Blake Noble

Awww ... :/

Like I said in the other thread, I definitely approve. I've been seeing what's out there locally. Sadly, this is all I could find: http://lexington.craigslist.org/cto/1913870158.html On the truck hunt, I found this: http://lexington.craigslist.org/cto/1909044977.html Low mileage, affordable, five-speed, maybe not a V8 but I think most SXTs had at least a V6 but ... drum roll, please ... it has a rebuilt title.

Which car do I get to keep? The Monte? I'll take the Accord only if I get the Monte too.

Whoa, noyce. I dig it. If I could find a car or truck like that locally ...

Oooh. I approve. A useful convertible truck. You think GM would have tried to match that with the SSR, but nope. Sad, though, because when I was on You Tube recently checking out Dakota vids, a perfect example of one of those trucks (with the 5.2L V8 no less) had been handed over to Cash for Clunkers. Someone seemed to think the truck had been rescued, but no one could confirm it.

Realized there was a spelling error in the previous one, so I reworked the whole thing. Much nicer now. Also throwing some lyrics in outside of the sig too because, well, hell why not?

The quality sucks (thanks Photobucket!). I uploaded it here so it won't look like complete ess-ayche-eye-tee. EDIT: Playing around with the size and hold long the last frames hold for. Bear with me.

Paying school tax on everything.

I've gotten a few quotes. I don't have them handy, but I think one placed quoted me something like $650. There are, of course, two shops that I refuse to take anything to. One is known for poor service, the other has actually ripped me off in the past, replacing and charging me for parts that I didn't need.

I know that, DF. I'm going to have to find a dealer to unload this car on.

I've had that stuck in my head because I kept mishearing the lyrics to the verses. Sort of drove me nuts. "Boom-chick lush and ultra fine"?

Uh, okay. So the 3.8L V6 Camaro can only get 1 mpg better than an LS1 Camaro in the city? There isn't much gain on the highway, either. I smell a conspiracy. I know for a fact some LS1 F4 owners have gotten as high as 27 to 30 mpg combined. I remember getting an average as high as 33 mpg on a trip with my car before it started biting the dust. Even still, at the moment, I can still average a decent number. Throwing this out there, the Aura is rated at 20/30. It's only been able to average 25 mpg since we bought it brand new. I don't know why, but I find that disappointing. EDIT: Looked up some numbers for a 5.2L Dakota Sport. That particular truck with a manual gets worse gas mileage than the same truck with an automatic. Say what?

Oh, it is. Finding a low mileage F4 Firebird/Camaro is quite uncommon. It's not rare to find a Trans Am like I mentioned earlier (there's two cars that fit the guidelines on Craigslist right now) but it isn't easy. I don't see that changing in two years, either. There will be decent newer model vehicles I can buy used with decent mileage in two years. Chargers, 300s, Challengers, Camaros, Mustangs, and a handful of trucks mostly. I can find something I can live with, so either way, I'm not worried about it. What I am worried about is what I'm going to do in the short-term here. I need to find something that will make it the next two years without nickeling and diming me to hell and back, that I like, and that can still give me some service after I replace it. I think a truck really is the way to go here. I also have an ATV that isn't getting any use. I'd like to have something to haul that around in that won't absolutely kill me getting it to where I want to take it (another reason why the two S-Series trucks I had were useless, a payload like that would bog the truck down in traffic and it was beyond grueling). You're exactly right. And that brings me into one of my big pet-peeves with American society: the disposable, apathetic attitude we have toward major purchases, like cars. (That's a different topic, though.) I know I may be guilty of that to some degree, but I try my damn hardest to keep my stuff in top shape. I want to keep whatever car I have running good. It's just that, out of the six cars I've owned (Cutlass doesn't count; that was a project, also one I recently started sharing with my dad, and I don't drive it daily and probably never will), financial sense kicked in and sort of shown me the bigger picture. However, I like spending money on cosmetic mods and audio upgrades. They're projects. I can do them myself. Of course, I don't mind spending money on maintenance ... if it doesn't hit me all at one time. If I have to replace a serpentine belt on my next oil change, fine. That's okay. I can deal with that. I don't like it when, just 10 or 20 miles later after I replaced that belt something else starts to fail and that pattern keeps repeating until I've essentially repaired most of the damn car. That's when a car becomes a money pit and there's only so much of that I can spend on and tolerate. Again, no argument here. I guess the dudes who own Pennzoil must really love me then. I run nothing but synthetic oil through everything that I get behind the wheel of. Now, I was aware of the 3.4L cars doing that. One reason why I haven't owned or bought one. I hate that picture, so that means I gotta do this right this one last time, 100 percent, no stone left unturned, etc., etc. Hmmm ... strange. Sort of what I'm thinking. I know the writing is on the wall for the car, and I see the engine failing in a matter of a few short months. I honestly don't have the cash to pay someone to do this job as soon as it should be done. I have an $800 dollar credit card bill to pay for Adobe CS5 and my textbooks. College has to come first for the next two years. That's another reason why keeping a money pit for a daily driver just doesn't make sense for me. Like I said, I'll be heading out of town on a short trip this weekend, and I plan on continuously monitoring the degradation of the engine oil, seeing if it gets milkier. Ultimately, I know I have to find a way to unload this car, I just don't know how to go about doing that. A dealer won't be reasonable and trade even for what I would like to have, and I don't want to pawn it off on some unsuspecting buyer, that completely runs against my sense of right and wrong. [insert how many does it take joke here]

The oil is beginning to lighten in color. It's just about due for a oil change, and it isn't the typical dark brown/black color. It's about the color of coffee with a bit of milk or cream added to it. It looks nothing like clean oil, either.

101 problems: you can't keep black clean. I'm digging Fireworks CS5. I'll start adding a bit of pizazz to the next one, adding borders to the images and doing crap with brushes, stuff like that. I also wonder if there is an easier way to make images fade in and out rather than doing a bunch of frames/states and screwing with the opacity ...

LOOK AT ME! MY ATTENTION WHORE ASS MADE A GIF! LOOK AT ME!

loloki

Perhaps, but I know I couldn't do it that quick. That's the thing, the car has had a flush-and-fill at some point during its life, how well that job was performed, I don't know. It currently does have Prestone in it. But, I can see some places were some of the old Dex-Cool has hung around; on the radiator cap, some crud in the overfill bottle, small places like that. I've actually been ignorant to them this entire time. I'm very frustrated with myself over that. I'm also annoyed that GM just had to find a way to destroy a perfectly good V6 engine by using cheap frigging gaskets. I can see why it used to be hip to hate GM, they really made some dumb ass decisions. The cheapest I can find a low-mileage LS1, with the transmission intact, to swap into the Camaro looks to run about $3,000. That idea is out. Well, I'm not going to buy another 3.8L (or 3.4L) F-Body car. When I graduate from college, I'll seek out a nice 2002 Trans Am with under 35,000 miles. If I can't secure a loan for that, then I'll move on to something else, like a used Challenger or F5 Camaro and just wash my hands of this preference of mine for good. 3.8L F-Bodies typically aren't treated very well. I can see that now. And finding a decent one is a.) difficult and b.) too damn expensive for what you're getting. Also, I'll never own another "lady-driven" car. My Camaro was driven by the wife of a local preacher. While she may not have ragged the car out cosmetically, I now know for sure she beat the hell out of it mechanically, probably by declining to maintain the car when it really needed it or failing to understand how to keep the car on a tight maintenance schedule. That might sound chauvinistic, but screw it: it's true that a lot of women do not understand how to maintain a damn car. I haven't checked the progress of the fluids today ... I think I'll go do that, just to see how far along this has gotten. The car is now starting to run at 210 degrees, and that's pretty hot for a 3.8. Before the intake gasket started to go, the needle wouldn't go above 160.

US 421 has always been an interesting road for me to travel on. Locally, there aren't many sections of it that have expanded into major four lane thoroughfares, but outside of the state, around Bristol I believe, it really opens up. Local sections of 421 can be pretty challenging to drive on as well. There's also Route 160 out in Lynch that traverses Black Mountain, the highest point in the state. That road is a real test of skill and handling and, if the roads are bad, it's not one that you would want to travel on. It's actually one of my favorite roads of all time. Oh, btw KF, I got your PM about those die-cast cars. I tried sending an e-mail, but I've been having a lot of issues with Windstream's e-mail/servers lately. If you'd still like to know anything about them, shoot me a PM here anytime.

I'm going by what I've read and I can see why it would take so long and why labor is so expensive. Some threads I've read: http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/general-maintenance-repairs/368558-intake-gasket-replacement.html http://camaroforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49527 http://www.fbodyonline.com/forum/f15/intake-gasket-20414/ EDIT: Found out the reason why the 3.8 is prone to leaking intake gaskets; upper: EGR placement, lower: residual Dex-Cool turning into acidic sludge. Wow. Thanks, Dex-Cool. I've also been reading that, when one gasket starts to go, its best to just replace them all. I would really hate to kill a car, but I'm so tempted to drive the Camaro until the gasket breaks down to the point where it would leak so much it would hydrolock the damn engine. If I ever own another F-Body car, and knowing me I will, I'll make damn sure it has an LS1 and under 35,000 miles. No more 3.8L 100k+ bullshit. Like this T/A: http://louisville.craigslist.org/cto/1909106451.html If a car like that is out there in two-years time, I'll gladly buy it as gift to myself.

The car can be driven, DF. The clutch is no longer an issue. I actually drove it yesterday from to London and back and then to Richmond and I'm going out of town with it this weekend, maybe have a family friend and mechanic give me a second opinion while I'm there. The Camaro now has one small issue I see turning into a big problem eventually: the intake gasket. I think it's just started to go bad. I haven't noticed coolant mixing in with other fluids yet (this weekend's trip will also serve as a test). And it's not that the parts to fix it are expensive, it's the labor that will rape you. From what I've gathered, this is about a 2 to 5 day job; 2 days for a pro, 5 for a shade-tree mechanic. As I've said, I don't completely trust myself enough to do the job and from what I've been reading up on, I don't even have the proper place to do it. People have said, in order to make this job less of a bitch to do, it's better if you can get the car up on a lift to remove the spark plugs and exhaust manifolds. And still, it's a pissy job because there is very little room around the back of the engine to work. I only see one way I would be keeping this car: if I could transplant a low-mileage LS1 and a six-speed in it. I would personally rather find a way to hold out until I get out of college and buy something that will treat me right. That means I have to find something that will last me two years that I'll enjoy owning. Not down here. Agreed.

The Safari Sport is an excellent phantom conversion, but the second-gen S-10 taillights just don't do it for me at all. I think a stock '80s ElCamino bumper with integrated lights would have done just fine and would have presented the truck with convincing factory appearance.

I guess the guy with the R/T wasn't interested in the Camaro. Oh well then. Ahye dunt geddit. Speak sum Anglish. I hit a snag when I started looking at full-sized trucks: the mileage and the condition of the truck. Everything under $4500 has a lot of mileage, is in relatively poor condition, or both. Three-grand for this? Uh, I don't think so. http://louisville.craigslist.org/ctd/1914462993.html This really ties in with the other thread on used car prices. This is absolute insanity. The Silverado you found actually seems quite nice, though. It would be even nicer if it had low mileage (120K and under). It may be worth looking into, but I would rather buy it with cash and not try to work out a trade on it. On that note, I really do want to sell it but that presents some issues. How do I sell the car at a fair price where I won't completely loose my money and still let the buyer know what issues it does have? Is $4,000 too much? I know I won't see most of the $1,200 that I've dumped in it, but if I could make the purchase price back, I'd be more than happy to see it go.

He didn't like the gold-on-black scheme? Son, I am disappoint.

Thangs that makeya go "buhhhhh."