The Dude Abides

oops sorry, just thought it was unbelieveable.

Congrats, i had a 75 f150xlt with the 390 - c6 - and the 9"rear. I never drove it much but i did drive it to the guys house who bought it, was the 1st time i punched it hard. Woof had plenty of grunt. The only thing it couldnt pass was a gasstation. These things are notorious for haveing blower motor problems and there a nightmare to get to. Mine had typical iowa rust.

Nice new car, let me give you some advice on keeping it that way. There telling you to replace the rad and make sure your cooling system is in good order is because these things love to overheat and blow headgaskets if the cooling system isnt up to par. And they blow very easly when it starts to get hot so thats why there warning you. As far as lowering the stance, there are ways to do it but the harder thing is finding aftermarket wheels and tires if you wanted them. You can use peugot wheels and there wheel lugs only. As far as lowering it there are ways you can do this while retaining the factory ride qualty, then you can buy cheep coilovers on ebay and have a bumpy ride. More then likely this might of been someones winter car or snow bunny. If they went into the mountains to go skiiing or something like that. Holy Schnikeys did you guys see it has the original subaru foglights with covers. Definately well taken care of car. Exhaust is ok to do, but ask guys on here about bigger turbos and intercoolers and thell tell you your waisting your time. These motors simply werent able to handle alot of upgrades. You can always swap in other more powerfull subaru engines with alittle of electric work to do to them. They make a ej22 motor adaptor plate which will hook up to your factory trans so you can have a 130+hp motor and still have the awsomeness of a dual range tranny. Usually we dont see them with 100k miles and in decent form. Do like others say, make sure the cooling system is good to go and you should be ok. Correct me if im wrong guys but the factory RX turbos came with rear disc brakes and rear sway bars. If it has those you can upgrade to the bigger sway bars from other subarus. These older subarus are like legos, alot of things just plug right in.

Battery terminals were caked with crud so took them apart cleaned them and the battery up real good. This summer probally need to trim back the wires maybe even replace the cable ends for less beatup ones. Starts much faster now. Didnt get a chance to fix the exhaust leak which sucks, lost my garage and there is water everywhere due to the melting:grin:. On the other hand i drug every tool into the apartment so i can clean them and organize them.

How long did it take you to pull the loom.

Looks great, i hate all your rust free cars you guys have there.

U put a 2inch lift on that.

Curious what yoru ride was like with honda coilovers and be specific on what your setup was. Lots of people want to go lower but its kinda dificult to achieve easily.

Ive done it, engine still runs just as bad as it did before. Your good to go.

Oh ive started my own thread and people are baffled. I was just curious since he was a mechanic what he has seen in the past. He has stated the inlet heater core line is hot but the outlet is cold. Mine are both hot.

Buy the way, being a mechanic have you ever known any heat issues to be due to bad radiator circulation. My car gets up to temp but it seems to take forever and the heat is warm but not hot. People have suggested heater core clog but i cant just flush it here in the apartment parking lot.

On a side note if you want to sell the rebuilt waterpump you just picked up id be willing to get it if you wanted to sell it. Almost postiive mine is the original. Neres another thing you could try. I know its cold but why not try running it with no t stat and see how it works then. Would atleast eliminate a coolant flowing problem or a tstat problem.

Since your a mechanic im sure you know how to check for HG problems or what the tail tail signs of one are. Leaks through exhaust white smoke and what not. Ive been told that its not just getting to the H that kills motors its running it long on H. If i could suggest anything would be a coolant flush. ONly because it sounds like you do have an airbubble in there. A coolant flush will get rid of your problem, i doubt your motor is toast.

And i need to thread this as far as i can into the head.

7/16x14 is the tap size i have. Should this do the trick.

Dude i suggested rules and i didnt get praise WTH:)

My problem was in a 99 malibu car, and it had an iron block. I couldnt tell where it was leaking out and i dont remember having a loss of power. Infact i kept driveing it for a while filling it up occasionally untill i could afford to fix it. How many miles are on your blazer, mine had less then 50k when this happened. I dont remember if the mechanic said it could leak internally and externally. Might be worth looking into though. If its got a ton of miles it could be a HG i guess.

Oreagon and Washington arent beautiful or anything. Man Iowa is really boring. Nice wheelin shots, thats the first time ive seen you get that dirty since you finished it.

So should there be some rules or something like. You both need to have the same car. OR you both need to start with a car from scratch. What about wheeling said vehicle. Because then it not only becomes a build off competition but a wheeling ability competition as well. And my car is still available in stock form:grin:

Going to go ahead here and post my opinion. I had a 99 malibu which had a similar problem. It turned out to be the intake gasket had failed. When i had it repaired i was explained typical GM iron block with aluminum intake. All they did was pull the intake replace the gasket and put some RTV on it. No problems after that. I later learned that this is a common problem on GM vehicles. Not saying that this is your problem but i had all the symptons you were having. Im not saying its impossible to blow the headgasket in a 4.3 gm motor, one of the most durrable motors gm has produced. Im just saying its improbable. Improbable yes but definately possible. Check around the intake and see if you see any leaks. And make sure its leaking out the exhaust not just on it.

I read about people gutting the cats but leaving the stock exhaust. It has alittle more rumble but not as annoyng as running mufflerless. How can i gut a cat on the car. Cut out the bottom remove the bits then have someone weld it back up.

I would like to offer my car as one of the build cars, as long as i get it back after you guys put your goodies on it.

Ive been curious how and when a cat goes bad. I have 200k on my car with the original california cat and i wouldnt know if its hindering anything because the car runs so bad anyways.

what size tire are u runnin.