Attached are my first round of pics prior to doing any work on it. Any blur in the photos is probably due to the car idling. I had it up to change the oil pan gasket, which was a major pain in the butt for someone who couldn't even identify the oil pan going in. But I'll be damned if I won't save $150 over five hours on my day off. Yes, five hours -- includes digging for tools in a cluttered garage, asking neighbors for cigarettes and paint thinner, buying sealant, oil, and a Haynes manual, and renting a torque wrench from Auto Zone. Actual wrenching time was probably about two hours.
Fun things I encountered were a mysterious oil pan screw that will NOT tighten past a few fps and is not stripped (doesn't leak, though), a frozen bolt/nut (that spins together but is entirely inseparable) joining the header to the exhaust, and its sibling that decided the nut needed to break off a part of the bolt, but the bolt itself is stripper to hell and will NOT come out. Maneuvering that damned oil pan around the exhaust was nearly impossible, and doing it backwards during the reinstall proved to be even more of a headache.
Wednesday is when I drop in the radiator, fix a mysterious fuel leak that wasn't there when I bought it (found a small puddle in my driveway, probably about 1/2 oz over 4 days), and if I have time get it registered and install the stereo. I just noticed how severely worn the front tires are -- down to the belt on small patches. Not bad considering they're probably the originals. Do they even make 145/80/12's anymore?
