The Official Hot Rod Thread - Part 4: Burnouts for Distance

[Bigtanker]

That 4 rotor sounds awesome.

 

[maxwelhse]

Never have understood all the Rob Dahm fanboi’s, but to each his own I guess. There is for sure a massive cult of rotary lovers out there.

He was pretty much ground zero of young rich guys with super cars on YouTube, which was enough to set the hook in plenty (including me) for years. Then when he started calling himself a car builder, and showing the quality of his work, eh... I sort of tuned out. I just got tired of the "Dahm-ness" somewhere around year 3 of "¿Dónde está el rotor 4?"

I have no reason to think he's not a decent dude in a personal way though. I know he owns a Saiga 12 so at least some of his priorities are correct.

 

[jeffsqartan]

I'm ignoring all Hoonicorn VS the World talk right now cause I can't watch it until I get home later today.

I am going to post that my freaking truck is going to give me an aneurysm. The transmission started acting up recently. And the other day I noticed that it was leaking a little more oil than usual, so I checked the oil and ended up adding WAY too much oil. Thought maybe I was just over my change time more than I thought. Nope. Parked the truck twice today and it was leaking PUDDLES of oil from the front of the truck. So now I get to figure out whatever the hell that is.

I'm this close |-| to pulling the entire dang engine, the transmission, and rebuilding BOTH. It's that or sell this stupid thing. I can't take it.

 

[maxwelhse]

Given the used truck market right now, you may actually be ahead to move it on down the line if you can do without a truck for awhile. Go buy that D250 a few pages ago.

 

[jeffsqartan]

Given the used truck market right now, you may actually be ahead to move it on down the line if you can do without a truck for awhile. Go buy that D250 a few pages ago.

My biggest problem is having a reliable vehicle. I don't know what's up with the Mustang - trying to get the axle swapped by tomorrow night. Hopefully that fixes the issues with it, but if it doesn't then I'm kinda screwed.
Work has me driving all over God's green earth for projects. They told me last week, "when you signed on, you checked a box that said you had reliable transportation." Yeah, three years ago, and transportation to the office, which I don't go to anymore. I never said I had a vehicle that could drive several hundred miles a week to different clients all over the state. In fact, I NEVER wanted to do that.... /rant

So yeah, I gotta have something reliable. If I get rid of it, I have to immediately move into something else.
My biggest fear is that my insurance is going to skyrocket if I do this. The guy I talked with last year told me that he was going to have to, "rewrite my entire policy" because I'm nearly uninsurable.... I don't know if a year is enough time for all of my old tickets and one of the accidents to have fallen off. I'm kind of afraid to call and see what happens if I try to buy a newer car and insure it.
It's hard to rebuild the truck right now, but I can't afford a $200+ car/truck payment AND $300+ in insurance per month (for just that one car).

Stuck between a danged rock and a hard place, again. I hate it.

 

[maxwelhse]

My biggest problem is having a reliable vehicle. I don't know what's up with the Mustang - trying to get the axle swapped by tomorrow night. Hopefully that fixes the issues with it, but if it doesn't then I'm kinda screwed.
Work has me driving all over God's green earth for projects. They told me last week, "when you signed on, you checked a box that said you had reliable transportation." Yeah, three years ago, and transportation to the office, which I don't go to anymore. I never said I had a vehicle that could drive several hundred miles a week to different clients all over the state. In fact, I NEVER wanted to do that.... /rant

So yeah, I gotta have something reliable. If I get rid of it, I have to immediately move into something else.
My biggest fear is that my insurance is going to skyrocket if I do this. The guy I talked with last year told me that he was going to have to, "rewrite my entire policy" because I'm nearly uninsurable.... I don't know if a year is enough time for all of my old tickets and one of the accidents to have fallen off. I'm kind of afraid to call and see what happens if I try to buy a newer car and insure it.
It's hard to rebuild the truck right now, but I can't afford a $200+ car/truck payment AND $300+ in insurance per month (for just that one car).

Stuck between a danged rock and a hard place, again. I hate it.

Go buy anything with working forward gears and a vague sense of safety for low cash price, call whatever fly-by-night insurance liability only operator is popular today (The General?), and ride it out.

Short of the insurance issue, I'm sort of in your boat too. I keep thinking a new Kia or something should be calling my name so my projects can actually get done. When everything is a project, it's hard to stay motivated and focused.

 

[churchmouse]

Go buy anything with working forward gears and a vague sense of safety for low cash price, call whatever fly-by-night insurance liability only operator is popular today (The General?), and ride it out.

Short of the insurance issue, I'm sort of in your boat too. I keep thinking a new Kia or something should be calling my name so my projects can actually get done. When everything is a project, it's hard to stay motivated and focused.

After dancing around the obvious for the last 2 years thinking a newer truck was in my future I finally decided not to take a 2nd mortgage out on the house to own one. I made a list of needs on the 04 Sierra and got the parts coming in. As of now it stands tall enough to be reliable and trustworthy. Drives/rides great. New windshield, dash cluster (re-man) 4WD controller, Head light control module, both front wheel bearings (tired of alternately changing them. Just do them both) head light assembly's (Both) Tail light assembly's and a driver side mirror. The brake lined were replaced 2 years ago along with the rotors and pads. All the fluids are serviced. "ALL" of them.
I figure 15K till new tires.

 

[maxwelhse]

After dancing around the obvious for the last 2 years thinking a newer truck was in my future I finally decided not to take a 2nd mortgage out on the house to own one. I made a list of needs on the 04 Sierra and got the parts coming in. As of now it stands tall enough to be reliable and trustworthy. Drives/rides great. New windshield, dash cluster (re-man) 4WD controller, Head light control module, both front wheel bearings (tired of alternately changing them. Just do them both) head light assembly's (Both) Tail light assembly's and a driver side mirror. The brake lined were replaced 2 years ago along with the rotors and pads. All the fluids are serviced. "ALL" of them.
I figure 15K till new tires.

If the need is absolutely for a truck, the math changes an awful lot. I don't know how anybody can afford a new pickup these days. My gut feeling is that most people can't, but that's their business.

For me, and maybe JS since he's bombing around the countryside just to'in and from'in, this has its appeal. $15.3k MSRP with AC, cruise, and a stick. If you don't haggle and it goes a decade, you're in it for about $130/mo which is under warranty the entire time (up to 100k miles anyhow). The dealer in FTW will occasionally run a sale where they double the warranty to 20 years 200k. No idea how that plays out in reality, but...

There's something to be said for just having an appliance that does as its told so the others can be toys.

 

[churchmouse]

If the need is absolutely for a truck, the math changes an awful lot. I don't know how anybody can afford a new pickup these days. My gut feeling is that most people can't, but that's their business.

For me, and maybe JS since he's bombing around the countryside just to'in and from'in, this has its appeal. $15.3k MSRP with AC, cruise, and a stick. If you don't haggle and it goes a decade, you're in it for about $130/mo which is under warranty the entire time (up to 100k miles anyhow). The dealer in FTW will occasionally run a sale where they double the warranty to 20 years 200k. No idea how that plays out in reality, but...

There's something to be said for just having an appliance that does as its told so the others can be toys.

I bought my truck to pull a trailer full of race car and gear. It filled that role perfectly.
CKW fell in love with it early on and when it was not racing it was doing her running etc. So my plans of retiring with around 50K on the clock were dashed on the rocks. When I got it back finally it had well north of 100K on it now showing 151K. Some rust here and there but in good enough shape to go the distance with me I think. We still use it as a truck.

 

[maxwelhse]

I bought my truck to pull a trailer full of race car and gear. It filled that role perfectly.
CKW fell in love with it early on and when it was not racing it was doing her running etc. So my plans of retiring with around 50K on the clock were dashed on the rocks. When I got it back finally it had well north of 100K on it now showing 151K. Some rust here and there but in good enough shape to go the distance with me I think. We still use it as a truck.

Since I'm sure your maintenance schedule has been impeccable, I'm willing to bet it'll keep going just fine as long as the rust doesn't murder it. 250k on those trucks is not at all uncommon.

 

[jeffsqartan]

I need a truck to pull the cars, but I could get away with a cheaper 2wd truck and buy a Jeep if I had to. Again, I'm super afraid to make changes on my insurance. It was exactly a year ago when I thought I'd be slick and buy a Focus so I could let the truck relax and do some stuff to it, only to find out that a Fiesta (not Focus) was going to run me more than 250 for basic insurance through my current provider. All I did was call and ask for the quote and the guy started going on about changing my entire plan. "Oh I'm gonna have to rewrite your entire plan."
No, dude. What you're gonna do is close out of whatever window you have open, don't hit save, and you're going to undo ANY changes you might have made cause I ain't doin nuthin.

Anyway. I just gotta get the ol girl home and see if it's blatantly obvious what is wrong. Maybe I don't do the axle swap on the Mustang right now.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[maxwelhse]

I need a truck to pull the cars, but I could get away with a cheaper 2wd truck and buy a Jeep if I had to. Again, I'm super afraid to make changes on my insurance. It was exactly a year ago when I thought I'd be slick and buy a Focus so I could let the truck relax and do some stuff to it, only to find out that a Fiesta (not Focus) was going to run me more than 250 for basic insurance through my current provider. All I did was call and ask for the quote and the guy started going on about changing my entire plan. "Oh I'm gonna have to rewrite your entire plan."
No, dude. What you're gonna do is close out of whatever window you have open, don't hit save, and you're going to undo ANY changes you might have made cause I ain't doin nuthin.

Anyway. I just gotta get the ol girl home and see if it's blatantly obvious what is wrong. Maybe I don't do the axle swap on the Mustang right now.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

My exact proposal is to promote your truck to a toy, get whatever makes sense as a daily, and do not ask your current insurance provider to do anything. Call a high risk specialty company and have them insure whatever beater you snag as a daily.

I used to work with a dude that got nailed on whatever DWI number it is to get you actual jail time (did weekend jail for like 2 months), combined with a hit and run (a mailbox), and his wife had problems too*... His rate actually went DOWN with The General or Safeauto or whatever company he ended up with.

*His wife had totaled out a car annually for like the previous 3 years. To be slightly fair to the dude on his final DWI, his wife called him that night because she was too plastered to drive. His response was that he was probably less plastered than she was, so he went to pick her up. Deer ran out into the road, he dodged, snagged the mailbox, drove another few hundred yards to his house before jumping out of the car to go inspect the mailbox and a cop just happened to see it all. He blew something like a 1.0.

 

[Bigtanker]

Ok. I'm at my wit's end.

My 03 Ram with the 4.7 has little heat. I changed the water pump about 2 months ago. Filled it up and let it get hot. Drive it for a few weeks with no leaks or signs of overheating. When it came time to use the heat, it would only get luke warm. So I bought one of those funnel bleeding kits. I used that and after about 45 minutes, everything seemed good. Heat was hot and no leaks......for a few days. Then the heat went to just warm again. Used the funnel again and let it run for the better part of an hour. The heat was warmer, but still not what it used to be.

My normal trips are about 25 minutes to work and short jaunts around town. I've done 2 60 mile roundtrips on mostly highway in the past few weeks to go hunting. The engine temp never gets hot. I watch it specifically with my OBDII reader and Torque app. It gets to 203 and stops. On the highway it drops to about 195.

The past week, I've noticed another leak. It's coming out of my coolant reservoir. I'm thinking I didn't get enough coolant out the last time I used the funnel system. If not, I'd think it's a head gasket.

I did develop a small leak in the hose that runs from the reservoir, but tightening the clamp fixed it.

My radiator is only a few years old and the reservoir is new this year.

Any ideas on getting this thing bled? Once I verify my coolant level on a cold engine, and get a new rad cap, I'll attempt the funnel again with the front jacked up a few inches.

 

[maxwelhse]

Some of them can just be a nightmare to bleed. If the funnel keeps improving things, I'd keep on doing it to see if you can work it all the way out. It wouldn't hurt to start taking HVAC duct outlet temps to make sure you're making a difference and not just "thinking" you are. BTDT.

If you really think it's a head gasket, you can pressure check your cooling system and see if it bleeds down. Pretty sure you can rent the kits from the parts stores. If not, I have one. PM if needed. Deposit is 1000 rounds of 9..

ETA: I don't know how this works on modern stuff, but I've had reasonable luck in the past with my ancient stuff by rolling around with the cap loose (so no cooling system pressure) and letting it naturally burp that way. Obviously you want to pay attention to your temp gauge while doing that, but this time of year it should be fine.

 

[churchmouse]

195 is low on the engine temp.
Thermostat would be suspect

 

[maxwelhse]

195 is low on the engine temp.
Thermostat would be suspect

I'm seeing 195 as the OE thermostat temp for an 03 Ram, 4.7L. MOPAR 68174083AA

 

[terrehautian]

My Jeep had terrible heat even after replacing water pump and thermostat. A garage flushed my heater core 10x and that sucker had amazing heat fast.

 

[maxwelhse]

This needs shared over here too...

 

[Jaybird1980]

Bigtanker, do the heater hoses to the heater core get hot? If so it may be a blend door stuck. If not you can take them off and loop them together to see if they then get warm, this would indicate a plugged heater core and possibly flushing it as mentioned. I had a grand Prix that I had to flush every fall to regain heat, it was a poor design. If you do really think it's a head gasket look into getting a leakdown test done. Also the condition of the coolant and oil would be where to watch.

 

[churchmouse]

Bigtanker, do the heater hoses to the heater core get hot? If so it may be a blend door stuck. If not you can take them off and loop them together to see if they then get warm, this would indicate a plugged heater core and possibly flushing it as mentioned. I had a grand Prix that I had to flush every fall to regain heat, it was a poor design. If you do really think it's a head gasket look into getting a leakdown test done. Also the condition of the coolant and oil would be where to watch.

My sons 96 Impala S/S had a restricted heater core. We flushed it in the driveway with a garden hose. Just be careful not to put Full city water pressure on it from the get.