Gyrhead
06-26-2012, 06:53 AM
As I sit here drinking my morning coffee, lines from one of my favorite movies keep running through my head, and after a fitful night's sleep tormenting myself about what to do, perhaps I best explain... seven years ago, I took delivery of an 86' 2R from a fellow in Southern New England. This car was a complete basketcase. Sadly it was "advertised" as a 37k mile car and the pictures made it look decent (lots of Armor-All on the interior and engine, low res pics, etc, etc), but once I got to see the car in person and hear it run (it didn't), obviously all was not as advertised. The car would not start and the PO has no idea why. I could see a lot of budget mods and poorly implemented at that. Lots of body dings and dents that were conveniently avoided in the photos. Recognizing that the owner was a tuner car type guy and had no real in-depth knowledge of these cars and he (or the PPO) had basically thrown some "Cholo" parts at it to pimp it out, I was leery to go further with the deal, however after a 3 hour ride and realization that the car had good bones, no rust and was all there. I saw an opportunity to "make a deal" and picked up the 137k mile ride for a sweet price. I had to roll it onto the trailer but I got out of there with a super bargain...approximately 30% of what the PO wanted to get for the car originally. Once I got it home and began picking my way thru it, I found a lot of "amazing modifications". The following is how the PO or someone else fixed a broken header panel headlight bucket attachment point. Yes Virginia, that is silicone RTV.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN2882.jpg
Love it....
So, the further along I got, the more BS fixes like this I found. Although I have a propensity toward verbosity, I won't bore you with all the other "mods" like I tormented many of the guys on the other site, but after much time and wrenching and tireless help from some of you (you all know who you are..thanks!!!) I got the car roadworthy and presentable as a mildly modded SVO. During this process the car developed a nickname that stuck. It became the Bolo car, named after a line in a movie called Three Kings where a soldier (played by Spike Jonze..I believe) does something stupid and is told by his Superior Officer (George Clooney) not to be a bolo.. or basically "someone who doesn't know what the f*** he is doing". Apparently this is a common term in the military for those who fail at a task..but not having served... I did not know this. However, after finding one screw-up after another on this 2R, it rightfully earned the nickname and it stuck. So much so, that my non-mechanically inclined wife call it the "Bolo" to differentiate it from my other 86 2R shown here (finally back together and running). it goes something like this.... "Honey.. are we taking to Bolo car to cruise nite or your original SVO"
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4185.jpg
As I have posted here recently, the car blew a turbo after a fully body restoration and repaint. I had literally had it out of the body shop 2 days, had just put the interior back in the car when it happened. I always thought the turbo was next in line to go. There was clearly evidence that the oil feed line was spliced and the exhaust manifold bolts were not the original long threaded ones to hold the stock IC brackets. This car had been tinkered with before I got it (I believe we established that) and that tinkering extended to the forced induction. Well, my intuition turned out to be correct. As you can see from the attached pic, there is a ton of oil in the intake tract and the turbo impeller is wobbling like a baseball bat in a rain barrel.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4180.jpg
So, after this long diatribe here is the question...??? do you guys think it would be wise to do the head gasket now that the car is in this state?
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4182.jpg
From this point it would be somewhat more work, but not exponential to do that. The compression is OK but not knowing the car's internal lineage (All I did was a RR cam and valve seals in it) and seeing what I had seen in the past as to the PO's mechanical aptitude, perhaps it would be wise. I found no antifreeze in the crankcase or vice versa but I'm leaning toward just doing it to be safe. Any other signs of impending head gasket failure? I just went thru this with my other 2R (which basically sat for 23 years) and if a head gasket can crap out after just sitting, anything on the Bolo car is possible I suppose. Sorry for the long post.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4181.jpg
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4184.jpg
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN2882.jpg
Love it....
So, the further along I got, the more BS fixes like this I found. Although I have a propensity toward verbosity, I won't bore you with all the other "mods" like I tormented many of the guys on the other site, but after much time and wrenching and tireless help from some of you (you all know who you are..thanks!!!) I got the car roadworthy and presentable as a mildly modded SVO. During this process the car developed a nickname that stuck. It became the Bolo car, named after a line in a movie called Three Kings where a soldier (played by Spike Jonze..I believe) does something stupid and is told by his Superior Officer (George Clooney) not to be a bolo.. or basically "someone who doesn't know what the f*** he is doing". Apparently this is a common term in the military for those who fail at a task..but not having served... I did not know this. However, after finding one screw-up after another on this 2R, it rightfully earned the nickname and it stuck. So much so, that my non-mechanically inclined wife call it the "Bolo" to differentiate it from my other 86 2R shown here (finally back together and running). it goes something like this.... "Honey.. are we taking to Bolo car to cruise nite or your original SVO"
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4185.jpg
As I have posted here recently, the car blew a turbo after a fully body restoration and repaint. I had literally had it out of the body shop 2 days, had just put the interior back in the car when it happened. I always thought the turbo was next in line to go. There was clearly evidence that the oil feed line was spliced and the exhaust manifold bolts were not the original long threaded ones to hold the stock IC brackets. This car had been tinkered with before I got it (I believe we established that) and that tinkering extended to the forced induction. Well, my intuition turned out to be correct. As you can see from the attached pic, there is a ton of oil in the intake tract and the turbo impeller is wobbling like a baseball bat in a rain barrel.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4180.jpg
So, after this long diatribe here is the question...??? do you guys think it would be wise to do the head gasket now that the car is in this state?
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4182.jpg
From this point it would be somewhat more work, but not exponential to do that. The compression is OK but not knowing the car's internal lineage (All I did was a RR cam and valve seals in it) and seeing what I had seen in the past as to the PO's mechanical aptitude, perhaps it would be wise. I found no antifreeze in the crankcase or vice versa but I'm leaning toward just doing it to be safe. Any other signs of impending head gasket failure? I just went thru this with my other 2R (which basically sat for 23 years) and if a head gasket can crap out after just sitting, anything on the Bolo car is possible I suppose. Sorry for the long post.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4181.jpg
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/fish1erp/DSCN4184.jpg