The Blue Rajah - sort of no more

[King_V]

Ok, so a few of you have been midly interested/alarmed at The Blue Rajah, which I mentioned

• in this thread
• and in this thread

While I got it to the point that it was running great, the "bits of surface rust" rapidly escalated to "large expanses of surface rust"

HOWEVER.... that wasn't the problem. As it turns out, a buddy of mine had a somewhat older, unusual daily driver as his only car that is his baby. Well, it broke down with rather pricey problems that he'll have to save up for to get fixed.

So, he expressed interest in The Blue Rajah, knowing that, if nothing else, it was absolutely reliable. I sold it to him for what I had in it - and I do see it on occasion during game night with the guys. It's been getting him to work every day since March when I sold it to him.

Thus, it's in my hands no more.

I was actually shocked when he said it failed emissions. I knew it needed a tune up, but:

HC: 300 ppm max allowed, reading in the low to mid 400s range
CO: 0.01%

Whoa! That HAS to be an insufficient spark issue. No way the HC is that high and the CO that low if it were running too rich.

Then, the last time he came by, he gave me a ride somewhere and it was running rough. Turns out the spark plug wire for the #2 cylinder had simply slipped off the plug. Put it back on, he took it back to inspection, and it passed with flying colors. We didn't even get to the tuneup and oil change until after passing inspection.

I'm kind of proud of that, actually.

Also, he does state his intent to apply some kind of rust treatment, then primer/sealer or a cheap bit of rattle can paint, just to prevent the rust from getting worse.

Is it a bad thing that I'm looking (though not with much effort) for another dirt-cheap, anti-project car?

 

[1evilregal]

I'm always on the lookout for another dirt-cheap anti-project car.... wife hates it, I spend way too much on it after it becomes a project.....


but, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that!

 

[King_V]

I'm always on the lookout for another dirt-cheap anti-project car.... wife hates it, I spend way too much on it after it becomes a project.....


but, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that!

I'm told there's a 12 step program for us, but really, I don't need it! I swear!

 

[King_V]

Oh, I should also point out....

The very day I made that post, about my friend having it, and it being absolutely reliable, my friend calls me. Says it's leaking a little coolant, and can we fix it.

I assume it's a water pump, and remember them being not too bad on this motor, so I go to take a look. Definitely not the water pump, but leaking very minimally.

Until he started it.

Ok, well, looks like it's the lower radiator hose, right where it attaches to the radiator. I hope.

Get it to my place, and it's hemorrhaging coolant. We drive out to a parts store, and get a lower hose, clamps, antifreeze, etc. Took off the upper half of the shroud, made it WAY easier to get to the upper hose at the water pump.

It still leaks. It's the radiator. Call around, and one parts store has the radiator. But, they said, it's the heavy-duty one. Bonus, it's cheaper than the standard one, which is out of stock.

Well, Blue Rajah has the standard. 3-core on the passenger side, and the main section and the driver side is 2-core. We drive out there, 20 or so minutes each way, get the radiator.

Have to hack up the rubber supports on the driver side so it sorta kinda fits better... (that rubber is WAY tougher than you'd imagine), get things back together, it's getting dark, but it's DONE.

About 5 hours total if you include initial inspection and mis-diagnosis, driving back and forth to get parts, etc. and that I was hyper-cautious because it's not MY car that I'm working on.

So, I am pretty sure that had I *not* posted earlier that day about how absolutely reliable it's been, everything would've been just fine.