2005 Saturn Vue 4 cylinder spark plug change

We had the Saturn Vue back in the shop today. The neighbor hit me up to change the spark plugs in it a few weeks ago and we finally got a little time. Here it is just after I pulled it in. It has 137,000 miles on it and the plugs have never been changed. Changing the plugs in a vue is one of the easier vehicles to do. Everything is pretty accessible and on the 4 cylinder all the plugs are right on top of the engine. That's nice because your not right against the firewall with no access.

 The first thing you need to do is remove the duct assembly. To do that remove the plug that goes to it, and the pcv hose. Then loosen the 2 clamps on the duct. There is a push pin attachment that just pulls up and out. You can then remove the duct.

 I put a paper towel in the intake plenum to keep any dirt from getting in there. Just make sure you REMOVE it before you put the duct back on. This is what it should look like now. There are (4) 10 MM bolts on the top of the coil pack. You need to remove them.

 Remove the wiring harness plug that is on the coil pack. You will need to remove the gray little clip and then you can remove the plug.

Now just pull up the coil packs. My hand looks all funny because they were hot and it was burning my fingers when I was trying to get a picture.

 I vacuumed the top of the engine off so nothing would fall down into the cylinders. This area is always full of dirt, sand and other debris.

 Still vacuuming it off.

 I also took my blow nozzle and blew out the spark plug holes as an extra precaution.

The first plug looked pretty worn. This is comparing the old one to the new one.

 A long extension works great to get to the plugs. Here the 2nd one is coming out.

 This one was really worn. The electrode was almost gone from it.

 The number 2 and 4 plugs looked like this. I was surprised that the car didn't have any misfire codes. They were definitely in need of a change.

A lot of new plugs are gapped from the factory. These ones needed to be gapped. They are set at .045. I had to adjust the gap on all 4 plugs.

 They tell you NOT to use anti seize on the plugs when installing them so I didn't. The torque for the plugs is 15 ft lbs. The old ones came out just fine so I didn't worry about not using anti seize. They say not to use it on this engine because it will cause you to over torque the plugs.

 Now just install everything in the reverse order of removal. The 4 bolts for the coil packs are torqued to 89 IN lbs. It only took about 45 minutes and that included cleaning up the engine compartment a little and checking the oil and tires. Not a bad job to do so there is no reason not to change them at 100,000 miles like they suggest.

Well, the baja is going away one piece at a time as people come and buy parts off it. We should be able to get the new blue bug into the shop and get the engine removed from it soon. Isaac is getting really excited to start on it. Hopefully the weather will cool down a little bit. It makes it a lot easier to go out in the shop and work. Check back and see if we get things rolling on "old blue" as Isaac likes to call it. I am leaning toward the name Lulu. What do you all think?

Sanford and Sons Speed Shop?

It's been a total rust fest in the shop the past few days. I have felt like Sanford and Sons. Isaac has been out with me watching the deconstruction of Tugger our Baja bug. We have swept up piles and piles of rust from the floor and tonight we cut up the body and loaded it into the truck. We then swept again. Here we are just after we got the body off.

We pushed it out to do some more sweeping and cleaning up in the garage.

 The pan is actually in pretty good shape compared to the body. Hopefully someone can use this pan and make a cool dune buggy or use it for a bug body they have.

 Here are the sad remains of Tuggers body. It doesn't weigh much so I am not expecting to get much from the scrap yard. I still have some more stuff to put in before I go there. I am glad I don't own a wrecking yard. It's not that fun scraping cars.

I am keeping these 2 panels I cut off tugger. I will eventually use these on the blue bug that is replacing the Baja. I will weld these onto it to remove the crescents so I can remove problem areas of rust that the newer bugs have.

Hopefully the days of Sanford and Sons are almost over in the shop so we can get back to doing some fun cool stuff. I think Isaac will get more excited over the blue bug when we get an engine in it and drive it around. He has been a real trooper helping me scrap out his beloved baja. I promised him the steering wheel and the license plates. Check back and see whats coming up in the future for the shop!

Sad day at the shop.

We started out the morning doing some necessary cleaning and rearranging of the driveway. I looked at it last night and it looked pretty bad so I decided to stash some cars down the side of the house and to pull the trailer out of it's winter slumber so we can get it ready to go for the 1 and only camping trip we have planned for the year. The driveway looked like a used car lot for awhile. Isaac helped me steer and push all the cars around and then helped me hook up and pull out the trailer. He did an awesome job.

This is almost as bad as it has ever been at our house. I  told my neighbor that having a lot of cement is a blessing and a curse. I always want to fill it up but at the same time I don't want it to look like crap.

  So tonight this is how it looks. It will eventually be a little better because Ed (the white bug) will be back in the garage. He is kicked out for the time being. I don't think this scene is an eye sore for anyone which makes me feel better.

Now onto the reason that today is a sad day for the shop. I decided that with the new bug, we have to get rid of Tugger. That is our baja bug if you don't follow the blog at all. We have had Tugger for over 3 years now and he has been a real trooper. He was the winter vehicle for me and never failed to start up in the cold and never left me stranded. His issue was cancer. He had very bad rust. I looked for a long time to replace his body with one that was in better condition but couldn't find the right deal. I picked one up yesterday and so I chose to scrap out Tugger. I decided to do it quickly so I could clear some room in the driveway. I guess I am writing this to make myself feel a little better for killing off a really cool car. I hate being the one that ends the history of stuff. Sounds stupid but I guess I am just a weird person that gets emotionally tied to my vehicles.(This is new to me because I used to buy and sell and never feel bad about anything)  Maybe I shouldn't name my cars. That might help. Isaac is attached to Tugger more then I am and that makes it even harder. He broke down today in the garage and I felt like a total loser for killing his dream of driving it. He was with me when I first picked it up and he has loved it ever since. Here he is the day we picked it up. He seems so little in this picture. He was sure proud about being there.

I promised him that the blue bug is his if he wants it. I am not sure if that helped him or not. He is really sad. He seems to get attached to all the old junk I have around here. He really likes the old International also. Anyways, here are some pictures of the day. You will see through a lot of the pictures the severity of the rust. I just couldn't justify the time and money it would take to repair it all. This was under the back baja panel.

 Lots of rust around all the fenders.

 This is what made the baja a bad choice for being a winter vehicle. The heater channels are completely rusted out. In fact the drivers side is non existent. In a VW bug the defrost and heat for the front of the car is all run through the heater channels. I had to keep a norwex rag on the passengers "OH crap" handle so I could wipe off the inside of the windows when they would get all fogged up. I also kept a scraper and used it on really cold days for the inside of the windshield to get the ice off it.

 This is where the drivers side ducting SHOULD be. The previous owner used a piece of a reflective road sign to patch the outside quarter panel but the duct is completely gone.

This is the passengers side. This duct is still there as you can see. It is starting to rust out though.

 Here is a hole that goes into the drivers side. When I went mud bogging with the Isaac this was one reason I came home with a wet foot.

 Here is the beginning of the end for Tugger. The parting out has begun.

 Fenders are removed. I am going to try to use all the good parts I can. Hopefully they can help out someone who is building a bug.

More rust. He was a good looking blue at one time in his life. The 70's brought out the metallic maroon and time made it an ugly brownish color today.

 More rust again. The tires are good though!

 Engine is out. Me and Isaac are going to detail the engine before we install it in the blue bug. It has taken a beating being exposed to the elements for 3 years. We will clean it up and do some powder coating before it goes to it's new home.

 Glass is out and the doors are off. It's getting pretty bare now. I plan on cutting out some patch panels that I will eventually use for the other bugs so Tugger will live on.

Here is an example of the main bolts that hold the body on. They are pretty corroded. I really hate the salt they use in winter around here. Arizona cars don't have rust like this. They just have really trashed interiors from the heat.

 This is the front section of the body under the gas tank. I still had 6 gallons of fuel in it so I have plenty of fuel for my lawn mower, tiller and snow blower. We swept up a huge pile of rust that had fallen off during dis-assembly. It turned out to be a very dirty hot job today.

 Tugger was all over the garage. We organized the piles and took some pictures so we could put up some ads on KSL.com. Hopefully this stuff will sell.

Another view of the Tugger explosion. The body is free and ready to come off. I am trying to figure out a way to remove it and get it put into the back of my truck so I can take it to the scrapper. I think I will have to bribe some neighbors to come over and help me lift it by hand to get it in the truck. I don't think my engine hoist will lift high enough to do it that way. Me and Isaac sat for awhile discussing ways to do it.

 I am hoping that someone will buy these and make another baja bug out of them. they are still in OK shape.

 I am going to take the body to the scrapper and try to sell the pan with the good title to someone who needs one. The pan isn't too rusty. If they have a decent body they could use this pan and title.

We are not sure exactly how we are going to build the blue bug. We are toying with the idea of building it as a class 11 lookalike. That is like this one pictured below.

If we do this we can use the tires off Tugger. I think they look really cool. I will let Isaac decide what he wants to do. I guess the only thing we can't do is lower it. I promised Dixie we wouldn't!

Finally found a replacement for my winter driver.

My baja has been out of commission for awhile because it needed a master cylinder, and exhaust. I didn't want to put any money into it so I quit driving it since summer is here. I kept going back and forth on whether to just scrap it out. That was my plan but I knew I wanted a driver for the winter. I was checking out KSL and came across this bug. It is in better shape than the baja and the heater channels are intact. Ellie and I loaded up the tow bar in the truck, we got a little cash and drove up to Kaysville where it was located. I was hoping I would find a rust free bug that had been garaged it's whole life and only driven on weekends. Well, that didn't happen. This is what I found. It is a decent bug especially for what I payed for it. The interior is in really good shape. There is some rust. It has the typical vent rust on the back quarters. The drivers side is really bad which made this bug not so sweet. It can be fixed and it's not affecting anything structural so I haggled a little and Ellie and I towed it home. The engine has a rod knock but I am not concerned with that because I have a good engine in the baja that will fit right in. Isaac liked it right away. Ellie wants to paint it pink, Steven says it's good and Dixie likes the fact that this one has carpet and the carpet is in good condition.

 This bug has been painted and it was probably back in the 90's. It has some signs of being turned into a cal look bug. The cal look back in the 90's shaved all the chrome off and blacked out the window seals like this one is. My bug back in high school had no chrome and I even shaved off the door handle for a smooth look. This one was done OK and I will leave it like it is except I am going to add the pop out windows from the baja.  This bug also has an adjustable beam in it. I promised Dixie that I wouldn't lower it though so I think I will just swap out the front beam with the baja's also.

 This would of been the perfect car if it wasn't for that darn rust spot on the drivers side rear panel. It bugs me and I plan on cutting some pieces off the baja to patch in to that area when I get some time and can't stand it any longer.

So the good is:
1. The car looks pretty good just as it sits.
2. The heater channels are in great shape.
3. The interior is in really good shape which is unusual for my cars.
4. I have all the parts I need to get it running.
5. I really dig the hub caps on it.
6. The bumpers are in perfect shape.
7. The wiring looks to be fairly unmolested.
8. The doors shut great.
9. The fuel doesn't smell like it's varnished yet.
10. There is a second heater added to this bug that is electric and is suppose to work really good.
11. I haven't found any signs that it has been wrecked.

The bad is:
1. The rust under the crescent.
2. It needs front tires.
3. The front drivers seat is wobbly and looks smooshed.
4. I have another car in my driveway and I am afraid the neighbors are gonna call the city on me.

Soooo, I have pulled the baja into the garage and I am going to start stripping it tomorrow. I will sell any usable parts and take the rest to the scrap yard. I am positive I can get enough money from it to pay for this one. I REALLY hate to scrap out old cars. There just isn't a whole lot of them around anymore but the baja is rusted so bad that the drivers door doesn't shut right. In fact when you close it you can see the whole dashboard move. I also hated having the engine exposed to all the weather outside. I thought a baja was cool but as I watched my engine turn to rust it bugged me. Hopefully I can get this one up and running quickly, the baja disposed of quickly and keep the peace in the family and neighborhood in the process. Summer is cruising by quickly so check back and see if this is going to be ready for some winter driving. If you need any parts off a 1969 bug, let me know. I probably have what you need.    

Failed first attempt at starting the binder after 20 years of sitting.

So the first attempt to start the old International has ended in failure.  I started out the day with high hopes of getting it running and having a video to prove it. I began by removing the hood so I would have good access to both sides of the engine.

 The 2nd thing I did was kill and remove the hornets and nest from under the front grill so I would not get stung like I did a couple days ago. I used hornet spray throughout the day to get rid of the stragglers trying to get back to their home.

 I pulled out all the plugs and checked out how they were burning. They looked like they have been in there for awhile but they weren't horrible. I cleaned them up really good and installed them. I will buy new ones and put them in after my first start up. I squirted oil in each cylinder as a precaution so I know it will blow some smoke out when it fires up. I will let these old plugs burn that oil out and then install some new ones.

 I spun the engine over a few times to by hand to get the cylinders lubed up and ready to go. I decided at this point to remove the valve cover and peek into the valve train. I was curious and wanted to get some oil on the rockers. I also figured I could make sure there wasn't a stuck valve at the same time.

I was amazed how clean the head is. There is no sludge buildup at all and all the valves worked properly. I also took the time to clean up the valve cover.

 This is quite a row of rockers. I also pulled off the fuel lines going into and coming out of the fuel pump. I turned the engine over and pumped all the old nasty fuel out of the pump and blew out the lines.

 Here I put some oil on all the cylinders.

 I was getting close now. I got the valve cover back on, the plugs installed, and a new fuel filter and fuel lines installed. Here is where I ran into some trouble. I put the battery in and checked the starter. The starter button did not work so I jumped the 2 wires and it started cranking, and cranking, and cranking. It wouldn't stop cranking until I removed the battery cable off the battery. I checked some more wires but it did the same thing. I figured I would remove the switch completely and use the remote starter switch I bought. It did the same thing. I am hoping it is just a wiring issue and not a bad solenoid. I love the way the valve cover looks. I think I will leave it like this and just clear coat it so it doesn't rust anymore.

 I also ran into 2 more problems along the way. I have no spark coming from my coil. I have voltage to my coil but nothing coming out of it. Maybe I have a bad coil. The other issue I have is that I have fuel leaking pretty good out of my carburetor. I figure that the float is stuck. That is a bad thing when I have to remove the battery cable to get the truck to stop cranking. The carburetor sits above the battery so when fuel is spilling onto it I get nervous when it sparks when I remove the cable. At this point I decided to pull the plug for now and get some things fixed. I am going to rebuild the carburetor so it will not leak. The kit is cheap. I am positive this engine will run so I will be doing this anyways. I also decided to get a new coil, plug wires, cap, rotor,  points, and condenser. I am not going to be chasing spark problems with old parts that I don't trust. I was busy the rest of the day with the family so this is where it sits as of now. I did remove the carb and found the numbers for the rebuild kit. I will get that coming in the mail and the rest of the parts are coming from Napa. Here is the old carb. It is in pretty rough shape.

  Hopefully this week I can get some things worked out so I can get it fired up next weekend. I think the service manual will be here soon and that will give me some insight in the starter problem. I think it has wiring diagrams in it which should help out. I am a little bummed that I didn't get it running but I am not defeated yet. In fact I am more excited because I know it will run. I just need to work out some little bugs. So until next post, Keep on truckin!

Ed visits Granite Flats

BYU TV has a show on it called Granite Flats. It is set in the early 60's and is a show about a small town called Granite Flats. I guess you would call it a drama/mystery mix. They have shown 1 season and I am hoping they continue with it. I really like it and there are not many shows these days that hold my interest for more then a couple episodes. This one is cool and I like being able to watch a show and not worry about the content of what will be shown. If you haven't seen it check it out. It's on BYU-TV and you can watch all 8 episodes of the first season on the Internet through BYU-TV.

They filmed a lot of the show in Magna on main street. I had to go to the library so I was on Magna's main street. I found out that some of the buildings were still painted up like the ones in the show. If you have seen the show, you will recognize a couple of the photo's. This one is from the Granite Flats police station. One of the main characters is the chief of police so you see this a lot in the show.

 This is the drug store they show in town when they do a street shot. The for sale sign kinda ruins the photo but the windows were painted up for the show.

 The Empress theater is in the show also. It's the local movie theater of granite flats and a piece of the "comet" breaks the front doors glass in the show. You will know what I am talking about if you watch it.

I don't think this is in the show but I found a really cool wall painting on my drive down main street. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. I had to back Ed into an alley to get him in the shot. I have cruised this main street a lot and have never seen this painting. It's a little bit hidden.

 Here is the view looking out onto main street. If you have never driven down Magna main street, you should check it out sometime. There have been a few movies and TV shows filmed here because it has some old time charm. There are also a lot of bars and church's on main street but it's still fun to drive through now and then.

I passed this pickup just as he was pulling off the street and I was able to get a photo on my way back. It is nicely built. I have never seen it before but I did admire it.

 Here is another one I saw. The bars bring in some cool cars at times and lots of Harley's.

That was my adventure today in 102 degrees of sunny bliss. I really hope they do a season 2 of Granite Flats so I can see how it ends. They left you hanging in the last episode of season 1 so I would guess they are going to do a season 2. If they don't, well, that's just plain mean!