1969-1984 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Hey all -
I've been pretty wrapped up with my Master's thesis for the past few months and I relized I kinda dropped off the radar here after this summer.
Anyway, I've been steadily putting everyone's advice into action with my '78 99 T and I can tell you that it has been transformed from a rusting, kind of unreliable get-around-town most of the time car into a way less rusty and a bit more reliable get-around-town and even long distances car.
So far I have done subpar bodywork (ground off the nasty, flaking rust, treated with some pseudo-anti rust, bondo, primer and paint), patched some bad holes in the body (see bondo, bondo & more bondo + some aluminum screen) and I have become accustomed to the stupid fuse box and the fact that fuses will just corrode, then blow, stranding me momentarily or causing the radiator fan to stop working (with a resultant boilover), etc. I replaced sparks, wires, air filter, tranny oil, a wheel bearing, rotted out suspension bushings and the valve cover gaskets + that vent plug thingy.
So - in short, thanks for all of the advice. I now roll around, albeit slowly, in style because as long as I am moving nobody can see the low spots in the paint where I didn't totally use body filler or the fact that the paint doesn't match all that well cuz it is "graphite metallic grey" from Autozone,
meant, I beleive, for Hondas. But the car rocks.
Now for the big question: It has gotten cold here in SLC, UT as of late, and I found that my 10W-40 oil had turned to goo, making it hard for the motor to turn over and thus hard to start. I did change the oil to 10W-30 and ran some fuel injector cleaner through, but what is wierd now is that my heater went from full-on heat, all the time (prior owner removed the cabin thermostat valve) to little or no heat. BUT... now the car seems to run a lot warmer than before (used to run around the middle of the temp guage, now it is at the upper 1/3, near the "H", and that is when it is 30 F outside or cooler!)- also the radiator fan comes on a lot more. After the aforementioned boilover, it seems like my thermostat is being wierd and the car was having an issue where it would warm up, then cut out. As soon as it got to operating temp (in cold weather, this took a few minutes at idle) - it just died, as if fuel was being cut off. It warmed up here again and the car seems to be starting and running fine.
Is the starting issue, the motor temp and the cabin temp stemming from a bad thermostat or maybe a combination of issues?
I've got a box of thermostats, mostly 89 and 82 C, maybe an 87 C in there - would swapping out the thermostat for an 82 help (dump engine heat sooner to the radiator)? Or what?
Thanks and regards,
Aaron McD
posted by 155.97.8...
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