My Black Brick

After a day of rope tricks and greasy fingers I finally changed the front seals, timing belt, covers and V belts, only to have what looks to be a worse leak than before. I drove the brick for about 5 minutes then opened the hood. There was a trickle of oil leaking out of the timing belt cover and upon opening it up I saw all the work I did basking in hot oil.

I figured I’d give it another run, so this time I drove on a higher speed boulevard until I started smelling something burning. I looked in the rear view and there was a cloud of smoke trailing me. I was driving in a loop and pulled the car back into the driveway and checked the dipstick. It looks like I went through a 1/2 quart in about 4 miles. Wonderful.

I’ve got an appointment at Don Beyer Volvo, Falls Church, VA for 8AM tomorrow. I just can’t go through this crap again, especially since I can’t tell where the leak is coming from. They’re offering 15% off service for cars over 120k miles. Lucky me.

This is cross-posted on the Brickboard

I’m replacing the cam/int/crankshaft seals because of a slow oil leak I’ve had for a while. When I put the smaller seals in they went in fine and I have them in about 1/16″ from the outside.

The crankshaft seal went in a little too easily and when I slid it in one side went in about 1/4″ from the edge. I was able to even it out by lightly tapping with a piece of wood but I’m concerned it went in so easily and am afraid it might be in too far. I lubed it on the inside rim w/ vasoline and outside w/ 10w30. Did I screw up? Did it go past the housing? It’s an orange colored seal from FCP.

“Made in Sweden” is a flickr set by Penzance.

Click image for larger view. I’ll be shoving my face in here over the next couple weeks. There’s an oil leak somewhere in front of the engine, possibly busted seals on the crank or cam shaft. Oils been spraying over the engine bay for about a year. I’ve been using Castrol high mileage and I’m not losing too much oil anymore. But I’m gonna bust in and install new seals, gaskets, belts and covers. I may even throw in a new horn.

Saw this black brick in front of the bank. You can see how the ipd sport springs change the rake on my car. I recently re-blacked the bottom trim and you can see the difference it makes. As usual, the other Volvo 240 is plastered with an Obama sticker.

Union Rat is set up across the street from my studio this morning. Not sure if it’s for the Hoboken Business Center or our building, which it’s facing. And, yes, my car needs a serious washing after parking in front of a construction site.

Until yesterday I was blissfully unaware of the film “Hop”. Now it looks like I may have to bring my kids to this Easter movie tomorrow afternoon. In checking out the trailer I see we have another movie brick.

Here we have the standard movie trope of the down-on-his-luck character driving a beater brick. Fred, played by James Marsden, is an “out-of-work slacker” who drives his 240 wagon into a rabbit. Not a VW Rabbit, but E.B., son of the Easter bunny, who proceeds to drop turds on the hood of Fred’s brick. But those are no ordinary turds; they’re jelly beans. Does Meguiar’s have anything for that?

Either Fred owns two cars or he swapped his head restraints between scenes. How else to explain the black interior in the publicity still with the beige interior from the frame grab. I’m sure it’s just a Movie Mistake, but I wonder if the prop peeps needed 2 cars because they destroyed one in a colossal stunt. Unfortunately it looks like I’m going to have to see the movie to find out.