'84 Grab Bag

[kelso840]

Right? And that's really all of the rust I've found on the car. I'm changing my mind every day about what I want it to be used for. Today I'm leaning towards using it to learn some bodywork and more mechanical skills - turn it into a race car kinda deal. A little counter-intuitive being that my other car will have the better motor, but hell, this one's already something I wouldn't mind dinging up further. It isn't supposed to be pretty and I've already gotten my money's worth out of it in terms of being able to daily it as I had originally intended (minus a few weeks of downtime because I'm lazy). It's taught me a whole lot by force already.

It's to the point where I feel like I'm the only one within a buyer's radius that's going to keep this 18et running and appreciate the chassis, so why not do just that until something breaks for good? I keep telling myself "It's just money. You'll make more."

I already want to put an 18det in there just for the experience. Definitely not a good idea, but I still want to.

[kelso840]

This is my issue. https://youtu.be/21_ysfXkQPw

[Redneck]

It cracks me up what is considered bad or not bad rust across the country. On the west coast that would be considered a lot of rust but for back east I am sure it is probably not that bad. I kinda forget how good we have it out here. The vast majority of 80's/90's cars around here have little to no rust. It just isn't something I normally associate with older cars having haha. A big side benefit of having mild often snow less winters and not salting the roads I suppose.

As for your slow revving issue I don't really have any specific ideas other then engine swap. Sounds facetious but its the truth. Annoying issues like that were more the norm then the exception when I had the 18et. After the head gasket blew I dropped over a grand on fixing it only to have the end product still be unsatisfying. Sure it ran better but the feeling of the engine was still just completely lackluster. The coolest part of having the 18et was hearing the turbo spool up though you barely even felt a difference when on boost. Not long after fixing it I sourced a ka-de and swapped it for about the same price it cost me to do the head gasket job. I really kicked myself afterwards not just going with the ka after the head gasket blew. Felt like I just flushed a grand down the toilet (not to mention the time and work replacing the head gasket and lots of other small things). 5 years later I couldn't be happier going with the ka. Actually having usable torque, good throttle response and solid reliability was well worth the swap.

[kelso840]

If I had space to undertake a swap I definitely would have done it by now. I always like the idea of throwing an 18det in there just because it would still look reasonably stock and produce decent power, but at the same time it's kind of a minimal gain for a motor I'd still have a harder time getting parts for than anything domestic.

As for the rust, yeah... I'm not so used to it that I accept it. The next car I buy (assuming it isn't an s12 - please god, don't let me buy any more of these in my life unless it's a clean GP) will have zero rust. Any bubbling or surface rust SHOULD be a deal breaker. It's just that kind of becomes the catalyzing factor in being able to get cars reasonably cheap around here. "Oh, it's got rust." is am automatic $500- 1k bargaining chip on sale price that can totally work in your favor. I can live with it on these cars because I've got love for the chassis, but anything else.. forget it.

[kelso840]

New ignition coil and it's idling better than it ever has and I no longer have a flat spot at 3k rpm. Boom.
Post MergeFlat spot returned this morning and I still had a slow RPM build up to the 3K blastoff point that was not present when I drove home from work yesterday. Apparently there's more to the story. 

[kelso840]

Long time no update. Car is pending sale unless somebody rings in higher than my current offer.

It had stopped running on me the day before I got my '85 back so I wasn't too motivated to fix it. I was driving and the car just shut off. Dead. Done. Ca-puts. No final gasp or shout for life whatsoever. Tried dumping the clutch to bump start it and maybe it would start for another ten seconds. Limped that bitch back to work and parked it- got a ride home from some strange Uber driver, Kent.

Assumed it was an ignition coil because the tach shutting clean off the way it did, seemed to lead the death march, and knowing that the primary coil drives the tach. Anyhow, got a new coil and didn't put it in. Instead I sanded the bottom of the coil bracket and ground wire ring terminal, then re-routed it to between the bolt and the bracket instead of the bracket and the body.

Did some idle adjustment and it runs like a lifter-tickin', oil-burning, clutch-slippin sunnuva gun. The dude who's interested in buying the car has a mandate to make a profile on this site and continue the Grab Bag's story.