I had a chance to dig into this car today while Ang was at school. We replaced the radiator yesterday because the old one was leaking from a bad repair job. Also, the heater core tubes were broke and leaking, so for now I bypassed them. I noticed when I drained what coolant was in the system out that it was mostly straight water. Right away I got a bad feeling, which I confirmed today after running the car for a while. The head gasket is toast, the car is billowing heavy white smoke with that oh-so-sweet antifreeze smell to it. It's running rough as hell because of it, and has a hard time cranking over when you first start it up. I am not going to waste any money putting this 2.5 back into working order when that money could be better spent getting the rest of the items needed for our 2.8 swap. It looks like we will be doing the swap in the winter in the driveway, instead of running the 2.5 until the spring. But the good news is I got to drive the car around the block and see how it drove. The tranny shifted through all three gears as nice as could be, the brakes were working good, but a little spongy, and the car tracked very well. So overall, the car has not led a very charmed life, but it is in good hands now, and is a great starting point for her.

We ripped out the original seats that were in the car since they didn't fit well, and were in crappy condition. They also drilled two holes in the floor to bolt these seats down because the tracks were different. We want to replace the carpet with the ones we got from Matt, Carol, and Phil Ammons, so while we have the carpet out, I will weld those holes shut, and seal them up.

The crappy seats


The nice holes drilled for crappy seats


New Spectra radiator, an almost exact OEM lookalike.


So here's some takeaway points from this post:

1. ONLY put straight water in your cooling system if it is an emergency, and if there is absolutely no coolant around. Drain it ASAP after it gets you home. Do not leave it in during the winter unless you want to blow money out the tailpipe.

2. NEVER drill holes in the floorboards and mounts seats directly to the floorboard.

3. JB Weld is good for many things. Radiators are not one of them.

quote Originally posted by Hulki U. My-BFF: 1. ONLY put straight water in your cooling system if it is an emergency, and if there is absolutely no coolant around. Drain it ASAP after it gets you home. Do not leave it in during the winter unless you want to blow money out the tailpipe.

I second this. My 3.4 was leaking so bad I couldn't afford to keep dumping coolant in it, so I used water instead. Bad idea, now my coolant looks like crap even after a flush and a different engine.

quote Originally posted by Hulki U. My-BFF: 3. JB Weld is good for many things. Radiators are not one of them.

I second this!
Did I ever tell you that when I tore the top end off of Jenn's 2.8, I found the most clever use of JB Weld...
...it must have had a leak on the lower intake manifold between the two heads. A clever mechanic / previous owner? actually used JB Weld on the OUTSIDE area, stuck that stuff to the intake manifold and the block to stop that oil leak.
As much as I hate to say it, it actually worked! Because there was no oil leaking in that area... And if anyone is wondering, I removed the heads so I could easily drill/tap the broken exhaust manifold bolts out, and when everything was re-installed, it was installed correctly with gaskets and rtv and does not leak - but if it does, im getting me some JBWeld!
Chris

Today Angelica got to perform her first cradle drop. We needed to pull the engine/tranny out of the old car because someone is buying them. All in all it went seemlessly, except for leaking some antifreeze and gas in the driveway.











And, an update to the upper intake and valve covers that we were stripping and painting. Actually, I ended up painting them myself at work, since it has gotten too cold at home to paint any more this year. They have three coats of color, and two coats of clear. Here's some before and after pictures:

Looking good! But hey, those Valve covers and Intake look really familiar.

looking good andy!!
i want to see that car at my spring cruise

OK, the engines out and the car is safely positioned on jack stands. Where is the owner in the engine bay pic? This is tradition you know.

This thing has come a long way since the last time I stopped in here. Nice job you two.

Hey. Didn't you guys say once that you'd be picking my car up to do a similar overhaul?

The old car is now officially gone. I had no choice but to get it out of the driveway right away, but most all parts were taken off that were salvageable.

Engine bay pics from Ang and Darion



Darion is a total gearhead already. He has told me that his first car WILL be a Fiero. I am more than happy to oblige him in four years and start our build together.



Bye bye old Thunder



Ang decided after seeing the lace wheels on her ride, that they just look so much better, and she's keeping these on.





I had suspected a sizable head gasket leak, and I confirmed it the other day with the milky dipstick. We're gonna get a used head and gasket to throw on the car, to at least keep it going until Spring, when the 2.8 will get swapped in.

Good choice keeping the lace wheels!

Lets see... i know somebody who needs a 2.8 exhaust, i need rear struts and front shocks...

I am kidding

Any news?

Awesome! On the new car are the black stripes painted on or vinyled?

-MH