I had to do a bit of work to it, but it was worth the effort, and it was a great opportunity to really get to know her. Over the past month I have noticed a few things that I wanted to ask about.
I seem to have this problem when I am driving the car. It can be while on country, city or highway roads. It seems that whenever I am trying to go fast with it, there are ALWAYS people going slow in front of me that won't move and all I want to do is fly right by them!! Does anyone else experience this problem?
OK, on a more serious note, I have noticed a few mechanical things worth inquiring about.
When I first got the car, it had a blown exhaust valve. Me and my father ripped apart the engine, did a complete valve job on the head, polished the cylinders, put a new timing belt on, and now it runs great. We noticed that there was a hole in one of the hoses from the intercooler to the turbo (it's an S-shaped hose). Could this be what caused the valve to blow? Right now I have it duct taped, but I have a new one on the way.
When I was taping the intercooler hose, I accidentally knocked off what I think was the air temperature sensor right next to the air cleaner, and when I started it, the check engine light came on. I plugged the temp. sensor back in and went to AutoZone to check the code. I had the code cleared, it said something about the turbo wastegate and cylinder misfires. It hasn't come on since, and it's been about 2 weeks since I did that. Is this something I should be concerned about?
After we did the work to it, I noticed that when I was stopped in traffic, some smoke would be coming out of the exhaust. It hasn't been happening much at all lately, so could that have been because I needed to break it in?
Also, since the engine has 160,000 miles on it, would it be a good investment to replace or rebuild the turbocharger? It seems to be working just great, and it doesnt seem like there is any more smoke out of the exhaust.
2 more and that's it...
I know the miles->0 computation on the trip computer isn't always accurate, but it seems that when i shut the car off and turn it on hours later, there are 10, 20 sometimes 30 miles fewer than when i had shut it off and sometimes i can notice a difference on the gas gauge. When I bought the car the guy told me it leaks gas but only if you fill it to the very top. I know that I need to fix this but I usually only fill it to about 12 gallons. The computer will usually go back up to what it was before I turned it off, but I was just wondering if this is a problem anyone else had. I put 2000 miles on it, and the trip computer says I get 21.7 mpg.
And finally,
When we resurfaced the head, we noticed cracks on the outer edge of the notch where the camshafts sit. Even if it did break off completely, there would still be 75% of the half-circle left, as well as 100% on the valve cover. It doesn't seem like the cams will be able to shift horizontally, but is this something to worry about? I don't like cutting corners but I also don't want to pay over $1000 for a new head.
That is all I have for today,
Ken