Well. God damn. I messed up. After putting a ton of work in I thought I was done and back to enjoying my car. Nope! I messed up and drove it on a 1 hour test drive around the city only to find out later it didn't have oil. I think something was wrong with my oil indicator. I was doing the test drive because it died on me twice before earlier in the day, but I thought I just hadn't let the engine warm up at first. It drove well for my test drive after I let it warm up but now the next day the engine wouldn't start and there was zero oil when I got around to checking the engine.

I fear I made a very dumb mistake and seized my engine!

So. Anyone have an engine laying around? I would love to replace mine. 

Here's a picture of my beautiful 1983 BRAT hanging out down by the old Weyerhauser headquarters by Auburn.

If someone around here doesn't have one I've already talked to a guy in Philadelphia who's willing to ship one over. Someone on reddit clued me in to ask here to find someone more local.

Edited January 7, 20215 yr by Geluso
typo

I have one. Not sure the year but does turn over. Was a extra when I bought my parts cars. Think it would be around 200 hundred for shipping.  I would sell it for 150

I have two in the Salem OR area,  One from a 1985 Brat hydraulic lifters and about 200K miles, running recently. The second one from a 1884 wagon solid lifters, unknown miles, sitting for 10 years. Its only a day trip come and get it.

Thanks for the responses! I waited a bit to get another pair of eyes on what was going on and good news: STUPID MISTAKE.

It as my Weber carb that was seized. The choke plates were stuck. I had pressed on them back when the car first went wrong but I didn't remember or know how they were supposed to move. They were certainly jammed. My mechanic friend came over, saw what I wasn't able to describe via phone and we got everything back up and running, replaced the distributor cap, added new spark plug wires and did a proper timing too.

This isn't the first time this Weber carb has caused me trouble. It still has a "sticky throttle" issue where a piece closer to the manifold still has some resistance. The throttle cable doesn't always naturally return to neutral. I found this YouTube video of a guy showing pretty much the same problem. I still need to get my hands on Teflon dry lube to try his fix. The last time I took the carb off to investigate the sticky throttle it wasn't jamming as much as it had before.

Anyway, I'm rambling now.

See videos of my stuck carb here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/GB1yLBaKoRFvmoGj6

See the other dudes video of a sticky weber carb fix here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Ol6iQCH94

Edited January 13, 20215 yr by Geluso

So no issue with the low oil level? Winning! 

Love the targa tops! I’m hoping mine will look as good as yours one day! 

Cheers 

Bennie

No issue with the oil at all. I realized last night why my initial reading was so bone dry and completely inaccurate: I was parking facing steeply downhill after I had tried to compression the car when it first failed.

Yes, serious facepalms all around here. But, hey, I'm not a guy that ever learns stuff the easy way.

Just a funny scene from a funny show called Medical Police:

Doctor: We need guns.

Guns Dealer Friend: Sorry, I'm out of that game. I didn't realize how much guns hurt people.

Doctor: You didn't realize guns hurt people?

Guns Dealer Friend: Not until I got shot. I'm an experiential learner.

Edited January 13, 20215 yr by Geluso