My beloved 1Gb DSM is sitting dead in my driveway, much to my displeasure.  That car has a long history of unloving owners and now I'm the one dealing with the effects.

Brief history on the beast:

The car itself is a 1993.  Those familiar with DSMs will recognize this as the first full production year with the 7-bolt motor, a motor infamous for crankwalk.  My girlfriend bought the car in 2006 from a guy named Robby, who bought it from his sister.  Sometime during their posession of it the engine apparently spun a rod bearing, at least that was according to the invoice from when the motor was replaced.  They took it to a DSM 'specialist' who knew enough to swap in a 6-bolt shortblock, however they went really cheap and didn't do all of their homework as the car still had the 7-bolt valvetrain with the more restrictive ports.  Plus they put in a used shortblock without rebuilding it first, who knows what condition those bearings or rings were in.

Anyway, she sold the car to her brother, who blew the turbo, after which the car sat until I bought it from him.  I did a turbo swap in the street and drove it home the next day.   Driving it around last month ended tragically with the knock sensor triggering every time you step on the gas, as well as terrible rattling sound.  I haven't compression tested it yet so I don't known if it is a cracked piston, bad rod, bearing, or perhaps a chunk of the turbo bearing coming back to haunt the car, but this time around that car is getting some proper treatment.  Rebuilt long block with a few fresh sensors and accessories are in the near future.  While the engine's out I'm very tempted to swap out the automatic AWD transmission for a 5-speed, we'll see how money goes.

At the moment I'm driving a Mercury Topaz (same as Ford Tempo for those unfamiliar) that I need to give back to my parents by the end of May as their second car just recently blew up on the highway.  Now just have to order the engine and hope the seller isn't a douche by taking to long to ship.  She's a work in progress, but'll be one hell of a street light racer when it's done.

Once the engine is done, tasteful mods shall follow.

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