Not the way I wanted to break in my new toys!

[DON SVO]

I moved into my new house in May. As a treat to myself (since all my money is going to floors/counter tops/texture & paint for the woman) I bought an 80-gallon CH compressor to power my air tools. I've always wanted a massive compressor for working on my fleet of cars.

At any rate, I got to use them all today! The festy decided to vomit all of its coolant on the way to work yesterday. The temp gauge got above mid-way (which is crazy for a Festiva!) and dropped some. I recognized this as an issue and figured it was losing coolant. When I left the office I made sure I had a gallon jug of water. It took half a gallon right then. I fired the car up and looked it over. Sure enough, the tell-tale dribble of water from the front of the engine was all I needed to see. I made the 19-mile trip home with only 2 stops for water and promptly called a buddy who runs a local NAPA to get a water pump en route.

I got it changed today. There were some irritating parts (finding more crap the previous owner's mechanic jury-rigged to oblivion) and I wasted a lot of time correcting things as I found them. On a plus side, I was able to keep the cam and crank from rolling so re-timing the motor was a snap. Did I mention it poured rain on me during reassembly? Oh well. She runs terrific and all my air toys worked flawlessly.

[jawbraeka]

i had a similar issue with the water pump, the just seem to let go so easily sometimes.. lucky for me, i had it fixed, then the camshaft bolt was sheared.. keep an eye on it as i didn't even know it was loose at the time as there was plently of bolt exposed at the time either from a questionably "negligent" mechanic or it loosened itself over time.