OBXboost
November 23rd, 2007, 05:32 PM
Well as posted in the introduction thread, my car's been down for fixing and upgrades since January and I wanted to share the story that has gone along with the whole ownership of the car.
I bought this car in August of 2003 on a whim because I had always wanted this exact car and the impulse was just too much to bear while I was in PA for a friend's wedding. Crazy how that happens huh? Well about a couple of months after owning it, it spun the main crank bearing. At that time I was still very new around here and couldn't find anyone that wanted to work on it or not jerk me around on a price to fix it. Some one recommended I take it to Marty Tubbs in Manns Harbour and I called him up and he seemed legit so I had him work on it. I had him replace the bearings, the crank and the clutch. All in all, he charged me about $3,800 for the whole job and that was with me taking him all the parts.
Here is what I know for certain when I picked the car up:
The clutch was stiff as a brick when trying to engage it
Annnnnd the night I got it back, I took it to Greenville to put some break in miles on the motor and clutch. While waiting in a McDonald's parking lot, my car started to SPEW coolant.
We waited for the car to cool down and got some more coolant and topped it off and watched the temps the rest of the night while going home. The next day I called him to let him know my concern and his response was that cars can do that after motor work has been done. WTF.
Those are the two things I know for certain that were messed up and this entire time, I keep finding more things that in my mind were screwed up at his shop, but they are just assumptions. But as far as what caused the problems, the clutch was stiff because they installed the clutch booster line on backwards and the car continued to spew coolant because the fan prop was broken clean off the fan motor and reinstalled that way. It left a nice ring on my radiator. I didn't discover it until a few months later. So once again their was no way to prove it, but I knew it didn't just happen on its own.
Fast forward to the past few weeks.
I made close friends with a guy from Deleware who is an absolutely great mechanic when it comes to 3000GTs and Stealths and he agreed to make a few trips down here to help me with me car (and keep in mind that this car hasn't had the motor removed from this car since I had the crank problem) and when it got pulled, the comment was made that he was surprised how my car was actually running. There were bolts missing, threads stripped and some parts were even missing. :eek:
Anyway, on the first trip, Greg got my motor and trans removed. I took the trans up to DE Auto in Moyock to have 3rd gear and 3rd gear synchro replaced. I'll give a review on them when I drive the car. I was finally able to track down a 3rd gear synchro (in England) and called Greg once the trans was back together and had a full list of parts in that he had made a list on his first trip for me to buy.
His second trip down was going soooo smoothly. We got the motor and trans in after installing the turbos, clutch and flywheel (that Pugh's in Nags Head charged me $100 to resurface) and a lot of other miscellanious parts (brand new feed and return oil lines, powder coated windshield wipers by J&S Racing, new bolts, turbo studs and things like that) and started to reconnect everything else. I'm waiting on one last part which thanks to obxmush, I will have tomorrow afternoon and will hopefully be driving this car this weekend under wastegate pressure only, until I get a good fuel tune.
Wish us luck.
I bought this car in August of 2003 on a whim because I had always wanted this exact car and the impulse was just too much to bear while I was in PA for a friend's wedding. Crazy how that happens huh? Well about a couple of months after owning it, it spun the main crank bearing. At that time I was still very new around here and couldn't find anyone that wanted to work on it or not jerk me around on a price to fix it. Some one recommended I take it to Marty Tubbs in Manns Harbour and I called him up and he seemed legit so I had him work on it. I had him replace the bearings, the crank and the clutch. All in all, he charged me about $3,800 for the whole job and that was with me taking him all the parts.
Here is what I know for certain when I picked the car up:
The clutch was stiff as a brick when trying to engage it
Annnnnd the night I got it back, I took it to Greenville to put some break in miles on the motor and clutch. While waiting in a McDonald's parking lot, my car started to SPEW coolant.
We waited for the car to cool down and got some more coolant and topped it off and watched the temps the rest of the night while going home. The next day I called him to let him know my concern and his response was that cars can do that after motor work has been done. WTF.
Those are the two things I know for certain that were messed up and this entire time, I keep finding more things that in my mind were screwed up at his shop, but they are just assumptions. But as far as what caused the problems, the clutch was stiff because they installed the clutch booster line on backwards and the car continued to spew coolant because the fan prop was broken clean off the fan motor and reinstalled that way. It left a nice ring on my radiator. I didn't discover it until a few months later. So once again their was no way to prove it, but I knew it didn't just happen on its own.
Fast forward to the past few weeks.
I made close friends with a guy from Deleware who is an absolutely great mechanic when it comes to 3000GTs and Stealths and he agreed to make a few trips down here to help me with me car (and keep in mind that this car hasn't had the motor removed from this car since I had the crank problem) and when it got pulled, the comment was made that he was surprised how my car was actually running. There were bolts missing, threads stripped and some parts were even missing. :eek:
Anyway, on the first trip, Greg got my motor and trans removed. I took the trans up to DE Auto in Moyock to have 3rd gear and 3rd gear synchro replaced. I'll give a review on them when I drive the car. I was finally able to track down a 3rd gear synchro (in England) and called Greg once the trans was back together and had a full list of parts in that he had made a list on his first trip for me to buy.
His second trip down was going soooo smoothly. We got the motor and trans in after installing the turbos, clutch and flywheel (that Pugh's in Nags Head charged me $100 to resurface) and a lot of other miscellanious parts (brand new feed and return oil lines, powder coated windshield wipers by J&S Racing, new bolts, turbo studs and things like that) and started to reconnect everything else. I'm waiting on one last part which thanks to obxmush, I will have tomorrow afternoon and will hopefully be driving this car this weekend under wastegate pressure only, until I get a good fuel tune.
Wish us luck.