$400 Surprise Part Deux

wakkjobb

New member
My wheels bring all the boys to the yard...

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They were:
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...then...
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...and then...
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Bazinga!
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Next to my VW winter wheels:
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Anyone in my shoes would have done the same. $15 for a set of wheels? Sure! Access to all manner of paint? Well, let's see what we can whip up!

And in other news, I got the title for ye secret AllTrac today... :D :D :D
 

wakkjobb

New member
Word, it was easier than I had imagined. :shrug: If I didn't work where I do, it could have a colossal nut roll.

Anyways, the thing's heater doesn't get "hot"; so I thought I had put in the t-stat wrong/upside down, causing an air bind or whatever. Took it out yesterday; no wiggle valve... hm. What to do? Drill a 3/32" hole and replace. Simple.

Still no heat. It'll get warm, there's coolant flowing (checked with temp gun) and the engine itself gets to temp, fans kick on etc. I can't exactly remember, but I think heat was kicking when the car was moving. This has me stumped; I can't think of what else it could be... It has the fancy "auto climate" heater controls, maybe something inside there is amiss. A thought I had was to undo the heater core at the firewall and run a garden hose through it to flush out anything, is there's anything in there. After all, it was sitting in a field for 6 years or so... who knows. Another day...

I have to chase a wire from the ignition to the starter; once upon a time it worked great, but then... nothing. To start it, I have a pipe holding down the clutch, then I jump the starter to the battery. It works, but it's far from ideal. I am so rusty for working on these things; but hopefully it'll all come back to me and I'll be able to drop the engine/trans in 3 hours like old times... 'cause that clutch has got to go. Also going: cruise, A/C, EGR and any leaky old hoses I can find. I still have a set of brand new OEM HFH from the blue Trac build; lucky me! I think the mod list will be limited to:

oil filter moving
oil cooler
3SFE water pipe
make a hose fitting for turbo cooling
(screw buying a turbo-specific radiator $$$)
FCD
another fan for TMIC radiator
short shifter
maybe hood vents...

Other than that, I am leaning towards keeping this one "stock-ish"; FMIC is unlikely... time will tell.
 

phattyduck

New member
Use MR2 5s-fe coolant bypass pipes - it will give you the fittings needed for cooling the turbo (normally go to the oil cooler) and wont' have the extra outlet for the turbo near the coolant outlet. Then you can use a normal radiator. You could also use the hoses normally used for the throttle body coolant lines, though those might be a little long/awkward to use.

A regular problem on the Camry auto climate control panel is the solder connections on the ribbon cable between boards of the panel. Pull it out and hit each connection with a soldering iron to reconnect any broken joints. Also look for cracks/problems on the PCBs themselves.

For the starter... first check the starter contacts internally (search google for 'denso starter contacts' for tons of info). If those are in good shape, you'll want to add an extra relay between the solenoid wire and the starter (effectively removing the larger current draw that normally goes through the ignition switch and take it through a relay right from the battery). I can point you to a nice Camry write-up on that one if you need extra info.

-Charlie
 

wakkjobb

New member
Wired in a relay to make the key work again, thinking of selling it since I want to go wheeling and a buddy is considering giving up on his build.

$2000/obo, runs, drives, no smoke, usual leaks, no drips though, I have driven this one a total of 40 miles. Needs struts, axles, clutch, radiator, windshield and someone with no projects to pay attention to it.

Colorado title
 

wakkjobb

New member
Had a guy offer an '88 Prelude w/ 4-wheel steering and bad rust in trade for my non-rusty turbo 5-speed AWD Celica.

Oh yeah, I'll go for that... :rofl:
 

Dracov

Member
Oh c'mon. Who wouldn't want a rare piece of machinery with quirky mechanicals that are temperamental on the best of days and nearly impossible to find parts for?

...oh wait, you're selling your 165...again. Guess that answers it. :p
 

wakkjobb

New member
Another tire-kicker... at this rate I'll keep the damn thing as a winter car and rebuild the Civic for a mileage car. My friend has a 79 K10 he'll sell to me for $800; rougher than hell but runs well, then I'll have all the vehicle bases covered. Trying to get $ together to buy a turn-key wheeling rig... went to pick up a free auto trans/t-case Sunday and the guy says he's going to sell his built rig soon as he finishes another auto to manual swap (87 4Runner of his). It's built with 90% of the goodies I'd put on it:

90? 4Runner (room for wife dog beer and gear) :D
internal 1.75" DOM cage, sliders, bumpers, 9k winch
3.4 swap (had 3.0h No!), manual trans, dual cases, 4.7 in rear case (super-low crawl ratio, like 200:1 ? )
Hi-Steer, solid axle swap, Detroit lockers front/rear, 4.88 gearing, or 5.29? I forget...
leaf swap in the rear, originally had coils (boooooooooooo)
riding on 35" tires, those General Grabbers with the diagonal tread... meh
some fancy Pioneer stereo

I'd add:
York 210 compressor and 10-gal air tank for on-board air awesomeness
different shoes; not a fan of the Generals for crawling and they're loud as shit on the road
lower it a touch, but it sits low already
sell/trade the front Detroit for a selectable locker like an ARB
paint it... it has some kind of "bedliner" on the lower half that looks like it was applied with a combination of brush, impact (thrown or smeared on) and spray gun handled by a drunk blind chimpanzee. He didn't do it and doesn't like it either, but that's how he bought it. It's also overdone olive drab, so that would change.

That's about it... but we'll see WTF really happens in August.

Wish me luck, I leave this Friday.

Think fish.
 

wakkjobb

New member
Guess who found out this 2-year secret today?

Guess who's okay with it? :shock:

Guess who's still married? :D

Win... so much WIN!!!
 

wakkjobb

New member
Win in the making; current battle is squeezing money from thin air; seriously thinking about selling the Civic once the swap is done and dumping some $ into Charlotte the Harlot. Some, not all... got bills to pay, got mouths to feed-there ain't nothing in this world for free.

I'd do the immediate repairs:
clutch
radiator (from N/A car)
axles
alternator rebuild
gut the DP

and drive it easy.

I did drive it around the block yesterday in the fresh rain; add wipers to that list.
 

Theman88b

New member
Just got done reading that 59 page :shock: build thread on the $400 surprise part 1(the blue one I own now). I did not know you put that much work in the beast. I am glad to see you found one in good condition, much easier to work with when they are stock.
 

wakkjobb

New member
Yeah, when you have lots of space, time and easy money; projects turn out better and faster. Thanks, Montgomery GI Bill!

I can't believe I did so much work on that car either; that's easily the most labor-intensive project I've done so far. I don't think my 67 truck will be that involved; and that's a partial frame-up restoration (on hold).
 

wakkjobb

New member
Fiddled around with the DP lately; have the cat unbolted but it's getting hung up on the mounting brackets. It's nice and WRC-loud... I kind of like it, but as a DD it would annoy the hell outta me. The goal is to gut the cat at some point; the Civic is going back together since I start a new job Monday, gotta have my go-kart back.

Video w/open DP soon, but just imagine a chainsaw being thrown into a wood shredder.
 

wakkjobb

New member
No video yet/still; started a new job about 3 days after that last post. The 165 is still running around all loud n stuff, went to the yard for Civic stuff (be quiet...) and found 2 86 GTS there. I wanted to pull the lights, grille and intake for my car but flat-out don't have the money for that right now. Mmmmm... side-feed intake. There was a Saab there that had the same FMIC I used in my blue Trac build; fit great so I'm probably going to use it again if this Trac gets FMIC treatment.

Still needs a clutch and radiator

and glass struts brakes paint tires re-seal engine re-tint windows 2.5" exhaust (may come from Civic) short throw shifter...

:twisted:
 

wakkjobb

New member
Took apart the cat this weekend:





It was more of a pain to remove than I had anticipated; but drilling out the guts was pretty easy. I took out the cruise actuator while I was in there too and thought about pulling the A/C stuff but ran out of motivation.
 

underscore

Well-known member
I dunno about your area, but around here the platinum from our cats goes for ~$100, which was more than a 3" downpipe costs.
 

wakkjobb

New member
Oh, don't tell me that; yesterday was trash day. I figured it was such a small amount it wouldn't be worth trying to scrap it. Maybe the shop trash didn't get emptied this week... I'll check this weekend. If it's still there, I may make a trip to scrap and turn that $ into a clutch or radiator.
 
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