beaters

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to go with the "beater" thread I'm starting a beater photo collection.

Paid $162.50 for this 94 spirit with a blown head gasket. Did the allpar.com half-fast "slip n slide" method of replacement. Jacked up on the catalytic convertor with the mainfolds still attached, lifted the head about an inch. The clothesline is not bearing much weight, just that corner was sagging a bit.

I used manila envelopes to sort all the nuts and bolts. One envelope was "belt driven stuff", it made sense to me.
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I'm particularly proud of my "beverly hillbillies" timing belt tensioning system.

When it got running, there was still tons of antifreeze in the exhaust, so I was worried, but it cleared out.

I had tons of 25 cent oil (from a walmart mispricing incident) that I used to flush the system.

Dodge somehow had access to a red paint that lasts longer without fading than Ford or GM. The car still looked hot 11 years later.

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This horrid grey dakota (parked in front of my nice blue one-- I named them "north and south"
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) came to me with a marginal fuel pump and bum wire from the starter relay to the solenoid. The previous owner had been reaching down to the starter itself with a hammer to jump the contacts and get it running. It also had a bum connection to the blower fan. He was convinced the wiring was about to all go up in smoke.

After a week of driving it stalled out on my way to work. Later I went to retrieve the thing and whaled on the tank with a flashlight. Got it home and noticed widely varying fuel pressure. It would run on 5 psi even though it required around 40.

Fuel pumps are horrible, horrible jobs-- maybe not always, but on this thing, it took a lot of beer to forget. I got the tank halfway down and was trying to pop my head up to see what I was doing but the driveshaft and exhaust were very much in the way.

The grey dakota was a holdover beater truck to get me through fixing my blue one. At the time I lacked confidence I could fix the slowly degrading headgasket on the blue truck (2.5) so I got the Spirit to practice on and the grey truck to hold murphy's law at bay.

It also had tons more power from the magnum 3.9. Later research indicates that 92-93 were good years with bigger exhaust manifolds. But it was too long to comfortably turn around in my driveway.
 
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This 95 saturn I picked up for $200 when I was cruising for garage sales. Was in perfect shape except for the mosquito fogger under the hood.

Bought to play with piston rings. I haven't ever taken a cylinder head more than an inch off a vehicle before so I wanted to get deeper in a motor. Plus I generally like saturns.

This affection is tempered by the horrible timing chain cover. All you people that say chains are better than belts haven't had to unscrew 20-something bolts, many of which are hidden behind power steering pumps and other accessories. With a timing belt, the cover can be cheap plastic and held on with way fewer fasteners.

The car was nice and tight and way cleaner than any of my daily drivers. Felt like a rental, really. My only automatic saturn ever.
 
For a college student on his first car (2004 Pontiac Sunfire) - hard to think about having a "beater."

I guess you have to be a good mechanic to run these things when people throw them away...
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$200 countered with $125 met in the middle.

I had these cars sequentially, not all at once, so I wouldn't call it a collection per se, more an "experience".
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they're all gone. the saturns I speak of are a 95 sw1, color green, (that I hauled the chickens in) and a 2000 sl1.

I've "flipped" 3 or 4 S-series though.
 
Nice lookin' caprice.

Almost bought this olds wagon from a guy up the road, saw it on ebay:

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Had a 350, vista cruiser sunroof.... drool.

But I was stuck with another beater I had to sell first, and my driveway is only so big.
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I may post pics of my two beaters. 92 mirage and 96 sunfire. you guys will cringe at the 92 mirage
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quote:

Originally posted by OriginHacker21:
96 Sunfire!!! My cousin has a 97 Sunfire with 130k. Thing is about to fall apart. Unfortunately, he lives 5 states away.

Post the picture, post the picture, post the picture!!!
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My dad has a 96 that fell completly apart 6 months ago. The car ran good, just that nothing else wanted to work.
 
Yep - same with my friend's 97 sunfire. The body is falling apart, interior looks pretty bad - but the engine runs just like day 1. He still races it to work every day.
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He has hit 2 deer with it, destroyed another guy's car when he pulled out in front of it, and ditched it at least 20 times. (Lives in Iowa on a dirt road)

Hopefully my 2004 Sunfire will last a bit longer out here in Los Angeles!
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quote:

Originally posted by OriginHacker21:
Post the picture, post the picture, post the picture!!!
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[/QB]

I'll post some pics later tonight. do you have any requests?
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