The story of "Swamp Thing"

[///Monster123]

Originally Posted by c-bass

management will not allow domestic items to be used as car accessories.

[srmmmm]

Originally Posted by Purplefade

Dude, at least you caught it before catastrophe happened that is awesome

I watched a technician drain the oil and pull the filter from a new formula 1 firebird back in the day, take a phone call, walk away from the car and then proceed to lock up the engine when he came back, lowered the rack, pulled it out into the parking lot and give the owner the keys back...

Owner walked out, started the car, looked at it funny for a minute and then drove away. He made it less than a mile before it seized up. Cost the company north of $10K to put a new engine in the car.

It's almost as bad when they forgot they already put oil in, then do it again.


A college roommate wanted to do his own oil change on his new 1976 Firebird with a 350 V8 and I reminded him that Pontiac V8s used six quarts of oil with the filter change. He called me the next week, extremely proud of completing his first ever oil change, but told me his engine took ten quarts I said no, no , no, you'll be spinning nothing but oil foam inside the engine. Then he told me not to worry because the first four quarts ran down the driveway before he realized he forgot to put in the drain plug


2002 X5 3.0 387,000 miles and many extra quarts of oil
2014 428i 74,0000 miles and no extra quarts of oil


2004 325i sold at 123,600 miles
2001 325i sold at 66,000 miles


1970 Firebird Under restoration with 6 quarts of oil ready to go

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by srmmmm

It's almost as bad when they forgot they already put oil in, then do it again.


A college roommate wanted to do his own oil change on his new 1976 Firebird with a 350 V8 and I reminded him that Pontiac V8s used six quarts of oil with the filter change. He called me the next week, extremely proud of completing his first ever oil change, but told me his engine took ten quarts I said no, no , no, you'll be spinning nothing but oil foam inside the engine. Then he told me not to worry because the first four quarts ran down the driveway before he realized he forgot to put in the drain plug


2002 X5 3.0 387,000 miles and many extra quarts of oil
2014 428i 74,0000 miles and no extra quarts of oil


2004 325i sold at 123,600 miles
2001 325i sold at 66,000 miles


1970 Firebird Under restoration with 6 quarts of oil ready to go

HA!

I did that once but it took less thank a half quart before I caught it. The dribbling oil sound was the giveaway. Luckily the drain pan was still under there.

This could totally be a new thread here

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by c-bass

HA!

I did that once but it took less thank a half quart before I caught it. The dribbling oil sound was the giveaway. Luckily the drain pan was still under there.

This could totally be a new thread here

Sure could! I'm guilty for a quart when installing a turbo on my e30. Left the oil drain for the turbo disconnected from the oil pan.

[c-bass]

The hoses are squishy and the drain pan isn't a frozen puck!






It's time to get some coolant in Swampy before the freezing temperatures are back.

I gave everything a quick look to see if anything was blatantly cracked or leaking now that it thawed out but everything seemed fine.

Since it wasn't exactly sure how much fluid I drained from the cooling system before it froze I filled it back up with distilled water and was going to give it another cycle BUT

Long story short I borrowed Swampy's intake boot for another prick car so first I wanted to make this slightly better





A little bit of glue and this will work just fine until I get another new one.





Ran the engine enough to get it warmed up a bit and drained about 3.5 L of water out of there.





Up next, Swampy should be thirsty for about 4 L of this concentrated coolant.





I ended up getting about 4.2 L of the concentrated coolant in the before it was slightly bubbling out of the bleed hole.





Ran the engine another 5 min or so and no leaks that I can see so far.

[Overboost]

Swampy's engine bay around the radiator area shown in the photos is pretty clean. Well done!

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by Overboost

Swampy's engine bay around the radiator area shown in the photos is pretty clean. Well done!

Thank you sir

I changed 2 valve cover gaskets last week and the hose isn't frozen so now everyone has a clean engine bay. I seem to spend enough time under there, might as well tidy up

[c-bass]

It's been long overdue for an update but unfortunately there isn't much progress to report. If anything we've suffered setbacks.

We last left off with Swampy needing a proper bleed of the brakes and then winter happened one day.





I see no good reason to hang out in the snow anymore than absolutely necessary so other than charging the battery regularly (because I was too lazy to chase down whatever is draining it in the summer) and letting the engine run here and there I didn't pay much attention. (Also I've been hiding a dark secret I've been dealing with but more on that later)

One of the times I started the engine I noticed some frozen water on the passenger side floor mat. This was about half way through winter and a couple days earlier the wife and I went for a quick drive around the block. I figured it was leftover snow from her boots right?

Just for funsies I picked up the floor mat and guess what?!






I now have a portable skating rink!!


Well that much snow definitely did not come from her boots so I looked up at the A pillar and what do I see??








YOU AGAIN HOSE?!?!?! I juuuuuuust sorted all this out no?


My immediate though was the wife must have somehow grabbed the A pillar getting in or out and dislodged the tube, but since it's winter and I'd like to keep sleeping inside I figured it's in my best interest to shut my face and keep my suspicions to myself.


So what to do with a hockey rink in your footwell in freezing weather? NOTHING!!! We wait!

A couple days later it was warmer and I thought maybe things would heat up in the interior enough to maybe soak up some water? As I'm trying to make my way around the car I decide that might as well brush the snow off no? That's when I noticed the ice built up around the cowl and popped the hood.

There was a horrible crunching sound followed by what I thought was breaking glass or something like that.















I know it's a little hard to gauge thickness...but what you're looking at is about .5"-1" of SOLID ice that filled any and all gaps, holes, nooks and crannies.














After trying to chip out some of the ice I realized that wasn't really doing much and I'll probably end up smashing my windshield, so I thought leaving the hood open and letting all the sunlight get in there would help melt things.


There was melting all right...but since the hood was up the perfect shape of the hood imprint I had was modified and at the end of the day the hood wouldn't close.


Seeing as I've done nothing but make things worse I decided it wasn't time to start playing cars outside just yet.

[srmmmm]

On the positive side, I think it's commendable that your gas struts held the hood open.

[Happy]

Swampy and Ole’Girl definitely chilled out this year. LoL..