Unfortunately I didn’t think to ask him. My bad. 😞

I buy gas there frequently. If I run into him again, I’ll definitely ask.

 

Maybe next time.

Today I received a package! First off, my tire guy has retired, second shop in 12 years to do so, the new owners quote to balance my wheels was $19.99 plus weights at $1.50 per 1/4 ounce and of course taxes. So, yesterday I ordered a bubble balancer from Amazon, and it arrived this lunchtime today.
So, I unboxed it, and assembled it, very similar to the one in high school and back in the day at the race team shop. I’m pretty sure there’s a slight vibration in the front end, so, I started there. I took off the left front and put it on the balancer and the bubble was dead centre on the machine, on to the right front, a-ha!! I see a missing 1/4 ounce weight just residue double sided tape. A quick scraper clean up and a paper towel squirted with brake cleaner and the rim was ready for a replacement weight, reassembly of the front wheels, torque to spec , 100 ft/lbs and off for a test drive, no vibration up front.
Now the machine has saved me 2 x $19.99= $39.98 + $1.50=$41.48 and tomorrow I’ll rebalance the two rear tires so another $39.98 = $81.46 plus taxes.
I paid $75.99 plus taxes for the machine. Win, win!

 

Today a cruise for ice cream with the grand kids and ice cream, stopped at Johnson’s Farm to feed the goats!

 

Continuing saga of saving the wife's lunchbox. Will be installing new plugs, noting condition, inspecting radiator fins, inspecting underhood after several different techs worked on car. Has misfire code for cylinder 2 and stuck turbo bypass valve and temperature climbs, also set a cam solenoid code and a few inflatable restraint codes..

 

In case anyone was wondering what removing the whole engine cradle with suspension looks like:

 

Steve now what are you up to? Problems with your daughters 2011?


Today, we drove to our grand nieces 8th birthday party, everyone had a great time!

 

Tried to make a deal for a non running white HHR 2LT. Ad said it was local but owner said it was 100 miles away.
Oh well. Maybe next time.

 

[QUOTE=Oldblue;956965]Steve now what are you up to? Problems with your daughters 2011?

/QUOTE]

Both of my daughters have a 2011 HHR LT. This is the silver one I bought 6 years ago from Ohio. She was on a trip to Watkins Glen a few weeks ago when it ran out of coolant and overheated. She refilled it with water and kept topping it off every hour or so and made it home. I couldnt see any visible coolant leak anywhere, but there was clearly water in the oil. The engine has 280K miles on it so we got our money's worth so far. The head gasket is probably gone at this point and maybe the head is warped. I found an engine in a local scrapyard for $650 that had relatively low mileage, so we are swapping the engine. Otherwise the car is in great shape.

Back before the Covid stuff, you could get an HHR LT with 130K miles on it for $3K, but now they are going for $5-6K or more (even though they are a lot older now). Florida still has a few good deals on used ones but thats a long haul. That's why its worth fixing this one up.

​​​​​​​Steve

 

I think you should go for it, as Steve says they are getting harder to find and it would be a great project to occupy your time!

Steve you thinking of tearing down that engine and if it’s not to bad rebuilding it for a spare?


Today we are getting ready for a trip to friends place for another birthday party , this time the birthday girl is 43 and there’s barbque involved!!

 

The engine is now separated from the assembly: