What it cost me to own a $500 car, part 33

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
06/13/2016 at 14:15 • Filed to: None

A storage rack collapsed, which led me to the realization I was really hoarding parts I didn’t plan on using. I made a few posts and ended up selling quite a few parts. The welded 4.11 R200 diff, the front control arms, the eBay seats, the suspension uprights.

I also decided to pickup some nicer seats, and scored when I found a post on craigslist for one of the two seats that fit the Z chassis without much trouble.

Threw in my harnesses I had been keeping for a while and suddenly the car felt much more sturdy and secure.

Managed to get an alignment, it was so very off it was amazing the car even drove straight. 60* of front toe, yes not an error 6 and a 0.

The alignment shop did a great job, Tru-line in bellevue. They were very courteous and I had very little to complain about (I didn’t want them to adjust the driver side rear due to the axle length, the secretary said they would figure that out, tech said he didn’t notice and wish he had been told).

Decided I wanted to go to a car show, managed to get the car ready enough and hit the road. I went together with my friend with the E30. We made it down ok. I was blowing a little smoke out the exhaust, but I figured one of the rings were wearing out.

We left a little early and about a minute after getting onto the freeway a huge plume of smoke came through my shifter hole. I should have stopped, I was an idiot. I looked over at the AFR gauge and it was running in parameters. I was wondering if it was burning really rich and decided to cruise for a bit longer to get more air through the radiator. The bus behind me had backed away quite a distance and my friend who was leading pulled up next to me and I signaled that I needed to get off. As I got off I heard it. I tried to convince myself it wasn’t there, but I heard it. I pulled into a gas station and found the entire bottom of the car covered in oil. Looking into the engine bay I found one of the remote oil filter lines had popped off. Turns out it wasn’t tight enough. It had been fine for two years, but finally decided to let loose. The gauge I should have checked was the oil pressure gauge which was two over and which would have been pegged at 0.

After talking about our options we decided if I could limp it home I would try. After the car cooled down I put the line back on, tightened it up with a leatherman and filled it with overpriced gas station oil. Turned the car on and it seemed to be ok so we limped it to a car wash to wash out all the oil residue.

As we got back onto the freeway with hopes of limping it home 30 miles the rattle became more pronounced. Two miles down the road, the car lurched and I new it had dropped a rod cap or something worse. It was like a can of bees. I flipped my hazards on and pulled off and almost made it off the exit ramp. I had to put it back in gear and run the motor to get over the hill and to my great dismay found no side street or shoulder for two blocks over hills. I was killing my motor, but I was not going to stop in the middle of a main road.

Finally my saving grace a Lowes.

Pulled in and parked up. Posted a sign waiting for my AAA tow, thankful I had purchased the premier package.

Then I went to drown my sorrows in sweet frozen treats at DQ.

The tow truck driver arrived quicker then the original quote of 2-3 hours for which I was thankful.

Super nice guy, never really met a mean AAA driver.

Then this sad puppy followed me all the way home.

Managed to slot it back into storage unfortunately had to run the engine to do so.

Engine is toast, I fear having had to run it after the cap dropped it is not going to be pretty under there. I don’t have a garage to pull the engine so I’m not sure what to do. The three main options come to mind. Sell the car, part it out, fix it.

Going to have to do my pros and cons and think about it.

Diff - -200

Control arms - -50

Suspension front and back - -500

Seats - -140

Sparco R100 - 660

Money spent: -230

Total spent: 21734

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