Had the squash back for one week and then the head gasket blew.

It took 10 days to get the head off after stripping the engine of superfluous stuff.

Trouble was the engine is an alloy one and there was reaction between the head studs (Iron) and the alloy of the head.

Had plenty of advice from the 'Plastic pig' club.

1st. Don't use WD40 to infiltrate and soften the gunge - Use PlusGas it is thinner.

2nd. make up a 'stretcher' to aid in lifting the head. This is a piece of iron about 10inches long 2 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. Drill holes in it to allow the rocker studs to go through it. Put it down over the rocker studs and let it rest on the head studs. Put spacers on it and then gradually screw down on the nuts. The pressure will then lift the head.

We did this and got a good 1/4 inch gap on the spark plug side. NOW plastic is softer than alloy? cut a couple of slips from a piece of plastic around 1/32 inch thick.

Put them into the gap around halfway across the head. Meantime all this while slowly drip plusgas on the head of the studs. Don't flood them it will just run off, but three or four times a day put a couple of drops on the top of the stud. It will gradually make its way down the threads and then into the gap between the stud and the alloy.

Every time you do this take a wooden drift and bang down on first the spark plug side and then the manifold side of the head. I was advised that even if it is only half a millimetre movement this will gradually cause the gunge to let go.

It worked and the head lifted off with no more trouble after a week of this treatment.

Some had said of having to take out the engine and lift it by suspending it, others had said they had had to cut the head off. We managed without taking the engine out just using time and patience.

Got the "squash" back from MOT on Monday and on the road again. Got about in spite of the weather, snow here not as bad as other places thank goodness.

Rugby today? On or Off?

Tried an experiment, I took a flash picture of a flower head using 800 ISO. Edited it with Elements 3 and slightly over sharpened it.

Then in PSP 7 I went into Effects - noise and used 'Edge preserving smooth' set at the highest resolution.

Next I went back to the original and without over sharpening it I also used Edge preserving smooth.

The result shows well in the lower pic.

This was taken from the centre of the composite.

Top left over sharpened. Top right oversharpened smoothed.

Bottom left original,

bottom right original smoothed.

It shows better viewed large there is a slight overlapping in the pasting of the copy images.

Under 13s rugby and colt news.

Under 17s match had been cancelled. I stayed to watch the under13s game at Swiss Valley. Exceedingly good game, fast and clean play. Sent two pics to the papers if they wish to use them.

Heard that the colt injured Saturday had got a hit on the back of the head. He was kept in overnight for observation but released this morning.

Colts Rugby

Went up to the school field at East Clevedon to watch the Colts Vs. Weston match. At half time the colts were winning 10 - 5, a few minutes into the second half one was badly concussed and an ambulance was called. Helicopter medics turned up match abandoned. I shall find out on Sunday what the result was when I go over to watch the under 17s game.

Pics used in the paper.

Sent 2 pics of the rugby to North Somerset Times with "Compliments of Clevedon RFC & Regards from myself.
They used both.
Now I must wait and see if the Clevedon Mercury uses any. I think they had a 'photog' there but it may well have been a Bridgwater supporter.
Had a request to post one of the ones on my Flickr Rugby Pics group to a Flickr All Sports group.

Watched rugby for the first time in a month. Colts Versus Merythr Tydfil on Saturday and 1sts Vs Bridgwater development side on the Sunday, - Somerset Cup match. -

Left in a rush to get there and had the wrong lens on for the colts match. 27mm actual focal length is not too good for action shots unless you are in the middle of it.

Sunday back to the Tamron 28-300 mm lens. Good light and some good pics.