yeah i usually didnt believe that BS until this week.

wednesday:

leaving college (in lakeland), in my 240sx, turboed 6 days earlier, wastegate and the runner tube leading to it decided to divorce from the manifold. apparently the shitty welds were having an affair with the t3 flange...so they broke up...bad. hooray for having a big friggin hole in my manifold. luckily its only 5 minutes from my house. so super open header style sounds with no boost or power got me home. luckily, the manifold was a pretty clean break, and nothing was sucked into the turbine housing. the hairline crack did extend around to the top of the manifold.

so it sits.



thursday:

my brother, at school in orlando, driving his 240sx. his intercooler mounts broke, and it falls to the ground at probably like 45mph. being a top to bottom mount, the endtank is what contacts the ground and before he can get pulled over to the side of the road, the endtank get a golf ball sized hole rubbed in it.

his car sits. at least he has a bicycle and lives basically on campus at UCF.

friday:

mom and i going to brandon to do some christmas shopping. her car...a 2000 camry le....5s-fe 4 cylinder...65,000 miles....no problems....ever. i was eyeing some ricers as she drove...and was checking out this mint silver datsun 280z at a stop light when i hear gurgling....or boiling....uhhh okay.

"hey mom, thats your car making that noise...lets pull into walgreens there right quick"

as she goes to switch into the right lane to turn off the road...its gets REAL bad...and as we turn into walgreens the oil light comes on and im like omg wtf!!!! then it stalls....we luckily have enough momentum to roll into like a parking space. i step out into a steaming pool of liquid hot magma, er coolant...GUSHING off the back of the oil pan area....fucking great. look at engine, timing cover has coolant splattered stains on it, belts probably whipped it around...

luckily i was on my way to my buddy Al's house to drop off my manifold parts for me to get new stuff made...he comes over and we inspect the plugs....dry. radiator and hoses are good, but bone dry. heater hoses okay. cant see in the back too well...initial diagnosis is a hose we cant see exploded....or worse yet, an expansion plug perhaps? then we notice....hey water pump is right there where the stains are near....so being its a FWD with a transverse engine setup we cant see it too well....towed home.....no xmas shopping....dad is law enforcement and he's stuck in green swamp up north by sumter county doing grid searches for that old man who got lost the wed before thanksgiving (and havnt found anything yet, mind you). so like no cell phone signal way out there cant get ahold of him. he gets home and we try to start it after putting water back in the radiator...(i didnt start it at walgreens due to no coolant and just didnt wanna fuck it up worse). it doesnt start...sounds like the bottoms spinning but not the top end....yay guess the timing belt decided to break too.

luckily toyota's have good non-interference motors...its currently at toyota and they say it was water pump and timing belt. *fingers crossed* it should be finished by 4pm. and HOPEFULLY that non-interference part stays true and there are no bent valves or blown headgaskets or other stupid shit.


so 3 diff cars....3 diff cities....3 days IN A ROW.


needless to say last night and tonight involve lots of alcohol...

we got a 2002 tundra with like 18,000 miles on it here still. and my dad has a police interceptor as his work car....so i hope camry gets fixed today or else tonight im sitting at home doing absolutely jack shit. (anyone wanna come visit/pick me up?)

at least my mom's car hopefully doesnt turn out to be too bad...my brothers car just needs to get a real FMIC kit which is expensive but it was on his list next anyways....

my car is gonna get a new quality TIG welded stainless manifold and a FULL 3 inch downpipe and exhaust too if he has time to fab it for me....and if we have enough time still, i'll ditch my sidemount and get a bling FMIC too haha. gonna just take my time and let it get done right.


/Rant.

 

damn dan, why didnt you IM me that your car was finished??? lol i had no idea...well congrats! and bummer about the manifold....that is some crazy stuff happening to everyone....damn, good luck, and hopefully your mom will ahve her car back soon, that sucks!

 

I'm right there with you man. You can only cure frustration with a few cold ones. Good luck getting the car back on the road.

 

update:

the camry lives. only ~700 and change including the wimpy 10 mile (at best) tow.

also, gonna have some time off from school starting around the 17th...if anyone wants to hit up a bar and just chill out, i'd love to join or be joined.

 

I'm ALWAYS down for alchahol and bitching about cars. Lemme know.

Sorry about your luck, it could be worse...ask my mom about her car luck where the blub blub sound was water filling her car. At least everything will work itself out and all cars will be back on the road better than they were a few days ago.

 

yes school is winding down, so soon i shall have nothing but work for about 3 weeks....so off days will be partying and random tomfoolery and douchebaggery.

its just wierd because ive never had "downtime" on my car before, other than like a day or two...and those werent from something breaking, usually me doing a larger scale project or something. hopefully i make out with some blingin' goodies then if i get my clutch for xmas ill FINALLY friggin make it to a track day to drive....