So I got a taste of both of these areas today. I spent the majority of the day helping a friend build a house. I’ve worked on a few odds and ends before, but I’ve never started from the ground up. The home will be roughly 2,800 square feet. Here was the progress today:

• Laid out and mounted all first story floor joists
• Set all first story floors

When I got home I knew that I had to work on the Grand Am. For those of you that haven’t heard Kristie and I purchased a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am GT with some of our tax return money. It had been wrecked and the owner received a company car and was selling it at a rediculously cheap price. Of course, with cheaps prices comes cheap quality. I’ve never owned a GM before (Ford, Mazda, Mazda), so I am currently learning some of the kinks to them.

Lesson #1

GM’s all use ORANGE antifreeze. If you were to mix the typical GREEN and orange you would end up with a gel that would clog your radiator. Fortunately, the guys at the parts store knew what they were talking about and educated a Ford fan.

Fix #1

I was experiencing some vibrations at higher speeds (50mph+). I thought that the problem was steming from the tires not being balanced. A local tire shop agreed to balance my tires for $20. I informed them of what I was experiencing and they took a peek at a few other things just to see what they could find. Didn’t take long. 1 lug nut was missing, 1 lug bolt was bent, and an additional lug bolt was missing.

After talking with the guys at Bill’s, I went to another machine shop where they replaced the lug bolts.

Fix #2

The car was overheating after about 5 miles on the road. Here are the facts:

• No coolant in the oil
• No oil in the coolant
• Radiator is getting air and is not blocked
• Coolant level is full
• Intake manifold and gaskets have been replaced  according to factory recall

So here is what I’ve come up with: thermostat. Now the last time I remember doing this it was on a 1983 Ford F-100 with a inline 6. It was literally a 20 minute job. Of course, this truck had enough room under the hood that I remember eating lunch while sitting on the inside of the wheel fender.

Needless to say this was a bit more complicated:

Step 1: remove the Ram Air intake

Step 2: remove coolant pipe from thermostat housing, and secure so as not to leek

Step 3: remove air filter housing

Step 4: remove the coolant lines from the thermostat housing

Step 5: remove top thermostat housing bolt using a 10mm socket and an extension

Step 6: remove the aluminum heat shield on the exhaust

Step 7: remove the final bolt from the thermostat housing

Step 8: remove the housing

Step 9: remove the thermostat

Step 10: test thermostat

Here’s a neat tip. In order to test a thermostat heat a bowl of water to boiling and drop the old thermostat in the water. If the thermostat does not open you know that it is faulty. If it opens then it was ok.

Thankfully, after trying this test the results were that the thermostat was faulty!! A $8 fix.