Unique Motorsports

A four hour drive from Vegas to Los Angeles followed by a drive back to Vegas less than ten hours later. Life can be rush rush as we battle endless todo lists along with other life “tasks”. I have driven through here more than a few times, never stopping to simply enjoy and take it in. Today is different. Today I stop. Today, I don’t have my camera so I did what I could with my phone. Enjoy the shots, I know I enjoyed taking them.

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In a nutshell – not much. I don’t think this is all too fair though as I consciously drive in a way which keeps the inside of my engine clean. Here is a list of steps I have developed over the years to keep my engine running as clean as possible.

- Change oil every 5000-6000 miles (mostly highway)

- Redline (shift just below RPM cutoff) at least a few times a week. *This is great for the engine; however, make sure the engine is fully warmed up, not just the water, but the oil as well to avoid a blown head gasket or excessive engine wear.

- I run name brand gas exclusively. If there is a filler truck at the station, I’ll not fill up that day.

- Lucas fuel injector cleaner every 40k or so.

- Change the spark plugs every 40k. Check them every 10k or so.

- Let it cool a few minutes to turn it off to keep the oil from coking with hot spots. Coking is common in turbos when the turbo is glowing hot, the oil gets shut off and the oil remains on a glowing red hot surface. This will steam the oil causing a thick film to build inside the turbo. The Aveo doesn’t have a turbo; however, driving gently a minute or more before shutting it down will help avoid hot spots in the engine where the oil can burn.

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No it’s not typo, it’s a brace to brace the brace. Looking a few post back, you will see that I somehow managed to break the transmission where a bolt mounts the torque mount to. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the other bolt didn’t fall out a few months before. The end result was a brace that would actually pivot allowing the engine to twist while power was applied. This in turn would cause the gear lever to pull forward and actually pop out of 1st, 3rd, and 5th gear.
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Generally, this would come before round 2, but that doesn’t always work out. At any rate, here are the pictures from filling the transmission mount.

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Ordered a “new to me” Aveo motor mount which I could properly fill with some 3m Window Weld. 3m window weld is a great alternative to polyurethane motor mounts if you do not have the money for polyurethane or if they are simply just not available.

While swapping out the old mount with the filled motor mount I noticed 3 of the three bolts which hold the rear pitch mount bracket to the engine are actually missing. This in turn makes the entire mount swing and therefore the engine itself  is able to just rock as though it’s completely missing the rear torque mount. Below are the images of the filled mount, missing bolts and the installation.

The video is set to “The Underground is Cheap” by DertCheep

UPDATE: I setup a temp fix… which is now permanent. One of the three bolts can’t be used as the transmission housing where it bolts into is actually broke. I didn’t stick my head up where it would be attacked by my exhaust and therefore only noticed this last night. The third hole where the “temp” fix resides consists of a Subaru stud welded to a piece of round stock which is used for things like exhaust hangers. It twisted off with about 18 pounds of torque so the bracket will have to be removed to take it out. The other bolt gets tight as I try to remove it so I’m not taking it out in fear of it actually breaking. That said, it is how it is and that’s how it will be. The stiffer motor mounts will keep some of the pressure off the transmission mount anyway so I’m sure it will be fine.

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