The time had not come.

The time had not quite come to do my 30K service. But with everything going on in my life I didn't know when I would get to the car so I decided to change coolant and oil which were both due, maybe overdue on time.

I dropped the bleed screw that goes in the top of the thermostat housing, tink donk. So I start searching. Off comes the wheel well cover, then dust cover over side of engine. Hmmmm, unable to see anything. I enlist my brothers son with the smallest hands of us all and no luck. Car is on a lift so looking at it from every angle. Of course I think there is a chance the screw fell into the timing mechanism. So out comes the inop A/C compressor. Detach and shake the alternator in case it entered through the vents. Nothing. Pull the waterpump with it's housing. Pull the timing covers, nothing.

What to do now? Well, the screw isn't in the timing system so I called Daniel at Ricambi and ordered a 30K kit, new water pump gasket and O ring and a new bleed screw.

My car has been leaking oil badly for a while and it has been sidelined as many of you know. I drive it every month or two just to keep the battery up. My Dads shop, where I was doing this minor service, is tied up now and he moved all his cars around and put one into storage due to this.

I still travel for work and have a lot of other projects on my plate so I expect this will be at least a month before the car reemerges.

I had really wanted to do an engine out for this service and I'd even spoken to a tech about having it done due to how busy I am. Oh well, lifes twists and turns

Have a great day all.

 

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I spoke to someone that I respect very much about the situation. They said to hose down that side of the engine and it will likely flush out. They said it is likely just behind the crank pulley as that is a common spot for items to get lost. I was told to get ready to retrieve a few lost bits

 

I found the bolt! It was resting in the ground (earth) strap between the engine and the frame by the passenger rear engine mount. I was running my hand through there, trying to trace a bundle of wires I could not figure out, and it dropped out. Gave me a little smile in a busy day but wasn't at the top of my agenda at the moment.
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Yes, this is not my place. My place is getting a new roof right now and floor upgrades are in the works. I went to my Dads house to change the coolant and here we are

I have not done any suspension work to my car, still all original.

Here is a pic of the roof in process, still getting stripped off. I'm having 4 inches of foam applied to decking with a sheet product applied to that. The shop area by default will have some insulation factor. They recommended I remove all vehicles from shop area due to debris coming through. I'm glad they did. It's been a mess of gravel and tar in there. Don't need gravel pouring down on my cars.
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I really don't know how far I'm going to take it. I'll do the 30K with valve adjustment as needed. New cam seals and belts of course. One of the distributor caps had the center contact collapse and it caused arcing in the cap to the rotor, they are both a bit crusty, hopefully I won't need a new cap, but in reality it may be due for two new caps. I'll have a seasoned tech make that call. New plug wires. I still have the evap lines and a few fuel lines from my SRI kits I purchased 4 years ago. I didn't have access to some of the lines and just put it off, now I can install them. I'm toying with removing the plenum to clean it up and of course replace those little vaccuum lines under there. The clutch has 72,000 miles on it but I have no intention of replacing that, I want 100K out of it

I'm also not going to do any suspension work as a rule to keep the scope from getting too crazy. A/C, I'm undecided, but this would be a good time. I'm going to look a bit further but it might be due for a shift shaft seal. That area is wet but don't know if it is the culprit. It was reportedly done before my ownership, but I've found all the work done by that shop to be suspect. Also on the work done by this shop was new spark plug wires. When I got in there, they were mis matched. Not a good sign. Also had cracked spark plug extenders when i got in there. When I pulled the extenders the other day they looked brand new after approx 20K miles. I'm sure I'm missing a half dozen items, and I have someone whispering in my ear about a few upgrades. Now seems like the time.

Oh, and I forgot, one of the side brackets of the radiator has come loose and the foam is missing in a few areas, I should remember to pull that and get it fixed.

All I have done so far is pull the muffler and cat to make the lump smaller and I pulled the spark leads and caps. I was going to remove the oil cooler today but I am working today and wasn't feeling it. I have to be in tip top mental shape to work on it. Tomorrow I travel for work and I'll be gone over a week. Hopefully when I get back I can make some solid headway. I'd like to get the injection removed and then pull the cam covers and cams. That may be out of order, I'll figure it out as I go.

 

I actually found it quite humerous that once the engine was out it didn't appear that much easier to work on However removing the distributor caps was much easier.

Oh yeah, new throttle cable as the current one has had stiffness issues and I was told it was time. I really need to make a list for myself.

 

I've spent the last couple days working on the engine. Exhaust system is gone, fuel injection removed, pulled air injection and evap soft lines and oil vapor condensing system, Alternator removed. Today after pulling the remainder of the the exhaust I did some cleaning. It was a good rainy day.
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