So how do you know when to give up?

Foxfan88 said:

There's an old Taoist saying... "The journey is the reward."

which i feel is very true, i had loads more fun actually taking my engine apart, the road to achieving the goal. Then when i get there its like ahhh. not near as fun as getting there....

Click to expand...

I think everything in my life has been this way: chasing the girls and actually catching a girlfriend, finally moving out, finally graduating college, finishing my big musclecar project, making it to the west coast, finally seeing my favorite band in person. You get there and you realize life is exactly the same as the day before except now the chase has ended. The struggle is 70% of the fun.

On the flipside, the things that I expected nothing from are the things that turned out to be the most amazing experiences: driving through the midwest, going kart racing, ATV'ing, volunteering.

I moved into an apartment "like this" (parking situation) because, in boston, thats all there is. Buy a house? Ha! I'm happy if I can scrape a few thousand together right now, much less commit to pay for 350-450K house.

Yeah, I'm trying to drive a hotrod as a daily driver but I did that through most of my college years. The only difference is I have a lot more hot in my hot rod now (uuum, huh huh huh he said rod). I wish I had left it with a few bolts ons, fuel injected and stick. I'd be 10K richer.

Honestly, I'm just completely fed up with everything in my life across the board and this car keeps making itself an itch that needs scratching. Maybe I should deep six it for a year like aaron11272 said.

Meanwhile maybe roll back to E7's and stock cam and lifters and get some money back for my afr165's, fti cam and 1.7 roller rockers.

Dark Knight said:

What kind of probs have you been having? I've been using my vert as a daily driver for years. If it's just normal stuff for a high mileage car, then selling it for a newer car might put you in the same boat with repairs.

Click to expand...

I agree totally....and the "replacement car" would be a higher milage 2.0T saab. But repairs I can do. Fixing the "why in the world wont it start" or the infamous "mod A interferes with mod B" problems is significantly costlier than a few tie rods and spark plugs.

What kind of problems have I been experiencing? The first 4 are old history....everything else was the last 2....maybe 2 1/2 years.

-A long time ago.....driving down the highway.....eeeeeEEEEEEEE BAM! Screeching to a stop with a little spin at the end. T-5 input shaft retainer broke. Took the gearbox with it...locked the gearing inside and probably one of the rear tires. Replaced T-5 and rebuilt the engine while I was at it.
-A long time ago......car died. Long diagnosis later, turns out it was just a n exhaust leak upstream of the O2 sensor.
-A long time ago....car died. Fuel pump relay.
-A long time ago...car died. Every ground was hot, MAF resistences were crap. Car had shorted out more or less and grounds were about ~1.3 volts

Began carb conversion to cure electronics issues.

-About a year of perfect operation with lots of drives.
-Lost the T-5...damn thing simply refused to shift anymore. Funny thing is I didnt even beat on this car!

Began automatic conversion so I never have a bad T-5 again. Did the springs to C springs at the same time.

-Took it for a spin one rainy day, pull into a gas station. Car refuses to start up again. MSD box died. Water probably shorted it out. Same "surge" took out my amp and headunit. Had to replace most of the electronics on the car. Fused the heck out of everything to make sure repeat didnt happen.
-Not really a problem per se but the C springs are so hard that people dont want to ride in the car with me anymore.

Begin repainting project. Replace interior, paint under floorboards, weld cracks, subframes, tubular k-member and most of the mods you see.

-Longtubes refused to seal. Had to lift the engine, tighten the tubes than basically drop the engine with tubes attached back in. Had to repeat when the afr165's went in.

-Got a nice tubular k-member and BAM....part of the k-member hits the oilpan on hard revving since it was sized wrong. Cutting was required. Plus polurethane mounts. Now the steering shaft hits the k-memeber. Flaming river shaft required.

-Went for a drive and BAM...all power goes out. Cant even turn on my hazards. Cold dead. Blocking an intersection too. Turns out the electric fan draws so much juice, it blows 3-4 fuses if it gets it just right. Went to 130A alternator for that damn thing too. Had to get a mech fan and shroud.

-Went to go visit my college friends....turn the key....nothing.... jumped..... nothing.... 3 days of furious hacking later, turns out the battery shorted out internally. This car had been more or less sitting for months with an occasional bi-weekly startup.Replaced battery.

-Driving around....car dies. Some carb cleaner later it sponteneously works again. A few days later, dies exactly the same. Same solution. A week later dies in my driveway where I can actually diagnose. Turns out the carb developed a sponteneous leak. RTV'ed for the win.

-Went to get it inspected. Failed. Added cats and retuned. Power valve leaked and the extreme heat from the glowing cats set the paint on the underside and some of the grease on fire. Fixed problem. Retested. Horribly failed cause the cats melted. Replaced cats and retested. Failed. Turns out the distributor had lost it's mechanical advance and I was driving around with 17 degrees total advance. Replaced distributor. Still failed. Passed he test in unspecified ways.

-Now the speedo bounces even though I just replaced the gear and the cable.
-Now the car pings and crazy leans out when I make sharp turns (fuel sloshing in the bowls). So now I cant even say it's a roadrace car cause I cant make swerving motions without lean backfire!!
-Visited a friend the other week and walk out to my car at 1 am, turn the key...nothing. No click from the starter relay. Screwdrivered the starter relay and drive home. The relay trigger wire had sponteneously frayed at some point during my harrowing 10 minute drive over.

Darn it all. And this is stuff off the top of my head. There's plenty more but you get the idea. One big headache.