slowbert

2 hours ago, Cole said:

never done a valve job before

It’s not so bad. The hardest part is getting the cam out, but just make sure you get one of the special tools for the M10. It pays to have friends on the FAQ. 
 

While you are at Harbor Freight getting your die grinder, pick up a valve spring compressor. While you are ordering your burrs from Amazon, add this: 

I did this a couple weeks ago. I used some Permatex lapping compound, followed up with 320 grit compound. Got the valves to hold gas (actually brake cleaner) without leaking or any seepage. 
 

A couple hours and next thing you know, you have a fresh top end. You can do it. 

Can someone show the right fasteners for the 2002 emblem above?  For the life of me, I can't figure out how it was attached.

16 hours ago, Cole said:

I have a Dremel and shouldn't be too difficult

If you have an air compressor, a trip to Harbor Freight for their straight die grinder and a few burrs from Amazon might make the job easier.

And yes, you should remove the manifold.  The nuts on the bottom of the intake manifold are painful and take a few minutes.  It is almost easier to pull the whole head off with the exhaust and intake manifolds (if you can easily disconnect the exhaust manifold/header and exhaust pipe), then remove the manifold(s) on the bench top.

While you have it on the bench, you can match and polish the intake ports, do the exhaust as well, and why not a valve job?

I did it with the transmission attached to the engine.  (A 5 speed.)  It is so much easier to install the transmission outside the car, and it balances the engine well when hoisting it.

Suck it up and pull the transmission, too.

2 hours ago, Jdddrigot said:

Wish me luck as I’ve never done anything like this before. 

Take your time with it. This is not a bad one-person job.

With the hoist, you can lift the whole car and move jack stands/blocks around or even get some more height if needed. Taking out the distributor will buy some vertical clearance.  Once you have the engine on the ground, you may need to use the hoist to lift the car to get it high enough to slide the engine out.  Coming in from the side was helpful for that in my case.

Here's a couple pics of how I did the install (which is the reverse of removal, of course) - with the obligatory Harbor Freight dolly.

My procedure was to raise the car as high as necessary using the hoist, then putting it on blocks.  Roll the engine underneath, then set the car back to a non-scary height.  Then I raised the engine the rest of the way.

If I were removing the engine, I would set the engine on the dolly using the hoist.  Then, raise the car using the hoist until it was high enough, block it, and roll the engine out.

BTW, I'm in Loveland and happy to help if you run into trouble.

Overly modded always feels like a potential problem down the road when looking for spare parts or trying to remember what I was thinking at the time. 
 

If I was racing every weekend, that would not be a problem, but since I work out of my house and mostly drive for pleasure, it is not inconceivable that the car could sit for months. And I will have long forgotten what mods I did and why. 
 

As much fun as it is to improve things, I sense that it somewhat decreases the value of the car, both in a resale way but also in a reliability/repairability/maintenance way. 
 

I certainly would not want to buy someone else’s overly modded car and have to sort out issues with it. 
 

Having said all that, I still put in a five speed, LSD, and Recaros. 

On 10/3/2023 at 9:11 PM, Son of Marty said:

That 72 shown looks to me to be very soft (rust) underneath. 

The '72 on Craigslist may have rust, but it looks very complete (good seats, door cards with the unfortunate speaker hole, all the trim, grills, etc.)

Having just finished a restoration on a 72, I can firmly say that I spent more money on seats, door cards, belt trim, knee trim, grills, bumpers, and all related nonsense than I did on a decent MIG/TIG welder and sheet metal from W&N (front fender, floor pans, rockers, A pillar, nose, etc.)

All these cars have rust, but not all the cars have decent seats ($2-4K), door cards ($1K), trim packages ($2-3K), bumpers ($1K), all the misc (seemingly endless $$), etc.

Bottom line: it may be cheaper to get a complete car with a bit of rust (or even a significant amount of rust) but has all the necessary pieces in place.

I would embrace the rust.  Buy a welder and start knocking metal and laying beads.  I live in Colorado, too.  My neighbor took a few welding courses at General Air and loved them.  I also bought my welder at General Air - an excellent company and highly recommended.

As long as the two hidden screws are missing/not present, your two piece dash will go in/out with the windshield in place.

If you are putting a cover over the dash, you may have to work it under the windshield gasket as you put it in place.  I have been using a hard plastic cover, but would love to know your experience with the leather covers.

3 minutes ago, ajordan282 said:

I have a factory service manual

On 10/2/2023 at 9:07 PM, 72pdx02 said:

It’s not a leak unless it’s in excess of 3 drops per minute. 

A leak is not a problem unless it stops.

On 10/4/2023 at 6:40 AM, Santawillis said:

Nice, Ultra Black and even squish it is!

I used Ultra Black Permatex without a gasket and it sealed completely.  The only problem was it was nearly impossible to remove the cover once it was in place. 

I am now trying a blue dressing on a gasket.  I'll never do the Ultra Black Permatex RTV again.

1 hour ago, markmac said:

Unfortunately powder coat doesn't 'touch up' (at least last time I checked), that means a total re-do.

Maybe I was gullible, but I bought a rattle can of touch up paint from my powder coat guy when I did my suspension.  I have not had to touch up anything so far, so I don't know if it works well or not.

@RoyW Are you able to get the door cards to fit with the door's sound dampening applied in the last picture?  I was debating on the best way to do the sound dampening for the doors.

14 minutes ago, ClassDavid said:

Thank you guys, that means a lot! Hopefully I’ll get behind the wheel of an 02 again soon!

@ClassDavid Thank you!  Your YouTube videos convinced me that I could tackle a full rebuild of my '72 - which had been sitting outside for ~20 years.  That was 18 months ago, and I had no idea how much fun this hobby could be.

30 minutes ago, Fortlauderdalian said:

I’ve been slacking off

Speaking of slacking off, @jimk @irdave and I had root beer at A&W today. 
 

In addition to discussing all things injected, we covered all things carbureted and I got plenty of techniques and suggestions for dialing in my newly running ‘72. 

(The truck in the picture was parked perilously close to my car.)

47 minutes ago, d.hitchcock said:

I make my own from one of those ACCEL kits you can get at any parts store.

#metoo. I just put these wires in this week and needed to gently crimp the spark plug connectors to get them to click onto the plugs better. I was replacing the last Accel set I installed, which was during the second Clinton administration.

Got to love the yellow.  
 

58 minutes ago, Conserv said:

Rusty ‘02’s — certainly the majority of ‘02’s — have or had notable rust, such is the nature of old cars. You just have to, going in, (a.) understand the full extent of the rust (generally more than shows to the eye); and (b.) have a plan as to how you will repair it (pay someone, learn to weld, etc.)

Agreed.  You are going to have to come to terms with rust and learn to embrace it.  Every car has far more rust than you can see, and far more rust than you want to see.  That is OK.  There are NO $10K 2002s without rust, so just accept the fact that you will deal with it at some point.

These cars are easy to work on and ultimately quite simple.  Get the car running and on the road.  And enjoy it.

Somewhere down the road you can start tackling the rust as you prepare for the paint job that every $10K 2002 will require.  Build up the budget, tool set, skill set, but most of all will power.  Then tackle it when you are ready.

Rather than look for "no rust", set your sights on "less rust" or at least "not lots and lots of rust."

1 hour ago, '76mintgrün'02 said:

(These are my favorite hose cutters).

 

 

 

+1 This is the best tool for the job.

One little tidbit about Colorado: if the car is 1975 or older, there is no emissions test required. I would skip 1976 2002s if possible. 
 

Even if it is one of those smog cars from evil California, you can strip the nasty smog equipment and see the glorious car underneath. 

Get something that at least runs - then you will be motivated to keep it on the road and work on various projects.  Seems Bring a Trailer has seen a few project/driver cars in the $10K range, and may be you can find something on Craigslist to get going.

It is easy to start spending all kinds of money on it with upgrades/fixes, but if you keep it simple, you can do endless fun projects on it that will not break the bank.  It used to be that there were 2002s in the junkyards, and you could find nearly any part you needed for cheap.  Those days are gone, but there are still plenty of affordable parts out there.

I would be tempted to find 2 or 3 parts cars for $3-4K and use those to build one decent car out of it.  That is, if I had the room and was wanting to get into it for the first time.

I cannot stress how important it can be to have a parts bin - no matter how small - of extra pieces and example assemblies when you are trying to figure out how to recreate/resurrect/rebuilt/reassemble anything.  Most people who own these cars have a 'collection' of parts, and make sure you gather up as much of that as possible, maybe from multiple people.  I bought my car in 1991 and it came with a pickup truck full of parts, and they have been utterly invaluable.

On 9/27/2023 at 5:38 AM, Stan said:

I have more sets available and can bring to O'Fest in Rhode Island

Do you have pictures of the kit and pictures of it installed?

Make sure you use mastic between the glass/gasket and gasket/steel interfaces. 

In my case, the original rear glass with URO gasket went in very tight, but new front windshield glass with URO gasket went in very smoothly.  I tried doing the rear glass myself FOUR times and could not get it in.  Hired two pro glass guys and they took their time but got it in successfully.

I started working on the car a year ago March, and finally - finally - got to drive it this week.  Still have lots of odds and ends to work on, but it goes down the road.

Then:

And now:

You are talking about this fitting (circled in yellow)?  Agreed - that seems weird.

8 hours ago, tech71 said:

Whats up with that hose plumbed into the upper timing cover?

Its the breather line from the valve cover just hanging down past the engine and venting to the ground.  My '72 was plumbed that way by the PO and I never felt the need to change it.