Recent content by Bryan_Tran

leave the car for a couple of days then try to start it. if it's hard to start and then a large puff of smoke comes out when you do then it's the valve seals.

yeah -_- thankfully rwd L4s are cake to work on! while i was at it a replaced the carb with a low mileage rebuilt one i found at the junkyard and torqued everything to manual specs. she runs as smooth as butter now!

Hi guys, my harbor freight timing light just [censored] out on me. what's a good medium priced timing light with a great warranty?

just did the valve seals on my corolla. it was burning 1 qt every 500 miles. there would be a cloud of white smoke on startup that smelled like oil if i did not start the car overnight. if you do em, make sure to set the cylinder to TDC before you remove the spring or else your valve job will...

okay im going to try blowing in compressed air and using a magnet at the same time. wish me luck cause i don't want to pull the darn head.

hi guys im doing the valve seals on my toyota corolla and one of the valves dropped into the combustion chamber when i took off the spring! is there any way to get it back through the valve guide without taking off the head? I tried turning the engine with a wrench and it gets stuck both ways

you must own a lot of american cars then :) yeah my toyota and honda don't use coolant. coolant loss is indicative of a leak or blown head gasket.

yeah it ain't broke. don't fix it. just replace per manual specs.

yeah it's called your hands and it's free :) find the longest straight section of the belt. twist by hand. if you can twist more than 90 degrees then it's too loose and vice versa.

you can do a half assed check of the thermostat by feeling both of the top and bottom radiator hoses when its cold. turn the engine on and feel both hoses. both should be cold. as the engine warms up the bottom one should get hotter and hotter. there is a point when the thermostat opens to cool...

yeah let it idle and warm up. make sure the fans kick on when it gets hot.

they're probably the same screws that hold in the front brake rotors

regular plugs go for 30k miles. i don't understand paying 4x as much for a plug that lasts ~3x as much. changing them is fun and you can tell a lot about your engine by reading the plugs.

oh yeah, on my toyota theres also a slot in the backing you can stick a flathead screwdriver in and retract the shoes to make it easier to come off.

was just working on my drums. make sure the e brake is off and just whack the drum a couple times with a plastic mallet.