Christmas time now and I’ve taken a week or more off work, so time to go to the garage.
When you are buying a $1000 vehicle, you figure you are going to find things that you maybe didn’t see the first time. It’s not like you’re seeing it multiple times (especially when it was over an hour from my house).
Now was time to take it apart. I’ve never taken an engine out, but I was lucky to have easy access to an engine hoist so that made the job easier. Started at the back of the car and removed the gas tank, then made my way to the front. Just started unhooking (and labeling everything I could just in case). Took two days, but the engine is now free! That’s when I really found out how bad that oil leak was. They must have been dumping oil in for a long time as it was everywhere.
Luckily found a story of a guy changing the engine out of one of these to figure out why it was so tough to lift out. The front Diff needed to be dropped. Once that was out of the way we were good to go.
Got it out of there and onto a skid in the back of the truck to be transported to storage. After about a month and no bites on Craigslist I took it to a wrecker for $46. Good thing it was aluminum or I would have received $10!
All the rest of the parts were listed on Craigslist and sold to buy tools that I would need in the near future!
I disconnected everything except the A/C compressor. That was for a couple reasons. 1 is that it’s charged and really bad to discharge it without the proper tools, and 2 I’m hoping to keep it in my conversion afterwards. Leaving the system in tact hopefully I can do that. Everything else was removed… what a mess the engine bay is. All that dark stuff in there is a slick of old burnt up oil. Nice and thick.
