irst photo is after the car had been running for at least an hour and the thermostat was still dead cold. So I called my dad on the way up there and had him grab a thermostat and green silicate-free coolant for when I got there.
My dad got the air filter out and put the new one in, like it was nothing lol. The intake tube had to come out but after that he had it all back together quickly.
That spark plug I couldn't get out; turns out there was a big chunk of old spark plug wire burned fast to the bottom of the tube. It wasn't even a piece of the old wire that I took out, it was part of a different wire. So someone did change the spark plugs at some point, but they left that in there and shoved a new wire down in past it. We had to dig that piece out with a pair of hemostats. The ceramic part of the plug was cracked a bit too. Old plug and piece of rubber are in the fourth photo.
When we took the dizzy cap and rotor off, we found that the screw in the rotor was totally stripped. The fifth photo is of what we had to do to get it out... Cut part of the rotor off and then use various tools to get out. There was no way it was coming out with a screwdriver. Someone really worked it over, then gave up on it and left it that way. But now there's a nice new cap, rotor and screw in there lol.
Also changed the ATF and oil. The old oil seemed to be conventional. I replaced it with Quaker State 10W-30 high mileage full synthetic, put on a Fram Ultra oil filter, and did another ATF drain and fill with Valvoline Max Life. Last photo is of the oil filter that was on it previously.
The car reaches and stays at operating temp now and I can turn the heat on lol. Seems to run better at higher speeds too; it doesn't go over 3100 RPM @ 65 MPH now, just a hair under 3000 now and it doesn't seem to be struggling at highway speed.
Next is to clean the upholstery (I got a can of Blue Coral upholstery cleaner, which I know works well), then motor/trans mounts and body work. After that it's getting a full exterior detail and paint correction.





