After a long month and 1/2 of head gasket hell, I finally got Murphy, the $500 T-Wag running again. The car seems to idle better than before so I'm hoping it will now pass smog and can finally bring the registration up to date (six months behind). The last smog test was a bit too high on the CO2 measurement. Next I will replace the t-stat and the temp sensor, as the car intermittently registers a little on the hot side. That could be the digi-dash doing it's wierd thing, and that will be swapped out of analogue soon. While working on the engine I installed the proper oil pressure sensor. I did not reinstall the timing belt covers, and found one little problem with that. The wire that goes to the oil pressure sensor hangs directly over the passenger side timing belt. So I used a twist-tie to fasten it to the dipstick housing.

Wooo Hoooo!!! Murphy passed smog! In November, the CO tested too high, 2.03 @ 15mph and 1.08 @ 25mpn, and after I replaced the coolant temp sensor (the one by the crappy 3 spd auto tranny) and changed the head gaskets, the reading are at .74 and .54, respectively. The max CO readings are .79 and .68, so I just squeacked by. It looks like I am still running richer than I should be. I replaced the O2 sensor earlier last year Kragen part), but I wonder if it is not functioning as well as it should. What else could I do to lean out the air / fuel ratio and improve my gas mileage???