After a lengthy post Friday night about Love the Beast and lost motivation, I decided that today would be a good day to put work on the master bathroom aside in favor of spending some quality time with [464].

One thing that always cheers me up about rolling [464] into the garage is that “The Beast”  (aka: [195]) has to get out of the way.  I pull the hood pins, re-connect the battery, and it fires right up.  Of course I have to sneak the currently naturally aspirated (intercooler and plumbing are out at the moment) VR4 around the block to throw a little juice back into the battery!  It’s nice to start my maintenance on one Galant with a reminder that the other one still works.

I’ve let the to-do list on [464] get longer than it should be.  Moonroof replacement, AC installation, emissions and registration; all these have been started, but not completed yet.  (It’s just too damn hot.)  On top of all that, I was sitting about 400 miles overdue for a 6,000 mile oil change.  That nonsense ended today.

[464] got a Seafoam treatment through the intake manifold which I like to think told the rest of the neighborhood how I feel about cash for clunkers being spun as a way to reduce emissions.  If you’ve never heard of the Seafoam treatment, take your pick of videos on YouTube.

With the Seafoam treatment done, I disconnected the battery and double checked the vac lines going to my EGR valve.  It had come loose back in May, causing a check engine light, which means the car won’t pass emissions.  I re-connected the hose, but didn’t disconnect the battery.  This time, the CEL is gone, meaning [464] is ready for emissions testing so I can stop driving around on expired tags like some kind of irresponsible jackass.

[464] is now sporting fresh Rotella-T 5W-40 and a new Fram TG6607 filter.  While I was draining the oil, I noticed I’ve got a small leak down there somewhere.  At first, I thought it was the oil pan gasket, but then I saw this ratty-looking hose next to the oil filter, so I removed the clamps and took a razor to the hose.  Surprise! I will never forget that the little section of hose right there next to the oil filter is a coolant line for the pathetic little oil cooler.  190° coolant all over me, my tools, and the garage floor.

After all that, I was tempted to call it a day, but I kept tripping over this cold air intake I have lying around from a DSM that won’t fit on the Galant.  (Battery locations are different.)  It had a hacked DSM airbox on the end of it.  I looked around the garage and saw that I had a spare, GVR4 airbox, so I took the Dremel to it and swapped it in.

I dusted the airbox off and installed it to try it out.  I know it works, but I still wanted to make sure before I spend any time really cleaning and painting it.  Also, note the location of the battery in the GVR4.  In a DSM, it’s where the air filter is in this picture.  I’m going to get the battery installed up by the fuse box in [195] so I can use that intake on it.  [464], however, is staying mostly stock.

As five o’clock approaches, I feel like I’ve accomplished much and taken those baby steps towards re-lighting my fire.  [464] enjoys the good stuff circulating through it’s veins, the check engine light is out, making emissions testing and tags a 30 minute ordeal in the middle of the week, and there is a noticable improvement with this intake mod.  You can almost make out the sound of the 14b spooling up and you can definitely hear the blow off valve recirculating (if he’s venting to atmosphere, kill him in the face).

Maybe I’ll venture back out with a bucket and hose later this evening…