do. (I can testify to that.)
I can also attest to this. Although my formal education is in electronics and computers, I am self taught on Ford small blocks as my first car was a 1968 Mustang. I have since pulled, rebuilt, and reinstalled a couple of them.
This is purely from my own personal experience, but many of the engineers I have known through the years got into engineering because from an early age they were fascinated by how things worked and often took stuff apart to learn how it worked. Learning how to put it back together came later.
“Don’t say anything… Just Drink your beer. Don’t fuel the stupidity, it will die down on it’s own.”
That thought bubble by Natalie, while Liam and Rodge are talking auto mechanics, implies that Neil had no past interest in the subject. So, while I understand Kattgirl and SaylorA’s approach to the matter, I still believe that Natalie is out of her league if it comes to reassembling that engine.
Somebody ignored #5’s directive, “NO DISASSEMBLE!!!”
“No Disassemble Number Five!”
Gremlins!
what Mab said. Gremlins usually live in airplane engines but it looks like the kids have picked up an old WWII Gremlin.
How about an AMC Gremlin?
Maybe the engine is from an AMC Gremlin? I’ve seen people retrofit V-8’s into those.
There is also the admittedly fantasy movie “One Crazy Summer” where a Ferrari engine was fitted into a sailboat. Movie magic strikes again, but fun to think about.
Damn, !IT! thought of everything!
Next, Natalie should see if there’s enough power in the batteries to get the radio working. Hopefully, it’s a single-sideband model. It’s probably too much to hope that Liam has a satellite phone and GPS beacon on board.
“– get a cell signal for help.”
Coast Guard Dispatcher: “What is the nature of your emergency?”
Natalie: “We’re trapped on a boat. Something turned three adults into kids and two kids into adults and our genie is unconscious.”
Coast Guard Dispatcher: “Right. Janice, if is this another one of your prank calls, I’m going to have you arrested.”
ROTFL! OK, perhaps this is a situation where total honesty is not called for.
Four words nobody wants to hear. Or utter.
What a weird thing to do. Thank goodness there’s an engineer on board. Good instincts on getting out of there.
Not gonna lie Natalie’s ‘found it’ expression is absurdly cute.