Plug-in Festy??

[tulsacarman]

I was at Wal-mart a few days ago and there was a blue Festy in the parking lot that was hit pretty good in the nose and the right door. Of course I left my name and # on the windshield and then last night the owner calls me. I had asked if he wanted to sell the car or if he needed parts (that was a no-brainer) so I thought I might get something out of the deal.

He said he didn't want to sell the car, he loved it even though it had 225,000 miles on it. He was considering doing a little work to it though.

He tells me he needs an alternator because his is bad and he's taken the belt off. I thought this was a recent deal but he tells me that he's driven the car for 3 YEARS with no alternator belt on it and missing 1 freeze plug. He lives pretty close to where he shops so he keeps the float charger on it and then just unplugs the car when he wants to drive anywhere.

[ohsoslow]

as long as he's not pulling much electric you can do it.
when my original fiesta alt pooped out i just grabbed another fully charged battery slapped it in and drove it home the 39 miles.

the missing 1 freeze plug i question. no freeze plug no coolent no coolent overheated in just a minute or so.

[Pu241]

Agree with ohsoslow Alt is an inconvenience.
But you can get 200+ miles out of good charged battery more if during day and no radio/wipers/fan/AC on.

But the missing freeze plug is just asking to overheat and warp the head.
If he's older he may not have the money to get the freeze plug fixed.

tulsacarman, I'd be willing to help defray your costs if you helped him get it fixed.
Freeze plug is cheap, labor is $$!
I might have a spare ALT around here I can ship after checking it.
Can you do the repair?
Still will help you with some cash to help him.
Anyone else want to help this guy?

[ohsoslow]

lemme know what i can do.
but (sorry if this sounds mean) i refuse to help anyone who says they cant afford anything if they drink or smoke. ive yet to meet a "poor" person who didnt have a 12 pack in the fridge and a pack of marlboro's in there pocket.
i drink and smoke but i dont ask for handouts....

[Mike McKown]

Maybe the block/head is already cracked and that's why he doesn't fix the welch plug that popped out.

Years ago, a friend had a '58 Corvette. He let the block freeze up one cold winter night because he didn't have anti-freeze in it. He worked afternoon shift. He lived about 7-8 miles from work in light city traffic. So, in the afternoons, he'd drive to a gas station about halfway to work and shoot the breeze while it cooled down a little. Then, he'd drive on to work. At night, he'd come to the drive-in restaurant, again about halfway. He'd sit there till it closed and then drive on home. He drove the car like this for three years before it finally quit and he sold it.

[Safety Guy]

I've thought about going "alternatorless."

1. Get either a deep cycle battery, one of the new high performance batteries, or a couple of regular batteries.

2. Hook up a charge system in the car so you can easily plug it in at home or whereever.

3. Install a voltmeter to see what you got and how much is left.

I think someone has said removing the alt belt gets you at least one or two mpg better highway? Or was it one or two percent better mileage? Can't recall.

You'd be losing alt belt engine load friction as well as the weight of the alternator. You then may replace that weight with an extra battery, or a heavier battery, but it could be mounted behind your front seat for better weight distribution, if that mattered.

I'm still considering this.

Karl

[nonamekid]

If he took the alternator belt off, the water pump wouldn't be turning. So it really wouldn't matter if he had all the freeze plugs or not, because the coolant wouldn't be moving.

[Pu241]

^^^ Very good point!
So are we just going to let this one die of a warped head or worse?

[Gary Busey]

Whats the point of removing any of it? I mean yes, peripheral components are naturally a drag on the motor, but you just severely limit yourself in terms of driveability.

[festivaWES]

a car can only take so much.....i was gonna bring up the water pump thing also. I think this guy is fibbing a tad. I had a friend that said his car kept breaking p/s belts on his eclipse. I put one on a have drove it 12,000 with no troubles at all.

[tulsacarman]

I don't know the guy so I can't say for sure whether he's legit. I wasn't very clear in my original post. I should have said that the car had a leaky freeze plug and no alternator belt. At least that's what he told me.

I don't know how far the car had been driven to the Wal-Mart that I saw it at but that store is at 67th and Memorial and just about anything you could possibly need is within a 1 mile radius of that location (groceries, gas, Woodland Hills mall, TONS of food joints, parts stores, emergency care office, Home Depot and more). There are also several auto parts stores, but apparently he doesn't go to those.

[getnpsi]

if the car has a/c he can cut the alt belt and the a/c belt will spin the water pump.

I'm a mean guy too. I don't give money to people who have 2 arms, 2 legs, and are in better shape than i am. I still can do plenty of physical labor.

[FB71]

I have A/C, and the belt only runs from the crank to an idler to the compressor. Only the alt belt rounds the WP pulley.

[oxbrain]

I could see a b3/b6 running for a very long time with no coolant or alternator. It takes a good couple minutes to bring the oil to temperature. If you're only driving a few miles to the store and back it won't ever overheat enough to do fatal damage.

[Damkid]

when i got my BP it was missing a freeze plug, so i got the idea to see if my block heater from the B3 would fit and it did, (very simple to install) so if your lucky maybe a block heater would fill the freeze plug hole? but how common are block heaters in the USA?