Been busy yesterday and today... Rear end on a '96 Dakota. Customer had it towed over, jacked up the rear end and put it in gear. Sounded like a brake problem at first (actually it kind of was), because there was mad noise coming from the drum. Pulled the drums off and the passenger side brakes in the rear kind of fell apart, the hardware was so old and rusty that it just called it quits. Pulled the diff cover off, and found the spider gear half gone with metal shavings and cylindrical bearings all up in the fluid. These trucks had the choice of 3.21, 3.50, or 3.90 gears in the back. Looked at every yard within a 75 mile radius of here, went through about 60 Dakotas and they ALL were the 3.50s, some 3.21s. A few yards could get the 3.90 rear end but they all wanted $400+. I thought that was a little ridiculous, I got the bright idea to look on car-part.com and found one for $250 about 5 miles from the garage. Had them deliver it. REEEETARD, should've just checked the Internet first. Got that fucker, put it in. New u-bolts, rear brake hardware, ran 2 new brake lines, bolted the shocks back up (even though they were completely shot), bolted driveshaft back up, and finished it. Apparently that 3.90 rear end is extremely rare. If it was 2wd I'd just have thrown any one in there, but not having the 4x4 work really brings down the value of the truck. Did both lower ball joints on a '01 Nissan Quest. Real simple, 3 17mm nuts holding the rivets down and it comes right off. Rear motor mount on an '86 Tempo. How often do you see one of those anymore? Lol... anyways, another simple one. 3 bolts and a nut and it's done. Did a brake line and an exhaust fix on a '97 Ram 1500. Talk about a shiny turd, this hick thinks this truck is in mint condition. "No rust!"... except that it's been repainted (over the rust), the body looks somewhat nice but underneath is rotted to hell. Talking about how he never drives it in the winter, doesn't drive it to the store because of cart dings, all this crap that is totally unnecessary because the thing is a piece. 2 3/16 standard brake line ran from the splitter in the front to the hose in the rear. Oil change and rotors/pads all the way around on a '07 Rav4. Would have rather not done it because the people are straight out of China and on top of being extremely difficult to talk to, they're the cheapest motherfuckers I've ever met in my life. Don't understand that more expensive parts are BETTER, you get what you pay for. One stopped by when it was done and he made a comment about the Snap-On 1/2" drive ratchet, "oh look nice, how much?" "$210" "TWO HUNDRED TEN DOLLA? China we make, look same, maybe $15" "yeah, but the China ratchet will last for maybe a few days, then it'll be broken. Cheap shit." Tomorrow have an oil pressure sensor and a coolant temp sensor (and oil change) on a '04 Ram 1500. Getting real sick of Dodge trucks lately, considering the brake line on the '97 was a bitch to run where the stock one goes, I didn't want it just hanging under the truck all half-ass like I would do if I still worked in the hood.
Well, looks like that '04 Ram is fucked. The guy told us it was leaking oil from the pressure sensor. Pulled the pressure sensor out, and as I'm loosening it, it goes from tight to free. Thinking to myself "this can't be good"... got a light and looked up there, a chunk of cast iron with the threads in it broke off. Now I'm thinking that I'll have to replace the baseplate for the oil filter, since it appears to sit on that. Look a little closer... nope, it's a chunk of the block. Called up the customer and explained that I found where the oil leak was, bad news is... you need a motor. I looked at the chunk that broke off, and it appears somebody had slapped some epoxy/JB Weld on it to try and get it to seal. I was pissed for a second until I realized there's no way I broke it off just by loosening it, and then I noticed the JB and everything else, which pointed to the fact that it was cracked previously and I just finished it off. Meh. He said he had it back to the dealer 4 times for it pissing oil in his driveway, and each time they said they fixed it... and it continued to leak. He wanted me to try and fix it, I told him I would but I'm not going to guarantee that it'll work. Just going to try and clean it up, and JB the cracked piece back in. Seeing how it's high pressure, I know it isn't going to work. Sucks to be him I guess... shouldn't have bought a Dodge. I swear, Chrysler products are the biggest pieces of shit on the road.
mom was complaining her fridge was broken, and my sister comes home from school.. i think she bought a ton of meat.. sheesh she never did anything for me.. went over, the fan was working fine, wasn't sure about the defroster and there was no ice.. took the bottom cover off, the coils were clogged.. it ran a little cooler, but still wouldn't freeze or cool enough.. so i don't know why, but i had the urge to take it apart.. so i took it apart from the back, and the there it was.. the defroster wire had degraded, and the freezer cover, the bottom radiator looked like it had snow.. defrosted the "snow" and rebuilt the wires.. just cut off the degraded part, soldered new ones, and heatshrinked them, and put a wrap of mica tape and electrical tape for further insulation cleaned it, turned it on and left, went to my mom's house later, seemed like it was working great! also jb welded a cracked oilpan temporarily.. tow truck scraped had cracked the hell out of it.. but i guess its better if i replace it.. nidex what ever happened to that escalator with a "timing belt" haha hahaha the chinese guy cracked me the hell up.. i remember trying to change the oil for my friend's ml320.. piece of shit rachet snapped off.. and i felt so glad i bought a craftsman for my first kit.. did you start off with snap on? i know their quality.. but man their expensive
I don't know. I never heard from her. Assuming she doesn't have the money, doesn't care right now, or something like that. I get people that say they're going to call all the time and don't, or call weeks later. No big deal. Put axles in a '00 Sonata yesterday, and tried to get a motor job on a '03 Camry 2.4L today with 314k on it. One of the landlord's bitches (dude is a player), he brought it over for us to look at it and it's knocking. I was almost on the floor laughing because the kicker to this is... the broad is deaf. The radio was set to some static channel, turned ALL the way up, and the motor was knocking loud enough to hear from a mile away, on top of a broken exhaust before the cat, and a screaming pulley. But anyways the cheapest (close distance-wise) motor I found for her was $1300, and we quoted her $600 for labor. Found out that she had already decided if it was going to cost more than $1000 to fix, she was going to get a new car. I might try and pick it up to flip, but I'm kinda broke and have other things I should buy. Fucked with the Contour a little bit today. Put a new crank sensor in, and it started. Ran it for a couple seconds and shut it off, because I had the exhaust manifold disconnected in order to access the crank sensor. Happy that it was finally running, I put the exhaust back up and went to start it, and it just cranks again. I'm getting so sick of this car, so it's going to sit until I feel like messing with it again.
sold my other benz thats been sitting to a friend, hes going to swap the motor into his 190e.. should be fun.. gotta do some basic tuneup stuff and engine mounts on some old pos mirage.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeLpgpA5JS and well today my benz that i've been working on mades that sound.. engine shakes.. don't know if its a tensioner strut, or if its a valve ring or a lifter or a camshift.. hopefully none of those.. turns out starting problems was a battery going bad.. voltage checks out great, charges great, but it stinks like rotton eggs.. im guessing it means its time to go
i got surgery today.. 10am.. can't sleep so i might as well post here so i found out the problem with the benz.. turns out mechanics were wrong, it was the damned tensioner shock/strut thing.. and coilpacks/spark plug wires that seem to be the problem.. glad i got that thing figured out.. rest should be ALOT easier. did a navigation install with a pioneer head unit on a 2012 kia optima.. thank god their forums has a guide with pics.. cause it had to be one of the most annoying head unit installs.. you have to remove the whole damned dash.. fridge/freezer update.. looks like its running great! according to mom.
not today...Saturday and Monday... Poured the walls for the dyno pit... ...and started to modify a megasquirt to accept an IAC stepper motor didn't have a chance to finish the megasquirt because I had to go take care of some other stuff, all that's left is to solder everything and it should *knock on wood* be good to go. still don't know what that random resistor went to...buying used stuff is fun sometimes.
Ahh that's tight. That's your shop? Today we put green underglow neons on a V6 Mustang. I figure now that that is done, I can get some stickers for the door and then my race car will be complete. ...just kidding. It was for some dopey customer, charged him $50. Also started ripping apart the '03 Camry. We will see what ends up happening with that.
Yup...still have a lot to do as far as becoming 'presentable' but once the dyno is in the hole it will take a boat load of stress off me and my buddy's shoulders...we're pretty fed up with it and just want it to be done, lol https://www.facebook.com/FoxBodyPerformance Underglows...sounds like a good time...I've found that it takes all kinds...sometimes I want to ask customers, "why are you spending money on this?" but that would be detrimental to the prosperity of our shop...lol
foxbodyperformance haha i like it.. nice pics.. nice shop.. good ole megasquirt.. keeping the car n/a? had surgery today.. was crappy.. hurts like a mofo
sorry you're hurtin'...PILLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!! yup, car is going to stay N/A...it's got some goodies... My buddy's had this car since we were in high school... and over the years it's had it's fair share of combos... ...this last combo has been a few years in the making, same car. He's getting close to getting it all buttoned up...he's a perfectionist...
Damn, looks like you've got a nice setup going from what I can see (the shop). Clean cars too... I have a friend with a white 4 eyed like that. Except pretty much every Foxbody around here is rotted to all hell. Those 302s (or 302 based motor) are what I would be pushing if I had a muscle car. Easy to work on, cheap to make fast... well at least carbureted ones. Although I think I would go EFI personally. I don't see a cage in the red one... does your track require a cage for 11.5 and faster? Ours does. Today, put an idler arm, pitman arm, lower ball joint, and shocks in a '98 S10 Blazer. Didn't get anywhere on the Camry. Helped this idiot do back brakes (discs mind you) on that white CRX we put the gas tank and other misc. things in. He decided he was going to try and use spline drive sockets to take his bolts out. Out of the 4 bolts (caliper brackets and calipers), he stripped all of them. Then he brings it over, saying he can't get any of the bolts off or the screws in the rotors. Since those screws almost never come out I just took the angle grinder and the chisel to it. He also asked, "do you have the socket that gets stripped bolts out?" Uh... yeah buddy, it's called pound the next size down on that bitch. So I had to do that for him too and finish... well, start and finish his brake job. I haven't had a customer for awhile that tried to do a job and mess it up, making it much more work than necessary, for awhile. So it was bound to happen sooner or later. Also put a little more of my Integra together. Probably going to pick up a B16 hydro trans tomorrow, $100 but it needs a third gear synchro. Bet! Could probably talk him down to $80 or $75 at that... even better, lol.
some people shouldn't touch tools...seriously lol thanks...it's still coming together...still have a lot to do...to 'big money customers', image is everything, so eventually the place will be immaculate... no rust down here...just a little surface rust down here and nothing more lol...yippie for no salt, or snow...or rain...or moisture...it's fun working in a 120F shop in the summer, gives ball sweat a whole new meaning 302's are pretty cheap to make fast...i'd still take an LS based motor anyday, dollar for dollar they are cheaper...you can find LQ4's all day long for pennies...there's an LS fox swap in the works at the shop, car isn't done being painted yet...i'll post pics when it's finished... yeah, that's standard NHRA rules about the cage... With his second combo he ran 11.51@116, 1.52 60ft at a ~1900 D/A...any faster and they would of kicked him out...then he got mad at that combo, sold it, and started working on his current one lol imo his most impressive combo so far was his first one... That put him to: 60 - 1.563 1/8 th 7.699 mph - 86.992 E.T. 12.140 mph 111.011 at an awful ~3500 D/A...had that of been better would of been mid-high 11 easy...a lot of people clowned on him for those times...haters guna hate lol neat shit... what are your plans for the 'tegra?
i didn't even see that you're from az.. yup.. i feel ya.. least it ain't iraq.. now that was hellish and thats a damned clean engine.. ha your friend is one of those... i should have been one of those but oh well man his first combo was basicish.. what kind of gas are you guys running? surgery is a f***ing pain in the butt.. i had a root canal done, so i need to take antibiotics, but i also had open surgery in my stomach.. so i can't eat shit and the pills are killing me (can't really take painkillers either) picked up a 98 mitsubishi mirage for $150 at the junkyard its in good shape actually.. 200k miles but seems like it had some stuff done to it also got a ypipe for the benz, and a buncha infinity speakers in great shape its a good pos for me to drive around when i dont feel like riding the crotchrocket.. and its DAMNED good on gas.. makes me want to get rid of that heap of shit benz sitting in my garage for a while.. also did one of the hardest tows with a friend today.. he didn't say id be doing anything but he needed help.. 3 cars, 1 flatbed, lots of harbor freight straps (all he had)
Spun a bearing in my mr2. Put it on the lift today and removed be oil pan and rod caps. I'm going to have to replace the crankshaft so I started removing the engine. I'm about 2 hours away from dropping it out. I'll post pics later
Nice Fox body man. I still have a thing for those Mustangs. Maybe one day I'll pick one up and build one like my friend had in HS (89 LX with engine and suspension mods). Thing went like hell and took corners like it was on rails. I fixed the valve cover leaks and O2 sensor on the Rover. Put in a Sony Xplod head-unit so I can bump my Katy Perry trackz! I still have an oil leak and I still need to get underneath it and find out where it's coming from. It's either some idiot over cranked the oil filter or the rear main. I need to pop the access cover off the trans bellhousing and take a looksie.
if she didn't have huge boobies would you still listen to her? haha i blast her too! man i gotta do my valve cover.. rear seals and gotta get the o2 sensor as well.. and the timing chain guides don't think the previous owner's mechanic did a good job with the headgasket.. but.. more importantly damned tow truck put microfractures all over my aluminum oilpan
Not sure of the plan but... That's the crankshaft @ cylinder #1 on my MR2. So I decided it needed a refresh at the least... I want to put my other clutch in and now 4th grinds on downshifts. Plus it was burning oil so... Some of the tools I used: The void left behind. Hmm... so 2ZZ (Lotus Elise / Celica GTS engine?) and should I swap to a Celica GTS 6-speed? LS1 swap? Built or stock 1ZZ (OEM engine)... ah choices.
turbo build!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!x1 Mcjillion
Stock. Fuck that homebrew turbo shit and fuck the 2zz. It's a nice enough motor but you've owned an s2000 and that f20c is the cream of the crop.
