My project car

Funny story, at least to other people...usually. My girl left me and I decided to get drunk. My last clear memory is looking for some rims for my crappy 1995 Mazda 626, and I awake with a splitting head-ache. I follow my usual routine and go downstairs to get my cigs that I usually leave in the garage the night before, and low and behold I find a car in my garage. No one was in my home, I was like wow where did this come from?. I then proceeded to check the rooms in my house to make sure that no one was there. I then decided someone would surely call about it and decided not to worry. In my hungover state I went to watch tv, and as I sat on my couch I heard a krinkle. Low and behold, there was a bill of sale.

I then found my phone and tried to track the previous night. So, apparently I decided to buy a car around 2am that had two broken pulleys, a dead battery, and to boot a blown head gasket for $500. I then called the junkyard to see what they would give me for this heap in my garage, they said they would give me $550, hurray $50 profit lol. Then I decided to take a second look so I fired up the old internet machine, and by the almighty powers of google, I found out I had an incredible piece of awesome in my garage. So I replaced the idler and tensioner pulleys and put on the s/c belt, replaced the air filter, also left the battery on the trickle charger for a while. She fired right up and ran well. It was time for the car wash, I got my neighbor, and we both cleaned the crap out of it. Almost $20 later at the car wash....it was acceptably clean for now. So I then called my mechanic friend and had him take a look at it and he said he didn't think the head gasket was blown but that the oil cooler was leaking into the coolant.

I bought a new S/C coupler since the current one is F***ed and got a new OEM radiator. I saw a great write up on here for making your own ram-air intake by nawarkk and followed it.

I painted it red and became addicted to the look of it. So I then painted the strut bars, fuse box cover, the battery tie down and the dog bones are currently drying.


I yanked the front bumper off, taped it, sanded it, primed it, and started painting. Here comes the red.


Obviously I have a lot more to do, to include the WS6 hood and all of the proper and necessary mods to get down to a 3.4 in pulley on the S/C, but those will come with more cash.

I will update after the exhaust and input would be much appreciated.

Thanks
ShanerGTP

So what your saying is that losing your girlfriend was a good thing right?

Wow, I gotta see this in person when I cruise back to Cove. What a deal.

Helluva story! U should call junkyard back and sell them the Mazda

Sent from my SGH-T679 using Tapatalk 2

so no title? only bill of sale?

Title is on the way, the Mazda I gotta keep till November, as far as the girlfriend who the hell know lmao

Good to see another Black and Red car. I've done pretty much the same things you have, Check mine out if you need any ideas.

Not a bad little project, if the body is all straight you'll have a winner in no time. A Couple grand can take these from basic to amazing in no time flat.

If you haven't read them already, give these a look over. Best plan is to make sure the car is problem free before you start really modding.
http://www.grandprixforums.net/97-03...ems-60802.html (The 97-03 W-body buyers guide / Common problems)

http://www.grandprixforums.net/safel...0-a-67580.html (Safely Modding Your 3800!)

http://www.grandprixforums.net/ultim...0-a-49055.html (The Ultimate Cheap Mod Thread (Free to $50))

Good job so far tho, I like it.

Thank you, I read a coue of threads when I first realized what I had to learn about the car. The first I read was safely modding your 3800.will the radiator replaced and the system flushed I will see if oil starts creeping back into the radiator. If it does crap. If not hurray me lol. Through out the common problems thread I noticed a coue of things I will need to look into. Also I know now that the tranny has been replaced. However when I removed the coolant lines off the radiator the fluid was almost brown. I have drained all the fluids from the car and want to choke the previous owner the oil looked like black tar, regular maintince was not done. However, now she has a loving owner and its all up hill from here out. I am thinking of painting my stocks black to match. Slowly but surely this will become a beast

Off the jack stands another pic or two
looks sexy
Side note this hilarious

Lol that is funny.

And your story is too.

Good job, for new owners knowledge is key. We have all heard this and that from people who think they know what is right. There are tons of people here that have done the wrong things and learned from them. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Most problems can be fixed with a simple search in the how-to section, but if you can't find something, just ask. We're here to help and glad to see you fixing a good car back up.

While working on the car today I saw whisp of smoke coming from the middle spark plug on the front or from right below there.... Any ideas?

if checked your oil and then the stick dripped on the manifold, that could cause a wisp of smoke as it gets hot. done it ans seen it happen.

or your front valve cover could be leaking.

I had just checked the oil so hopefully that was it, not in the mood to replace the seal on the front valve cover lol

That's exactly what the problem was, thank you

with the coolant in oil, you may have a leaking lower intake manifold gasket. check to see if you have the aluminum gaskets. should see metal gaskets between lower manifold where they meet the heads

There was no coolant in the oil, just oil in the coolant, you would think if it was going to leak it would leak both ways.... Oh well I have no problem turning wrenches, so if you come up with another idea let me know. I will check it out. Soon I want to buy a head gasket kit and replace all of them

its kinda impossible for oil to get into the coolant. maybe your seeing dex sludge, or tranny fluid.


unless you have a oil cooler in the radiator.

It was sludge of some sort i thought it looked like oil though i could be wrong. I did replace the radiator a few days ago. Just came across a new problem, the bolt where you change the oil in the super charger is stripped out... What should I do?