zeitgeist57

That's an interesting accumulation of carbon! Did you do the valve seals while you had the springs off? How many miles on the engine?

Oh yeah, Matt...your comment from last week. LOL...take them to someone else for sure. I only finished it because there was no turning back once the job was started (truck torn apart in my garage) and I had already bought the parts.

McGaughey's rear lowering kit, so no leaf springs. Will need to remove and replace rear leaf spring hanger bracket on the frame...will need more rivets destroyed. :no: New spring/axle perches and bolts but I'll have to check the hardware to see if it comes with U-bolts...I'm guessing I'll have to order them. Good call, Scott... EDIT: Looks like AutoZone has the u-bolts in stock. :thumbup: YouTube/forum posts be like "Just grind off the rivet heads and pop'em out!" F*** THAT NOISE. I **mangled** these control arms with an air chisel for a few hours. Worst job since building my carport back in 2017. Agreed with the weather; it makes all of this work worth it since I'm outdoors (or at least in the garage with the door opened).

WTF?!?!?! That's an awesome development! April 28th - bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden bedridden May 20th - punched an orderly and left his room.

+1. As long as you're happy with yourself, it's all good. People make big changes in life trying to chase a feeling they'll never get anyway. The RX-7 runs; That's a win that many car guys can't claim. Come to my 'hood...I'll show you 3 guys within a stones' throw of my house that have classics in their garages (Thunderbird, Tempest LeMans, Nash) that don't run. That would make me crazy!

...and beat on it, I did. Started Friday afternoon, with breaks for family/sporting events. Stopped at 1:30am on Sunday. Can't remember a worse job than drilling/banging out lower ball joints. That job Was. The. Worst. I may expound more on my frustrations another day, but suffice it to say what I lack in professional tools (per Scott's observations), I made up for in grunt and tenacity...and my shoulders/elbows/hands are paying for it today. Got new control arms in, inner/outer tie rod ends (tore a boot on the steering rack...visited the 24hr AutoZone on W. Broad last night) and rebuilt/painted the lower control arm with the ball joint and sway bar end links. Looking forward to getting the brakes on and bled in the next day or so. Then.....gotta do the rear! Bonus pics of my little guy working on his go-kart <3

I ask myself is the hobby worth it as I get older, and admittedly energy for all-night wrenching sessions aren't as easy to recover from anymore. I wrenched all weekend on the Silverado, dirty from rusty and greasy suspension parts that had to be ripped apart. I wondered, is it worth it? People just assume I'm the shadetree mechanic and I love working on this stuff. At 1:30am Sunday night when I'm calling it quits, it's tough to see. However, every time I talk about cars with people, hear about others' projects, or hit up CR/YouTube I'm reminded of the satisfaction I get from doing a lot of my own work and customization. I agree with Howard: you gotta drive your cars. The CTS-V is nicely sorted (still a few things that need repair) and every time I drive it, no matter what's on my mind, part of me recognizes my love for driving it. When I cruise downtown with the Lincoln, it puts a smile on my face. Time is tough with kids and a career (let alone side hustles and extra-curricular activities!) so you gotta get a little car fun in as often as you can. You might need a dose of that, Joe!

Will be interesting to see how high this climbs...

That's fair. I bought one of Harbor Freight's "Earthquake XT" air impact guns and I have NOT been a fan. Using it makes me wish I knew where to go to have my old Craftsman air impact rebuilt. Credit to us old guys stepping up our bitching game, Scott: it's jobs like this (where I'm going in circles trying to fix something but still have to use the vehicle) that make me question why I'm still doing this stuff, not just paying a shop to do it. I know I'll feel better once it's fixed.

Instead of drilling all the way, I'm going to drill through the head enough then use an angle grinder and cutoff wheel to slot the heads, before air-chiseling them off. Then use a punch to drive the rivets out. Sounds like that's the quicker (if not dirtier) way of getting the old lower balljoints out. You need to be more careful as the C4 suspension arms (front) are cast aluminum if memory serves me correctly.

So...I received the Detroit Axle kit last week that includes new upper control arms (with ball joint), lower ball joints, inner/outer tie rod ends, and sway bar end links. This weekend will be the 4th time I've started/stopped this job since the beginning of May. I literally have tried rental ball joint separators, my air chisel with a pickle-fork...nothing has seperated these ball joints from the spindles. Then, when I decided to just remove the control arms altogether to press out the joints, I had a hell of a time with the lower ball-joint rivets. It's going to take forever to drill out. See this article from the "Practical Enthusiast" who's YT videos I follow as well. It's an appropriate measurement of the difficulty of these bolt-in ball joints. https://jalopnik.com/heres-how-to-replace-the-worst-type-of-ball-joints-in-t-1820377993 On Tuesday night, I finally got one of the lowering springs on the LF, only to realize there's no way I'd be able to do the RF spring. I had to quit halfway through one side just so I could put the truck back together to pick up some mulch. Ran some errands yesterday with it leaning to one side. Looking forward to spending more than 3-4hours an evening after the kids go to bed but not-too-much-past-midnight-for-air-tools TO GET THE FRONT END LOWERED!

Hoping that he maintains progress tomorrow!

David, check with upper Arlington building code. You might have to meet certain standards of roofing material and styling in order to be approved.

Love the Miata, Greg! :thumbup:

Read thread, was going to say this. The M5 Competition is 617hp advertised, 617hp on an AWD dyno. https://www.motor1.com/news/349369/bmw-m5-competition-dyno-tested/

Just bustin' balls. I will always have love for the LS...fact is, YouTube/social media exposes the public to the sights/sounds of a V8 with a level of ease and knowledge I've not seen in the past 20+ years. Plus, the aftermarket's support for the LS means that cars (like this 944) that weren't running now get a new lease on life. I couldn't care less about specs on an Olds 215 or some old lump if no one's making parts for it and it STILL makes less power dollar-for-dollar with a $750 running 4.8L...

LOL @ "MAGA cam" I need to tune into Sloppy Mechanics. This thread is making me wish I kept the BMW... ...and had time... ...and allocated the budget... ...and didn't have a whole lotta things coming down the pike in my life... Everyone that has 100% running vehicles, including project cars, please stand up. Whoa, whoa.....not so fast there, Samsonite... :gabe:

Bookmarked. Thanks for the helpful link, Tim!

Holy shit that's genius: just find trailers near my friend, and have them set it up on his property.

$7,856.43

http://www.rvshare.com After the recent and untimely death of a fraternity brother, one of my friends is hosting a bash in July at his farm in rural PA to get us all back together for a college reunion. My wife and I are talking about using this opportunity to rent an RV or a trailer to tow behind our Odyssey, so we don't have to tent-camp for 3 nights with the kids. Not gonna lie, I need a shower before going to bed if I'm a mess. Been looking at RVshare as kind of an "airbnb" for campers. Interesting options that look like fun and are way cheaper than owning my own trailer, but curious if anyone on CR has used this service or rented any sort of RV/campers in the past? I looked at 1-800-GO-RVing last year when we talked about a family vacation, but the per-mile cost for a Class-C or Class-A can make "roughing it" turn into a $1,000 trip for a week! I'm liking the idea of a lightweight and newer camper for 4 with a head.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/road-tests/a24165276/cadillac-cts-v-sport-video-review/ Personally I think it's Cadillac making good use of the parts-bin, but making a package that's middling (better than a premium-trim CTS, ATS-V performance but auto only in the bigger body, but not a full CTS-V). Difficult to define, but with the lower take-rates on the sales floor it seems like even Cadillac doesn't know what to do with the actual CTS-V so it's making the V-Sport the "new" V in coming years. https://www.motor1.com/news/266685/cadillac-kills-cts-v-renamed-ct6/ Considering they killed the ATS-V anyway, this is yet another case of GM building a great product, but putting crap marketing to it or abandoning it altogether. Lincoln isn't finding a lot of buyers for the $70k twin-turbo V6 Continental either. However, I've at least seen a lot of Continentals over V-Sports...and I'm looking out for both.

Looking forward to updates!!! You know you're doing something fun/interesting with GM components when SCOTT IS WILLING TO HELP YOU! :gabe: All seriousness, glad to see you're getting this going. I sold the BMW because I just don't have the time to get an LS swap going. Wishing you all the best. With guys like Scott and SB helping you, it's going to be awesome. :thumbup:

I can't imagine what he's going through in his head...when he comes around every so often. Thank you for the updates indeed, Chris and Tina!

I do the occasional 5k with my wife and family, but agreed 100% with Andy. I have a membership to Planet Fitness and go 3-4 times a week in the evenings after the kids go to bed. Free weights for upper body strength.