It's taken over its position in the garage now and the rest of us are relegated to the driveway. I have it on jack stands and began taking out the accesories and other items in preparation of engine removal. What did we ever do before PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench?

Anyway, things that make you go hmmm

under the rear of the car is gear lube everywhere. It has a leaky pinion seal. Also, when i removed the driveshaft of course one of the U joints is crap unless of course you like one that locks itself into position like a ratchet. Anyway, neither of those items are expensive or hard to replace. When you look at all the goo that I'm going to need to clean (gear lube attracts dirt very nicely) you wonder why the seal wasn't replaced. You can see that the diff cover was RTV'd in hopes that was the leak but it's pretty darn obvious it was the seal.

Anyway, progress is being made and so far I've found no surprises.

 

Well, i donated 2 knuckles to the project today.

Anyway, the engine and tranny are out. I took them out as one unit.

I still can't get the transmission cooler lines off of the transmission. Oh well, lots of crud to clean but overall, look at the photo of the frame. Not bad at all for a 22 year old car. I love southern cars. The torque arm and rear end are just plain nasty from the leaky pinion seal combined with road dirt......yuck. I'll be a week cleaning off all that crud

 

Cylinders are beyond needing just a ridge ream and hone. The right thing to do is get it bored. We lost a couple machine shops in the area and now have one who does automotive work and thus their prices reflect that. $1200 labor to clean, bore/hone, install new cam bearings, press on pins to new pistons, grind/balance crank, work the heads with new guides. Add a rebuild kit cost to that and it looks like it's reman'd long block time for $995 plus shipping.

I'm heading to the drags this weekend and there's a swap meet. Who knows, maybe I'll also find something on craigslist as I'm in no hurry.

I'm not after a killer car so a reman'd 305 long block at $995 is not a bad deal and it's cheaper than rebuilding what I have.

Here's a silly question; has anyone ever tried Easy-Off oven cleaner on the underside of their car? There has to be a quicker way to clean off the gunk than scraping. ( Hey, I'm lazy, what can I say)

 

Great buy on the 89 rs looking forward to see how the restoration turns out.

 

thanks. Now that xmas is getting close people will probably get more reasonable with pricing for the engines they have for sale. The need for cash tends to bring sanity to pricing. While I take a month to look for an engine I'll begin stripping out the interior, lay new rug and install the new interior and leather seats i have.

Do you notice that i keep avoiding scraping the crud from under the car.

 

Yes around xmas prices get better on such things. People want money quick and it's always a good time to buy items like that.

 

What color is the interior of ur RS?

 

it is currently gray. I got a great deal on a black/gray factory leather upholstery for the seats so I bought a complete black interior and am converting. I'll have a complete gray interior for sale in a while.

 

Black and gray leather will look great and u can't go wrong with black interior.

 

A little update is in order

I removed the gray interior from the cargo and rear passenger area and installed the black. The rear cargo area rug wasn't bad and after a good shampoo it looks new so a little savings there. I've re-upholstered the seats and below are some pictures. I still can't decide if I prefer the tired old cloth or the new leather?????

reman'd long blocks are starting to go on sale. I spoke with one woman from a company and she quoted me $1550 delivery included to my residence and I offered $1300 and she said good luck. In the meanwhile, a co-worker of hers had sent me an email at $1438 delivery included. I'm still holding out but a reman'd long block will be my chosen path as I'm not interested in a low miles engine. I'll just open it up anyway to inspect and there goes any savings.