I have to stay home all week to do home work and projects before I leave to KS.

No problem. I'll do what i can to speed things along in your absence. Welding and painting is stuff that is not weather dependent.

Zach

I dropped the headers off at a local ceramic coaters. They quoted me $150. They are pretty rusty so I expected such. I will be taking my R90 pipes to them as well. The guy was not sure about doing chrome, though. It may need to be blasted for a long time. If so, I will need to find someone with a blast cabinet and time. Maybe I will pay a visit to Scotty if he still has the cabinet.

Well, it has been a shitty two days this week already.

Sun, my seats will not be getting done. My Mom has issues (long personal story) and has become "unable" to do them. This screwed Zach over as well since I had him send his stuff to her

Today, I go to pickup and pay for my headers at the ceramic coaters. The door is locked and all signs of the business are missing. I was told that the headers would be done last Fri and I told them I would come get them this week. Their phone still works, but rings to the inside of the now abandoned looking building. There was an answering machine. Here is to hoping.....

Some guys at Matsys are getting together to buy one of the Harbor Freight cabinets...want in?

I would, but I found a much cheaper shop that I can actually return to after the work is done The closed shop quoted me $300, the other shop $120.

SHIT! Was this PA Powderworks? Or some other shop?

Zach

No, it was TNK coatings. PA powderworks is the better one. TNK's web site says that they moved to Reading. That is only about 2hrs away

Well, luckily, the shop called me this afternoon and the guy said he found out Fri that they were moving to Reading. He said the headers were not done yet and that I could pic them up Thurs at noon.

It also looks as if Zach and I have another chance to get our seats done. Here is to hoping. I'll know for sure next week most likely.

How close is Reading to the airport?

Completely the wrong way. In other good news I just took my subie in to have the oil changed, found that it was pretty empty (nothing in the stick) and that my radiator fluid has a nice sludge in it :trohpy:

Bad luck travels in 3s! I am so happy

Time to look for a shop to fix my head gasket

I need to sell a lot of videos for this.

Just throw a t4 in it?



Sorry man, that sucks.

Heidi still working ? One word.....GARNISH !!!!!

Mike,


I am a 5 minutes from Reading if you need me to stop by and pick up your headers let me know. Do you know where the shop is?





Is this the place http://tnkcoatings.com/index.html

Scott, I dont think it is her fault. This is a common failure point with the original head gaskets and it is failing just like the others of this year and type tend to do.

Dan, thanks for the offer. I should be able to get it Thurs here in town, but if I cant I will let you know.

Regarding the suby, I am trying to decide if I want to fix it myself and save a lot of money. I might even be able to get the bus up and running before the suby could have been fixed. As it stands, the quickest a shop can look at it is Mon. It still drives, I will let Noel drive it to and from work as those are short trips. It is not overheating yet. I might be able to get the bus running by Mon. I would need a place to yank the engine and to the fix, though. It would take 2 full days. This week is suck because I have final projects to do, but if I finish my last one tonight, I can work on the bus tomorrow. I am rattling around ideas in prose if you cant tell

When was the last time that it had belts and water pump replaced?

If you are pulling the engine to do head gaskets, nearly everyone that deals with scoobs say to replace the water pump and belts.

Zach

Ya, I know. And belt tensioner, possibly. If I do it I will be doing both head gaskets and all the other stuff. Its about $200-300 if I do it and $1500+ if a shop does it from what I am reading.

I just need a space and a cherry picker.

Mike, I'd be happy to help you with whatever project(s) you want me to help with. Head gasket changes, bus assembly, sewing some upholstery... (I hope you have a LOT of thimbles)

Jim, while you are out here it is imperative that we have 2 working vehicles. So, we can work on the bus, but not the suby until the bus is up and running. If I can do the heads in the car then I can do the suby in my driveway. I need to look into that.

What we do have while you are out here:
- Transmission rebuild for Babydoll
- Stack RnR
- Stack gear swap
- Rebuild a side and tail shift on video. You may be more involved with the video than you or I previously imagined I should have you bring a monkey suit

Yikes, I am looking at the price of parts alone, gonna be about $500 for that stuff.

I have a cherry picker but no way to get it to you.

Mike, there is a engine hoist in my garage, right next to your trailer.
Infact, I borrowed your trailer in the first place to pick it up.

By the way, I still have your docs for the trailer in my Scoob. I should get that stuff back to you one day, if either one of us manages to remember....

Zach

Do it yourself, save the money. Easy to work on Subaru engines, will probably take a few hours to pull the engine, but is pretty easy to do. What year and model do you have?

1998 forester.

Zach, I can use my trailer to bring the picker up here if I can make room in my garage to work on the engine. The HOA will shit themselves if they see my pulling an engine in my driveway, though. Still planning.

I know I could do it myself, that is not a problem, I just lack the space. I have a wholesaler looking into getting the parts cheaper.

Man, I am looking into every option and a long block from one site is $3395 shipped, +$350 core. At least I know what the upper limit is.
http://www.ccrengines.com/id17.html

Hey, where are the bumper mounts that you are hinting need to be painted? and why did you not mention them last week when I was KOing paint stuff like it was my job. And what color do you want them painted.

I also shoveled a path from my garage to the back of the bus for engine installation. There is still about 6 inches of snow/ice back there, where it is not shoveled, but you now have a path and a work area behind the bus.

Zach

I did tell you that the mounts were in the back of the bus.

Thanks for hooking up the path. The Subt started to over heat, spit fluid, and die for Noel today Looks like I am needing to get the bus done this weekend/Mon. I am going to redo the rear passenger wheel bearing since I dont like how the other one went in I will have help, though.

If you want to look into another engine might I suggest calling Mike Shaffer Auto Sales, they are a used car dealership, but also have a sort of junkyard of Subarus. Not to far away in Marietta. Phone number is 717-426-4202

Thanks for the tip Good insider info.

Today was an up and down already.

The headers: I dropped them off over 2 week ago with a quote they would be done the following Mon. Not an issue as I was going to KS. Come back from KS and was told they would be dont on Fri. OK, I still wasnt in a hurry. Try to pick them up and the shop has moved with out giving me any notice. I finally get in touch with a guy that tells me to meet him today at noon and they would be done. I get there, the dude is at lunch, the other dude (mover) calls him and tells him I am waiting, 30min later (he finished his lunch) the guy arrives. The headers.......only sand blasted, not coated. He says I can get them tomorrow AM if I want them coated. He is going to do them in his daddy's garage. I take them and say good buy. Deplorable customer service.

The up, I probably have a place for my suby work. Paul is the owner of European Import Motors in Harrisburg and he said that I can work on my car there. If any one went to the MEI in Hershey last you they likely met Paul. He really is a nice guy

So, I will be pulling the engine myself and will see what is up with it from there. If it is worse than expected, I will be seeing about Mike Shaffer.

Not that close to you Doc - but Maryland Performance Coatings did my Suby header and did a very nice job. They are in Eldersburg/Sikesville and right next to a high quality powder coating shop. Those two shops get all my work now that I've found them.
FWIW - the MPC # 410-549-6122

No real web site and definitely no "posh" waiting room LOL. Usually have to drag Jeff away from the sand blaster to discuss your work! Nice guy though, and does a great ceramic coating. The kind of shop that doesn't need lots of advertising because word of mouth and return customers bring them plenty of work!



Jeff

Thanks, Jeff. There is a good place near by that Zach has used. They are less expensive and not like this other place I tried in any way.

I too know Paul. He sponsors the local autocross series. Good luck on the repairs, and with the header.

So today Jim and I went to the Corvair Ranch to pick up some parts. I have been trying to fight feature-creep, but I am only human and I just HAD to pick up the posi-traction diff for my bus....at $250 I will be cleaning it up and resealing it tonight while Jim gets his refresher course in 901 gear box rebuilding. Tomorrow we go to cupomeat productions and shoot the rebuild video. Sun we work on the bus, Mon the bus and hopefully out on the road It is early spring weather here now, thankfully.

If I don't just crash tonight after putting theo to bed, is there any more prep work that needs doing on the bus that I could do later this evening?

Paint is the only thing needed. Check and paint the engine bay where I messed the paint up. Other than that, nope. We were over at your place yesterday to pick up the starter I returned today. You didnt answer your door and I noticed the blinds to the computer room were drawn....I figured that you were, ahem, busy on the computer

heh. I had Theo duty yesterday. When were you over, i did not even hear you at the door.

About 7pm.

Ah. Theo's bath time. No way I would have heard you over the fan and his splashing and playing.

Shoulda just come in.

Zach

I got the limited slip diff cleaned up tonight. I need my seal puller which I think is at your house so I can change the seals. I cant wait to drive my bus with an LSD

I am 90% sure that the puller is in the bus. I know I saw it there before the big snowstorm last month, and I don't think that you have been around much to move it. But, stranger things have happened.

Am I going to see you guys tomorrow? or just Sunday? Seems like you are ahead of your schedule. Weather is supposed to be real nice, I was thinking about firing up the grill. First burgers and brats of the season. Maybe get Joe to come over and have a little mini-meet.

Zach

Just Sunday; we've got the long drive to the video shoot tomorrow and the video shoot.

Then he's going to let me work on his computer.

Jim has tried to work on the desk top.....now it is manifesting newer, weirder symptoms. We believe I transferred my curse over to him.

See you Sun, most likely.

Nothing really photo worthy happened last time. Jim and I removed the old diff, resealed the posi, and reinstalled it. The only issue was that I was sold the wrong torque converter seal. It was an input shaft seal for a standard so the replacement is in the mail and should be here by tomorrow. If so, the engine is going back in and the wiring and cabling is due to commence. The weather is great, thankfully.

When I got home from class last night I noticed that the back of the bus was left open. Did you do that on purpose, or would you like me to close it?

Zach

Please close it (doh).

Yesterday and today I went down to see if I could get the engine in before the rain came. I finished up the sealing and installation of the posi differential, and finalized some engine odds and ends. The engine is in today, but I need to bend the new tranz fill tube down as it is crushing the front tin. I cut out the remainder of the old heating system to get some more free space and to rid the area of another nidus for rust. I also broke the throttle cable mount loose so I could place it lower by the clutch tube. I am gonna need to cut some of the tube off, re route it, and braze a section back on. I will see. I also removed the brake assist hose and replaced it with new hose.....but I am not sure if the new hose will work. Napa gave me heater hose when I asked for vacuum hose I will be checking other locations to see if they have some.


Now what is left is wiring and cabling. Then hoping.

Gee, the guys at my NAPA knows what the hell they are doing. Unfortunately they cut back on their Saturday hours due to the economy.

Sunday hours? All the Napas here are open 9-5:30, 10-noon on sat and closed Sun. Real easy place to get parts.....if you work at night

Yeah, if it weren't for working at home, I'd never get to go there.

Still, it's nice to go to a store and say that I need parts for a small block Chevy engine without hearing the counter guy saying that '77 Corvettes didn't come with iron Vortec heads.

I did not get a chance to poke around after class last night (VERY beat), but I did note the the bus was sitting lower and suspected that you got the engine back in. Nice! Today is suppsoed to be another really nice day, and again I won't be able to play due to having Theo duty.

Zach