DaveT

There is a little wear in that you can tell it has been turning, but not what I think of as scoring. I'll see if I can get a decent picture.

The bearings in the idler and tensioners are pretty much worn out by the time you need belts, so replace them.

Started dis-assembly of the 1990 3AT. So far, the only thing that looks wrong is the stripped spline on the pump drive shaft. Even the spline on the pump looks good. This thing has over 200,000 miles on it, I've driven it since it had 15,000 miles.

I've only felt warped rotors while applying brakes. And no where near the shimmy that the tire or really bad CVJ caused.

What started it for me - the flanges on my custom real stainless system are 2". Even the nice gaskets I got from the tuner parts place to go with the stainless flanges, are made with regular steel. Stupid. The one on the system I had to remove to swap transmissions crumbled when I took it apart. Copper might work for that one, if everything is dead flat. I thought about it for a few days, and came up with the fibreglass reenforced RTV gasket idea. I actually made some for my Dynahoe a couple years back, because it is not something you just walk into a store and get parts for. I think I'll try making a pair for the Y pipe to engine next. I've got at least one leaking a little again. I've never had consistent luck with those no matter where I got them. Then, when I have a set not leaking, something comes up, I have to remove the Y pipe, and back to zero. I also don't like the idea of using steel in any part of the gasket, since when it rusts up, it expands. Probably contributes to the exhaust studs getting stripped out. How well my fibreglass + RTV gaskets survive pretty much hinges on if the RTV can withstand the temperature. With the aluminum face surfaces, the should be reuseable.

A couple things I've dealt with: I had a really bad outer CVJ failing that caused that kind of shake. It did it intermittently. Loading [acceleration / deceleration] mattered. The boot had been torn for a long time though. I also had a tire where the tread de-laminated from the steel belts that would make a pronounced shake in the wheel at low speeds, but would smooth out on the highway. The cause of this turned out to be alignment out of specification. To see the problem, I had to look at the tread and turn the tire, rolling toward me [as opposed to a side view] , then I could see the bubbled up area.

Newer cars are made to crunch up more, to lower the impact pulse to the people inside. The trade off is that minor to middle energy accidents do a lot more damage to the car. The people might have survive either way. It's the rarer high energy crash that the car crunching up likely makes the most difference. Air bags likely save your life in a full on high energy crash, but can also make a lot of minor accidents worse. I don't care for them. Everything is a risk. You pick and choose. I'll keep my Loyales / GLs going as long as I can.

I have used the Felpro gask3ts, not re torqued. No problem. BUT if ty 2 coolant is allowed to get low - that is, near empty bottle and air in the top radiator hose, or lower, and run the car slighly over normal operating temperature head gaskets begin to fail. The intake gaskets and the custom oring for the throttle body are famous for slowly dissappearing Coolant. At this point, the only way to know if you have cooked the head gaskets, or just some other mystery leak is fill, monitor levels for a half dozen drives, from cold to hot, and back.

The unknown history is the downside of an engine already separated from the car. I can swap an engine easily over a weekend. I cannot [well, maybe, if I only did that, and spent every minute on it. But that's not going to happen] do a complete reseal in that time. I don't like time constraints. So a spare is more than worth the space. But I have heated space to store them. I have also used an engine or 2 that sat outside for 6-12 months, with no issues. Each way has it's advantages, it's what works for you.

In that state, you can't tell. The bottle should be at the full mark when cold. NO air in the upper hose when cold. Run a few cycles with it wull, see what happens. Check level of bottle and air in upper hose before every start from cold. At least 4 to 6 cycles.

I have only seen the bubbles with failing head gaskets. The intake is under vacuum, so coolant gets sucked in and burned. Along with the Bubbling, does it keep pushing coolant into the overflow bottle? Typically, with failing headgaskets, it will eventually overflow the recovery bottle, and the upper radiator hose will be full of air.

That's how I do it. Spare engines, spare transmissions.

Intermittent is a rely box that uses the low winding. High is a separate wire to the motor. You have to check that power is sent to the high speed terminal when the switch is on high to determine if the switch is doing it's job, or the motor is dead on high..

I found 8 of the ones I have

That's a tough one. It pretty much has to be loosing spark, or fuel. If mine was doing what you describe - If I thought it might be fuel, I'd tee in a fuel pressure gauge. Throw a spare fuel pump wire set in the back, maybe a pump. Maybe a coil and a disty. And an ECU. And the tools needed. But I have all this stuff laying around. I have not had a similar problem. Intermittent failures are a BIG pain in the butt to troubleshoot.

What I have: Just short of 6-5/8" long .428" diameter, peak of the threads. 1-1/16" threaded each end. Screw into an ea82 block nicely.

I'm not sure what the ea number is, but I just found a handful of them from my 76 78 1600cc wagons.

Yeah, small bead thing might be better.

A thought I had. cut a shallow groove around the oil & coolant passages on both sides. Use RTV or aerobic sealant t keep the fluids where they belong.?

For the block sude, I've just used a piece of aluminum channel a little over 12" long as a sanding block. The piece I have is 2" wide, wider would work too. Check it for flatness against the glass. Be conseious of being sure to hit the entire block evenly.

I got tired of the typical exhaust flange gaskets. Especially, since I have made my stainless system. The typical flange gaskets are steel and whatever gasket material. They end up rusting away and crumbling. This is what I did: On a flat surface, piece of aluminum foil. Piece of fiberglass repair cloth. Ultra copper RTV, worked into the glass. Piece of fiberglass repair cloth. Ultra copper RTV, worked into the glass. Piece of fiberglass repair cloth. Piece of aluminum foil. Steel plate and weight on the stack for 24 hours. Cut out the holes and edges. Installed in exhaust system. So far, it's holding up, no leaks.

Sounds like you are referring to the accelerator pump. If it were not working, pretty much any increase in opening of the throttle would cause temporary fuel starvation.

I have seen this. I had a CTS failing intermittent, it caused a lot of odd random problems, but never triggered an error code. It didn't fail shorted or open, it just was lying about the engine temperature inside the valid range. If the ECU thinks the engine is cold, it doesn't use the O2 sensor to adjust the mixture. Fixing what ever is wrong should get you better mileage, since the ECU will control the mix properly, instead of running in a fail safe / rich mode.

If the sensor 8s open or shorted, I would expect a trouble code. I have not tested to be sure, however. I do know from a past experience, the sensor can fail in a way that does not generate a code, but does burn out the catalytic converter.

Heating it with a torch would likely help also.