Willys

I think of you every time I touch it!....lol Yes your oil spray is very much like what is on this car. Yes it did a perfect job of stopping the rust.

As of today all issues have been addressed and I am now going after creature comforts. As soon as spring arrives I want to pressure wash all the black oil spray off, I have wiped down the engine bay enough to be able to check fluids etc etc without getting covered in it....augh!!!! I'm thinking of adding a trailer hitch to be able to tow a light weight trailer to get things to the dump. I have my beater in pieces waiting for it to be removed......lol. So far I'm pleased with this car, it gets up to speed quicker than the Smart car could dream of, and the best part......makes heat within minutes of starting!!.....lol The biggest draw back is the big difference in fuel economy.....1/3 of the Smart Car....at best but I haven't done any real testing yet. I need to replace a small gear in the odometer so it will read distances. A common issue I have learned. My good Smart is resting peacefully in the garage waiting for summer once again.

Here's a few pictures the day I brought it home.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all members and owners of a Smart Car.....It's that time of year again......waiting for the white stuff to give us a white Christmas, it can hang around for a few weeks then kindly leave....if it would....lol I'm too old to enjoy the cold and snow like in my younger years......lol Enjoy everyone and stay safe.

Happy to hear you are still offering your services Glenn.....I was worried you had hung up your wrenches.....augh!!!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Do a search for someone with a STAR machine that'll do keys. I have one but it stopped doing keys recently. The dealership near me demands $456 for each key to be cut and programed...!!!! That was one reason I bought my own STAR machine from Ebay......it will pay for itself in a short time if you have more people who need keys programed.....going price is $100 a key. Any hardware store who cuts keys can cut the key then you need the star to re-program the fob. You need to do all keys at the same time when you do it or you will only have the new key that works. That is how they screw you over as you always want two working fobs!!!! Just saying....

Ouch those valves are in great shape...lol. Time for new seats....a good machine shop should be a help. Give them the head and valves and also ask about valve guides....I replaced mine also.....I also was able to reuse my main bearings after plasti-gaging them, so was lucky. I think my guides came from some mini van a dodge caravan I think that my machinist made fit.....but could be wrong or that was another engine ......but this sounds right..? The only things I didn't replace was the block, crank ,head, crank bearings, rods, cam. If I remember correctly.. Everything else was replaced with new. All from MW-SMART. Oh...the vacuum pump for the brakes on the righthand end of the engine I got from Romania, also excellent, just searched it and found it there as MW-SMART didn't have a new one.

Excellent...! Let the fun start.....check your rockers and lifters for wear patterns as that will restrict their movement as the engine runs. Don't mix up the lifters and rockers as if you do not replace them all they will be wear matched . Also check for cracks in the rockers which considering the bulk of them seems impossible but they do crack. IF you are taking pistons out, reinstall rings and shine a light up from below to see if there is any gaps between rings and walls of cylinders in multiple locations/hieghts in each cylinder. Mine had many gaps which forced me to bore my cylinders out 2 over just to get the waviness out. I ended up buying 3 over pistons as that was all that was available at the time. Like i said let the fun begin.

I agree all smart car owners who want to do any type of work on their own cars must own a STAR system or have someone close to them who owns one. Until you have experienced the positive uses for it you just won't understand. Glad you have it, life will be so much easier from now on.

Have you cleaned your EGR at all...?

I agree with limp mode.....it should go away after the sam cycles but it will always come back if your waste gate isn't set up correctly. IMHO, the waste gate needs to be set so the boost pressure never goes much above 16 psi or you risk always having this happen. Do you have a way to see your boost while driving such as a ScanGageII ??? IF you can afford to get one buy one......they may go on sale for black friday or christmas Boxing day etc etc. They are excellent for a smart car and it's issues so to speak. You can also watch your fuel consumption rates as you drive in real time to get the best litres per hundred kms driven. Along with being a scanner. Ask anyone who has one if they are worth the money I bet 99% will say it is. Once you can watch your boost as you drive then you can adjust correctly the rod locking nuts for the waste gate and thus be able to set it correctly under full acceleration as you need to be able to do.

Well just an update on how it's going..... I found the leaking lines on the steering rack, they were the transfer lines, they had very small rust holes pits which in one spot was leaking. The high pressure line from the pump is like new so saved on that one. The two transfer lines had to be sourced by a buddy who owns a garage, I couldn't find them anywhere. Even those lines he got for me had to be shortened by cutting the middle out of them to keep the end flanges, the part that are like chicken lips I have found out! In total that cost me $140. Next issue is/was the tail light housings use a flexible circuit board and it had been butchered by the garage the original owner used for the past 8 years. One of their so called mechanics twisted the bulb sockets and shorted out the circuit board. This caused the board to get cooked and also the interior dash warning light system under the dash to basically burn itself up. There is a work around for that, a few snips with a good set of snips and a few correctly placed jumper wires and Bob's your uncle. I also had to hard wire the tail lights as I refuse to use a well known issue of the flexible circuit board again, why? So now it is hard wired and tomorrow I mate the new wiring harness into the car's wiring harness. I also needed to find aggressive snow tires and the 14" rims on the car do not get you a good choice so I decided to up the rim size to 15" and get a far better selection of aggressive snows. Found on Amazon , go figure...? I never knew Amazon sold tires and at a great price. Next was to locate 2 steel rims that fit the car correctly.....that wasn't easy either....seems they are another item people want to hold onto. I did manage to find 2 very rusty rims for free, he said I could risk it and see so I said why not? I will clean them up and repair them if I can or they will be in the scrap bin and I'll need to search again. One other thing I did out of curiosity was open the sun roof...DOH...! Yes it up-set the sealing surface which then needed correcting.....plus I made sure the drains were clear of any debris, they were like new . I still worried about water getting past the seal so used draft stop to seal it for the winter months and I'll remove it next spring. Looks a bit ragged but it'll keep the ice and snow out. That will save the head liner if nothing else? I did replace the old motor mounts just because they were weak and a known issue. Maybe next week it'll be ready for it's maiden voyage...???? I will say, it's far easier to work on than the Smart Car....lol. And I haven't found where the computer plugs in yet......lol.

Just as an update....I was searching for new snows for another vehicle I just picked up which uses another older sized wheel and tire......I just typed in the tire size etc on Amazon for shits and giggles and it spat out a far better range of tires and also similar prices to Quattrotire's prices which i had a hard time beating elsewhere. Yep, I have two tires coming soon to my doorstep. Go figure.....Amazon selling tires!...????

I have one that I removed the catt from, I have done this for all the cans I get and am capable of rebuilding your old can if it's not too bad. PM me and we can chat. I am in Pefferlaw, bottom righthand corner of lake simcoe. Removing the catt doesn't make it any louder than the stock can just allows it to breathe a bit better.....it's a personal choice. Take a pic of the muffler you have now and show me the area that's leaking.....

Tomorrow I may start the removal of some of the black liquid tar under coating that was strayed on everything possible. Yes it did it's job, BUT, if you touch the car as in wanting to work on it, you end up looking a little darker than you started out at....lol. I hate this type of undercoating solution. I prefer rust check or crown as they are basically clear and leave you close to the same as you started at. I have a power steering hose leak. And it's completely coated in this crap and the steering fluid.....so a messy job. I have started the hunt for new parts, Ebay, etc, then thought what about the dealer....? DAMN!!!!!! And we think MB is bad! $260 for the high pressure hose alone!!!! $60 on Ebay.....guess where it may come from....lol. Then i also need to locate two steel rims to install snow tires on. This request has all but had me banned off the 240 sites....lol. What.....??? You want to drive that beauty in the winter...? In the SALT....!!!!! Yes, I do, it's going to be a daily driver if the Smart doesn't like the temps....which sometimes it doesn't want to play nice. I have taken a bunch of pics but now my phone won't down load them to my PC so i can move them here.....AUGH....!!!!! Electronics......no wonder I went after this vintage vehicle....lol.