green stuff

last night i attacked the thermostat. replaced it with a new one and filed the hell out of the couple on the intake manifold (it's aluminum...soft...and after cleaning it i could see how scored and scratched and actually sloping it was) and the thermostat housing. they were both horribly crooked which definitely contributed to it leaking constantly. initially tried the foam gasket they gave me...that thing didn't even hold when i filled up the radiator again, piece of shit.

so i used RTV silicon instead....which is supposed to dry for 24 hours but i only gave it about 14...had to go to school ;) she seems to be holding...but i didn't tighten my rad hose tight enough, haha....dumb. so that was gushing a litle after i parked up a big hill...should be okay, though. comin' home it didn't even leak and i hadn't had a chance to tighten it yet. should be good now. heat's much more tame with the new sparkies anyway.

also readjusted my clutch. wasn't releasing completely...

AND drained that extra pint of oil. don'tkow if it makes a difference but i've been noticing that my PCV valve has an oil slick on it...i'm wondering if it's sucking up oil into the carb...that would explain the black smoke. but why now? i hope my valves aren't squirting too much...i hate adjusting those. last time i actually got oil in my mouth AND eye because (first time) i initially made them too tight. hydraulic lifts can REALLY SQUIRT if you give 'em enough pressure...man what a mess. could be my problem, although i can't imagine how that would happen.

meanwhile she's got a helluva lot more power these days. rough heating up...but it's been cold. i do have the choke wired wide open.

fun.

vroom!

she lives! whole lot more life in my baby, very happy about that.

not 100% at all, but at least it feels like i'm igniting something now. the gas vapor smell has decreased a whole lot but it's still there. i'm wondering if i set my mixture richer when i had the timing retarded more (used to run 12-14 BTDC when she was happier). i have 'er at 10 degrees now. i'm gonna try do a real mixture setting with the vacuum gauge when i get more time during the day. oh, and still has black smoke, but only at HIGH throttle...like...4-5k rpm. i'm wondering if it disappears under load or gets worse...i can't see anything out my rear mirrors, though, so could be good.

and i realized that i overfilled my oil as well..i just dumped a quart in and it's about a half inch over 'full'...oops. i'll drain some.

and my radiator is leaking at the thermostat housing AGAIN. that bitch never seals. decided to do it right and got a new rad cap and thermostat. she's overheated a few times, maybe the springs are hardened. i put the rad cap on and it seems to have improved...i'll do that thermostat tomorrow most likely. good feeling about it, though. high pressure in there (stiff rad cap) could also possibly have fouled my head gasket...hot steam is powerful shit.

oh, and i realized i should've done compression tests while i had the spark plugs out. SHIT! i'll do that too. give me a chance to check the status of my new plugs, too. damn i have a lotta work to do.

one tire is nearly bald.

my breaks are acting funny (sometimes squish and need some "pumping")

my front a-arm bushing is really fucked up now (if it's even there)

exhaust manifold crack was bandaided with some exhaust repair shit. that burned off in two weeks. i think i just might attempt to pull it out and weld it...muahaha.


lotsa work.

and no money for parts.

yay.

fired

been a long time since i updated raimi's blog, but that's because i've left her rather neglected lately :( poor girl. but hell, now that i don't have a real girlfriend, my raimi's back on the top of my list.

so about a week and a half ago i ran'er outa' gas again...and she started behaving oddly...losing power and such. then came a week of heavy, heavy rain and she was REALLY angry then. my idle dropped about 100 rpm at startup (returned to normal once she heated up) and she was hard to start. often two tries. stalling often when i wouldn't give'er enough gas shifting (which used to be enough gas)...and for the first time in my year and a half with her, smoke out the exhaust. light, but black. fearing the head gaskets...aaand i finally got some time to take a look this week.

checked the timing and she was off the timing plate to i'm guessing about 14-16 BTDC...last time i set'er i think i had put it at 10 degrees. curious...decided to try following the chilton's recommendation of 6 degrees...which i thought was too tame but tried it. idled MUCH better, MUCH smoother, started up better and that startup drop of the idle rpm improved (but still not correct). smoke got a little better but now (so my mom says) there's white AND black smoke. could be too advanced. of course, lost most acceleration around 3-3.5k rpm. bottom end was weak as well (weaker than before retiming). all in all, weaker but sounding happier. decided the plugs might be fucked up...could explain the extra retarding (slow spark) as well as the smoke. hadn't touched the idle mixture yet but smelled STRONG gasoline fumes during driving...could be explained by incomplete combustion.

so i just changed the spark plugs (needed a cold car) and as it's 11pm i don't think my neighbor's would appreciate me tuning the beast right now...but i did take her for a spin. at 6 degrees BTDC i wasn't expecting much...but on startup, she idled higher than previous...no real power until around 1.5-2k rpm....and disappears around 3-3.5k still...BUT, much smoother, and little or no smell of gasoline (but still something odd burning, hoping timing/mixture tuning will do the trick).

little note, the old plugs were in decent shape. no severe detonations or shorts and they weren't too worn. a few had some cakey porous looking stuff deposited on the porcelain right below the electrode...most had flakey white stuff (which i think is a lean condition, i have to look it up again), and 3 had oil one threads...but no oil and minimal black soot on the electrode/ground post. still pretty sharp edges (not too worn) and held their gap correctly. besides the oily treads and that weird cakey stuff (hoping it's not radiator fluid residue)...they looked okay. head gasket might by leaky, but it's not BLOWN...oh and i did check the oil under the valve covers and there wasn't any milk (no water in the oil).

i have a good feeling about it...but getting up early tomorrow morning to tune'er up and see what's up. next is the distributor, spark wires, and coil. i REALLY don't wanna do the heads.


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