what did you hicksta today ?

Now every time I give my wife crap for doing something dumb, all she says is 'backwards head gasket'.

Man, first it must have been scary. And then, the thought of removing the whole thing, rebuilding it again, etc.... That must have sucked real bad!

Now every time I give my wife crap for doing something dumb, all she says is 'backwards head gasket'.

Should've never told her about that one. My wife would have thought I just spilled a quart of oil on the ground, and that would have gone to the grave lol

Man, first it must have been scary. And then, the thought of removing the whole thing, rebuilding it again, etc.... That must have sucked real bad!

Scary for sure. The upshot is, I can now get the engine (admittedly with un-stuck fasteners) completely out of one of these cars and down to the short block in about 2.5 hours. That motor actually ended up eating a washer AND having a brand new Aisin timing belt tensioner fail, the latter of which saved the engine since the belt didn't jump. I heard the tensioner slapping around and thought it was rod knock, pulled the motor AGAIN, bought a brand new short block, then pulled this thing apart and figured out what actually happened. The washer miraculously didn't damage a thing, and I ended up selling the long block to a local fella, which is happily running in his OBXT.

I just researched what 'Hicksta' actually means, and I think this experience is it. Never had this much trouble working on a car, but that's what happens when you try to jam all your work in the slots you have between full time work and part time school. Apparently, rushing multiple times takes longer than taking your time once.

Should've never told her about that one. My wife would have thought I just spilled a quart of oil on the ground, and that would have gone to the grave lol

Oh, she was there when it happened, running wiring for some gauges for me. No escaping the shame for me, unfortunately.

Apparently, rushing multiple times takes longer than taking your time once.

Ah, that's me trying to jam HG job and clutch job on my middle son's 2010 OB to be done before my wife's birthday at the end of January. Hey shop where heads were refreshed said they adjusted the valves, no need to check, right? So what if one head was full of metal shavings, everything else should be done correctly, right? Bolt everything up and drop the engine in, go pop champagne!

Well wrong. When the engine wouldn't start, I went through the obvious stages - denial, avoidance, anger, sorrow and acceptance. Checked the timing, the tensioner, spark plugs, coils, fuel pump, crank position sensor was replaced. After nothing worked, and exhaust was stinking gasoline, it was obvious, the compression wasn't there.

that was the acceptance phase. Pulled the engine, adjusted valves, dropped in back in, it started on first crank. As we drove it out of cold garage (we had to keep the door open to slide exhaust under the car to bolt it on), first heavy snowflakes began to fall. It was early February.

Worst part of the whole thing was my son's eyes when he looked at me first time engine would not start. He was helping me all along the way, and this was heart breaking for him.

When it fired I was probably more happy than he was, I did want to make it right for the kid.

Ohhhh I forgot to post this! Was rushing to get the heads torqued down before buttoning up for the night during the first round of YNANSB, bad idea. Found it when I went to prime and chugged a quart of oil onto the floor.

hahaha I've done that before when I was a Subaru tech. Oil hit the ceiling of the shop when I started it up.

 

I just researched what 'Hicksta' actually means, and I think this experience is it. Never had this much trouble working on a car, but that's what happens when you try to jam all your work in the slots you have between full time work and part time school. Apparently, rushing multiple times takes longer than taking your time once.

 

This thread should have a reference to Hicksta's profile. Some of the stuff that happened to him was beyond belief.

Drove to track the day before to get a good night's sleep at hotel just across the street. Fire alarm went off at oh-dark-thirty. So much for a good nights sleep.

It's raining out so ppl were smoking in the hallway...

Bought an auto parts store torque wrench out of desperation since it seems you can't buy anything of quality froma brick and mortar store anymore. Doesn't even function...

Lowe's and Home Depot sell Craftsman tools with the same warranty.

Not a recent hicksta story but related:

I had bought Hicksta's car from him back in 2014 or so. I sold it a year later to a teenage girl. Well, I saw it pop back up on Facebook marketplace 5 years and 40k miles later with a blown engine. Bought it for $1500. Kind of sad really.

Hicksta , not Hickson.

My phone can't autocorrect for sh!t, but it gets Hicksta right in 3 letters. Guess it knows something I don't...

Hicksta , not Hickson.

 

My phone can't autocorrect for sh!t, but it gets Hicksta right in 3 letters. Guess it knows something I don't...

That’s funny I typed it half a dozen times fighting autocorrect and it looks like autocorrect won.

Now that I have read 10 pages of this thread I need to see some links to some of these Hickson disasters...

He was def a good guy, though. Was quite a legend around here.

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