So tonight I got home at 12:15 a.m. because I was working on that car again. ;) I love it!
Anyway tonights project was giving the engine a really good cleaning b/c it is filthy, and we're trying to establish where an oil leak is coming from. B/c it is the easiest to change we started with the valve cover gasket, also this is a chance to look inside where the cams and valves are and look to see what condition these things are in. They are in good condition! :) Little bit of gunk buildup but nothing serious. So after taking off the covers, doing a little painting here and there of everything from windshield wipers to the center part you see beloy. (used to be black and nasty looking!) cleaning cleaning cleaning we got the new covers back in and went to fire it up. No dice WOULD NOT START! Problem? Well lets see we got it wet so prolly distributor. Which it was after blowing it out and getting it all dried up started up with a mighty backfire and away we went.
It's been a ton of fun learning all this stuff first hand on my $800 mr2 and the more I understand about vehicles the more I'm enjoying them. I'm not saying I'll become a mechanic. But it's putting meat on the bones of my love of cars.
Things that still need doing on the MR2? Need new wiper blades, possibly new distributor and cap, some more gaskets, some soldering for the headlights (so they'll stay on at night :*). These are on my to do in the next few months.
As far as my goal of purchasing and having a vehicle running for under $1650 (the selling price of my motorcycle) I'm quite pleased to say I'm still 150 dollars underbudget, and I have a reliable city runabout.
