A dusty little corner of the Internet: electronics, computer hardware and software, general aviation, 1980's Mopars, and related sundry.
The CSX: December 1, 1998
Posted in Automotive on December 01, 1998.
IT'S ALIVE!!! This unusually warm weather for November has allowed me to finish assembly of the engine. After completing assembly, I filled all the fluids and stared at it for a very long time, trying to think of anything I may have forgotten. I then proceeded to clean the garage to find any parts that I may have neglected to put back on. After all that, I decided that I had stalled long enough. I pulled the ignition wire off of the coil and cycled the ignition switch a couple of times. The fuel pump moaned and pressurized the system. I did a careful inspection of the fuel system, and found a small leak near the fuel filter. After fixing this, I took off the oil fill cap, and tried to crank the engine. Sure enough, it cranked over and after few cranks there was oil to the head. I then reconnected the ignition wire, said a little prayer, and turned the key once more. Three cranks later the engine sprang to life with more clattering and chattering than you can shake a stick at. A few seconds later the brand new lash adjusters were pumped up and the engine quieted down. I watched carefully, with the fire extinguisher nearby, as the oils and other residues left on the manifolds burned off. After a few minutes of idling, the engine stopped smoking and was running smoothly. I kept an eye on the fluids all this time and there were no leaks, but I had to keep topping off the radiator. I believe this was just the air being purged out of the system, but my paranoia kept making me think it was the headgasket. There was no white smoke out of the back even when I goosed it a bit, so I became confident enough to go for a drive. I took it once around my subdivision (1.1 miles) at the lightning speed of 30 mph. The engine ran smoothly and pulled with confidence, even though I was not going into boost or revving it past 3000 rpm at all. I pulled it back into the garage, shut it off, and did a through check over.
The CSX: September 15, 1998
Posted in Automotive on September 15, 1998.
In early September of that year, I finally had the time to tear apart the engine to see what was going on. As I disassembled the intake ductwork, I was disgusted to find that the PCV vent line was tied directly to the intake duct, just past the air filter. The large amount of blow-by from cylinder #4 blew oil through the PCV system, through the intake, the turbo, up through the intercooler (!), and into the intake manifold. Most of it ran back into cylinder #4, causing it to burn all this oil. When I pulled the head, I found that the headgasket was fine, the #4 piston was fine, and there were no cracks in the head or block. I expected to see a whole in the piston from all of this blow-by. When I disassembled the head, I found that the exhaust valves guides were worn, but the rest of it looked OK. The head had a multi-angle valve jobs done at some point, so I decided not to mess with the valves and just grind them. After grinding, the valves seated very well, and I decided not to worry about the somewhat worn valve guides. There was no indication of the valve stem seals leaking, but I replaced them anyway. Cylinder #4 was carboned up really bad from the oil, as was #1. The only possibility left was the rings. When I pulled the pistons, I found that the upper ring on #4 was broken is six places and a huge chunk of the ring land was gone. The sides of the piston was badly carboned up from being driven this way for so long. Luckily, there was no scoring on the cylinder wall at all. The ring pieces were held in the piston by a nice coating of carbon.
The CSX: August 21, 1998
Posted in Automotive on August 21, 1998.
After search through several boneyards, I found a few of the interior pieces I needed, but the main panels were impossible to find because I needed to find a 1987 or early 1988 Shadow or Sundance with a dark grey interior (because of the seatbelt arrangement). This interior is somewhat rare. Nevertheless, the SDML came to my rescue. A great guy by the name of Arlie Hart found a Shadow sitting in a boneyard in NY with the interior pieces I needed. Trying to get those large panels shipped from NY to IL was quite a trick, but we managed. I also restored the majority of the wiring, which was severely hacked for previous stereo installations, and repaired the Boston Acoustic crossovers (power resistors) and replaced one of the tweeters. I then made up and added the necessary wiring harnesses for power windows, power door locks, and power mirror, which I intend to add at some point.
When the Shelby sat out in its first rainstorm, I was greeted the next day with water in the trunk and under the carpeting up front and in the back. The trunk leak was just the standard P-Body trunk leak issue, but the water in the front was from the windshield seals. In fact, most of the seals, weather stripping, etc was all falling apart after being in the intense heat of California. It look a long time to track down all the leaks and make the car sound again.
The CSX: July 31, 1998
Posted in Automotive on July 31, 1998.
The CSX was delivered to me on July 31, 1998. The car carrier that had the car loaded took forever to deliver it because of mechanical troubles. The stories they told were so crazy that I was actually believing them and when the car arrived, the driver showed me what happened to his rig: blown tire rim, new hydraulic pump, and blown hydraulic hoses. I washed the hydraulic fluid and dirt off of it, and it looked to be in good shape.
How I Got My CSX
Posted in Automotive on July 31, 1998.
The history of my Shelby starts in June of 1998, just after I graduated from Southern Illinois University and started work at Motorola, Inc. Throughout my years at college, I was a member of the Shelby Dodge Mailing List (SDML) where I learned a lot more about these Front Drive Mopars, specifically the turbocharged models. I compiled what I knew and what I learned and created a site that is a great resource for these cars called the Mini Mopar Resource Site. This site includes many repairs, modifications, general information, and even a troubleshooter. Through the SDML, many people buy and sell parts and cars. While I could not afford any of them while I was in college, I decided that I would try as soon as I could.
The Shadow: Ancient History
Posted in Automotive on January 01, 1998.
Through the Chicago Tribune Online, I found a 1988 Dodge Shadow ES Turbo 5 speed coupe that a woman was selling in downtown Chicago. It had all the same options that my old Sundance had as well as the nice ES interior, rear spoiler, ground effects, and the 15x6 inch "crab" (more like bottle caps to me) rims which were in almost perfect shape. The car only had 53,000 miles on it and it was neat and clean, inside and out. Needless to say, I bought it even though we knew it had a blown head gasket (which is the reason she was selling it, I'm sure). The car overheated about four blocks from her place, but we pulled the thermostat out and got it home. I replaced the gasket and put new belts and plugs in it as well as a K&N drop-in filtercharger. I also figured out how to stop the leaky trunk problem in these cars and fixed my trunk as well as my sister's. The only other problem the car had was a loss of power steering at idle. I contributed this to a weak power steering pump.
