Sunday: I get a hair in my ass to lower the car some more. This car has always looked weird because the molding makes it looks like the front is higher than the rear even if it's not... out come the coils. Through a bit of distraction from the kids, I end up lopping off just over a round instead of the half round I intended. Nothing to do now except make the other side match! I was worried at first but it ended up in just the right spot. The car is significantly lower still has enough travel to ride pretty damn well.
I take it out for a test drive on the freeway and notice a bad hesitation when passing at 65-70mph. I let off the gas and get back into it and it goes away. I typically only drive it to work and back (in town), haven't had the car on the freeway in, possibly, months... I figure the choke had stuck on or something like that... nothing to worry about. Right? Sure.
Monday: Drive to work, car runs great. After work I drive the car on the freeway again just in case. Uh-oh. That hesitation is not a fluke. It's still there and is REALLY bad when on the gas hard for more than a few seconds. I throw a fuel filter at it-no change.
Tuesday: pull the carb apart and see what's going on. When I pull the top of the carb, I find the brass pickup tube that is supposed to be pressed into it is not in the upper housing. Sweet. There's my problem... piece of cake. I clean the carb up at lunch and stay after work for a bit to put it back together.
Back to the freeway to test it out. Still hesitating. Crap. I call it a night and head home. I take the offr-ramp near my house and the engine stalls on the off-ramp... traffic coming up behind me, the light is green, I need to get out of the way. It's flooded, I open the throttle, crank, crank, crank, fire... drop it in gear and punch it to get out of the way. I hear BANG! CRUNCH! Stall...! Holy s#%@! I let traffic go around me and roll the car back to get it close to the curb and see a big puddle in front of me. At this point, all the audio info tells me there is a hole in the side of the block and I am done. I call Auto Club to get the car towed back to work. When traffic dies down, I pop the hood and take a quick peek and start to put it all together. The left engine mount let loose, the engine rotated far enough to rip all the shift linkage apart and pull the upper radiator barb out of the top tank. That explains the puddle. I suppose things aren't as bad as I thought but this does put a whole new spin on getting to Billetproof in a few days.
Tuesday evening, post-tow: I drain the rest of the cooling system, pull the radiator and patch the engine mount.
- IMG_0014 (640x480).jpg (179.12 KiB) Viewed 1674 times
