Friday, October 07, 2005
Someone is having a bad day.
Today, I went to Atlanta Chassis Dyno to pick up the injectors. When I arrived, the staff was busy with a supercharged Chevy pickup strapped down to the dyno rollers. It looked like quite a sleeper - it had brush guards and aluminum wheels, but wasn't something you would expect to be all that fast. With the hood up, though, you could see a massive intake pipe from a centrifugal blower. They were just starting the dyno pull when I arrived.
Suddenly, chunks of black rubber came flying out from under the hood, and it promptly started leaking a pale yellow coolant. The operator shut it off. From where I was standing, I could clearly see a gaping hole in the fan shroud where a piece of the serpentine belt had made a rather dramatic exit. Seems the water pump pulley had self-destructed.
On the bright side, if you're going to break your engine, it's better for it to break at a mechanic's.
By the way, the guys who cleaned my injectors (an outside company, not ACD) found that one of them was plugged completely. No wonder the Supra they came out of had been junked. Luckily, they managed to repair that, cleaned all the injectors, and found they all flowed 47.25 lbs/hour. Looks like, all told, these used injectors have cost me $200 or so including the cleaning and overhaul. That's close to what a complete set of eight brand new injectors can cost for some applications. On the other hand, you won't find a set of new injectors that flow this much fuel for the price.
Just goes to show that for some applications, you might not save money with junkyard parts. It seems I have in my case, but sometimes it's worth it to buy new.
Suddenly, chunks of black rubber came flying out from under the hood, and it promptly started leaking a pale yellow coolant. The operator shut it off. From where I was standing, I could clearly see a gaping hole in the fan shroud where a piece of the serpentine belt had made a rather dramatic exit. Seems the water pump pulley had self-destructed.
On the bright side, if you're going to break your engine, it's better for it to break at a mechanic's.
By the way, the guys who cleaned my injectors (an outside company, not ACD) found that one of them was plugged completely. No wonder the Supra they came out of had been junked. Luckily, they managed to repair that, cleaned all the injectors, and found they all flowed 47.25 lbs/hour. Looks like, all told, these used injectors have cost me $200 or so including the cleaning and overhaul. That's close to what a complete set of eight brand new injectors can cost for some applications. On the other hand, you won't find a set of new injectors that flow this much fuel for the price.
Just goes to show that for some applications, you might not save money with junkyard parts. It seems I have in my case, but sometimes it's worth it to buy new.
