May 12, 2003

No Rust Got a much better look on Saturday at what’s going to be involved in pulling the engine. I jacked up the rear of the car and just took about fifteen minutes to get underneath and really just look around and see what was what underneath. I think it’s probably not going to be as difficult as I thought, or at the very least it won’t be as complicated. I just have to make sure every connection is labelled properly and that the transmission will be supported when I drop the engine. I’m still amazed at how solid this car seems. Even above the transmission there’s no rust. I did find the recirc canister above the transmission and figure it will be included in all the hoses I want to replace. I just ordered some more fuel line from a guy on Ebay so I can finish up the fuel line replacement. I had no idea how much braided line I’d need. So far I’m at about ten feet and I’m almost done. Another six feet should do it. Most of the recent batch went to the part of the fuel ring that goes over the engine cross-wise. I took out the old fuel line from inside the plastic tubing. Most of it was in good shape, but I figured it would be best not to re-use it.

Canister Rust Cleaned up the plastic tubing and then threaded the new fuel line into it. Left it off the engine though as I figure I’ll do the rest of the engine compartment when I put the engine back in after I replace the heads. I had no idea how open the torque converter was to the elements, but I guess it doesn’t matter. There’s a huge spot on the driver’s side that I guess will be the place that I can disconnect the torque converter from the engine’s drive plate. My schedule is booked up for the next weekend, but hopefully the 24th and 25th of May will be nice days so I can hopefully get this done. I figure if I start around 8am I should be able to change the heads in one day. With most of the other stuff done — ignition replaced, fuel lines replaced, vacuum lines replaced — I’m hoping once the heads are changed all I’ll have to do to get her running is a valve adjustment & timing set. It would be way cool to have this thing on the road for June, but I have no idea how long the brakes will take me to get working. While I was under the car I took one of the rear brake plugs off the backing plate & there seemed to be a lot of brake pad left. In fact, they seemed almost new. However, I have no idea in what condition the cylinders are, and I’m planning on totally replacing the master cylinder. I already bought the blue brake hose, so I’m going to replace that as well. The hose on there now seems pretty dried up and old. While I was checking that, I got a glimpse at what I think rusted out the section under the hood on the driver’s side just in front of the antenna. It looks like water got trapped up behind the other fuel canister that sits in the fender, and it must’ve rusted right through. There’s a lot of dirt in there, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it just held in all that moisture and gave the rust a good place to take hold. Bad design I guess. Someday I’ll get to replace that… Someday.