In a previous post I mentioned a car we had that was awaiting work, well really it was a matter of me determining whether it would be fixed up for future use and/or sale, or scrapped. I did get an oil filter and oil along with an air filter for starters. The next thing I got was a fuel filter and a battery. The intent was going to be to use the battery to put power on the fuel pump then disconnect the fuel line so I can change out the fuel filter but before putting the new filter on I would jumper out the fuel pump relay to turn the pump on manually so I can pump out the old fuel from the tank.
Something told me when I put the battery in to just crank the engine for shits and giggles. When I hit the key I got the click of the starter but nothing more, it engaged, but no crank. I tried cranking over the thing manually with a breaker bar and socket on the crank pulley bolt but even that wasn't happening. One little factoid though. When I drained the oil, a quart of water came out first. That was definitely not a good sign. Well with the lack of cranking upon turning the key, it confirmed what I suspected, this engine was fucked. Apparently the engine probably had a head gasket failure (which these engines are known for, fucking 3.8L V6) and when they parked it the water had its chance to wreak havoc on the internals. There was no saving this POS. At that rate I didn't even have to think about it, I just started removing bolts, commencing the disassembly of the vehicle, starting with the cooling fan. The intent with the fan is to use it in the Monte Carlo in place of the belt driven fan that's in the car now. After I pulled the fan I kept going and pulled a shit load of parts off. The radiator, headlight housings, air cleaner box, radiator hoses, fenders, hood, front and rear bumpers, trunk lid, taillights,along with some brackets and other pieces that came off in the process of pulling off the other bigger parts, all came off in the few hours I had with the car. I still have the doors and the interior to disassemble though. I cleaned the trunk of garbage as well and will pull some parts from the engine compartment. There's a shitload of parts to pull off and if I play my cards right I will make back the money I spent on the car and then some. Then even after I get through selling off the parts there's still the matter of hauling the carcass to the junkyard to cash out on that too. This is just another example of how I needed to try to get to this project at the very beginning as we could've had this thing broken down and scrapped out by now. The car's been sitting for a good couple of months or so up until now, I could've easily broken it down and scrapped the rest. We do have another vehicle that will probably undergo the same treatment, my mom's old Ford Explorer. Since that one has a shit ton of miles on it and its had an issue with starting that I still can't pinpoint since there is no fault to indicate a malfunction (other than an overly worn engine), it only makes sense to start breaking this one down too so I can gather a batch of salable parts. The other kicker is the idea that after I break this one down, I can break it down enough to get the body off the frame and have a perfectly usable frame for one of the old Mustang body on frame conversions I've been planning on. Other than the work to break everything down, it sounds like a win/win for me as well as the homestead as it'll get yet more junk out of the way.
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