Broke the clip to a $38 water temp sensor while cleaning the intake manifold

yes, i'm a god damned cheapskate.

[Edited on September 1, 2012 at 10:21 PM. Reason : ]

9/1/2012 10:19:20 PM

i washed my truck

that's pretty significant for me

9/1/2012 10:58:52 PM

oil, oil filter, trans fluid change

9/2/2012 12:25:14 AM

ill be posting to this a lot more in the near future.

got this:



a 1964 valiant 2 door.

slant 6 engine, pushbutton trans, absolutely no options at all ordered on this car.

pulled out of a barn in the above condition, needs the usual.

fluids, filters, shocks, brakes, rubbers and grommets. interior looks great! one seat cover in the front and 2 splits in the vinyl in the back. possible leak in gas tank (cant tell yet, just shiny).

manual steering box, 13 inch wheels. appearance-wise im leaving it alone, going for a drivable barn find / rat rod look.

going to leave the slant 6 as well, its a neat little motor. ill change the plugs and points and check the timing/carb, and then just seafoam the bitch.

96k original miles and these ran as taxis with the same engine/trans combo for 500k. with no oil changes they were torture tested to 300k.

should be pretty bulletproof when i get done with it.







i paid VERY little for this car and think its cool as hell.

9/6/2012 7:20:26 PM

^ Cool, post a pic of the push button transmission!

On the M3: Rebuilt the driver's side front strut with new shock, changed the driver's side steering knuckle, installed new front wheel bearing on both sides. Finished the control arm and tie rod replacement on the driver's side, and had the front wheels aligned since I couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing to get them even remotely close to aligned

Still to do:
Rear trailing arm bushings
Sway bar links (front and rear)
Full alignment

Nearly done with the suspension overhaul

After suspension is done:
Fix check engine light resulting from bad MAF
Change transmission fluid
New brake pads/rotors/stainless lines and fluid
New wheels and tires

9/6/2012 9:12:47 PM

Changed oil on the Lexus.

Riding the R1200R like a boss. (just hit 30k).

Drove the MX3 for the first time in probably 2 weeks today, still going strong!

9/6/2012 9:23:29 PM

some dickshit saw me working on my car the other day and thought it was cool to go bitching to management so i come home to a sticker on the s2000 saying they're going to tow my shit since it's "abandoned"

what the fuck

9/7/2012 9:48:26 PM

^ Still got that miata?

9/7/2012 10:09:55 PM

yea

9/7/2012 10:17:05 PM

new converter on a friend's jetta 1.8T

9/8/2012 11:01:40 AM

^^next time, make sure you fire up the compressor and use an impact etc

9/8/2012 11:29:40 AM

just did some wiring to get the m5 foglights to work on the 540 wiring harness. autozone actually had the adapters I needed to make the job almost tool-less. 15min and $16 and everything is good

9/8/2012 4:16:56 PM

changed oil on the 240

discovered that one reason my a/c stopped working is because the compressor belt broke

replaced the belt which was a PITA

[Edited on September 8, 2012 at 6:11 PM. Reason : ]]

9/8/2012 6:10:55 PM

added a set of long-range driving lights to the shitbox jeep. 100w each and only $10 for the set from harbor freight. work great. can't beat 'em.

also cut a hole in the hood and covered it with an aluminum soffit vent. underhood temps dropped drastically and the a/c blows ice cold while sitting at a stoplight.

9/8/2012 9:13:43 PM

i have the right-side pop-up headlight assembly removed from the Corvette...I removed the headlight motor and replaced the shitty, stripped plastic gear with an aftermarket brass one. I had to glue/seal the gear/motor housing back together, so I'll put it back together tomorrow after it cures.

I'll also replace a turn signal pigtail while I have the light assembly out.

Oh, and I used some plastic adhesive to attempt to seal a 1" hairline crack near the radiator inlet. If that doesn't work, I'll sand it off and order some of this: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=scotch+weld+dp8010&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&ion=1&biw=1024&bih=513&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=3460213128550539510&sa=X&ei=kh1NULuSLYmy8ASr34HgBA&ved=0CFAQ8wIwAA

(claims to bond polyethylene).

If that doesn't work, I'll suck it up and replace the radiator.

9/9/2012 11:10:59 PM

^^^You're joking right?

[Edited on September 9, 2012 at 11:13 PM. Reason : .]

9/9/2012 11:12:58 PM

^no, compared to my mustang it was a pain

9/9/2012 11:32:57 PM

shop says I have shit valve guides and one bent exhaust valve

not as bad as I thought. yay.

trying to figure out how the valve is bent, though - I have never come close to over revving the fucker and I doubt it would go 30k miles without showing any signs(that's how long i've had it)

[Edited on September 10, 2012 at 4:06 PM. Reason : ]

9/10/2012 4:05:09 PM

^^I hope you mean a volvo 240

well I guess getting the alternator belt on a 240sx IS a big PITA, especially if you haven't ditched the clutch fan and fan shroud

9/10/2012 9:06:16 PM

They say all Honda exhaust valve guides are bad. I bet they measure bad off the line....

9/10/2012 9:54:25 PM

^ lol

i expected the valve guides to be bad

i'm just confused about the valve itself - I REFUSE TO TAKE BLAME

I'm assuming the guide could have been so bad it lead to valve failure somehow or other?

Oh well, I feel kind of sketch letting them replace the valve with an aftermarket without replacing the rest, but then again, I've never done anything like this before and don't know if it would make any difference at all

[Edited on September 10, 2012 at 10:54 PM. Reason : ]

9/10/2012 10:51:59 PM

Quote :

"well I guess getting the alternator belt on a 240sx IS a big PITA, especially if you haven't ditched the clutch fan and fan shroud"

this.

9/10/2012 11:34:19 PM

Planning to replace the Integra's alternator belt tomorrow after work. Looks to be an extremely easy task, but with a 20 year old car it almost never is

9/12/2012 8:52:14 AM

nnoooo, thoff put some of my ap2 intake retainers on the exhaust side...which wouldn't be a problem, since I can just swap them myself, except they mixed up the cotters/keepers, too...I'm not sure if that's a problem or not

9/12/2012 2:21:26 PM

They put two different sets of keepers in an f20 head? Seems mighty bmwish to me...

9/13/2012 8:26:22 AM

Well, no....the ap1 has weak retainers and the intake side tends to crack so I had swapped in ap2 retainers which use different keepers. Yea yea, I should have told them. I didnt know any better

9/13/2012 11:15:16 AM

lol @ s13 belts being hard to replace. because that fan/shroud is soooo hard to remove

on that note: twin e-fans + clutch fan lots of air flow and accessible belts! best of both worlds.

9/13/2012 11:31:31 AM

bought an 05 Silverado.

blew the motor up in the SeR

pretty good week

9/13/2012 11:59:34 AM

I thought the alternator belt needed replacement, turns out it was just loose I had considered that but thought the belt was pretty old and should be replaced anyway. But upon inspection its condition looked fine!

9/14/2012 8:20:39 AM

52psi boost!

9/14/2012 9:06:22 AM

my aluminum clamshell open deck block shudders at the thought of that...

9/14/2012 1:16:05 PM

I'm amazed I havent popped my intercooler yet. you know, the 3" x 18" x 38" cross-flow job ive got hangin out up front EVERYTHINGS BIG


(rough size, btw.)

9/14/2012 1:27:02 PM

at 50 some psi thats going to be more of a BOOM

9/14/2012 1:32:00 PM

freaking ridiculous

9/14/2012 1:34:02 PM

btw I am doing a little e-dick swinging...however it's mostly for fun, since I'm lower-middle of the road in the grand scheme of diesel performance

I had a 90deg elbow slip out of a boot at the drag strip a couple years ago, at 45psi, and it mad a POWshoooooooo sound

[Edited on September 14, 2012 at 1:58 PM. Reason : -]

9/14/2012 1:58:15 PM

NEED DEM NUMBERS!!!

9/14/2012 2:20:12 PM

Got another one

9/15/2012 12:03:29 PM

right front wheel bearing went out on my truck. put a new one on it.

9/15/2012 4:29:02 PM

Found another grille for the Valiant, and it's damaged on the side opposite of where mine is damaged.

So I'm thinking I can combine parts from the two and have a perfect grille? Has anyone done this before on one of these old stamped aluminum (I think) grilles?

The horizontal grille pieces are riveted to the vertical supports. I'm thinking ill drill out the rivets, put the bars I want on the grille I'm going to use, and instead of using rivets use some kind of self-tapping screw?

Don't have any pictures at the moment. Depending how much room I have I suppose I could use a screw+nut. Haven't looked in there much yet.

On the bright side I got a couple torsion bars free for buying the grille. People parting out cars and swapping stuff on auto forums is friggin sweet.




Discovered on Saturday that the Valiant is a back-up light delete car

[Edited on September 17, 2012 at 12:35 PM. Reason : -]

9/17/2012 12:31:11 PM

why not just go back with rivets?

9/17/2012 3:56:50 PM

I don't have the tool and have never riveted anything before?

If you could make me feel better about it I might attempt it, but won't the holes be bigger after I drill them out at least?

9/17/2012 4:09:24 PM

a pop rivet gun is cheap and a monkey could use it.

the holes won't be bigger. just keep increasing drill bit size until you get to the size that removes it. 3/16" is most common.

9/17/2012 4:15:21 PM

Do they make one tiny enough to clear that small gap I'm going to have between grille pieces?

You can see in the pictures maybe I won't have more than an inch.

I assume it needs a 90 degree head too.





[Edited on September 17, 2012 at 4:36 PM. Reason : pushbuttons]

9/17/2012 4:21:21 PM

i can't tell how it would be oriented. they are right-angled like this:

9/17/2012 4:55:46 PM

New air filter for the R12R.

9/17/2012 5:21:03 PM

Screws into soft metal is a bad idea. They will work loose.

The rivet gun is cheap and easy to use. Stick the nail like side of the rivet into the gun, stick the other end through the two pieces of metal, and give the handle a pump or three until the rivet pops off.

When drilling out the rivets all you need to do is hit it for a few seconds with a bit about halfway between the size of the center of the rivet and the size of the outer diameter of the rivet. You're not actually drilling out the center section...Just popping off the head. Once the head pops off you can push the rivet through or pull it out the other side. The hole won't change size in the process...Use the same size rivet as a replacement. The rivets are soft aluminum, so the drilling itself only takes a few seconds and you'll see the head pop off.

[Edited on September 17, 2012 at 5:29 PM. Reason : l]

9/17/2012 5:28:19 PM

Well that seems like the way to go then.

Ill try that this weekend and get pictures of the final product.

In the meantime I have shocks and front torsion bars in the mail. The brakes are coming together, and the trans and gas tank don't need the attention I thought they did.

Just cleaning and scraping grease otherwise

9/17/2012 7:43:43 PM

Removing the head and bringing to a machine shop to fix broken manifold studs. Doing arp head studs while at it. Deciding if I want to put in 256 pon cams or not

9/18/2012 11:41:13 PM

absolutely nothing

head still sitting on my living room floor. that shit is classy

9/20/2012 12:46:22 AM

Which machine shop did you take it to? What work did you have done and how much did it cost?

9/20/2012 1:40:55 AM