Project Dark Side
 

None of you know this because I havnt really been on here posting enough for you guys to get to know me and my car, but its been a struggle since I got my car 8 months ago. Between paying off debts, and this car breaking every week, its been hard to keep up. In the beginning all i knew was how engines worked to a degree. I didnt know anything about fixing them. I was even nervous at first to add oil. It was my first car and i didnt want to break it. But when it finally broke on its own i had to start learning.

My first projct on the car was replacing the clutch. I went online and learned EXACTLY how a clutch worked and some guidelines on replacing it. I went under with my dad and we replaced the flywheel, clutch kit, and slave cylinder. What fun. After that several other things started breaking and on my own sometimes with the help of a friend I fixed them. I replaced the front brakes on my own which for someones whos never done it is still a project. I replaced the driveshaft later on my own, the transmission mount with a polyurethane one, and recently replaced the water pump gasket and coolant elbow all on my own with no guidance but the forums I post on.

I now have a nice set of tools, a lot more knowledge, and a better attitude. This car is my daily driver so I treat it like one. I dont put crazy performance parts in it because mainly i dont have money, but also I want to keep the gas mileage where its at. Ive been slowly removing useless things i dont use from the car. The other week i removed the cruise control haha. But in any case im starting over with confidence this time. My car is still a work in progress, but fortunately i can slow down that progress and for now just enjoy my car after all the work ive done. One major project ill be doing after my taxes come in next year will be replacing the transmission. Its got 180,000 miles of hard work and its ready to take a break. Ill put in either a tremac or an identical one with lower miles, and take apart this one to learn about the insides and Ill post plenty of pics.

Ive got a couple small things I want to do to it in the next month so Ill post about them here. You can by the way erase my previous thread, I lost all those pictures anyhow so its useless. Welcome to my Project Thread!

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...8/IMG_1824.jpg

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V6 ewwwww lol

Atleast its not a I4 lol

haha wanna shit on this V6? It overheated to failure and i mean complete failure, got started back up drove another minute then shut off....was missing 3 gallons of water. Still runs great and can reach 125mph maxing out the speedometer. No misfiring, no compression loss, nothing. This engine is a beast! Lemme see your V8 do that.

Its ok, my84z is just being a big bully and means no harm lol

its okay, and I actually forgot...it overheated twice. A second time the next day. Also a friend was in a firebird with a 3.8 and it overheated over 6 times on the way back from new hampshire and still ran with only one misfiring cylinder...these are serious engines.

I've killed a 3.8. Didn't even have to overheat it to do that. And hitting 125 isn't that impressive anymore when that car will only trap high 80s stock.

Its impressive after overheating like it did haha. Thats all im saying. Im not bragging about its power, im bragging about its durability. and durability is what I need :D

:wammbulance:Umm my v8 has been beaten alot at over 400rwhp and nitrous burnouts rev limiter hits miss shifts etc etc...... Never overheated or skipped a beat :)

I am not easy on things lol

Right, but what i was saying is my v6 did overheat and it still runs great. usually overheating like it did means the end of an engines life. My v6 has also been beaten up, 180,000 miles of burnouts over revving etc. all that good stuff. Still running strong.

Overheating is user error not car lol btw just busting balls

Oh i know :D I can take it. I can handle an argument ;) But that is beside my point and going off topic. The point was, its been through hell and runs beautifully. A real testament to the 3800 series 2 engine.

Id say you have gotten lucky more then its a good engine. They can be reliable. But after some heat forget it. Keep up on the maintenance and she will do good for you. and as far as the tranny goes. If it ain't broke don't fix it. You could buy a "new" and be worse off. The t5's are junk. If your is still shifting good keep it.

Eh maybe. I post on an entire forum of v6's and they all love them and claim theyre reliable. Some of them are up in the 200k mile range and still going. Only thing ive ever herd of going on the v6's are the head gaskets, but all engines are prone to that it sort of doesnt count. Ive had coolant issues, but still not the engine itself. The internals will last forever. A buddy of mine has a turbo charged stock 3.8 that runs great. And i mean its TURBO charged...biggest turbo ive ever seen. Things a beast...but im done measuring d***s.

But as far as the tranny it grinds in every gear and is very loud. Its definitely on its way out soon and yes its filled. Ill probably replace it with a tremac.

My good old LT1 has 175,000 original miles on it, still runs like a champ through constant flogging. But thats honestly the best way to learn your way around a car, just do it. You can sit through all the classes you want that tell you how shit works, how to pull shit apart, how to fix certain shit, little shortcuts here or there yada yada yada. Does it help? yea, but it doesnt even come close to comparing to the knowledge you gain from hands-on experience and just looking at something and figuring it out for yourself. Most of working on cars is just common sense anyways.

Yeah thats how i knwo everything i do. Ive already done the clutch, flywheel etc, driveshaft, breaks, various engine components (water pump etc.) without any prior experience. So far successful :D

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun with the car and have learned a lot working on it. How many miles per year are you putting on it?

It's looking great and it sounds like everything is working well except for the transmission.

Thanks yeah I definitely have learned a lot. I love my car. It's my first one I've only had it for 8 months. I put about 15k on it. I'm good friends with the previous two owners so I know all about its history which is cool.

My glove box came wrapped in vinyl with the car. Had no idea why so i investigated by tearing it off...i found patches of the original material worn off. So i cleaned it and sprayed over the whole thing in hopes to mute the spots. It turned out good imo and looks better than the vinyl wrap. Also stopped by a salvage yard and picked up this emblem for my bumper.

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...8/IMG_1848.jpg

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Not too bad. Spending some time with the car before winter huh??

Sure am. Trying to get all the little details done. But theres good news! Were moving and the place were moving into has a 2 car garage! Im gonna have a field day!

ohhh god. we will have threads upon threads..... Umm Guysss?? How Does This Go Back On????

Lmao I know right. Haha do i really give off that impression ? Its true im new at this still but ive always had this knack for mechanics. Even as a kid i was making some crazy shit with Lego's out of pure imagination. And growing up i became a wiz at computers. I know everything there is to know aside from some advanced networking stuff but I can still host a server and write some code, or even compile a custom linux kernel/os. Now that I have a car my brain is just like a sponge when it comes to this stuff. So far everything ive done Ive succeeded at on my own with little or no help. Im confident enough that I could successfully rebuild my engine.

No, just gotta get used to the guys on here lol a few of them like to be pains.

Your prob better with stuff then pizza is... LOL

yeah bunch of dicks!

I prefer the term, bag of dicks, but yes, more or less. LOL :zfreie:

I see :D By the way is that supposed to be jango fett or boba fett in your avatar?

boba fett

For the first time in 9 months...ive run out of suff to do on my car...i believe its pretty much complete to my satisfaction. If it werent my daily driver itd be an endless project. But for its purpose (getting me to my girlfriend and work) its pretty much complete. The only thing missing is the red LED's for my tachometer and some rear speakers but those can wait for christmas :) time to start paying some friends back now that its done breaking no me. took a few pictures today out of boredom:

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...8/IMG_1882.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...8/IMG_1874.jpg

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Looks really good.

We are gonna need pics ofthe gf to confirm

Thank you very much! :)

Haha. Yeah shes definitely real. And shes very accepting of my obsession with my car. She even got me a $70 Hurst shifter knob that i wanted for my bday! Which is friday but...well she made it pretty obvious she got it for me.

Looks pretty good, id ditch the red wire loom under the hood IMO but whatever, its your car, if you like it keep it.

Pics or she is fake. Maybe with the shifter

^ what he said....car looks good.

NEW WHEELS!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH SALAD SHOOTERSSSS AHHHHHHHHHHH

Well, I was actually gonna get some stock 5 spokes from a 98 to replace them hopefully. My buddy likes my rims and I like his so we were gonna swap if he still wants to go through with it. Only thing is his tires arent quite as wide...oh well.

get em anyway! tires aren't to expensive in that size.

I say this about every Camaro on 16"s but some ZR1s would really bring that car to life. I'd like to see this paint job in person, it actually looks pretty cool in pics.