"""As for Larry, he made what seems like a classic mistake to me. Some
people figure that you can preemptively replace enough stuff as an
insurance policy to ensure  a more trouble free trip. Time and again
this has proven to be a waste of time and money. Fix what is truly
broken and save the rest of the money until you really need to spend it."""

I don't agree Mark... when you leave for a 1 to 2 years trip, you do as much
as you can so you won't loose to much time in the shop.... that is 60k miles
trip! not your everyday weekend trip.

He did one thing wrong, and he knows about it! Wrong choice of engine....but
look now, he as an broken AVP after 9k miles...

Life IS A risk!

Cheers, Ben