Well I had fully enjoyed that stock engine. But, I wanted the bigger, better, faster engine out of the wrecked Conquest.
Not quite sure why that picture keeps posting upside-down.... this was all done at Jimmy's house, at his courtesy. There we discovered quite a few interesting tidbits about the engine.
For one, it had no head gasket forward of the #1 piston. Jimmy has the photo I believe, but basically, the missing piece was folded up and shoved down into the timing chain hole, and the block itself was sealed using blue RTV, something we were wonding why we saw sandwiched between the head and block. The bottom end had ARP main studs, but you have to leave one OEM stock to keep your oil pickup tube. Nope, oil pickup was bent, and then RTV'd into place... shoved her into the Palermo, due to time constraints for work, and much against Jimmy's advice as he was sure he heard the engine knocking. To me it seemed fine, and off into the night I went and enjoyed it in the months to come. Around 8 months later, while another local Starion owner was following me, we witnessed the catastrophic death of that G54B. To me, I was just downshifting from 3rd, into 2nd, when I pushed the clutch in and the RPMs died, hit 2nd, let the clutch out to a lound WABANG! and the engine sounded like a jackhammer. To Cregg, the local, it looked like I had just shot a 6 foot flame out the side of the car. It made it home, 4 miles later, but the damage had been done. The oil came out all sparkly glowy, and it was silver pretty much. No black. As depressing as it was, I was impressed at the engine's ability to keep running at it did for that long without locking up. Damn.
Time to find yet another engine. Oh, and for what it was worth, the original engine was now sitting in a car up in NC I believe, keeping it on the road. So, I lurked, and searched, and luck happened upon me with a couple ( the Burtons ) moving from Michigan to Texas and needing some extra cheddar. He was swapping everything from his Michigan car, which from what I recall, bent when it went up on a lift due to rust, to a rust free Texas car, that happened to have a fresh engine. $350 later...
I had myself a new engine. This time, I had a local do it for me as I simply didn't have the time with work and school, so Grant Barnes ( aka pure_insanity ) took it upon himself to do the install for a very reasonable rate.
So, off she went. For what it's worth, that lady in the pink hat is my mother. She put up with a lot of my antics when it came to these cars. One day, I came home from work to find this.
Yep. My mother had gone out and bought herself a 1987 Chrysler Conquest. The engine was rebuilt, and aside from a minor fuel issue that turned out just having to replace the fuel pump, it's a pretty clean car. Although, the entire engine bay was sprayed with bed liner. It was once a northern car, and the previous owner figured it'd stop rust... crazy ass northern folk.
But back to the car. I really began to enjoy the car, even with its electrical demons. Supposedly a previous owner had put a battery in backwards, toasting the ETACS, which resulted in wipers not working, and the previous owner rigging the wipers to a toggle switch, that eventually failed, and just... god I can't even begin to explain the random wiring found through out this thing. I love it though, some don't ( Kyle for example, he hated how the car would ground out when he tried to start it when he was removing the steering column to weld the coupler ). Of course, with my car running and all, far be it from me to pass up the local Atlanta car scene.
At the local Riverside Sonics Meet.
Saturday night BP car meet. The other Starion/Conquest belongs to another local, Cregg. The two red Evo8 RS' belong to a friend of mine, Jamil, and another Starion owner, his name escapes me at the moment though. His brother Cruz is the one who took the photograph, and between them, they own somewhere around 10 or so Starions....
Of course, Atlanta at night is a beautiful city, with an amazing skyline. There's one particular bridge that seems to be famous with photos, so I gave it a shot with my $50 digital.
If you happen to look very closely behind the front tire, you'll see, yes, a floor jack. To this day I still haven't installed any e-brakes, and that was to prevent the car from rolling back down the road!!!
Sadly, all was not well. Electrically speaking, the car keeps blowing the Headlight/Taillight fusible link, and we discovered what my never ending clutch pedal issue was. Crankwalk. Looks like the thrust bearing is dead on the engine, so shortly it's off to Kyle's so that the HOA can get off my back, we pull the engine, flip a bitch and see what the damage is. Here is currently how the beauty of a car sits ( it's a few months old )
Stay tuned for what comes next!!!!
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