9/8/08 - Just bought this today. I'll get my own pics up later. With my 3rd car, and only being 19, I'd say I'm well on my way to dominating Jay Leno's collection... maybe... not.
Mod list:
NPG (JDM only and made by Bridgestone) 32-way suspension, DC Sports full exhaust, TWM stage 2 short throw shifter, Weapon R rear strut tower bar, Pioneer speakers
The plan as of now is to fix it to make a nice daily. I drove it back from Canton, about a 2 hour drive, and used 1/4 tank, so it's got potential for a good dd. It's got a really low idle, but still runs alright otherwise. It'll need piston rings eventually, it smokes, but I'm just adding oil when it needs it for now. I need to get a couple bulbs in it, a new corner light for the driver's side, and a side mirror for driver's side as well. After that it's into getting the body back up to spec w/ no rust and getting some decent paint on it. No telling where I'll go yet after that.
9/17/08 - Just got these. Hopefully I can get them on the car before I gotta work tomorrow.
9/18/08 - Got them in this morning, check out the pics on page 2.
9/20/08 - Still trying to fix the miss... check page 2 for updates.
9/27/08 - Haven't updated for what seems like a while to me. I've been a little irritated at the car, but I realize there's other things weighing on my mind at the same time, so it's probably not all the car. The Seafoam didn't do anything. I finally got around to compression testing the motor, and it had a whole 5 psi on #3, so that made it obvious that it was going to be an expensive fix. My dad's been a mechanic for quite some time, and since it was backfiring he's pretty convinced it's burnt exhaust valves, which makes sense. I think I finally figured out why a couple nights ago. I was talking to a friend and he was talking about it would have been an extrememly rare thing to do that on a pretty stock motor. All of the sudden, I remembered the guy I bought the car from was selling a turbo kit for the motor at the same time. Apparently he didn't realize if you slap on a turbo on an n/a motor and just run it, it's not going to get the fuel it needs and something's going to go wrong. Anyhow, since the valves were burnt, the heat built up in that cylinder when I drove the car and it's been burning the head gasket away, so just the other day I found my temp gauge pegging it and found no antifreeze in the radiator. It's basically getting replaced with steam from the head gasket being gone and steam doesn't cool very well. So basically I'm an idiot and got screwed. Now I'm trying to get enough cash together to get a head, hg, vc gasket, im gasket, possibly a water pump, timing belt, and to get it all put on. I'm not as mechanically inclined as I may try to make myself seem, and really don't feel like messing with it, so I'm taking it to a friend of the family's garage to get it checked out and fixed. My dad's also already upset about having 2 cars that don't run in the yard and keeps pushing me to get rid of those as is, and I don't wanna push my luck anymore than I already am. Just got my hours cut back at work now too so I'm crossing my fingers that I can get this thing back on the road before I leave for boot camp. After I get started with the Navy things should start looking up, but right now I'm resorting to finding loose change... I may have found a used head for $75, which doesn't sound bad to me. hopefully that'll take a chunk out of that $500 estimate... cause right now I've got $180... I just paid on both of my credit cards, but my insurance is due soon too so we'll see how all this works itself out. A good paycheck next Friday sounds really nice right now...
Ah well... if you keep replacing stuff, eventually it's going to be reliable right?
9/30/08 - It's in the repair shop. I've got fingers crossed for it being in the head and not a piston... hopefully it'll come back a little closer to being reliable.
10/8/08 - Just gave the repair shop the go ahead to fix the head. If all goes as planned, it should be getting worked on this Friday.
11/2/08 - got word a couple days ago that all of the exhaust valves looked pretty bad with carbon buildup and what not. #3 had one with a hole the size of a pea. The head's just gonna get swapped. I was thinking about getting a mini-me swap but made up my mind that now just isn't the time. Maybe a little farther down the road I'll give it a shot. Hope I can get it back this week and get to work on fixing the rust. I'll have this car decent before it's all said and done. It's had a rough couple of years at least. I'd say it's time it got a little tlc. Really wish I'd have fixed it myself... probably coulda done the head swap that way and had it done some time ago...
Stopping this page before it gets too confusing.
Newest updates on:
pg. 2 & 3
Page 1 - Intro
Page 2 - The good/actually not broken/mods
Page 3 - The bad/ugly/broken
Page 4 - Future plans / ideas
