What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Dans cheating, he has a hoist in his yard. The rest of us have to work in the gutter.

 

Best tool I ever bought. Has a rolling jack also, makes some things almost fun to work on.

 

I drove the Mercury about 20 miles and bought a bottle of Amsoil Gas Stabilizer then put it in the tank before filling up the remainder of the tank with 7.5 gallons of E0 fuel for winter storage. The temperature gauge never got hot on this trip so I checked the hoses; I need to change the thermostat again because the failsafe thermostat's permanently open. Thankfully, I bought the replacement years ago.

There are a few other things that messed up on the Mercury lately:

1: The Odometer's broken (the trip meter still works though; )
2: The driver window's not going down and it sounds like the track's messed up so I don't want to lower the window.

The grease boots still need replaced up front and I never changed the tires this year.

 

What's a rolling jack Dan? I think I know and can see part of it in a picture. Can you post a pic of it?

 

Moves front to back to pick up the body ,suspension etc .

 

Dang it I want one of those.

 

It has a 3.5 inline 5 cylinder engine Chevy Colorado 4x4

 

I think it's basically 5/6ths of the straight 6 that came in the Trailblazer......

 

Yeah. I was afraid of that. If there is a head issue, the normal time to just remove and replace the head is FOURTEEN hours. But, there are ways to do the head removal, without removing the timing covers from the front of the engine and all that happy horse hockey. Youtube and Chev/GMC forums are your friends on this.

 

Yeah... one of THOSE engines. I forget exactly what the issue was one the one we had at the shop. Something easy like like replacing a main vacuum hose and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get to the end attached to that big air intake box on the top. My buddy goes to look it up on all data and the procedure was to cut a panel out of the top of the air box to easily access the tube inside. It went something like that. I just remember not believing him about cutting the box like that.

 

I know it's just a machine, a means of transportation, but I am so nervous that Old Rusty, so named because of his color not his condition, that this may mean the end of this family member. He may need to be put down if it proves to costly to repair. Tomorrow will tell our next step.

 

But he just got a new paint job didn’t he?!? I like the name “ol rusty” . Oh well. Sell it and buy a chevy

 

I thought Ol' Rusty Was a Chevy, if not a Jimmy. And if you don't want to repair the engine, simply find another in good-running condition. I mean, if Ol' Rusty has been taken care of, not clapped out, has a new paint job, even just swapping in a used engine is way ahead of buying another vehicle for which you have to deal with its problems.

 

Rust chasing on the Suburban time:

1: Buy a quarter panel.
2: Take off rear plastic wheel arch covers.
3: These arches need replaced too.
4: Try getting into welding the rear quarter panel on; find it's too expensive.
5: Buy a panel bonding adhesive gun and adhesive like pictured below.
6: Buy the rest of the parts needed as listed below:

1: Rear Wheel Arch, Left
2: Rear Wheel Arch, Right
3: Rear Front Quarter Panel, Left
4: Rear Front Quarter Panel, Right

The "rear front" quarter panels (AKA "doglegs;" they go between the wheel arches and middle doors) extend to the wheel arches and one needed replaced beyond the arch anyway.

I'm also considering rerouting the tailpipe so it doesn't rust the next quarter panel I put there.

Here's the glue gun I mentioned:

 

We have been looking for another parts truck o perhaps change the motor if needed, they are not as available in our neck of the woods as you might think.
The compression check was done and it's low. However, they ran some combustion cleaner through it trying to burn off carbon build up. They plan to repeat the process tomorrow and run the test again. Assuming the test comes out well he is going to need a manifold, I got one priced out from Rock Auto and hubby has been pricing them out around here. So fingers crossed, we'll see what tomorrow brings.
And to just clear up the confusion Old Rusty is a Chevy Colorado.