Shenanigans

[ittybitty]

Everyone that knows Marcus (lowridinjuggalo) won't need an explanation for this...just another day really.

So Marcus came over to my place yesterday morning to help out with selling a Samurai to a guy. He lives in Florence so he drove his L200 Saturn and showed up around 9am I think. We waited around for the guy to show up and he eventually did and the sale went through as planned. Then we decided to grab some lunch before I went to work and he went back home. So we left his car at my office and went to eat. When we returned I dropped him off and I ran to the bank just down the street. When I came back a few minutes later there's Marcus parked in the parking lot next door with the hood up on the car...UH OH.

So I pulled up to see what was going on and he says that it doesn't have any power and just bogs down, but had been driving just fine that morning on the way to my place and to my office to drop it off. This is the 2.2L ecotec motor that should be just about bombproof...although I'm not sure how it's rated on the "Marcus Scale". So I tell him we should limp it up to the AutoZone which is within walking distance and let them read the codes. As we're waiting at a red light he starts revving the motor...I see puffs of brownish "stuff" exiting the tail pipe. Hmm...never seen that before, but after looking into I was reminded that that indicates unburnt fuel in the exhaust. The color comes from how light hits it...so the color can vary.

As the guy is coming out to read the codes Marcus checks the oil dipstick and notices that there doesn't appear anything resembling oil on it...just some sludge type material...nasty. H proceeds to tell me he had been watching for the low oil warning light on the dash but it hadn't gone off so he figured it was fine. The guy checks the codes and finds a "Multiple Random Misfire" report. So Marcus goes in and buys 2 qts of oil and pours them in and continues to check the dip stick...nothing. He returns to get 2 more qts and pours them in...near the end of the 2nd the oil starts to show up ...yep that was 4 qts...and it calls for 5!

Next step was to check the spark plugs...and here's where we really started to have "fun" with this situation. I don't believe we stopped laughing at just how bad of shape things were in the entire time I'm certain I've never seen plugs this bad off...pretty sure we found the reason for the misfire...or at least 4 of them.



There was one more that matched this one and the other two still had the center electrodes but had burned away the ground electrodes. After reinstalling some new plugs the car fired up and ran much better...imagine that. Then we went ahead and replaced the oil filter while we were at it and since it's a canister filter it's a lot less messy and easier to deal with when working in the AutoZone parking lot! At this point Marcus jumped in the car and took it around the building a few times and said it was running good again. He left at that point and headed home.

About 15 minutes later I get a call from him saying it's bogging down again and he's on the side of I-20...wanting to know if I can come pick him up and take the car to his house. I asked him to try one more thing real quick and rev the motor up to around 2k rpm and hold it there for a few minutes and then look under the car and see if the catalytic converter was red. He calls back saying it was glowing just past the converter...bingo!



So I went home and got the trailer and headed out to pick him up...the end...for now. Hoping he's had a chance to tear into it today and find out what exactly was going on.

[lowridinjuggalo]

If it ain't broke don't fix it. I was hoping to get another 20k miles out of those spark plugs.

[2003EDGE]

Or fix it till it is broken lol

[M_ENERGY]

Ok I am getting worried about him running XR10 axles lol

[easleycrawler]

Marcus has a new name. LOWOILJUGGALO.

[slim_chance]

I dont even know how it was running at all looking at that!

[lowridinjuggalo]

My project for the after noon lol




Also my 1:1 crawler look at that thing flex that rock lol

[lowridinjuggalo]

What I'm after

[lowridinjuggalo]

It's out



Think it's clogged up some

[lowridinjuggalo]

4 banger rumble lol
http://static.photobucket.com/player...ps08cb495f.mp4

[lowridinjuggalo]

Temp fix lol

[easleycrawler]

Temporary my ass. We all know that's permanent. Just kidding Marcus.










Maybe.........

[1r3land]

Originally Posted by lowridinjuggalo

Temp fix lol

Screw that, put a turn down tip on it and hit the road

[lowridinjuggalo]

Originally Posted by 1r3land

Screw that, put a turn down tip on it and hit the road

Wife would kill me or I would lol

[ittybitty]

Yeah I'd say that catalytic converter kicked the bucket a while back and was just a ticking time bomb...and it finally went off.

Glad that got you back on the road though

[lowridinjuggalo]

Originally Posted by ittybitty

Yeah I'd say that catalytic converter kicked the bucket a while back and was just a ticking time bomb...and it finally went off.

Glad that got you back on the road though

I'm glad it's rolling again as well again thanks for all the help and coming to rescue me off the side of the rd. I appreciate the hell out of it.