Best place to go through a firewall?

It is usually easier and safer to do on the ground. Doing a wheelie looks really cool, but is not necessary if you are in actual danger. Jumping through is the more dangerous scenario and the crowd likes it a lot. The trouble is you are blind to your landing for quite awhile at the apex. In any of these cases, try to stay in the center, so that you don't hit the much larger and stronger side supports. Take a look at www.BobDuffey.com for a picture on the stunt page, bottom left. Hope this helps.


What do you mean that'* not what you were talking about?!

Very nice!

What'* the chance of getting one of those sponsors to contribute to my "ain't got no transportation" charity?

Awesome to hear on the motor company working with you. My new one should arrive today.

Best of luck....glad the email worked.

Thanks man ... just wish I lived in CT. I've a feeling you could have it swapped out before I could count 3.

One last question: My calls to the salvage yard netted me different responses, and a fair bit of attitude - it wasn't until I sent the e-mail that someone who cares about customer service got back to me.

To recap, here is what the first 2 people told me:

1) Your oil pump is bad because the pickup ruined it when the oil pan was smashed.
2) Your valve guide seals have dry rotted.

I've read just about every post in this forum regarding oil pressure, along with your comments - and I take 1 & 2 above as answers along the lines of "needing spark plug fluid".

The mechanic is going to call them today to discuss if anything can be done before going through the pain of swapping the motor. From what I've read, oil pressure is is pretty much a function of the oil pump to produce output, and the rod and crank bearings to maintain it; and the only real way to fix this problem is to rebuild the lower end.

Is there any plausible repair suggestion I should accept besides a rebuild (which I obviously won't do)? I'm thinking that even if there is, unknown damage has now potentially occured to the bearings/lifters anyway, and a new motor is the only way to go. On the other hand, they are being fair to me, I want to do the right thing in return.

Thanks
Matt

Oil pressure is made by the pump pushing the oil through the crank and out between the rod bearings and crank.

My assumption on your motor is when the oil pan is pulled you will see sparkles in the oil. In my case..many many pieces of bearing material. When this bearing material is in the pan, it'* not in place as the bearing and the gap for oil to flow out is much greater. This reduces the oil pressure you see on the gauge and gives the indication that your bearings are bad.

(At the moment..I'm happy you aren't in CT..lol one car is enough for me right now.... although we'd probably pull up chairs and drink.)

Well, I'm going to go ahead and journal everything that happens with this, partly so that anyone else in a similar situation can see how things can go good or bad, but mainly so I'll have an accurate record if things do get ugly. I'm not looking for any responses here, but feel free to comment if you wish.

Mods - if you think this isn't appropriate, please let me know and I'll just track it in word or something. I like this format though because it'* all date stamped.

Today I talked to the salvage yard (11:00), and based on Bills comments and other posts in this forum, I told them that I really didn't see any point in trying to repair the motor. Not sure of the mechanical expertise of the rep I'm talking to (Al), as he asked me if I had checked the oil pressure in all cylinders.

Anyway he asked if I'd like a new motor shipped, and I said yes. He asked me to fax my purchase paperwork to him, which I did (13:00), and also included a request to get a motor close to the 51K mark. I called back (16:00) to check that he got the fax. He said he did get the fax - I told him I'm going on 6 weeks with no transportation, and would appreciate anything he could do to expedite this. He said he would do everything he could, but that "things are crazy right now".

Just got shipping info, motor on the way.

Got a call from the shipper, motor will be here in the morning.

Here'* a question: The salvage yard is out one motor, plus shipping, + the extra fee to ship to my door (375). Which is all completely their fault.... When I talked to the head guy - he was pissed. Not at me, but because he obviously has a QC problem which is costing him $$. I suspect one or more people got their a$$ handed to them at his company.

Their warranty specifically states they don't cover labor on any engine problems. Or cover shipping costs if a new motor is needed, for that matter. It also says I have to pay to ship the old motor back.

But in this case, they gave me a new (well, used) motor, and paid shipping, and I can only guess they were this generous because the first motor they shipped was bad to begin with. Also they don't want the old one back, which regardless of the reason is pretty cool, IMO - for all they know I needed 2 motors and made up a story.

So do you think it would be out of line to ask for reimbursment of the labor for the second install? On the one hand, I think they've done a pretty good job to keep me satisfied. On the other, I don't really see why I should foot the bill to reinstall an originally defective engine.

On the third hand, by all rights they could have told me to pi** off in the first place, but they are being pretty stand up guys.

I think I can work a charity install from the mechanic (I gave him a PC cause I didn't need it), and being as he installed the last one jsut a couple weeks ago, I don't think he'll have much trouble installing this one. I offered to help install this one, but he wasn't interested.

I'm thinking the thing to do is see what he wants to charge me for the second go round, and then decide if I should call the salvage yard. He does this work in the side, so I'm pretty sure I can work out payment arrangements if I need to.

I'd say that'* sketchy... they could request you to pay return frieght on the bad one.

In my recent experience I brought the old one back and picked up the new one. As for the mechanic... it'* still work and he'* going to want to make money if something wasn't his fault.

Yeah, I'm with ya there. Although there are a few mitigating circumstances:

1) He didn't change the oil pan, which was completely crushed. What is that, like 15 minutes with the motor out?

2)The original estimate was $500. I foolishly said I figured it would come in between $500 - $750, for the cost of new belts, oil, new tranny fluid/filter, plugs, wires, etc.... it came in at $750, and to my horror I saw he reused the old serpentine belt. I havn't checked the plugs, but the wires came off the old motor.

3) The amp in the trunk was disconnected from the powera t the amp (but not at the fuse on the battery). The right side speakers were disconnected (which isn't really a small thing, cause it'* a custom stereo and there are a couple little black gizmos which hook to the amp, and to which the speakers connect. So, I was running around with a very large live, bare, power lead in my trunk. He had no answer as to how all this got disconnected. I believe him when he says he didn't do it.... but still. At least nothing was missing. He said he had the keys the whole time, and the car was in his garage. When I picked up the car, I noticed the rear seat pass through was folded down, didn't think anything of it at the time, but I'm pretty sure this is how the tomfoolery went on. Maybe one of his kids, or his kids friends. I have no way of knowing. He offered to reimburse me for the situation.

4) I can't really be sure if he ever checked the oil pressure after the first install. He said he did, but "didn't wait for it to warm up". That'* a little fishy to me. For all I know the first motor would have been fine if he had done that..... although I don't think the pickup was damaged, or the crushed pan completely restricted all oil flow. It still had oil pressure on the electronic gage (around (20-30), and dropped to zero once warm). After the oil pan swap, it shot up to 50-65, but again back to 0 after warm up. In any event, It'* my opinion the motor should have never come with a crushed oil pan in the first place. And I firmly believe it left the yard in that condition - the pallet would have been splinters if not. I suppose it'* possible he (the mechanic) did something to cause the damage, but I don't think so, based on a number of details I won't go into. Also I'm fairly confident the yard manager knew I got shipped a bad engine.... he said a few things that led me to believe his guys didn't give the motor the inspection they say they do.

None of these points mean a thing, I realize that you get what ya pay for, and I went with a guy (mechanic) I didn't know. SInce then I've gotten to know him, and have gotten to be friends somewhat. I'm sure he will cut me a deal, and I want him to get his $$ for his labor.

Anyway you answered my question - my gut told me not to charge the salvage yard, and I think that'* fair. The mechanic is a good guy, I've decided, and I'm sure we can work something out that'* fair to both of us.

Thanks Bill -
Matt