I hear ya. Over the years, I learned that he approaches American cars...differently. He seems to expect them to be more problematic than Hondas and Toyotas, and resigns himself/me to accepting a pretty low threshold level of diminishing returns. "Well, now if it was a Honda, we could...."
The 318 is really a remarkable engine that is almost impossible to destroy. If you pull the valve covers, the top end is a work of art. I've rebuilt two over the year but I haven't had to touch this one. This was the first year with throttle body injection and I've had to put two sets of injectors (there are only two) in it, but not having a carb is a pleasure. I've also put in one water pump, one fuel pump (in the tank *^&!), one radiator, and about 140K miles ago, a transmission. Other than the tranny, I did all the wrenching myself and I work cheap. The tranny was the big decision, because at the time the truck looked only slightly better than it does now and I'd only driven it about 10K when it left me. I talked to the transmission guy and he said it was basically a good transmission and he thought putting $1200 into a truck I got for free was smart money. In his view any truck that runs is pretty much worth $1000. I have to rebuild the rear end very soon. That's a project for this summer.
Haunted with instant rust I bet!
Buy a Dodge, you'll always be able to find steady work.
Friend of mine claims Leo knocked some stuff off of a shelf posthumously when he was working late one night at G&L
