BUDGET RACE CAR

Author: Justin Dunn

STORY 2: What happen to Mitzi’s motor?

Let me take you back to 2012. I was going to Film School, taking Digital Video Production at The Art Institute of Tampa. This is about 45 miles from my house. I had to drive there 3 to 4 times a week. I was also working about 6 miles away, 5 times a week. The miles were racking up on Mitzi.

So far, the engine was doing great only once a year something weird would happen and I would work all night to get it running the next day. The alternator was a different story. I had to put in over 10 remanufactured alternators until I finally replaced the battery with a yellow top Optima.

It was my senior year and I needed to complete my final film project. I had big plans to create a stunt movie with car stunts. I built a camera jib to fit on the roof of Mitzi and I just needed a stunt car. This is when I bought the 1990 Nissan 240sx. It was at this moment that it was a game of ping pong between the 240 and Mitzi being broken. I had to replace rocker arms in the 240 and then an ECU in Mitzi. I had to replace a differential in the 240 and then a head gasket in Mitzi.

The head gasket was probably the death of Mitzi. It all started with over-heating. Like they always do. With the 240 down I had to drive it. It would take about 30 minutes before it would start to get hot. After the first few times I would be watching the coolant gauge like a hawk. As soon as it started to move off half, I would find a place to pull over. I’d get a nice big open area and sometimes something in the shade.

I would bring a towel with me and a coolant jug with water in it. I would throw the towel over the coolant cap and slowly release the pressure. If I did it right, the cap would go to the slightly higher spot releasing the pressure but keeping the cap on. This would take a few minutes for the fluid and pressure to come out. If I did not do it correctly or I didn’t want to wait, It could shoot the cap off and fluid would guizer out of the spout. You had to stand back not to get burnt.

I would look like I was lighting a firework every time. Would turn it a little bit and then back up. Turn it a little and back up. With the towel there the cap would stay right there. When I did it without the towel the cap would flying sometime landing in the engine and eventually under the car. I would either have to get on my hands and knees to reach under the car or put the car in neutral and roll the car back. Luckily, I have experience pushing Mitzi around.

Once I got the J30 differential in the 240, I took the head off. I sent it to Ed Lima’s Accurate Automotive to be decked and clean. Ed sealed all the valves and got it ready to go again. He even offered to clean up the ports. I did the whole job in my dad’s driveway out of a single car garage full of storage.

I was excited to start really working on the engine bay. I relocated the fuse panel and cleaned up some other accessories on the firewall. To make more room I relocated the battery to the trunk. Mitzi was really starting to come together. At the time of the Head rebuild she had 199,413 miles. Once I got her back together, I started driving her like usual.

Over the next few weeks, it went great, till it wasn’t. One night I was leaving my wife’s house, girlfriend at the time, and going up to McDonald’s. I came up to the main road and downshifted hard into second. With the way clear I yielded onto the road hard. I kept my foot in it as hard as I could. Once I was straight, I slammed it into 3rd gear. I don’t know if was just this Eclipse, but 3rd gear is where it really starts to pull harder. At the top of 3rd, I let off and put it into 4th and let off. Once I got down into the 60s, I put it into 5th and started cruising.

By this time my wife had caught up to me in her car. We got to the next light and she was trying to say something to me. I couldn’t hear anything but a slight knock coming from the motor. It was all too familiar for me. I started to rev it up a little and could hear it more around 3k rpms. We got to McDonalds and I parked up front by the lights. We went in and ate. I couldn’t think about anything other than what might be wrong with the engine.

We got done eating and I listened to the motor as I REVed it up and down a little. Something was wrong for sure. We made it back to my wife’s house. With all my experience with rod knock on the Supra I wanted to see what cylinder it was on. I turned the engine off and removed one spark wire. I fired it back up and REVed the engine up slightly. There was no real change in engine noise. I shut it off and did it again.

I turned the engine on and went to rev it. As soon as it hit 2K rpms the engine stopped. Most of the time the engine will slow down and come to a stop when you turn off the key. This was a complete stop like you stalled the engine. I went back in the car and tried to start it back up. I turned the key to start and it just clicked.

Having all the experience with bad starters I tried tapping the key and rocking the car. Nothing changed. It just clicked. It was locked up for sure. I had no other choice but to get it towed home. I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars on towing anymore. So, I called my best friend Paul.

Paul had a 1985 Chevrolet C10, 4 Speed manual, 350 V8 with a 4-barrel carburetor only firing on two bores. We flat towed it all the way to my dad’s house. On the way we encountered a little hill. It was at that moment the carburetor decided to have issues. The power cut down on the engine and Paul had to work the throttle and clutch to get it up the hill. It was a sweet smell of burn clutch coming on the windows of Mitzi.

Little did I know then that was the last time I would get the ride in Mitzi down the road. She sat at my dad’s house for another year until I moved into my own house. She sat on the side of the house until 2014, a year later, till I pulled out the engine. Just to put her back once the engine was out. Then finally in 2017 I started working on the engine and body to get it ready for Cleetus N’ Cars.

There are so many more lessons I learned along the way. I will keep doing my best to lay out the stories that show how I learned so much about mechanics and life on this website. Stay tuned for more as I have the opportunities to write it all out. Thanks for reading.