Hi there from here in wisconsin

[Erikwi]

my project is more of a fix up. im not doing any mods.
mines an 88 automatic. has ac, with some missing interior bits

engine is a little rough. cam has worn lobes, thats today's project.
going to do valve seals at the same time, it smokes on hot restart

body wise its not too bad, mostly the front fenders are dead. the rear tailgate needs work but its not terrible yet.

what i have done so far is balljoints, a CV joint and had a shop do a front wheel bearing. i also am doing the floors in dynamat
and added driving lights

the brakes feel strange, the power assist comes and goes randomly.

[Petros]

Welcome to the forum!

that power booster may have a sticky vacuum valve. we had an old mazda that would get that way if it sat too long. First couple of application of the brakes it would act like no power brakes, kind of scary since we live on a big hill. After several pumps of the pedal, or after a warm up, it was normal again. I sprayed carb cleaner down the vac line into the booster and let it soak, than I think I put silicone or Armorall in it, to soften the seal on the valve. it worked.

there is a simple valve at the vac line inlet to the booster, and it can get sticky after decades of use, perhaps gasoline vapor build up or something. they are not too costly to replace, but I thought I would try the solvent bath and lubricant first. easier than replacing it.

good luck.

[Erikwi]

ok today i was working on the worn cam
wow does it look trashed





just a stock replacement cam going in

[Erikwi]

and the new cam doesn't have the key in it for the distributor drive. great. thats going to be hard to get out of the old one.

[Erikwi]

my wonderful luck continues.
apparently i have a bad headgasket.
when i hooked up the air to the head to do the valve seal, the air came out the radiator cap.

of course it never happened before, and the engine never overheated on me.
also the coolant was fine.

is there a head stud kit for this motor?

[Erikwi]

i knew i had bad valve stem seals thats why the head is oily
but i do not see a broken fire ring.
i have no idea what happened. as you saw thres no coolant in the oil or vise versa.

the cyls are a bit worn and that bothers me. but i do not want to dump a lot of money into this engine. i just want it to work well.

[Erikwi]

does anyone else think the intake valves look sunk?
like it needs valve seats?

[Petros]

make sure you read up on how to make it all flat in my head gasket replacement thread over in repair guides section.

that cam looks like a previous owner neglected to change his oil, running gritty dirty oil causes a lot of wear and damage like that.

[Erikwi]

and the valve seats look trashed. fuck the machine shops around here are closed for the virus
50 miles to the closest open one.

i would have been better off with a reman head now i see. they come with a cam anyway.
and i used an auto body sander on the head, they are super long. the low points you can see were a couple thou between the cyls.
i did not take much off, you can tell by the surface but its in spec.
i ordered new exhaust valves, and when all the old valves came out the stems were covered in oil. that was what i thought the issue was all along.
this engine is a can of worms.

[Erikwi]

i found someone selling the valve tools, since the machine shops were not open here, i used a farmer who was trying to sell some old snap on valve tools that were for sale.

it took about an hour to properly dress the stones and grind but it was done, we both think the intake valves look sunk into the head, and that will hurt flow, but to fix it would have been a lot more work.

anyway thats todays progress.

i feel like im working really slow but im actually waiting for rock auto orders to arrive before i can do more

[NWMO]

Eric,

It looks like you’re coming right along, I’ve been there (and still am every so often). To me these cars are worth it (I can only speak for myself), but I typically enjoy or at least don’t hate the work. I’ve put around 60,000 miles on my rust bucket, project, daily driver and am finally getting to a point I can really enjoy it and not feel bad about the time/money invested (cough-cough, as I look away) .

Chris

[Erikwi]

i broke something when i took it off, and the dealer here is closed due to the virus. otherwise i would have it running now.
it has to come from out of state due to this crap.

anyway i have wet sanded the fenders, some cheap paint on it, worse than i was going to use!
no filler on them that i can see!




the antenna mount is broken on my car and the parts car
does anyone know the part numbers?

[rer233]

What did you break?

[Erikwi]

What did you break?

toyota calls it a filter 90917-11023
it looks like a vacuum part


hatch rust repair. really nice that its just surface rust, another year and that would not be the case.

[Erikwi]

hatch is getting prepped still. slow progress