Up and Running

While Melissa was gone I did manage to successfully install a whole new driveshaft (replete with new CV joints at both ends). It wasn't a Lobro (the original manufacturer), as I'd hoped, but an EMPI. Given EMPI's reputation as of late, I'm keeping the old assembly.
(Also, another ACVW freak told me that the joint in fact didn't look to be beyond hope; all I needed to do was reassemble it and exchange it with the passenger side assembly--thereby re-wearing it on the unworn side--and I could expect to get many tens (or hundreds) of thousands more miles from it. Alas, it was too late as I'd already ordered the replacement.)

* * *

I was quite perplexed after taking Ludwig on his shakedown run by what seemed to be a fairly massive oil leak. I had an inkling what it was, but as a natural and unrepentant cynic I dismissed this first impression as far too facile. Thus began several days of fretting and preparing for the worst, as I had convinced myself that we had a leaky oil cooler, the fix for which requires an(other) engine removal.
However, in a conversation with 01Melcher, he mentioned six words that took me directly back to my dismissed initial thought:
"Are you sure it's engine oil?"
No, of course it wasn't engine oil; it was CV grease, the very grease that had been flung from the ripped boot way back in May. It got everywhere, including the front of the head. Once the head heated up the grease, it ran all over Creation, creating the illusion of a leak. (Part of my dismay earlier was learning that oil cooler leaks tend to manifest themselves after the engine is nice and warm, and that the "leak" was on the side indicative of an oil cooler leak.) Everything cleared up after I cleaned the head.

Slightly cleaner cylinder head (center)

It's nice to have a fix that cost $2 at a car wash.