In the summer of 2008, I bought my car for the 2009 BABE Rally: a 1986 Nissan Stanza wagon with an automatic transmission. I agreed that the automatic made it crappier than it would have been with a manual transmission, and thus more appropriate for the BABE Rally. Also appropriate: In Canada, the car was known as the Nissan Multi. In Japan? Nissan Prairie Joy. It practically screams BABE Rally. It might also be the spiritual successor to the AMC Pacer, in that it looks not unlike a pregnant rollerskate. Others have said it looks like a cardboard milk carton.
Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the rally for 2009, so the car, unrepaired, sat in the backyard. My friend Jason said yesterday that it looked like it had been setting in a field for a year; he wasn’t far off.
When I bought the car, it was sold a a running car that simply wouldn’t pass emissions. Technically true. The owner also said it had “low compression” in one cylinder. In fact it had zero compression. Eventually (four days ago/Wednesday) I got the cylinder head separated from the block, and in fact that cylinder’s exhaust valve was burned out. (Photos to come.)
I convinced my regular mechanic to fix just that one valve, against his recommendation that engine was going to burn gallons of oil because of the condition of the cylinders — basically the black char on the cylinder head told him what (else) was wrong with the engine.
I got the head back from him Friday noon (two days ago) and by Saturday 4:15pm I had by some miracle reassembled everything and brought the car back to life. This is impressive only because I had disassembled most of it a year and a half earlier. This is less impressive because I had a fistful of “where did this one go?” nuts and bolts leftover. And I’d lost a few bolts. Not like anything important, though, unless having power steering is “important.”
June 6, 2010 at 10:49 pm |
Good luck!