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A Small Car posted:I basically agree, except that it's less limp-dicked than a stock TBI motor lol. It also lends itself far more easily to upgrades in the future, should I decide to go that route.  
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Nov 6, 2019 20:51
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IOwnCalculus posted:216hp is probably also a result of them keeping the rippems down on that one for marine / industrial use - they're quoting peak power at only 4000, instead of 4600 as it was in production trucks. I do like the idea of a Blueprint SBC and will probably look into that further. Obviously cost is somewhat of a concern, but it's not THE concern here - I'm not aiming to chase horsepower, I'd prefer a reliability upgrade more than anything else. I don't mind at all if horsepower stays around 200. Depending on how much I manage to get done on the other vehicles around here, I may have the block checked and go with upgrading the heads/intake/internals vs buying a crate motor. My big concern with the junkyard LS route is that I have no idea what's going on in either the motor or transmission without at least a partial teardown, and depending on what parts I'm not happy with, that could end up costing quite a bit, and that's before going into wiring, flashing, etc. As far as time vs money, I unfortunately have far more money than time these days, so I want to make things as streamlined as possible. Odds are whatever I end up doing will need to be done within the span of one or two of my days off max. I suppose I could always build an engine in my living room at night though  All that said, I hope I'm not coming off as defensive, I genuinely appreciate all the input and it's given me a lot to think about. This had been in the back of my mind, but I hadn't expected to need to deal with the motor this soon, and I'm still working on figuring out what exactly I do want (and articulate that in writing, along with my reasoning, something I'm not the best at). A Small Car fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Nov 7, 2019 01:19
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A Small Car posted:That said, if I kill the motor in the wagon any time soon after I finally get it running, all bets are off for what goes in there. This is a sensible and practical replacement.
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Nov 7, 2019 06:01
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A Small Car posted:I basically agree, except that it's less limp-dicked than a stock TBI motor lol. It also lends itself far more easily to upgrades in the future, should I decide to go that route. If you're just going to buy basically a base motor now and do whatever upgrades later, that makes some sort of sense. L31 is going to be better than TBI, but an LM7 is going to be better in every way. Built in fuel injection, better everything. But if what you say about lacking time is true, don't go that route. You can slam a crate gen1 motor in there in a weekend, but it would take months tinkering with an LS swap. What I did was have a local machine shop go through my existing bottom end, do all the machine work, and deliver me a short block. I assembled it with a set of Vortec heads. You could look into something similar, see what prices are like near you at least. In my case, it was a $2200 machine shop bill, which ended up not at all cheaper than a crate motor. But your situation might be different. IOwnCalculus posted:The cheapest possible solution on the LS would be to do the wiring yourself and using something like LSDroid to reflash it. Oh, baby. Now this, I like. Is there something like this that's computer-based? I don't have an android phone, but I'm sure I can get a tablet for basically nothing. But I have computers coming out of my ears. This is way better than my plan of finding someone friendly with an HPTuner.
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Nov 7, 2019 08:45
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This is extremely my poo poo. Raluek posted:Oh, baby. Now this, I like. Is there something like this that's computer-based? I don't have an android phone, but I'm sure I can get a tablet for basically nothing. But I have computers coming out of my ears. This is way better than my plan of finding someone friendly with an HPTuner. I think the same people are behind PCMhammer, which is PC based. Supposedly it will do the poo poo that HPTuners won't - i.e. VIN changes and even rewriting whatever unique identifier HPTuners uses (in conjunction with the VIN) to identify computers. Most of what I've learned of it I've picked up from the "private" Sloppy Mechanics FB group. They aren't particularly vocal about what they're doing, but then again, they're still way ahead of HPTuners in that regard.
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Nov 7, 2019 17:45
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I love that car! I just pulled the valve cover on my sister's SC to discover horrifying amounts of rust on the cam lobes, so if I don't go jy a head, I may have a candidate for a swap like that.    e: Ok, I did a quick cleanup on the cam lobes just to see what they looked like:    There's some pitting, but that's not nearly as bad. I think I'll polish them with 2000 grit after I get the head off and just run it as is. My sister has no money to contribute to this, so it's all out of my pocket, and I don't really feel like spending more money. I'll do the head gasket, see if it runs, and go from there. Raluek, I have a machine shop that I trust that can do a stock rebuild of the whole motor for ~$1500, but they're extremely slow, so I don't really want to go that route. You and IOwnCalculus have convinced me to take another look at LS engines though. Instead of rushing to get an engine in the truck, I'm going to take my time and look more fully into what my options are. A Small Car fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Nov 7, 2019 |
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Nov 7, 2019 19:56
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A Small Car posted:Raluek, I have a machine shop that I trust that can do a stock rebuild of the whole motor for ~$1500, but they're extremely slow, so I don't really want to go that route. You and IOwnCalculus have convinced me to take another look at LS engines though. Instead of rushing to get an engine in the truck, I'm going to take my time and look more fully into what my options are. That's not far off what your crate L31 would cost, but if your rebuild includes some better-than-stock parts and/or you already have a 4-bolt main, you'll end up with a better motor if you DIY and then throw some better heads on later. But a $400 junkyard LS motor already has all the good stuff you pay to upgrade to in a gen1 SBC. Roller rockers. Roller cam. Not only four but six bolt mains. Sequential EFI. One piece rear main seal and all rubber gaskets. Not to mention those monster ports, aluminum heads, and plastic intake that must take a good hundred pounds off an iron/iron/iron oldschool motor. But, it's not the weekend project that a like-for-like SBC swap would be. I have had my LS swap project car for 10 years and I haven't even gotten started yet, lol. IOwnCalculus posted:I think the same people are behind PCMhammer, which is PC based. yes yes yES YES god this is good news. I was going back and forth between aftermarket ECU like a microsquirt (because I can tune it endlessly by myself) or sticking with the stock stuff I already have (but I'd have to pay someone to tune). Now it's not even a question. Looks like I have some harness building in my winter future.
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Nov 8, 2019 11:20
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Mini update on my various broken poo poo. Got my sister's Saturn back together, it ran great for about 10 seconds and then a loving valve spring snapped. I don't know if I want to cry or put a slug through that drat car at the moment, but realistically, I'll pull the head again and fix it, probably with a junkyard head. Hopefully the block/piston are ok cause it didn't run for long after the spring snapped. There goes another week I should be using to fix other stuff  With that in mind, the truck is getting a stock TBI motor put back in it. I don't have time for another long term project right now, and I don't really have anywhere to put yet another dead car. Maybe I'll add more later when I'm not so frustrated.
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Nov 18, 2019 19:03
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DAFUQ HAPPENED TO THAT CAM?! Did... did it spend a few years at the bottom of the ocean? Did it sit for 10 years without being started?
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Nov 18, 2019 20:01
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The car sat for 6ish months with coolant in the head (that's how long it took me to finally get to the car). I'll take the cams with whatever head I pull at the junkyard just to be safe, but despite how lovely they look, they cleaned up really well and were extremely smooth (I did polish them with 2500 grit to get them like that).
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Nov 18, 2019 20:33
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Oof, yeah coolant will do that. Imagine what the bottom end bearings look like. 
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Nov 18, 2019 20:34
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They looked ok! There was enough oil* in there that even the relatively large amount of coolant didn't matter much. *one of the last things that happened before the head gasket blew was my sister adding oil to the car. I told her it was a quart low, maybe add two to be safe since it burns a bunch. She mixed up quarts and gallons  So the bottom end has all been completely submerged in oil for 6 months, I could spin the bottom end with one finger once the head was off. And to think, she wants a G-Wagon lol
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Nov 18, 2019 20:45
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A Small Car posted:*one of the last things that happened before the head gasket blew was my sister adding oil to the car. I told her it was a quart low, maybe add two to be safe since it burns a bunch. She mixed up quarts and gallons  I guess that's good in this case.
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Nov 18, 2019 20:55
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Nov 22, 2019 01:17
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Ouchie.
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Nov 22, 2019 05:53
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Send it. Edit: For Science! glyph fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Nov 22, 2019 |
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Nov 22, 2019 09:30
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Goodbye LL0, we hardly knew ye.
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Nov 22, 2019 18:01
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STR posted:Goodbye LL0, we hardly knew ye. This is the sane option. Fortunately, sanity is not something I've ever been accused of glyph posted:Send it. This is what I really wanted to do, and I would have been happy to smooth it out and slap it all back together. However, it sits a good 1/8 inch lower than it's supposed to currently, so at a minimum the piston is ruined, and the rod is possibly bent too. I'm now taking this as a personal affront and instead of taking a smart approach (say a junkyard motor), I'm going to put a junkyard piston in it (maybe a rod too) and see what happens. I'll check the cylinder bore to be sure it's still ok, but somehow it didn't sustain any scarring from that valve bouncing around in there. I'll probably just put new rod bearings in at the same time (it's $10 for a set, it would be silly not to). I'm going to end up rebuilding this whole stupid motor lol. Forgot to upload a picture of the valve yesterday - the stem was nowhere to be found, and neither was the bottom of the spark plug.  I will feel slightly bad about taking away Eiddwen's new buddy though, she spent all night next to the head. 
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Nov 22, 2019 20:13
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Oh hey, I have a thread on here. This is mostly to keep it out of the archives until I do something interesting again, but I have done some work! I removed this greasy lump of poo poo: Fun thing I didn't realize until I went to reuse the valve covers, the driver's side one is cracked, and probably has been for a long time, it was just hidden by all the greasy sludge on there. New ones it is! Also replaced the air cleaner because the old one had turned brown. How? gently caress if I know, probably the engine fires. Decided to swap/rebuild the throttle body because I suspected it was leaking vacuum somewhere (I have quite a few spares kicking around, including one from a later model V6 somehow). I guess the rebuild kit I got was old or something, the injector o-rings failed while I was driving it to the store - I had to keep it about 2k rpm to stay running and managed a couple inadvertent neutral drops. My dad, being the awesome person he is, dug all the old parts out of the loving trash for me and kept me company while I did another rebuild on the throttle body in the parking lot. It didn't leak anymore, but it still ran like poo poo - turns out that the throttle shaft was slightly bent and leaking like crazy  Bought another rebuild kit, and tried different bases until I finally found one that was in good shape. The initial leak I suspected? The injector pod gasket had a crack, everything else was fine.Now the engine bay looks like this:  I'm extremely happy with how it's all turned out so far, even though it's just another stock engine it's vastly better than the old one. I also upgraded the brake lines while I was at it. The front ones were too short and limiting the suspension travel, so I went with Offroad Design's extended set. Teflon core, wrapped in kevlar, then stainless steel, and then an outer protective layer of vinyl. Not only are they beautiful, the truck brakes much better than before, and most importantly, the suspension can actually travel  Now that the truck is more or less in a "set it and forget it" phase, I can finally get back to work on my sister's Saturn...  Ah, guess I'll be tracking down the leak instead  (it's the transmission pan)Obligatory garbage photo of baked goods:  Jelly cakes I made for my sister's birthday. It's cubed white cake, each cube is split in half, soaked in blackberry jelly and rolled in desiccated coconut. They're then sandwiched around a vanilla whipped cream and topped with a fresh blackberry. They normally look neater, but I was making them as her party started and rushing like mad
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Jan 25, 2020 00:56
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A Small Car posted:Obligatory garbage photo of baked goods: Well done on the swap, brake lines limiting suspension travel sounds like you were one bump from ripping the lines out and having a horrible crash. I have to know, are those massive blackberries or tiny cakes? Either way I want them.
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Jan 26, 2020 11:12
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Thank you! I was really worried about the brake lines, you could feel them snapping taught on bumps. But they're all good now, I have about 6 inches of slack, which is about triple the distance that suspension can travel down It's actually both, the blackberries I bought were monsters, and the cakes are supposed to be roughly bite sized. My sister loves them, I make them every year for her birthday, and that's been her tradition for almost a decade now. If you're ever in the area, let me know, I'll make a batch!
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Jan 26, 2020 18:37
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I'll investigate more when I don't feel like trying to beat myself into a coma on something, but apparently I get just as hosed on new motors as I do on used! https://i.imgur.com/JAyoGhd.mp4 It's hard to hear, but there's quite a bit of noise coming off the front of that bank, but the sharp smacks are what I'm most worried about. I'll check torque converter bolts and exhaust gaskets tomorrow before work and pull the vc if I've got time. One of the lifters has been ticking at startup, so I'm hoping I'll get lucky (I won't) and it's just a lovely lifter. I need to pull the pan this week to replace the rear main anyway, because of course the loving thing leaks, so I'll look at some bearings when I'm in there. Not even 1300 miles on the motor, just loving shoot me. Boaz, I meant to put this up a while ago, but I did finally take the paint off the lettering on the Saturn, big improvement!  And I thought this week I'd finally get to rebuild the motor in the other Saturn lol. e: holy poo poo the video's giant, I'll try to fix it. e2: I'm at work, it'll stay giant for now A Small Car fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Feb 18, 2020 |
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Feb 18, 2020 01:54
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Finally had some time to work on the truck. Pulled the inspection cover, torque converter and flywheel bolts were good, exhaust checked out, all the rockers were fine. Decided to pull the belt just in case, and what do you know? No loving knock. Cut a spare belt shorter and stapled it back together to isolate the accessories one at a time, turns out the power steering pump is the source of all the noise! There's almost a half inch of movement along the pump shaft. I'm a bit upset that it's the worst accessory to change, but I'll take that over pulling the engine again any day.
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Feb 21, 2020 02:13
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One more quick update and then I might get to work on something interesting. The power steering pump was indeed bad, but not as awful as I'd thought. Replaced that without incident* and didn't even spill fluid everywhere! Started the truck only to hear the knocking, but much worse than before Turns out the alternator was completely hosed. I don't understand why it didn't make noise when the power steering pump was removed from the equation, but whatever. It's a lifetime lump of poo poo from O'Reilly's, I'll just go warranty it. The first store I went to (they're closer to my house, but suck, my mistake) told me that because it tested fine they couldn't replace it. Nevermind the fact that it sounds and feels like a loving coffee grinder. Went to the store I actually like and told them what was up - the guy behind the counter gave it a quick spin, laughed, and walked off to get me a new one. Threw that in and everything's nice and quiet (well, as quiet as that motor will ever be) again. Spent late Saturday night driving the truck around, listening to opera, and remembering why I love the stupid thing as much as I do. I know these "updates" are loving boring, but I like documenting them anyway - you never know when some random thread on the internet will help someone out. That's actually how I discovered AI years ago, I was looking for info on a Nash Airflyte I was going to buy and somebody here had a thread on one. The car turned out to be a dumpster fire, but I found a car community I genuinely like, so I think that's a win. I may have a new scrap heap to work on briefly. My dad got a truck for Christmas, so his old Civic is just sitting around waiting to be sold, but it needs some serious work. Struts are shot, brakes are shot, CVs are shot, something's broken in the front end (possibly a transmission mount), windshield is broken, interior is a disaster, etc. But if I feel like fixing it and selling it, I can keep half the money. I think I'll fix the SC2 first since it's blocking my wagon in, but who knows. My brother crashed his Legacy, so that or his Land Cruiser may take priority in the lineup. *If you know you're going to be working on something, pulling the fan shroud, and leaning over/on the radiator, wait until it's cooled down or you end up with a line across your stomach that looks like someone painted you with iodine and is rather tender. Good thing I'm smart and avoided this I didn't, I'm an idiot 
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Feb 24, 2020 21:00
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Welp, it's been 6 months since I posted in this thread. Between normal work, COVID, and general depression brought on by the state of the world, I've been somewhat unproductive BUT I do have a couple interesting things to post. I'll more or less go in chronological order I suppose. So about 2 months ago (I think), the driver's front wheel bearing on the truck started giving me grief and the nuts kept working themselves tighter. There was a section of threads on the spindle that somehow disappeared and I initially tried a double washer setup to put the nuts into better threads, but the washers kept spinning and the whole thing would tighten itself up. This culminated in that tire locking solid on me during a drive. Fortunately, I was going slow (because I was expecting this poo poo), so I just dragged the truck off the road to wait for parts. New spindle, bearings, washers, and nuts later and we're back in business.  You can see just how badly the bearings disliked being over-tightened  It's less obvious in this picture, but the threads are pretty boogered and there's a lot of pitting on all the surfaces. I'd posted in the stupid question thread about steering stuff, and thought I'd had that sorted, but nope! In the past 6 months, I've put 4 power steering pumps and 3 loving steering boxes in the truck. I finally gave up and ate the cost to buy a new pump and a rebuilt box from a reputable source (Redhead Steering Gear) and installed both. While I was at it, I swapped an XJ steering shaft into the truck in place of the worn out stock one (only had to hack a foot off to make it fit). Holy poo poo. The steering and general driving experience is so much better that it's hard to believe. I actually had to re-learn how to drive the truck because it doesn't wander or have massive dead spots in the steering anymore.  Since then, I've just been driving and enjoying the truck. Went out to the Kilbourne Hole with my family a few weeks back to do some hiking and had a blast. Landcruiser is my brother's, the Ram is my dad's. All three trucks had no issue running out there in our 100+ weather, which was very nice.   My truck needs some new front calipers, but I think I might finally get back to my sister's Saturn sometime this month. In tuba news, my big Conn is finally back together! Last time I posted, I'd filled the leadpipe with cerrobend and needed to put it back on the horn. Last time, I'd bent the leadpipe to where I deemed acceptable, so it was time to remove the cerrobend and make it permanent on the horn again. To remove the cerrobend, just chuck the whole thing in the oven and let it run out onto a junk pan.  I couldn't see any residue in the leadpipe at this point, but to be safe, I gave the whole thing a bath in cleaning vinegar and a couple very good scrubbings. End result:   There's a bit of solder staining in there, but it's been like that for 50 years so I'm not worried about it. I originally installed the leadpipe with a brace from my junk pile, but wasn't happy with the fit and decided to tweak it. I seem to have lost the pictures, but this turned out to be a good decision because the brace was only soft soldered together instead of being silver soldered and it collapsed when I was heating it up. Threw on a Yamaha euphonium brace instead and the fit is much, much better.  Pre cleanup  post cleanup Also reinstalled the bottom bow guard, and decided to polish the hell out of the bell and bottom bow. Before:  After:  As of now, that horn is officially done and will be going up for sale shortly. If there was any way for me to keep it, I would in a hearbeat. Even now the sound brings a smile to my face every time I play, but such is life. Cleaned, polished, and greased both the functional Monster Eb's so I can put them up for sale too.  And because I can't resist, I bought two more horns The first is another King that's going to be sacrificed for the valve section. I didn't need this one, but it was too cheap to pass up, and I almost feel bad killing it because it's a drat good instrument. But I'll still chop it up. Second is a brand I've been wanting forever, a York. This was another one that I just couldn't pass up. The bell is garbage, but my plan is to roll it out and patch the holes, and then I'll probably rip the valves out of this one and put in the King valves (which will involve flipping the whole bugle of the horn). That's down the road a ways though, I still have the Monster Eb project to finish, and for now I'm happy to just play the York as is.  When I got it.  After cleaning  A neat little detail. The loop in the main tuning slide to bring it to modern pitch is patented! In random things, made my dad and sister help me pull some transmissions out of the canal where some rear end in a top hat dumped them.  We turned them into a local shop as cores, so they'll live on in some form. The old motor from my truck finally made its way back to my house, where it will take up residence in the sunroom.  And I helped a friend work on his Jetta. I tried to get him not to buy it, but that didn't work. Replaced the alternator and power steering pump (he drove it through multi-foot deep water) and it still needs the ac compressor and a belt tensioner. Also has a pretty good top end tick. (I hate this car)  I think that's it for this time, so enjoy a few baked goods. First is my niece's birthday cake. Second is a key lime cheesecake.  
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Aug 11, 2020 21:32
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Omfg key lime cheesecake
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Aug 11, 2020 22:02
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angryrobots posted:Omfg key lime cheesecake  Sorry A Small Car. Your update was Cool and Good and I appreciate it.
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Aug 11, 2020 22:12
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I barely understand anything horn related in your posts but I love to read them, keep them coming.
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Aug 25, 2020 21:09
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Thanks guys! If there's ever anything you'd like explained better, just let me know, I'm happy to expand on it all. Also, I know the baked goods are the best parts of these updates
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Aug 25, 2020 23:29
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Hello again thread, it's only been three months this time! Where were we....Ah yes, the last time my sister's Saturn (from here on out I'm just going to call it the SC2. It's my car again now anyway ) was talked about, a piston looked like poo poo, and I'd picked up the sludgiest head possible from the junkyard (pictured after being slightly cleaned up below). But A Small Car, why did you pick up a sludgy head instead of a nice one? I'll tell you why, I'm all about working smarter, and the car the head came from already had all the timing bits removed. And because it was sludgy, it wasn't rusty! It sure smelled like death though.  So, it's only been a year (I really need to work on projects faster) since the last time I worked on the SC2 and it's been sitting since then without a head, timing cover, etc. Surprisingly, I'd remembered to drain the oil and coolant before letting it sit and filled its holes with shop towels, so no rust to contend with. Oddly enough, the piston I bought, did not include the valve reliefs like the ones in the car did, it looked like  . I bought it with the rod, so in it went anyway. New rod bearings all the way around was followed up with the most careful torqueing I've ever done in my life - the rod bolts are supposed to be one time use and are very difficult to find new, but smarter people than me on the Saturn forums have worked out the proper torque to set to when reusing the rod bolts. Put the rest of it back together, fire it up and: https://i.imgur.com/o56Ny72.mp4 Success!! The amount of smoke upon first start was unreal, but it cleared up and settled down into the nice idle in the video. The belt, tensioner, and idler pulley will all get replaced this week, they're shot. Might need a new alternator too, but that's not a big deal. It'll be nice to drive it and clear all the spiders out - I'm absolutely terrified of the little bastards, and having one crawl onto my head while under the car is not an experience I'd like to repeat. Anyway, plans at this point are to fix the rest of the little stuff it needs, get it registered and insured again, paint it fuchsia, and begin contemplating the best way to put a turbo on it.  The truck got new body mounts installed yesterday/today, and paying somebody else to do that was one of my smarter decisions. All but two of the body mount bolts were almost rusted through, and most of them were stripped. New polyurethane mounts and some hardware later and we're back in business. The back mounts were so bad, that the rear end actually rides a couple inches higher now. It also got new ball joints. You know what that looks like, but have a picture anyway!  The old motor has indeed taken up residence in my sunroom, next to my project couch (yes, you read that right). The heads live on my back porch. I expect none of this to change any time soon.   That does it for anything noteworthy on the vehicles, so back to tubas! I haven't really done poo poo there either, but this horn: was saved from its fate as a parts horn when a friend needed a horn for a banda gig super last minute. I'd managed to lose the thumb ring somewhere along the way, so I threw a random one back on, fixed the broken braces, banged a spare garbage bell back into a sort of bell shape, and sent it on its way.   I actually did need the parts from that horn to finish my frankentuba, so naturally I had to buy another:  I'd been buying three valve parts horns because they're so much cheaper, but this one was too good a deal to pass up. I'm going to end up needing to re-plan the whole valve section swap now, but I think it will turn out much better in the long run to use the factory 4-valve setup from this horn instead of the abomination I'd created. That can be used on the York  Not a hugely substantive update, so as penance I'll do a baked good for each month between this and my last post. First, a strawberry tart. The strawberries here were insanely good this summer, and I felt compelled to do something with them. The base is a regular old vanilla custard, and yes, I ate the entire thing myself.   Second is a plum tart, knocked together on a whim with a bit of fresh whipped cream. I didn't share this one either.  And last, a bit of an experiment. I came across a recipe for these pumpkin ball things that are loosely based on a brigadeiro. The recipe I used called for butternut squash, but I'm an 
A Small Car fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Nov 25, 2020 02:20
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A little bit of everything, I like your posts.
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Nov 25, 2020 19:14
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Nice job on the Saturn!
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Nov 25, 2020 19:59
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I guess quarterly updates are what I'm about these days, I can live with that. I've done absolutely nothing with tubas, so no updates there. Soon though, I'm in the process of sorting out my sheds to make a better workspace! Let's see, the truck hasn't had anything done to it besides a u-joint replacement - at almost a quarter inch of play, it was past overdue! Gone are the bone shaking vibrations above 70, for which my back is grateful. I'm pretty sure I mentioned before that the blue Saturn had an electrical draw somewhere. It had gotten to the point where the car needed a jump every time I drove it, so I decided it was finally time to actually look into that, the past 6 or so years somehow weren't aggravating enough. Since I was going to be in there anyway, I decided I might as well address the incorrectly functioning chime module too. It's the little green (or brown, or orange) box hiding up under the center of the dash:  Once that's pulled out, pin number 7 is the one you need to worry about (they're labeled, thank you GM). Some people bend it out of the way, some de-solder it, I chose to simply cut it off. You'll need to put an in-line fuse in the ignition circuit to compensate for bypassing the chime module, but after that, plug it back in and everything works, you just no longer have an open door chime. Took me about a week to get used to the silence when I opened the door lol. There's a better way to do this that involves rerouting part of the circuitry inside the chime module, but I have a half dozen spare ones and really can't be bothered to faff about with that nonsense. Plus, as I'll get to next, a lot of the wires under the dash were already cut, so putting a fuse in was inconsequential. That brings me to the next fun bit, and why I really should have looked into this sooner. Up under the dash, I discovered this:   which was attached to this:   Multiple wires had been cut to splice this in, and several vampire taps had been shoved in there to boot. After carefully removing that crap, here's everything I removed:  A quick google suggests this is some sort of ancient lojack/repo type system, and based on the craptastic install job, this was probably the source of my electrical draw. Regardless, between this and the chime module, I no longer have to suffer through dinging, and haven't had to jump start the car since. Even that pales in comparison to the most exciting junkyard find: a factory armrest! I've never in my life seen an unbroken one, so I snagged it immediately and installed it. I feel so fancy   Which brings us to Flipper! I know I said I'd call this the SC2, but my sister named it Flipper years ago, and that's all I can think of this little car as anymore. For a refresher, here's my starting point:  As this is a full on toy, I've decided to take a very sensible approach, and spend lots of money on a car that cost less than my rent payment currently does. Flipper has been in dire need of struts, tie rods, ball joints, basically everything under the car. Now, new shocks and a set of lowering springs runs about $400-$450, which isn't bad, and would achieve what I want (lower the car, not handle like garbage), but that's boring. The better answer is coilovers for an 02-07 Subaru GD (GC also work, but GD is the easiest). Parts pile ahoy! (more on the gauge clusters later)  The strut mounting holes are ever so slightly too widely spaced, and need to be ground toward each other about a half inch, but the mounting width is perfect. Grind out and mount, rinse and repeat for the other three. For mounting the top of the strut, there are options! In the rear, the stock Saturn mount CAN be retained, and this is the route I went at first. This was bad. The car rode like a dumptruck, and bumps would actually cause the rear wheels to leave the ground, so off the stock mounts came. Re-drilled the pattern in the mounts that came with the coilovers and bolted the rears back in just fine. For the fronts, your only option (unless you're custom making a mount), is to re-drill the one that came with the coilovers. They start out like this (yes, I bought the absolute cheapest crap possible):  No pictures of the finished product, but mid-way through, they look like this:  Imagine that last empty hole cut off and the mount generally cleaned up to look less like it was attacked with a sawzall, and you get the idea. After initial install, the car ended up here:  Clearly, that won't work. It's not level for one thing, but the front inner fenders are actually resting on the tires, and I don't want to remove them. Try number two!  Much better, but still not quite perfect. Third time's the charm.   At this point, it should also be obvious that I've been swapping a very large number of the body panels out to replace the beat to hell  I need to either find an intact 97-2000 blackberry coupe, or an intact 99 or 2000 white coupe and I'll be able to make the thing one color, but all the white coupes currently in junkyards are 2 door, and all the blackberry ones are destroyed so patchwork it is! I think even if it is white, I'll leave the spoiler and door handles purple (and the roof, I'm not messing with that). The fuchsia will have to wait, perhaps it'll never even happen. Anyway, that's not the important bit, the important bit is how the car drives! It's slightly less stiff of a ride than my truck, and is hilarious at low speeds on bumpy roads. Otherwise, I love it! There is zero body roll - I haven't been able to push it too hard yet, it needed tires (bought today) and an alignment (happening tomorrow) - and it generally feels much more planted at all speeds. It's also considerably quieter inside, which I didn't expect. This may seem like a ridiculous way to lower the car a few inches, but I've been thinking about maybe doing autocross or the like with it once it's safe to do so, so why not experiment with things now? I've also swapped the gauge cluster from one with a digital odometer to one with a mechanical. Why? Because the drat car keeps burning out the odometer light and I felt like it  I did initially swap a different digital cluster in, but the mileage didn't match, and that bothered me. With a mechanical odometer, I can Went for a drive through my part of the Texas wasteland to see Marfa, Fort Davis, and Alpine (seriously beautiful scenery, that imgur will not let me upload). You'll have to make do with this shot of a few of Santa's reindeer, hanging out in Fort Davisl  Lastly, enjoy this year's iteration of my sister's birthday cake. I apologize for the lack of variety in baked goods posting, but I guess I was hungry and ate everything else I've made before I managed to take a picture. 
A Small Car fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Feb 12, 2021 01:17
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A Small Car posted:
Coupes tend to be that way. Before I got to that part I thought I was having issues remembering how much was white. All the Saturn electrical stuff takes me back. Mine would always die when the main power to the panel in that console worked itself lose. It would mostly work, then sometimes not work. Until I figured out which one and then I would just push it back into place until I could afford to have it repaired for real.
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Feb 12, 2021 02:54
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Lol, true. But from 99-02, the Saturn coupes were 3 door! All body panels from 97-00 swap on the coupes, the only problem area is the driver's side quarter panel and the third door. Passenger side is the same across all years. So I guess to clarify that bit, I have to specifically find a white 3-door, but a purple from any year will do. Ah, the F2, F5, and I think F9? issue, depending on your generation. Fake edit, it's F6, not F9, had to look it up. I suspect I may have some issues there as well, but everything works for now, so I'm going to pretend not to think about it. If you happen to remember, was yours fixed with a new fuse block, or was just that terminal repaired?
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Feb 12, 2021 03:11
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A Small Car posted:Lol, true. But from 99-02, the Saturn coupes were 3 door! Yeah F6 sounds right, it was maybe 15 years ago! I had a shop repair the terminal, no clue how they did it. I couldn't figure it out at the time.
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Feb 12, 2021 03:27
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A Small Car posted:
Oh christ, no wonder. AMPS networks are so long gone, I'm sure it was sucking the battery dry searching for service. Just like a cell phone, if it's searching for service, it's sucking down power - vs locked onto a signal. AMPS wasn't exactly battery-friendly. And yeah, that's very much part of an early Lojack install. It's been looking for a signal, unsuccessfully, for roughly a decade and a half. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Feb 12, 2021 03:37
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STR posted:Oh christ, no wonder. AMPS networks are gone, I'm sure it was sucking the battery dry searching for service. Just like a cell phone, if it's searching for service, it's sucking down power - vs locked onto a signal. AMPS wasn't exactly battery-friendly. Ah, thanks for the info! It's always been sucking down power, but for some reason in the 2nd half of 2020 it REALLY started sucking it down.
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Feb 12, 2021 03:45
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Battery probably started getting weak. Can't see any reason why it'd suddenly start sucking down more power; it hasn't had a signal since 2008. Unless maybe the GPS antenna got damaged, making it search for both AMPS and GPS constantly. Enjoy your paperweight.
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Feb 12, 2021 03:46
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My sister's first car was a 95 SL1 that would kill batteries in months. Never did check it for a parasitic draw but sounds like it probably had one or three.
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Feb 12, 2021 16:02
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