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Showing posts from October, 2021

it's officially a legit running driving car.

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Got my inspection sticker and picked the kids up from school. Cute reactions, if the weather is nice I'll do it again tomorrow. There are always things on the Todo list: Battery box cover needs some plastic welding. Passenger window needs an adjustment and some dry lube. The passenger side lock doesn't match my key. I'd like to redo the spare tire area. This might be the winter project.  The steering shaft needs a weld. There are 2 little holes in the hatch trough that need a fix. Need to check the rear light and glass seals. I think our hatch leak is under the spoiler. I'd like to clean and paint some of the trim. The quarter glass trim is pitted and I'd like to explore sanding and filling. The fog light relay mod needs to happen. Speaker install, undecided about a head unit, I was thinking a Bluetooth only unit I have seen in maritime applications.  Cleaning of the carpets if I don't replace them. Reinstall the rest of the interior. Small seat patc...

20w-50 for the win

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As a lark I decided to see if heavier oil would improve the oil pressure. 45 lbs is a lot better then 25. I may add an oil cooler in the future. Now I need brake parts to get the other car out of the way.

back together first start and runs then the OH NO!

Kinda gave up on photos because of the amount of grease anti seize and oil on my hands over the last 3 sessions. I installed the passenger side header and realized all the exterior stud threads were toast. At least the ones outside the engine. The heater return tube and the dip stick relie on those to be mounted. Grabbed the right sized tap and die, the nuts were fine, and the threads inside the heads were good but the thread base channels had swelled with rust making even running a die on with antiseize difficult.  After that the headers, heater pipe and dip stick went on with no trouble. The a/c bracket, tensioner and fuel lines went on. The dip stick took some wiggles to go in. The rest of the front accessories went back on.  I reconnected the alarm wire and wrapped it up under the upper intake. Heater hoses went on, I patched hard hose I cut with softline and clamps. The upper intake went back. All the vaccum lines hooked back in but I forgot to tighten down the EGR valve....

heads cleaned, deck cleaned, heads installed

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Cleaned the block, heads and used an old head bolt with a slot cut in the sides to clean out the threaded holes I got the deck pretty clean by hand with brake clean, a razor and a red scotch pad. gaskets dropped on the heads were cleaned by hand with brake clean, a green scotch bright and razor. i had some trouble seating the passenger head so I dropped old bolts into the lower corners and found the dowels that's way. The torque sequence for the newer cars was intense. I even broke an extension during the last step 180° turn. I couldn't get the right torque in the bolt under the brake booster because I only had 1 click of ratcheting space and no leverage. 

valve stem seals, intake cleaning and thermostat

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Got a ton done, did the valve stem seals on both heads. The valves look good 1 had minor pitting but not even something I would lap out so I went straight to reassembly. I cleaned half the intake with the steel brush and vacuum method.  removed the old thermostat and sealant. cleaned and installed a new thermostat.