pzookey

It is not raining right now so I may head out to work on it some more. Bell housing needs bolted up and then lowered onto the motor mounts. Then it is time for all the hoses and other fun stuff. Driveway is still soaked so it may be a little while. Weather is calling for more rain this afternoon so I am not holding out much hope for completing it today.

Her oil pump was checked when the head gaskets and timing set were done a little over a year ago. It has been burning some oil ever since it ran hot with the old head gaskets. Her waiting for the oil light to come on and then just adding one quart for the last six months combined with the one time over heat (she decided to take a 2 hour drive after I had asked her not to go to far with it) and getting stuck in Atlanta traffic with iffy head gaskets were the combined cause. I knew it was a matter of time but the continuous running with low oil did not help anything. The wide open throttle driving did not help either.

Well I got the old engine pulled. The IAC switched back onto the engine it came off of. The 98 engine is sitting in the engine compartment loosely bolted right now as sleet and rain put a stop to the work today. Tomorrow or Monday will be another chance.

Well it will wait to next weekend. It was raining here so the wife and I went out looking at furniture for the living room. I will worry about her car come next weekend.

The number one thing Mechanics need to avoid. Working on stuff for family. It never gets done fast enough, there is always something unrelated that you caused, and you end up doing it for free or really cheap.

Well it is partially pulled apart and I think I am done for the day. I dragged it home myself (it was only 4 miles down the road). I may or may not get it done this weekend. I would much Rather be putting the Fitech Fuel injection on the 440 in my motorhome.

Well even more interesting is the fact it is 2 quarts over full now. She told me she added one quart last Saturday when the light came on, Two quarts on Tuesday, and then two more on Thursday. So from 3 quarts low to 2 quarts over in a week. I guess she still refuses to check the dip stick. Taking my time on it. Radiator is out and about half the bolts are out getting ready to pull. When I get done I get done. I am not rushing this time. I am glad I did not sell the spare engine.

Well my daughter finally killed it. Her 97 Outback had a slight knock during start up after it sat a couple days after I changed the head gaskets. I had told her to check the oil every time she got gas. Needless to say she did not always having an excuse. Well last week I heard it knocking every time she started it up. It stopped as soon as the oil pressure came up but I knew it was a matter of time. Her Grandmother was saying how proud of her she was when she stopped to buy oil when the oil light came on last week. Needless to say I was not proud at all. Last night I had to run out and get her off the side of the road. It is knocking all the time and will not stay running for more that a couple minutes. I am happy I save the engine out of the donor 98 that supplied her transmission. That engine will end up in her car this weekend. I dragged the car home the few miles this morning. Merry Christmas to me.

Well the old Roo is still running like a scalded dog. Running the 80 mile round trip to work everyday with no issues. From the sound of my daughters 97 I may be doing an engine swap. I can't get it through her head to check the oil every gas fill up. She lets it get three quarts low on a regular basis. I already told her I would be billing her for the spare engine.

The best I have gotten out of my 97 OBW 5 speed is 26.5 mpg. The last tank was 21.1 mpg. I tend to drive it on the hard side so my mileage will be to the low side most of the time. I am happy when I get 24 mpg.

Luckily this was the second 2.5 I have done. The first one is still running down the road. I had to bleed the clutch after the slave over extended and yes a bit of a pain but no worse than one of those silly ford ranger slaves that sit around the input shaft of the trans......

Drove it to and from work all week. 80 miles round trip. Still running great. 25 mpg running down the road. New slave cylinder is here so since the old one is weeping I will go ahead and change it.

P1507 was from a vacuum leak from a broken port on the vacuum switch on top of the engine. Newer battery and a set of new tires and it runs like a scalded dog.

Everything is back together and working, well sort off. Running on 2 cylinders with a P1507 code. Clutch works, engine started and idle was stable as it could be with 2 cylinders, test drive was good except for lack of power. P1507 is for the IAC but I think the problem might be with the Neutral safety switch. A little digging when I have light will be in order.

Engine is back in the compartment. Clutch works but slave cylinder is leaking. Tomorrow will be the day of truth. Bolting everything back up and testing. It appears the fork came off of its pivot the first time around.

It was loose yesterday. I will find out more tomorrow when I attempt to put the engine back in again. Everything else looks good.

Just got home from Christmas tree shopping and I took a quick look at the fork and throw out bearing. Checked the slave cylinder mount and my best guess is that the fork came off the ball stud mount. I will try putting it back together again tomorrow.

everything was aligned with the slave cylinder rod and fork. There was a gap between them. I may be able to pop the slave back together but with 253,000 miles on it I may just replace. The head gaskets are the typical 97 2.5 issues except they had been replaced once before. The head bolts were not torqued properly as they came out way too easily. Symptoms were loss of coolant on drives of over 1/2 hour. Bubbling through the coolant recovery tank after driving was the dead giveaway. My daughters 97 did the same thing only she did run hers hot. Still running but still a possible issue in the future.

Just checked and no cracks in the throw out fork. Time to look into some other things.

I did not see any cracks but it had started to get dark by the time I got the engine pulled back out. I will look in a little bit when I get back out there. Anything is a possibility.

Interesting topic title but fairly true. I put new head gaskets along with a new clutch and dropped the engine back in. Everything went together quite well until I put the slave cylinder back on. Is was not making contact w with the fork. I then made a mistake and hit the clutch pedal one time. Slave cylinder popped out and now is pretty much shot. The problem comes back to what appears to be a mis adjustment on the fork but no adjustments were made. Just a new clutch set installed. I did pull the motor back out and pull the clutch and compared to the old one. Throw out bearing, Clutch and pressure plate all look correct. It has to be something simple I am missing. Does anyone have any ideas?

Long story short. Replaced steel brake lines on rear to due them being rusted out. Brakes fixed. Running bad and IAC code. Replaced IAC, Ran good for a day. Fuel pump weak. Replaced fuel pump assembly and it took a few days but now running well. Actually running better than it has the 4 years we have had it. All the parts came off the donor car that provided the transmission.

The MAF sensor off the donor fixed the idle. Now to find the fouled plug. Brakes and skip tomorrow.

The 98 Trans worked in the 97. New issue now. No brakes and running like crap. I did pull a MAF sensor code and will try the one off the Donor car in the morning. As for the brakes a steel line in the back was rusted and blew out. I am hoping to find a fitting at both ends and replace just the piece. If not I will have to get a double flaring tool and a couple unions and patch it. Not my idea of fun.

Trans swap and donor car stripping started