87ccord
01-20-2010, 12:28 AM
So, I was born and raised in a house where, 60-70's era MoPar's are considered legendary, MoPar or No Car is our household motto, and the only cars I remember us owning that weren't MoPars, were Nissans, and those are quite scarce around here now a days. And to this day, I still find most of this to be true. I've done my research, and spent many many hours working on products from the big three, and I personally still prefer MoPars. But, my father having most of his experience rooted in big gas guzzling v-8 monsters, saw fit that me, a child of 16 at the time, should continue in his footsteps.
But muscle cars, and lifted trucks didn't earn a reputation for getting bad gas mileage for no reason. Being 18 now, and struggling to make the improvements to my car and truck I want, and afford to drive I went in search of something economical to offset the cost of fueling up, maintaining, and building and improving my car and truck. My friend decided to give me his trusty 87 accord, which, I will admit is in less that favorable condition, but I wasn't looking for a beauty queen to parade around in. Just. Gas. Mileage. It had a blown head gasket, and we all new it. and the electrical, and vacuum gear were so severely mangled (every vacuum line cut...) I didn't think I could repair them, I wouldn't know where to start, not having any honda related experience. The odometer read 276,000, it was a blue 4 door dx 5 speed. I started looking for a new motor, lo and behold craigslist brought me another blue 4 door dx automatic, 187K, for $150, good motor, bad tranny. Fine with me, I didn't want an automatic =P
My Progress thus far:
-Engines and transmissions out of both cars
-Transmissions removed from both engines
-Flywheel, clutch assembly, and manual transmission reattached to good engine
-MT wiring harness attached to previously AT-equipped engine
-Replaced broke parts on good motor with good parts from bad motor (I broke some things while pulling the good motor)
-Tomorrow, I hope to have the engine and tranny in the new car, and begin reconnecting everything.
I know I should replace all kinds of seals, the clutch, and other stuff, but being so short on cash, I just need it on the road, I'm only into it $200 so far, and I've not found anything to be as complicated as I first thought. I will have time and hopefully more money (saved by not spending so much on gas) to do the appropriate replacements and repairs to make the car as reliable and long lasting as I possibly can.
This is my first post, and I didn't realize how excessively long it was till now =S
I'm pretty happy to finally get into working on newer cars and I've wanted to learn for a long time, if my dad had his way, honda and toyota wouldn't exist, gas would be free, and v-8's would be the only engines ever made.
So, I'm hoping the engine goes in and runs like it oughta, but I figure I'll probably forget something tomorrow or thursday, in which case, you'll see another post from me asking how to fix some crazy problem with my luck.
I've found this site to be extremely helpful, and confidence building, as I'm doing this all by myself in school, with a 15 year old chiltons book as a guide.
Having two of every part helps too =P
-Derek
But muscle cars, and lifted trucks didn't earn a reputation for getting bad gas mileage for no reason. Being 18 now, and struggling to make the improvements to my car and truck I want, and afford to drive I went in search of something economical to offset the cost of fueling up, maintaining, and building and improving my car and truck. My friend decided to give me his trusty 87 accord, which, I will admit is in less that favorable condition, but I wasn't looking for a beauty queen to parade around in. Just. Gas. Mileage. It had a blown head gasket, and we all new it. and the electrical, and vacuum gear were so severely mangled (every vacuum line cut...) I didn't think I could repair them, I wouldn't know where to start, not having any honda related experience. The odometer read 276,000, it was a blue 4 door dx 5 speed. I started looking for a new motor, lo and behold craigslist brought me another blue 4 door dx automatic, 187K, for $150, good motor, bad tranny. Fine with me, I didn't want an automatic =P
My Progress thus far:
-Engines and transmissions out of both cars
-Transmissions removed from both engines
-Flywheel, clutch assembly, and manual transmission reattached to good engine
-MT wiring harness attached to previously AT-equipped engine
-Replaced broke parts on good motor with good parts from bad motor (I broke some things while pulling the good motor)
-Tomorrow, I hope to have the engine and tranny in the new car, and begin reconnecting everything.
I know I should replace all kinds of seals, the clutch, and other stuff, but being so short on cash, I just need it on the road, I'm only into it $200 so far, and I've not found anything to be as complicated as I first thought. I will have time and hopefully more money (saved by not spending so much on gas) to do the appropriate replacements and repairs to make the car as reliable and long lasting as I possibly can.
This is my first post, and I didn't realize how excessively long it was till now =S
I'm pretty happy to finally get into working on newer cars and I've wanted to learn for a long time, if my dad had his way, honda and toyota wouldn't exist, gas would be free, and v-8's would be the only engines ever made.
So, I'm hoping the engine goes in and runs like it oughta, but I figure I'll probably forget something tomorrow or thursday, in which case, you'll see another post from me asking how to fix some crazy problem with my luck.
I've found this site to be extremely helpful, and confidence building, as I'm doing this all by myself in school, with a 15 year old chiltons book as a guide.
Having two of every part helps too =P
-Derek