Well Bleu was my Mothers car and has been in the family for 23 years, I let her sit parked for about 5 years and other than going out starting her up and maybe circle the block a couple times a year, there she sat. Well the year before last, the squirrels did a number under the hood... They chewed the wiring harness, hoses and a couple of sparkplug wires so she wasn't started for about a year. Well I last year about this time I decided she had been sitting long enough and I needed to put her back in rotation so I drug her out of the carport with Scooby and got to work... I had replaced the air suspension with coil over struts a few years back so I didn't have to worry about that issue(the air ride was a major pain over the years), so I replaced all the hoses, plugs, wires, water pump, thermostat, sway bar links etc... Got her up and running and drove her up to Brooksville for some tires (Big Blonde mistake...). I had a feeling I should have had her towed up there because the rear tires were the original 1991 tires that came on the car and one had been flat for a while... My boyfriend convinced me that the tires would be just fine... In his defense he was right about the tires however, I still should have listened to my little voice. As I was driving I could smell the brakes, so I pulled over and checked the rear wheels and they were a little warm but not bad. My thought was the parking brake cable was stuck a bit from sitting so long... Wrong. Turns out it was the front calipers not disengaging and on that 45 mile trip I fried my Transmission. Made it within 2 miles of the tire shop though... So needless to say my transmission needed to be rebuilt. I wasn't thinking about the front brakes being bad because just before I parked her I had replaced the calipers and pads and they maybe had 800 miles on them... Oh, well lesson learned!! Now I have another 2 years and unlimited mileage warranty on the transmission. While at the transmission shop they were kind enough to (I supplied the parts) install the new motor mounts and the 2 front swaybar links at no extra charge. Not long after getting her back on the road a friend of mine flew in from California and we drove to Virginia and back averaging about 26-28mpg with no issues. After about a week of being home I noticed my coolant was a little low in the reservoir so I poked around and found a little seepage behind the timing cover so I put some Bars Leak in and that took care of the problem till about a month ago...  I noticed a small wet spot under the car and sure enough it was leaking again from the same spot. Time to take the cover off and put on a new gasket.... OMG that turned into the project from hell!!!!
No matter how we tried that &^$%^& cover would not come off!! 2 of the studs were rusted solid to the aluminum housing and one of the other bolts had the same problem. Tried begging, pleading, cursing and heating them up with a torch all to no avail...       So when all of that didn't work out came the sawzall and the sledge hammer    Took a week to find another cover( well found one before the old cover was smashed off the car however when I called the next day to see if it had been taken off the car at the parts yard he told me the guy cracked it when he was removing it) groovy... Get the part here and installed it, put the distributor back in got it started before putting all the pulleys and belt back on ( I accidently moved it out of TDC when torqueing the harmonic balancer  ) anyway it started so I buttoned everything back up ready to set the timing.... Yeah, about that... Now it doesn't want to start and I have no spark... WTF  Soooooo, I get a new distributor and that fixes that issue. However the other day the alternator decides to go south. So I buy a new one and install it takes less than 10min, but the new Alternator is not working so I drive it over to advance for them to test it in the car and then I remove it so they can bench test it as well... The guy bench tested it 8x in a row and it tests good ( they don't have another one in the store either) Anyway we are trying to figure out WTH is going on. The one guy refuses to think it is the new alternator and insists that it is the computer or fusible link in the car... I even had the help of the mechanic shop across the parking lot (AWESOME bunch of guys) they printed out the wiring schematic and we tested all fusible links and all are good the only possible thing it could be other than the alternator is the resistor in the instrument cluster. We tested the theory by jumping that wire with a test light. That did make the alternator start working. However before tearing the dash apart (scary thing to do on a 23 yr old car because everything is old and can be brittle) I call the guy at Advance and he is having another alternator brought from another store for me to try...   Well THANK GOD that worked!!!     I did not want to go fishing in and around the dash and instrument cluster as this car is an electrical nightmare with all the sensors, sensors for sensors and many computers. So hopefully that will make her happy for a while and I don't have to do anything other than routine maintenance...

Got the heads back from the machine shop... So for my birthday I decided to clean and prep everything put the heads back on the old girl... And put some fresh oil in...Just have to clean the injectors and put new o rings top and bottom then button everything up and start driving her again

I will be starting her up and letting her run for about an hour , drain all fluids to flush her out, refill with fresh and run her for about 500 miles and drain again, refill and change @ 3000mi.

When you get them back make sure to follow the torque pattern and instructions on torquing the heads back on. Typically like a 3 stage process (or might be?).

I wish it was only 3 steps   More like 5!!!!  37-ft-lb, 45-ft-lb,51-ft-lb, 59-ft-lb in sequence...Then in sequence loosen each bolt and retighten  to 11-18 ft-lb then tighten bolts an additional 85-105 degrees for long bolts and 65-85 degrees for short bolts... PITA

Well, I got Bleu up and running again   I started her up and let her run for an hour then changed the oil and filter. Took her out a couple of times today on errands and all seems well and good... When I took the video she was running a bit off due to the wires (of only 1 yr old) were lighting up like a Christmas tree (checked late last night after dark). Changed the wires this morning and she seems to be running like a top 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKWvCFO5Sww&feature=youtu.be

 

Not sure why the video makes it so loud... You can hardly hear her running (must be too used to hearing the diesel) when standing right next to her...lol

All back together.. New Power Steering Pump and Pulley as well as an Alternator...

Edited May 26, 201410 yr by YabbaDoo