1989 Chevrolet K1500 - my ownership origin story

I think I will always own a truck. I tend to feel more comfortable transporting dirty car parts and fluids in the bed of a truck. Before we moved from "the country" to suburbs, there was no limit to the size of truck that I could own. We had a huge parking area and the garage was built for working a full size crew cab truck with a 8ft bed. The garage and driveway in our suburban home, however, are only large enough for a regular cab, 6.5 ft bed truck. So, I had to sell my 1998 C2500 extended cab long bed and get another truck.

 I was only considering GMT400 trucks. That era of GM trucks is favorite. The lines are clean and I just think they look great. The search started in the usual places. Craigslist and Facebook marketplate had several options. But, I had a hard time getting people to respond. Then, a coworker mentioned that he had an 89 that he would sell cheap. He warned me that it had been sitting and needed work. The registration had lapsed and at first glance, it needed lots of basic repairs. A few mornings later, I purchased it for $800 and drove it straight to nearest shop for exhaust work and tires. My sister drove me to the junkyard so that I could pick up a set of taillights. A little after lunch, I had a truck that was good enough to register and pass inspection. This would be the beginning of a transformation of a neglected truck to a good looking daily drivable resto-mod project. But at the time, it was needed to help with the move. 

More head work and a rear disc conversion on the Civic

After a bit of research I learned that bad valve stem seals could be a cause of oil consumption. Replacing them wasn't something I had done before. So, I was game to do it. I was using a junkyard head after all. It seemed simple enough. I tackled the task on a Saturday morning and went relatively smoothly. Having a set of valve spring compressors from a previous project helped.

I may be getting the order of some of this work wrong. As these posts are meant to catch the blog up to the current state of the cars. But I also ended up doing a rear disc conversion. I got lucky and found not an Integra or an SI to be the donor, but a EX Civic with the factory option for rear discs. I did have to leave the junkyard to get the spline socket for the common tuner lug nuts the donor had. That might be the only reason the rear disc swap was still available. It was worth it though. During the rear disc swap I also install Energy Suspension trailing arm bushings. I didn’t expect it. But they made a noticeable difference in the stability of the car. 

 

  

 

The next stop was the local shop for an alignment. They tried everything and it still pulled to the left. They couldn’t quite get it right. You never know the reason with these old cars. But, the aftermarket support for the EJ1 is great. So, the next modifications would be suspension related. 

 

Finding a head and transmission for the Civic's D16Z6

I knew the quickest, cheapest and most fun way to get a good head for the Civic was a junk yard. (It is weird for me to call it that sometimes because it is often a place where I find treasures.) LKQ has a great app that notifies you if a vehicle you selected is put into the yard. During a work week, I was notified that a few Civics with my engine, D16Z6, were on the lot. I was there the first chance I got. The donor for my "new" head was a green Del Sol. I picked up the head and a valve cover. I then ordered all the gaskets and seals for the head. Everything was installed within a week. 

It ran fine but still consumed a good bit of oil. It was time to prioritize the repairs. The transmission made a noise when the clutch was released. While neither seemed terribly urgent the leaks/consumption seemed less pressing than the transmission noise. I checked the usual places for a transmission. Craigslist, OfferUp, Facebook MarketPlace and forums are all places I use. This time, for the first time ever, OfferUp was the winner. I found a transmission 20 minutes away. I told the seller that my plan was to rebuild it and swap it in. He told me that there was no need to rebuild it and that it was in perfect working order. I cleaned it, put on new axle seals and it installed within 2 days of buying it. The seller was right. It worked perfectly. 

The was serving me well. So for the time being, I decided to top off the oil as needed. The next chance I got, I would dig deeper into the oil consumption.

Discovering problems with the Civic

The Civic was running fine. But after getting another car, it was time to start addressing all the little nagging issues. 

(1) Someone who previously owned the car stripped and broke the threads for the bolts that hold he valve cover to the head. As a band-aid, they put lots of silicone sealant on the head to slow the oil leak. This would require a new head.

(2) The V-Tec solenoid gasket was leaking. This was an easy fix.

(3) The crankcase ventilation box o-ring was leaking

(4) The oil pressure switch was leaking.

(4) The oil pan gasket seemed to be leaking. But, all the leaks above it could have made it look like it was leaking.

I think that sums up the work was ahead. I could get most of the parts at one of the local autoparts stores. But, I planned to take my chances with a head from the junk yard.

Why I purchased a 1999 Golf GL...with issues

After driving the Civic for a few days, I started to notice all the things that I missed after hastily purchasing it. The obvious problems were oil and valve cover leaks. The less obvious issues were leaks around other places on the head. After investigating further, I learned that it had enough other problems that it would be out of commission for a while. I was disappointed and pleased at the same time. I was glad I was going to work on a car, but sad that I HAD to work on the car. ( I will get into all that was wrong in later posts.) This meant I would need something else to drive while it was down.
So, I played the same game I played a few months earlier. I searched Craigslist and Facebook market place for a cheap, running car with good aftermarket support. After several failed attempts to reach and/or meet with sellers, I ended up buying a silver 1999 MK4 Golf GL with a manual transmission. Again, it wasn't perfect. But the test drive went well enough for me to hand over $2100. The problem was solved. I now had a temporary daily to drive while the Civic was down. This was a familiar situation for me.

Purchasing the 1995 EJ1 Civic

In the middle of 2019, my wife and I decided to make some life changes. We decided to move from a rural area to an area that I like to call "super suburbia". Four wheelers, horses, goats and even emus were common in our old neighborhood. Our new place, however, has an active HOA and we have a lot less space. That meant going from 5 cars to three. I had interest in all of my cars, so I decided to sell them all and pick up the first reasonable reliable car that I came across. That car turned out to be a 1995 Honda Civic EX with a manual transmission. I have always liked the Civic coupes from this era. The shape is simple and clean. A bonus is that parts are easily sourced and aftermarket support is great. I drove about an hour south of our country home to check it out. It looked....ok. But, it drove, I needed a car and I knew that I could handle any issues that would arise. I purchased it and it became my daily driver. It was supposed to just be a car to get me through the move. But, it became more. It required attention and I was happy to get my hands dirty.