| Re: FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH |
Subject: Re: FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH by teebee on 2019/12/14 4:00:04 Hey guys...slept in a bit, then got up and prepped the pork butt for the grill. Pre-heated the grill and filled the hopper with pellets. Put the butt on and then went out to the garage and backed out the pick up and the Caddy out of the garage, let 007 down and moved it to the other side. I jacked up the back end and pulled the rear tires off and started the brake job. It went more or less uneventful. By noon I had the rear brakes done, but I didn't put tires on or let it down, because I was waiting for the FedEx guys to deliver the shocks. So I started the front passenger side brake. Just about the time I had them pulled, the fedEx guy showed up. So I finished the brake and and installed the shock there. Then I moved to the driver side front and pulled that side off. By then the smoker was calling me, so I washed up a bit and checked on my butt. 4 hours open smoke, I inserted the temp probes, wrapped it up in foil, checked the temp of the butt (158) and set my timer for two hours. Back to the brakes and shocks. I will say swapping shocks on a C6 is tougher than the C5 (at least the front) Not a lot of room to access the top nuts from the wheelwell, and to access from under the hood, you have to remove things (overflow tank and the fuse box) I struggled with the passenger side, because moving the fuse box would have been a PITA. The drivers side, the overflow tank came loose and moved pretty easy. Installing Bilstein Shocks is way better than OEM stuff. they have an allen wrench socket in the top that is pretty easy to utilize along with a ratcheting end wrench. So I finished up the fronts and headed to the rear, to add the shocks and the alarm went off again to check the butt Clean up a bit and checked the butt and the temps were 195 and 198, the documentation says needs to be up to 205....so I set the timer for another hour and head back to the garage. Putting the shocks on the back is way easier than the fronts. I finished up the shocks. I started putting the tools up (after cleaning them) The alarm goes off again, so I clean up my hands and go check the temps. This time both were at 208 so I shut the grill down and just let the butt sit in there to start cooling. Back to the shop where I finish up the brakes/shocks and putting the tools away. By now, it's getting close to sundown. So I move the pickup and Caddy out of the drive to take 007 out for it's maiden run with new brakes and shocks. Before even getting out of the drive I pump the brakes up, about 5 times, then the peddle feels good and solid. Out to cemetery road to do the 5, 40 to 10mph aggressive stopsm then 5, 35 to 5mph moderate stops, then drive at least 5 minutes to allow them to cool down, before stopping, so a drive over to the next town (6.5 miles) and back allowed that to happen. Back home I backed 007 onto the lift, and put him to bed with his blanket, pulled in the pickup and Caddy. Then out to bring the butt into the house (it's been resting for an hour and a half) and start "pulling" it apart. I must say, my first attempt at smoking a butt was a blazing success, Tender and, most importantly, tasty. Thank goodness it was a great day, upper 50s, but the cold front hit us just about the time I was finishing up in the garage...it will be a different type of day tomorrow. |
