Hondasucks

okay so Saturday night after I got back from Fort Collins, my buddy Sean and I decided to tear into the Impreza. I gathered my tools, and after several trips to the shed and back I got the spark plugs out. This is what I found when I removed the #2 spark plug (Front cylinder, driver's side): I did not think that looked good at all, since hydrolocking didnt' do THAT to a spark plug. My next thought was that perhaps it jumped time and a valve hit the plug, or something got sucked into the motor and snapped a valve, or phungled the spark plug somehow. So after some more wrestling, and running back and forth between the shed and the car, we managed to get the head off. And this is what we found: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Funny thing is, the rod and the wrist pin appear fine (Although I will be fully tearing the motor down to determine the cause of failure... My theory is she hit something, since there is a nice 2" or so deep dent in the front of the oil pan, smack dab in the middle.... Kinda weird cuz it appears that the piston cracked right around the wrist pin.... Oh well, new motor is $350

yeah I know what a "Mudrat test" involves (especially when he uses that ) thing... So John, when I get outta WyoTech and can build NHRA/NASCAR certified chassis, wanna go into business together Cuz I'm thinkin about doing basically what you do, custom fab stuff.. But I'd prolly do it up in the Albany area (hippies scare me) Of course I'll be doin like, muscle car restorations and crap on the side, won't be all subies Thinkin about buildin rally cars.....

What's really surprising is the number of Honduhs and the like that pull out in front of my Dodge truck.. TWICE in Denver I've had some idiot in a Neon run a light and almost hit me (had his wife and kids in the car, and WAS LAUGHING ABOUT IT) and then another time with some idiot in a Probe.. Both would have been like hitting a beer can with a sledge hammer ) Shoot, I got rear-ended by a Mercury Grand Marquis (Big ol' 80s boat) and it tweaked my ball mount on my hitch, and totaled the Merc... And the kid was doing like 30 when he hit me! lol Glad you're okay though, cars can be replaced, people can't.

EVen though I won't be there this year, I want some more beer mugs Those came in lots of handy when I went over to the neighbors house with Caboobaroo the first weekend I was here Learned the hard way my alcohol tolerance at 7200' isn't what it is at sea level And my vote is for etched, although I don't much care either way pint or mug (maybe option of either one??) and of course, with names Hondasucks and Honda's 86 Brat

Find someone with a TIG welder... Should be relatively easy, since it's in the exhaust port. The ones in the combustion chamber are a pain, but this one woild prolly just need to have the ends of the cracks drilled. the crack V'd, and TIG welded (Could also be welded with Oxyacetylene, but that is not somethign a lot of people know how to do...)

nah, cuz right now it's still a good core, just needs to be rebuilt, which you can get prolly 100 bucks or so for from a core buyer.

hrrm.. I know how to do carbon fiber/fiberglas stuff now, so maybe I could make some Dunno how much the supplies cost though so I dunno what the price would be if I could make them.

The only thing that has me edged away from hydrolocking, unless it was fuel from a stuck open injector or something, is that the radiator was dead full, right up to the neck, I'd think if it was leaking enough to hydrolock, it would not have a full radiator, if the water created enough of a vacuum when it cooled to pull enough water out of the overflow tank to put it back to it's regular level, I could see it happening. Also puzzling because there is no water in the oil, as usually happens with blown head gaskets, and they USUALLY don't just blow right out of the blue, they leak for a while then fail catastrophically in some cases if the operator is dumb enough to keep driving it and ignore the temp gauge... She did say something that made me think that her sister isn't the brightest when it came to cars, however the oil and the water were both full. One other thing I was brainstorming last night was the possibility of something being stuck in the hydraulic pump in the transmission, since that is directly driven off the motor, if it was siezed or had sometihng caught in it, it would not allow the motor to turn.... At any rate, if it needs a motor, in the condition it's in it's worth a little over 2 grand in running condition, and I doubt a motor will cost me $1500... I jkinda wanna get it running and sell it and my red POS Mirage and get a AWD 5 speed Legacy or Impreza, since I'm not too keen on Automatics, much less FWD in Laramie, although I guess it's better than RWD The Dodge gets a lil squirrily in 2WD when it gets slick out....

yeah and then everybody thinks you have a rod that's about to go Kinda like the old Rabbit I had, was doing good to get it to do 65, had it up to 70 once, took like 4-5 miles of having it FLOORED lol BUUUT it got 38 MPG in town

My GF and I looked at a 93 impreza that supposedly has a bad motor. The girl said her sister was driving it and she was coming over the summit and it just died. I turned the motor over by hand and it will turn to a certain point and then it will stop. If you turn it and then crank it it will crank for a little bit and then makes a solid thunk noise. I didn't see any holes in the block like it had thrown a rod or anything, and it has plenty of oil and antifreeze. I'm leaning towards a timing belt, but not entirely sure. It's an EJ18, are those an interference motor? If it does indeed need a motor, anyone know where I could get one? Would an EJ22 swap in? It';s in really nice condition so I'm thinking if I get it goign just turn around and sell it and get an AWD 5 speed Legacy or Impreza (It's a 2WD Auto )

I'm from Albany, and my "brat" is from Corvallis, plan on goin back when I'm done at WyoTech... IF ya ever saw a white GL Turbo wagon with 5-lug Legacy wheels and a black hood, (used to not have a black hood, but it's had the 5 lug for a long time) that would be me

and it needs to have twin turbos and a six speed

my 91 had an intermittent sunroof, replaced the control unit (it's near the back of the car, you have to drop the headliner to get to it, it's a black box with a couple of connectors, right next to the thing where you put the crank to manually crank the sunroof open and closed (Mine would usually OPEN, adn then it would be cantankerous about closing, and with my luck it'd start to rain and so whoever was in the backseat got to crank the sunroof shut) Dammit I miss my EJ22 and my sunroof!

so when will they be makin one with a MANUAL TRANSMISSION grrrrr

This oen had me till I looked at the post date

it shouldn't, just make sure you get most of it out of there before you run the motor as I imagine it would break down the oil, but a little residue won't hurt anything, just don't leave large amounts of liquid solvent in there. You could also get some "deep creep" which is seafoam in a spray can, works great.

Go down to the wyotech parts center (I know they stock it, but other parts stores should have it as well, just might be more expensive) and get a bottle of the MotorVac detergent for the carbon clean machine. Get a spray bottle that will withstand gasoline (There is a MotorVac spray bottle, but you have to pressurize it with an air compressor or a bike pump) and mix 1 part cleaner with 3 parts gasoline, spray it on and let it soak, it will dissolve hard carbon deposits, sludge, etc.. You could also scrape out as much as you can and hose it out with stove oil, or some other detergent...

man that sucks, I hope they make it back there okay. Russ, if you look at this link http://www.wyoroad.info/highway/rti_other.html has highway info for states around wyoming. Nebraska: http://www.dor.state.ne.us/rca/ Iowa: http://www.dot.state.ia.us/sitemap.htm#travel Illinois: http://www.dot.state.il.us/operations/mo_state.html You can also look at www.weather.com and get weather advisories,etc.. Hope this helps.

IF that's your real name, you're the second person I know of with the name Merlin. Welcome to the board :-)

I see a BULL#*$* FLAG!!! I personally know someone who drove a 2002 Bug TDI from one coast to the other on VEGETABLE OIL! *edit* just noticed Lukas is from Europe, and their engines might be different from ours. I know they run a lower-sulfur fuel over there that might be it...

yeah man hit me up sometime we should hang out. I have the white Turbowagon here (white with black hood) and I have my big bad Dodge Ram (white and dark gray two-tone with old man canopy) Both have Oregon plates so they're easy to spot if ya see me drivin. MY # is 541-990-8697, no local number :-(, should hit me up sometime. I live in the trailer park on McCue St (it's the street that runs next to the Pilot station).

Yeah the girl with the Brat is okay (she made a post about it on the board) but yeah I shed a tear when I saw the pics, not only cuz it's one less gen1 Brat in this world, but also for all the hard work she put into it (It was not always that nice) as I know what it's like to bust your buns fixing up a car only to have some inconsiderate %*%*#@ ruin it... *sniffle* Before After

happy b-day John

betcha nobody cuts you off on the freeway with that thing on your car! I need to put one of those on my wagon lol. Been thinkin about building a microwave cannon, then the next person who cuts me off gets their car converted into a 5,000 lb paperweight Remember what everyone says about don't mess with nerds.....

RalliTek I believe has a CAI for a gen1 legacy, or at least one that will fit, I was gonna get one for mine but then decided not to. I took the "snorkus" out of mine and it helped a bit, but my buddy cut the bottom of his airbox out (kinda like I did with my Turbowagon) on his 95 and it made it sound a lot better, gave it more snappy throttle response too! (Not a huge HP gain though, maybe 2-3 at high RPM)