So today is pretty much the first day since April that I've been happy! That was the day before we brought our 80 home...
A 162k Champaigne Stock '91 we found on CL...OH WONDERFUL CL...How I
Thee!
Anyway...
Drove it twice over two days, different times of day, pulled the Carfax, checked the emissions report...Everything said this was going to be a great find...And it was...until I was driving it home from buying it and it started running like poop! Although, it did *somehow* pass emissions!
So...we replaced the fuel pump...the fuel filter...and it kept running worse and worse. Well, seeing as how this was going to be my lovely wife's daily driver now that we were selling her Dodge Caliber (we've got 3 kiddoes now and no way 3 car seats fitting in the back of the Caliber!) I was in a bit of a time crunch to get this thing purring again...So off to the Dealership! Where they tell me it's $3200 to open it up and look at the Head gasket! Good gravy! That's more than we paid for the whole freaking car!!!
When you have bad luck like this, it's better to have good friends like thx1138! With his FSM and rig as a diagram we got the head off and sure enough, right between cylinder 1 & 2, tore right through (which was leading to 29 & 31 psi in those cylinders, respectively)...
Well, I picked up my HG set, cleaned everything up and we buttoned it back together! While we had it apart I went ahead and had the Injectors cleaned by the good guys over at Arizona TPI (717 South Hacienda Drive Tempe, AZ 85281 (480) 921-2500 end_of_the_skype_highlighting)...Although, I don't think they used OEM seals/o-rings on the injectors which caused them to leak gas...a problem that was solved with a trip to the local Toyota parts desk (and another $50
)
We also replaced all the hoses and vacuum lines, new plugs, dizzy, cap, and rotor - all the good stuff...I even managed to put a hold in the bottom spout of the radiator when while trying to get the lower hose off (apparently rocking it back and forth repeatedly isn't a good idea for a 20 year old piece of metal - who knew?) So I took the radiator out, found a great shop (Hays Radiator, 4110 N 20th St Phoenix, AZ 85016 (602) 263-1165 end_of_the_skype_highlight))) )) and put it back together....
And...it wasn't great still...Pretty rough idle and it would still drop down to 400 and sometimes stall...Trying to live in denial that we hadn't got a REAL lemon, we found that if you put it in Neutral or Park at lights, you could keep the idle a bit higher and keep it from dying completely! Problem Averted!.....
Well, one day my wife calls me from work and said "It might a weird 'groan' and got hard to steer while I was parking"...So I loaded up the 3 kids and it was off to save the day. Turns out when we were putting belts/hoses etc back together, I didn't quite make sure that the belt for the PS had ample clearance for the high pressure line...which will apparently rub its way through and SPEW PS FLUID EVERYWHERE
... good to know...
So I bring the trailer to her work, we load it up and bring it home...And I get to take the radiator out all over again! Yeah!
Fast Forward 2 weeks...And my wife calls from work! Apparently, it's overheating! Hmmm...Kids loaded and back to the parking lot to save the day...Again! Although this time, the radiator is BONE DRY! No puddles...no leaks....how can this be?
So I load it up with all fresh fluids, and run it for 1/2 hour with the radiator cap off to let it burp...although it never does...Sure, it bubbles and froths, but that's not a burp...hmmm...
Bubbles and froths you say? Sounds like a head gasket to me! But how could that be? We just did the head gasket...and didn't take the head to a machine shop to have it inspected...crap
Enter the good guys at Morrison Auto Machine (5434 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 (623) 937-4705 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************(623) 937-4705******end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Brought the head down to Doug and sure enough, it was out of spec...He ended up taking .01 off and replacing 2 of the valves, new springs, new freeze plugs, cleaned and painted.
Now it's time to get it back together...again...This time with new OEM HG (which is twice as thick/heavy as the BAP one I used the first time...wonder if that had anything to do with it going bad?) and OEM belts
And the result is...good! for real! I mean, it really idles the way it should! There's a bit of a loud clicking sound, but we think that it might be either the valves needing more adjustment (they were to spec when we checked them) or some really loud injector(s)...
Anyway, the wife got home from work, drove it around the block and gave it her nod of approval!
So, crap I've learned
When you buy _____ off CL from a guy named Paco - you're gonna get ripped off
Don't wiggle the lower radiator spout too much to get the hose off
Don't rout the high pressure ps line right up next to the ps pulley
When you take the head off, it's probably a good idea to take it to a shop and have it checked out - but only if you don't want to do this all again in couple of weeks
OEM Head gaskets really are superior...
It really freaking sucks to do this all during the summer
There's probably more, I'm sure of it...
Oh yeah, thank you Robert for all the help. I would have just been out 3k if I'd been up to this all on my own...
Dan
A 162k Champaigne Stock '91 we found on CL...OH WONDERFUL CL...How I
Thee!Anyway...
Drove it twice over two days, different times of day, pulled the Carfax, checked the emissions report...Everything said this was going to be a great find...And it was...until I was driving it home from buying it and it started running like poop! Although, it did *somehow* pass emissions!
So...we replaced the fuel pump...the fuel filter...and it kept running worse and worse. Well, seeing as how this was going to be my lovely wife's daily driver now that we were selling her Dodge Caliber (we've got 3 kiddoes now and no way 3 car seats fitting in the back of the Caliber!) I was in a bit of a time crunch to get this thing purring again...So off to the Dealership! Where they tell me it's $3200 to open it up and look at the Head gasket! Good gravy! That's more than we paid for the whole freaking car!!!
When you have bad luck like this, it's better to have good friends like thx1138! With his FSM and rig as a diagram we got the head off and sure enough, right between cylinder 1 & 2, tore right through (which was leading to 29 & 31 psi in those cylinders, respectively)...
Well, I picked up my HG set, cleaned everything up and we buttoned it back together! While we had it apart I went ahead and had the Injectors cleaned by the good guys over at Arizona TPI (717 South Hacienda Drive Tempe, AZ 85281 (480) 921-2500 end_of_the_skype_highlighting)...Although, I don't think they used OEM seals/o-rings on the injectors which caused them to leak gas...a problem that was solved with a trip to the local Toyota parts desk (and another $50
)We also replaced all the hoses and vacuum lines, new plugs, dizzy, cap, and rotor - all the good stuff...I even managed to put a hold in the bottom spout of the radiator when while trying to get the lower hose off (apparently rocking it back and forth repeatedly isn't a good idea for a 20 year old piece of metal - who knew?) So I took the radiator out, found a great shop (Hays Radiator, 4110 N 20th St Phoenix, AZ 85016 (602) 263-1165 end_of_the_skype_highlight))) )) and put it back together....
And...it wasn't great still...Pretty rough idle and it would still drop down to 400 and sometimes stall...Trying to live in denial that we hadn't got a REAL lemon, we found that if you put it in Neutral or Park at lights, you could keep the idle a bit higher and keep it from dying completely! Problem Averted!.....
Well, one day my wife calls me from work and said "It might a weird 'groan' and got hard to steer while I was parking"...So I loaded up the 3 kids and it was off to save the day. Turns out when we were putting belts/hoses etc back together, I didn't quite make sure that the belt for the PS had ample clearance for the high pressure line...which will apparently rub its way through and SPEW PS FLUID EVERYWHERE
... good to know...So I bring the trailer to her work, we load it up and bring it home...And I get to take the radiator out all over again! Yeah!
Fast Forward 2 weeks...And my wife calls from work! Apparently, it's overheating! Hmmm...Kids loaded and back to the parking lot to save the day...Again! Although this time, the radiator is BONE DRY! No puddles...no leaks....how can this be?
So I load it up with all fresh fluids, and run it for 1/2 hour with the radiator cap off to let it burp...although it never does...Sure, it bubbles and froths, but that's not a burp...hmmm...
Bubbles and froths you say? Sounds like a head gasket to me! But how could that be? We just did the head gasket...and didn't take the head to a machine shop to have it inspected...crap
Enter the good guys at Morrison Auto Machine (5434 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 (623) 937-4705 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************(623) 937-4705******end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Brought the head down to Doug and sure enough, it was out of spec...He ended up taking .01 off and replacing 2 of the valves, new springs, new freeze plugs, cleaned and painted.
Now it's time to get it back together...again...This time with new OEM HG (which is twice as thick/heavy as the BAP one I used the first time...wonder if that had anything to do with it going bad?) and OEM belts
And the result is...good! for real! I mean, it really idles the way it should! There's a bit of a loud clicking sound, but we think that it might be either the valves needing more adjustment (they were to spec when we checked them) or some really loud injector(s)...
Anyway, the wife got home from work, drove it around the block and gave it her nod of approval!
So, crap I've learned
When you buy _____ off CL from a guy named Paco - you're gonna get ripped offDon't wiggle the lower radiator spout too much to get the hose offDon't rout the high pressure ps line right up next to the ps pulleyWhen you take the head off, it's probably a good idea to take it to a shop and have it checked out - but only if you don't want to do this all again in couple of weeksOEM Head gaskets really are superior...It really freaking sucks to do this all during the summerThere's probably more, I'm sure of it...
Oh yeah, thank you Robert for all the help. I would have just been out 3k if I'd been up to this all on my own...
Dan
