The oil in the bore before cranking is to get around a low compression ratio problem. It probably means your ring is shot. Rings are cheap, but probably your piston is either scored or about to be scored. I've received conflicting opinions on the 350 piston problem. Mine keeps scoring the piston. One source says that the cylinder bore is chromed, and is harder than the piston, so any irregularities on the bore is melted material deposited by the piston. He said that it could be smoothed out by sandpaper and made like new. He also said that the piston/bore is so tough that the 1:50 oil:gas mix is unnecessary, that it would run just fine on pure gas. He must be selling a lot of piston kits. The other source says that the pre-45mm bores are bound to fail, and that it is foolish to try to keep fixing it. I put 2 new pistons and rings in mine, and it ran fine for a few hours, but eventually quit and won't restart. Look for mine in parts on eBay.

that's a very good idea, i'll get that document from the agency tuesday morning. here's where it was left yesterday afteernoon. loan officer tells me the real problem is my debt to income ratio. underwriters require 45%. mine is 46%. so i get bil (banker in another state) on one cell, loan officer on the other. he suggests simply borrowing less money. duh, whay didn't she think of that?! so she said she'd call the underwrighters back and hung up. she had earlier told me she'd be in meetings for the rest of the day, this was ten minutes before the meetings were to start. i think the underwrighters are looking for a reason to decline my application--after all at 3.87% they're not going to be makeing a lot on this loan. or, since she first said they were having problems with my type of income, and later it was because of the ratio difference, and she promptly offered me a heloc at a much higher rate, if there is some bait and switch thinking going on. i hate to think that, she's such a lovely person, blah,blahblah, but still... so i'll charge back into the fray on tuesday, and maybe evn call the banking commission on tuesday to see what my rights are in this case. i'm not going to let that 3.87 go without a fight!! i guess i'd better get a ref for a kick-ass real estate attorney too--my guy may not be right for this.

Hi again donaldsg, I was able to use Dave's post to convince my husband to shop around some more and I'd like some advice on alternatives. Good... but ugghh!! These are the best offers & advice he's secured??? Option 1) Home equity loan from our credit union with a fixed rate of 6.24% for a 10 year term, and costs are mortgage tax only, or Even Bernanke has come out & explicitly stated that the Fed is going to keep short-term interest rates low "well into the foreseeable future." Currently, HELOC money is available around Prime (plus or minus maybe 1/4 to 1/2%) That means you can get the money you need (and only draw it *as* needed) at around a net rate of 3%-ish. That's under *HALF* the costs of the fixed loan, without the more dangerous burden of a forced 10 year repayment amortization*!!! If you anticipate the ability to save up enough money over the future 10 years to pay for this kitchen addition... then you are likely far better off using a HELOC to do the job (which is also exponentially cheaper in closing costs... from jest a few hundred bucks,) and then using your "savings power" to apply your budget to retiring the HELOC balance. (* The reason amortization is a responsible person's nightmare is because it removes budgetary control from YOU. Now, this may actually be a good thing for those who know they are "money-management challenged" and if this is true for you I understand... many people are. HOWEVER, if you are indeed a strong income and budgetary manager, then you are far better off keeping 100% control of which direction you send 100% of your money each month (which you can only do when you are NOT constrained by amortization.) The *BEST* way to eliminate your mortgage (for responsible people,) is to accumulate a side "Mortgage Freedom Account" which grows to the point that you can then stroke out a single large check to extinguish the entire balance at once. EVERYONE ought to eliminate ALL of their home leverage (HOWEVER, never a day nor a dollar earlier than it is SAFE to do so!) Option 2) refinance with our current mortgage carrier for a 20 year term at 4.75%, paying closing costs of $5500 and $1920 for points. Again, going the wrong direction on amortization (I am assuming from your self-description you are indeed a tight and responsible budget manager.) Further, 4.75% is way too pricey on today's market for a 20 year loan. EVEN FURTHER, if you are planning on staying in this home longer than 5-8 years, and you accept a higher interest rate offer in order to have a lower closing cost (which will entirely be financed by the loan anyway,) then you will be tilting the cost/savings trade-off into the present, and casting your permanent costs into your permanent monthly payments which will NOT get reduced back down after the 5 year breakeven period. Put it this way.... For approximately every $1 you spend in higher closing costs which results in a lower interst rate.... You save an annual total of about $0.20 in interest costs, permanently, per year. After 5 years has passed, you CONTINUE to save that $0.20 per year, EVERY year. SPEND $5,000 in discount points, save $1,000 per year on interest charges. After 5 years, KEEP saving $1,000 per year. ALTERNATIVELY; For approximately every $1 you REDUCE in closing costs which results in a HIGHER interst rate.... You SPEND an annual total of an additional $0.20 in interest costs, permanently, per year. After 5 years has passed, you CONTINUE to SPEND that $0.20 per year, EVERY year. AVOID $5,000 in discount points, SPEND $1,000 per year in higher interest charges. After 5 years, KEEP SPENDING $1,000 per year, permanently. Make more sense? This is one of the reasons why it pays to use a properly educated planner to structure your finances, if you aren't familiar with all the variables and how they can really affect you over time. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

1) Move the dishwasher to the right of the sink. The counter between the sink and the cooktop is the best prep area in the kitchen. If the dishwasher is to the left of the sink (as pictures), it's in the middle of your prep area. This means no one (including the cook) can open the dishwasher while someone is cooking without being massively in the cook's way. If you move the dishwasher to the right, you could could an entire meal with the dishwasher open, and it would never be in your way. 2) Swap all the base cabinets for drawers except the sink cabinet. You might also want to leave one slim base cabinet for cook sheets/casserole dishes, but that isn't necessary if you are going to put those items above the fridge or double ovens. 3) Swap the locations of the fridge and the double ovens. You want counter next to your ovens so you can put something hot down quickly and with little chance of bumping into others. Ideally, you want counter near the fridge too, but carrying something hot across the room can burn you or other. Carrying some stuff from the fridge across the room, while a bit annoying, is not a safety hazard. The fridge is also more often used than the ovens are. The fridge where it is currently will block the doorway every time it is open, which will be often. If you move it to where the double ovens are, you no long have the fridge road block. Also, the typical action flow of a kitchen is: fridge (get the food) --> big prep counter with adjacent sink (wash the food and mix/chop/peel it) --> either the cooktop or the oven (cook the food) If you swap the fridge and ovens as I have suggested, that puts your appliances in the same order as the actions in the kitchen. Namely, fridge --> sink and big counter between the sink and cooktop --> cooktop or ovens. This creates a good and efficient work floor. 4) If you move the double ovens as I suggest, make sure no one entering that doorway is likely to run into an open oven. Ovens are open less often than fridges, but it's a lot worse to walk into an open oven, so you don't want to risk that. I am hoping that doorway is to a pantry so this isn't an issue. 5) Is this kitchen going to have three ovens? Or is the range in the picture meant to be a cooktop? If it is the latter, then you want drawers under the cooktop too. 6) I wouldn't go for 36" + 10" stacked cabinets. I don't think you'll ever use the 10" tops of those cabinets, so really you are paying more for 36" of useful storage space when you could pay less for 42". I agree it'd be better for cabinets to go to the ceiling, so I'd ask how much for molding or whatever would extend the 42" cabinets to the top.