200q & Ur-Q tales of woe...

[OorQue@aol.com]

A week ago Friday, Paula was out running a few errands in my '89 200q and 
noticed the engine started making a loud knocking noise and wasn't running 
particularly well.  As she was 30 miles from home and my sister's house was 
closer than ours, she drove it there and parked it.  This morning, I was 
finally able to borrow a friend's truck & trailer and tow it home ... turns 
out one of the heater hoses let go and the cooling system was bone dry.  I 
pulled the head to see how bad things were and it appears the motor is toast 
... that it still ran at all is probably a credit to the fact that I use 
Mobil One and change the oil every 3000 miles.

Does anyone have or know of a low-mileage dual-knock sensor motor for sale?  
The car's got just over 150k on it and is beginning to look a little tatty so 
I really don't want to spend the money to build a new motor for it since I'd 
like to replace it in the next year or two.  The best way to reach me is at 
(480) 657-2087 since I only have limited access to this AOL account.  
(Actually, I've got a spare head so a shortblock will work for me too!)

As for my Ur-Q, I recently towed the car over to my sister's so I could stash 
it in her garage until I had time to put a new head on it instead of letting 
it sit on my driveway.  Since I had a set of bumper brackets for my 4k 
racecar, I flat-towed it behind my 200q thinking that was easier than 
scrounging up a truck & trailer.  While I was getting the car ready, my 
nine-year old son was sitting behind the wheel making vroom-vroom noises ... 
unfortunately, I didn't check to see whether he'd played with the shifter or 
not and ended up towing the car 25 miles @ 60 mph with the tranny stuck in 
second gear!!!  Because the head is off, the motor spun freely and I didn't 
notice any resistance as I moved the car around while hooking up the tow bar 
... live and learn, I guess.

Well, yesterday, I dropped the oil pan and took a look at the main and rod 
bearings ... incredibly, they looked fine.  I didn't have a mic with me so I 
don't know if the journals are within spec or not but they don't appear to 
have been damaged at all.  Frankly, I'm amazed.  Think about it: 25 miles @ 
6500 rpm with 0 psi of oil pressure and there is no visible damage 
whatsoever.  Of course, there wasn't much load on it but still ... thank you 
Mobil One!

JG

P.S. to SJM: I don't have your email address or URL so I can't contact you 
directly but I want to let you know the chip will be in the mail tomorrow.  
My apologies for the delay but I didn't have access to the car until today... 
 :^(