Dragged home one of these.
09-01-2013, 08:24 PM
#379
Captain Obvious
Super User
Super User
Thread Starter
Some update on the car. Had one heck of a scare tge first time the oil was changed (~4500km). It came out looking like metalic black paint. A magnet didn't pick up any so ot was aluminium. This was mid spring and I didn't know what to make of it. Gaugeman69 was there and suggested to put new oil in it amd change it in a 1000km. I knew some metal in the oil is common after an engine job like this but this looked more than normal to me. The next oil change showed barely any aluminium, I took that as a left over from the first oil change and two days ago did the third oil change (~4700km), the oil was clear and the filter was good too. So looks like all is well in the oil department.
In the mean time there were 9 trouble codes that I had to deal with but I'm finally down to the last one. 3 codes related to a cracked gas cap gasket. A $1 replacement gasket from a Dodge Neon (has the same gasket but different cap) that I got from the local junk yard made it an easy fix. Next in line were several random missfires that developed in the last month or so. This was 3 codes and a fesh set of spark plugs took care of that. The following issue was an incosistent hard start (had to crank it for 5-10sec). This turned out to be a stuck open chrarcoal cannister purge valve, 2 codes were associated with this. Only figured this out a few days ago and haven't had a chance to pull the valve yet but at least the problem has been found. The last one and the most difficult code to fix will be the non functioning variocam solenoid on the passanger bank. This will have to wait till winter as the valce cover will have to come off and to get to it will need a bunch of other parts to be removed.
Since the car has been on the road I've put almost 10K kms on it. Its a rolling project that still has some other minor things and one big (transmission teardown) that needs fixing but that's just fine with me.
In the mean time there were 9 trouble codes that I had to deal with but I'm finally down to the last one. 3 codes related to a cracked gas cap gasket. A $1 replacement gasket from a Dodge Neon (has the same gasket but different cap) that I got from the local junk yard made it an easy fix. Next in line were several random missfires that developed in the last month or so. This was 3 codes and a fesh set of spark plugs took care of that. The following issue was an incosistent hard start (had to crank it for 5-10sec). This turned out to be a stuck open chrarcoal cannister purge valve, 2 codes were associated with this. Only figured this out a few days ago and haven't had a chance to pull the valve yet but at least the problem has been found. The last one and the most difficult code to fix will be the non functioning variocam solenoid on the passanger bank. This will have to wait till winter as the valce cover will have to come off and to get to it will need a bunch of other parts to be removed.
Since the car has been on the road I've put almost 10K kms on it. Its a rolling project that still has some other minor things and one big (transmission teardown) that needs fixing but that's just fine with me.
10-05-2014, 05:56 PM
#388
Captain Obvious
Super User
Super User
Thread Starter
Got my winter project today. Looks like the engine is coming out. Changed the oil today and the filter was full of ferrous metal flakes. The filter has been spotless for the two previous times. Oil pressure (from the dash gauge) has been a bit on the low side when hot, for the last few weeks. Maybe the trip to Cayuga did something. 
The engine still runs fine no banging, misfire, or anything else so perhaps its repairable.
The engine still runs fine no banging, misfire, or anything else so perhaps its repairable.
10-05-2014, 06:05 PM
#389
Rennlist Member
Sorry for your troubles but I'm excited to see your remarkably interesting thread continue.