Automotive

The CSX: 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.

• 1987 Shelby CSX #694
• 104,000 miles
• Mopar Performance Stage II Computer
• 804 Injectors
• Very Large K&N Cone Filtercharger
• 2-1/4 inch aluminized mandrel-bent exhaust with high-flow cat and no muffler
• Shadow ES interior (not complete)
• Sony CD receiver head unit
• Boston Acoustic speakers (blown crossovers)

Recent Repairs:

• New hood and fender
• Repainted roof, hatch, air dam and ground effects
• New timing belt
• New hoses
• New ignition wires
• New fuel filter
• New left front wheel bearing
• New hall effect sensor
• Recored radiator
• Rebuilt alternator
• New tires (Pirelli P700-Z)

Problems:

• Low compression (35 psi) in cylinder #4
• Bad A/C compressor clutch and no freon
• Minor chips in paint along the passenger door and the hood
• Paint on the trim around the windows was badly oxidized
• Bumper and ground effects were not properly secured
• Weather stripping around windows was falling apart
• Broken speaker grills
• Missing hatch security panel
• Drooping headliner
• Bad hatch struts

As you can see, the car had quite a few problems, but I knew about most of them before I even bought the car because the seller was very straight with me.  It was still a good deal though (would have been better if I didn't have to pay for transporting it), and I was looking at it as a project car anyway.

The short ride home was a blast.  The engine pulled hard, even though it was on 3-1/2 cylinders and the 2.5" no-muffler exhaust sounded great! The interior was pretty dirty and was missing quite a few of the ES interior pieces and the ES headliner was already falling down.  I didn't have time to work on the engine right away, but I did start to fix many of the interior issues.