Patcon

I have had wheels straighten and don't know of any kind of paperwork being signed for liability reasons

Plug the line to the brake booster and see what happens. I suspect an issue with the booster

Why dont you try this: Jack up the car on one side, so you can spin one of the front tires. First check top to bottom and side to side for bearing looseness. Then lay a block beside the tire so it touches the sidewall and slowly spin the tire. This will show you if the wheel spins true as it currently sits on the car. Report your findings...

That sounds like a leak somewhere. Could be a pick up problem but my first suspect would be all the connections or a cracked hose or filter

The hoses could be bad under the dash. The heater valve could be leaking. Core would be my last suspect

How does a New Mexico car get that rusty? Normally they are much cleaner than that

Keep an eye on this too. I had to repair the hatch on the car I am currently working on

I agree, you need to get it clean to see how much needs to be replaced. Some body has been working on the tension rod mount with a hammer!

End of October is normally good or early November but the roads are busy then too because of "leaf season". Be sure and take some Dramamine with you too for the Dragon; it can wear on you

So your machinist is reiterating what the rebuild book says about rod bolts affecting journal roundness or shape. Interesting... @Captain Obvious Did you mic a journal and then relocate the bolts yet?

I didn't hit the pay wall either. I wonder if certain IP addresses cause it

I can make room for you in the guest house not far from "Tail of the Dragon"...

There should be a big block of rooms coming available when registration opens

Yeah, I don't see how rod bolts would effect clearances or roundness the way caps would. The only issue I could see would be stretch and that would be resolved if they fully reached finished torque. I also don't see how orientation would be relevant either. As CO pointed out you could replace all of them with ARP hardware and I wouldn't expect to have to big end size as long as the cap was on each mating rod. CO, you could experiment if you have the proper measuring tools. Take a known rod with the properly located bolts. Torque it down and check the ID both ways to determine roundness. Then relocate the bolts or change the orientation and recheck. I suspect your dimension won't change as long as the torque wrench is accurate.

You really have no recourse against Copart, credit card or not. I buy cars using my credit card but the fees are higher when using a credit card. It's an auction and an auction for salvage cars. So buyer beware!!

Some of that comes with the paycheck. You don't get to have your cake and eat it too!

You got to love tough simple motors!!

Too far for me to go look! Some one else closer should go

My first thought when I saw this was scam. My opinion hasn't changed yet...

So what does the title match?

What were the tools of choice for this?

IMO any AC that gets cold is better than none at all

That and the liability that comes along with repairing them. I suspect if they get sold it will be with parts only titles. Also they have probably never had titles issue so that could be part of the problem too

Whats the total advance? You moght try backing it down a couple of degrees and see if the detonation goes away

block off any vacuum ports you can, like the brake booster and see if that helps