[Zentrum]

I still have my AWD Honda powered Saturn Vue Redline.The black one with the factory body kit.Its been sitting around since I got my MDX.You would cut it in half so I can't sell it to you.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Yuk! Yuk!

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

Used replacement engines almost impossible to get

Wait, what?

They sold 167,000 of them in the US alone in 2003, like 500k of that generation, and the bodies are trash.

How can they be almost impossible to get an engine for?

It's gotta be one of the cars you can junkyard surf for another 50 years.

Whether you'd want to, vs. just getting another one is a different issue, but it shouldn't be a resource limitation.

I'm going to look at a few local Escapes today in the $3000 price range I'd like to stay at and there's money in the bank.

The 2nd gen are probably what'll be in your price range, and have notorious rear-passenger fender issues. To the point of, it's hard to find a good donor carcass at the junkyard. The dies were too close on the stamper, and the metal is slightly weaker on that well. The shock mounts to the well, so it flexes a little more than it's supposed to. This pulls the metal away from its undercoating, which then acts like a pump to suck water in and distribute it behind the undercoating back and forth. Eventually it rusts right through while appearing fine from the outside until suddenly one bump and the body isn't attached on that corner, you have no suspension, and daylight is pouring in all around the shock mount. This is occasionally a problem on the driver-rear as well, but most often passenger-rear.

Give the body a shake and see if the shock attachment point is a-wigglin' where the rest of the wheelwell ain't.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

A good thing to check, thanks for the tip. I've zeroed in on a few 2008 or newer ones. Lots of cars in close distance where I live. I'll probably be hooked up by early next week.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

I thought I would have some fun today and close out the year on a positive note, with some memories of good times past, so I put some of my special exterior body parts on to get a glimpse of what the car will look like when done. This will be the last time everything will be in mis-matched colors and ugly. It will be about a year before they're all on the car again together and the car painted yellow with black striping. Everything is just laid or scotch taped on. I wanted to test fit some doors to see how the new roof lined up, so I taped on my stripped Red Baron doors. It's the first time this car has had normal GT doors on it in 25 years. They'll be going with the car to Charlie's and get put back on the Red Baron to help him fit his convertible mod. I didn't want to ding up my just acquired spiffy new doors. I laid the Winter spoiler on the car, installed my C4 Corvette look-a-like American Racing wheels, my reinforced Lenk hood and pop-out windows from the Red Baron, my yellow fiberglass bumper, and my beige leather Miata seats that my new interior will be based around.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

 

[Vincent]

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Looks great Gordon and MUCH better then a few weeks ago!

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

Packing tape holding the doors on? You've spent too much time around Todd!

 

[G.v.Mainberg]

Packing tape holding the doors on? You've spent too much time around Todd!

... or at the Post Office

Dieter

 

[The Scifi Guy]

I finished getting the tar stuff off of the footwell floors and then I drilled Two 1" holes into the lower flow-through vent and hinge chambers for drainage when the car gets blasted and to fish and vacuum out any debris in there. I found all sorts of stuff at the bottom of the hinge chambers: Hinge mounting bolts, welding rods, 25 year old conglomerated rust blobs, brand new metal and cutting disc filings and particles, etc. Good thing that I got all that stuff out of there before the blasting and primering and painting glued it all together forever.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

I bought a 2008 Escape XLT with a 2.3. Red with a cream interior and 168K. Everything works just peachy. The windshield said $6000, they said $4000 when they pointed it out to me. That's the going price for similar mileage ones near me. I test drove it today and everything seemed great, much better in every way than my 150K 2005 Escape that threw the rod. But I noticed a vibration in the wheels at a very specific speed(35mph) and concluded that maybe a CV joint or a brake or both were wonky. I offered $3000 and they accepted. I'll send it to the shop as soon as I get it to have whatever the problem is fixed. With that knocked out I think I'll have a pretty good car. I drive ridiculously little nowadays, like less than 1500 a year in my daily driver, so I don't need much from a car. It looks good and I like it and with the wheel problem fixed I'll REALLY like it.

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

That chamber where you drilled out the two one-inch holes... that must be accessible some other way, right? From the ductwork on backwards, if you had a hose flexible enough, no?

I'm thinking... inspection camera and a vacuum with a mini-vac hose on it, instead of drilling.

 

[First opel 1981]

You can buy an endoscopic camera for under $10 on sites like aliexpress or banggood or ebay.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

The German guys, some of whom worked at the Opel factory, simply said it's a design flaw. All cars have design flaws like that. GT's are full of them, especially drainage problem flaws. "The Turd" where the wire bundle comes out the top of that box above the fuse box is one example. Water draining off the windshield goes along the cowling trough, drips onto the wiring bundle, through the fuse box, to the floor. Oooops! They took a big chunk of putty and tried to fix the problem that way. The wires should have come out the side of that box. Water draining into the trough around the hood opening pools up in the trough at the front of the hood opening, causing rust. Water that gets under the windshield gasket pools up at the bottom of the windshield rubber opening. The rubber bulb that you step on to squirt your windshield washer juice gets rusty inside and the juice leaks out, soaks into the carpet, and rusts the floor. Water leaking behind the windshield gasket and The Turd also do this. Any water that gets into the rocker panels is trapped there. There are all sorts of places where water gets trapped in GT's.

The unibody concept is partially at fault for a lot of rust problems with our cars. There are few natural breaks between panels for water to drain out of. Our cars, like all cars, were never meant to last more than about 5 years. If they were made to last forever they'd never be able to sell new cars. Planned obsolescence was a term bandied about back in the day, especially with American cars.

 

[heliman]

Sorry to hear that Gordon. If you were closer I would give you the 2.0 Zetec out of our old 2001 Focus. The trans blew up at 315K, but the motor ran great. it's just sitting at the house.

Gotta love those Zetecs, tough little engines, tons of performance parts available, smaller and lighter then the CIH and they are a no hack fit in a GT.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

That is one cool-azz engine. Wish I could see your car in person.

 

[opelbits]

You can buy an endoscopic camera for under $10 on sites like aliexpress or banggood or ebay.

Used ones are cheaper.....!

 

[First opel 1981]

Used ones are cheaper.....!

Yeah butt they smell funny.

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

You can buy an endoscopic camera for under $10 on sites like aliexpress or banggood or ebay.

I linked one available for Amazon Prime (free shipping) for $8, earlier in the thread.

 

[opelbits]

Gotta love those Zetecs, tough little engines, tons of performance parts available, smaller and lighter then the CIH and they are a no hack fit in a GT.

View attachment 432096

I've got the motor, but everything else gets a little pricey.