My 1983 Wagon (Eaglerod)

[thereverendbill]

As long as you are enjoying it.

I enjoy the heck out of the wagon.  it is going to be a sad day when I transfer the plates off of it and put it in winter storage 

[milliard431]

That is a good day as you will be assuring it lasts another year. Rust is killing our ranks

[thereverendbill]

almost finished with the AWD transformation of the wagon then realized that i forgot the speedo gear in ohio  So ....... this saturday i get to make the 6 hour round trip for a 3 dollar piece of plastic 

[83Eagle!]

Hate when I forget stuff and have to retrace my steps. 

[thereverendbill]

i guess it is time to throw an update here.  Recently i haven't been driving it much due to picking up an overnight job on top of my day job.  My wife decided to take the eagle to work to use some of the gas before i put the cover over it for the winter, she started off to work and never noticed the trail of transmission fluid that was pouring from the cooler line that became loose and long story short transmission number 2 no longer moves.  I just covered the car up and said the heck with it till spring.  i am seriously thinking of swaping in an automatic from a xj cherokee to gain the over drive gear, but as i said everything is on hold with the wagon until spring time

[shaggimo]

I too am thinking an AW4 for the sx/4, it works fairly nice with the carbed jeep, the wiring is easy, so why not? Not to mention the aw4 is plentiful and pretty stout for what it is.

[thereverendbill]

I have come out of my winter hibernation and decided to get the wagon out earlier this week to get it ready for summer driving and sitting all winter has taken it's toll.  So far the short list of "get stuff done" is figure out why the taillights have failed (thinking it's a fuse), replace the intake manafold gasket, and figure out why the left front window isn't operating.  Hopefully i will be able to get some pictures of it early next week with a new hood installed and the car all cleaned up
  

[doc65]

Shag & Rev,

The only prob I see with the AW4 is a length issue, it's gonna hit the floor boards.  Well actually with it the T-Case is gonna hit them... I've been looking & measuring that one myself for Bess(wagon), I also really like the idea of an AX15 into the SX4 in place of the T5, but the T5 seems to be working so far, so maybe I'll hold off a while on that one... 

[shaggimo]

How much longer are we talking doc? As in a whole new t case hump would need to be fabbed up, or just a little masaging done to sqeak it by?

[thereverendbill]

This weeks project started out to be a simple intake and exhaust gasket install until everything was apart.
Once i had the manifolds off i started to look at them and realized that there is no way i can just put the car back together and kick myself in the head every time i open the hood and look at these well worn parts under my nice shiny 2100 carb 


So I decided to strip the intake down and take it into work with me to tape up and get blasted and painted



After about 10 minutes in the blast building and in the hands of what i would call a media blasting expert the manifold was returned to me in the paint booth where it was coated in a heavy coat of 2000 degree engine paint then baked at 100 degrees for a half hour, fallowed by 2 more coats baked at 200 degrees for a half hour between coats


The finished product is a flat black manifold that is ready to last another 30 years

[rohnk]

Very nice! I will do this some day as well. Thanks for the great pictures of the manifolds.

One question, is that an oxygen sensor on the bottom of the exhaust manifold where the exhaust tube bolts on?

[thereverendbill]

One question, is that an oxygen sensor on the bottom of the exhaust manifold where the exhaust tube bolts on?

indeed it is.  it hasn't been hooked up the entire time that i have owned the car.  it is extremely gulded in and there is no leak so it'll stay put until I get another exhaust manifold with better flow 

[rohnk]

Did you blast the insides of the exhaust manifold too? I was thinking of having my sandblaster guy do that with mine at some point and coat the inside with high temp paint or something.

[thereverendbill]

Did you blast the insides of the exhaust manifold too? I was thinking of having my sandblaster guy do that with mine at some point and coat the inside with high temp paint or something.

I didn't cause the blaster we have at work is for blasting heavy gauge plate steel.  these parts where blasted from a distance of about 5 feet away.  thus far i am happy with the paint adhesion to the exhaust manifold but the aluminum intake the paint is just, blah   

[83Eagle!]

Nice work Bill.