Build Thread The Hoopty Build

  • Sponsors (?)


Well I woke up to rain. Enough so that there have been a few high water rescues in Houston already this morning. Soooo testing/tuning/videoing may not happen today. Guess I'll keep plugging away at cleaning up the interior.

SSeater looks like y'all got about 5 inches last night! Still high and dry down there?
 
Well I woke up to rain. Enough so that there have been a few high water rescues in Houston already this morning. Soooo testing/tuning/videoing may not happen today. Guess I'll keep plugging away at cleaning up the interior.

SSeater looks like y'all got about 5 inches last night! Still high and dry down there?


Pretty wet. No water in the house but everything else is underwater...two days in a row in wet work boots sucks.
 
Still runs rich, but better fouled plugs than burnt pistons.

Almost had it on a dyno today. Drove it to my buddies shop and another local mechanic showed up and says "Wanna dyno it?" Before I could say no, he was on the phone calling the local rice rocket supply to call in a favor. The owner said if the streets/tires were dry it would be OK but not today.

I'm glad, it wasn't ready for the dyno, but everyone else was. LOL.
 

Well I posted that waiting on my dad to come rescue me. I was headed from my place over to theirs (~5 miles). Just got it home and back in the garage.

So I posted the videos of me driving it the other day and it was smoking. At first, no smoke, then a little, and as I got closer to my house (went to my buddies shop) the smoke got bad. It was coming from somewhere and getting on the headers. So today, I tried to troubleshoot the problem. I put on the valve cover breathers I forgot to put on last time, made sure the oil pan was tight, and made sure the oil filter was tight.

So this evening, I fired it up and tried to make it to my folks house. About 2 miles in, some smoke, and the further I drove, the worse it got. Finally, I pulled over fearing a fire. Absolutely cannot find a source. Its coming from the back of the engine somewhere, but not breathers, valve covers, or oil pan.

I have an idea, but I don't want to say it just yet. . . Speculation welcome.
 
I have three guesses...

Lower intake plenum (there will be oil running down the back of the heads)

Failure to seal the small the small gap between the heads and lifter valley (will look like plenum gasket until you get it apart)

Rear main (oil coming out of the bell housing)
 
I have three guesses...

Lower intake plenum (there will be oil running down the back of the heads)

Failure to seal the small the small gap between the heads and lifter valley (will look like plenum gasket until you get it apart)

Rear main (oil coming out of the bell housing)


I can rule out the rear main, but I will look into the other two tomorrow. I've got a pinched nerve or something in my back and am damn near vegetable status at this point.
 
On the bright side, I did manage to get most of my dash and center console back in. I thought about waiting to do the console until I got new carpet, but decided not to.

img0264yv.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Still have a loooong ways to go in the interior department. I am by no means proud to show off any of this car yet. But this is a progress thread, whether it moves forward or backward, hahaha
 
Hey, I appreciate the consideration,.....but no amount of seat foam and new fabric can fix those,.............................sorry.:shrug:

I know, I know. I'll get some different seats eventually. They may look like a bag of a**holes, but they aren't too bad to ride in.



Aside from that, I'm not sure if I'll get any work done as far as finding and fixing this leak today. I've got a pinched nerve or something in my lower back that is giving me fits, to say the least.