I guess no autox this year...

[Dr Ronald]

I had high hopes of running my new car in at least one autocross event this year. There are two more this year (I think both are non points). The next one is this next Sunday. I thought I was going to have my new turbo housing installed just in time to run, but the DSM god looked down upon me in disfavor. I got it all put back together the other night, drive it down the block, and all of the sudden my shifter linkage goes crazy. I figure out that I had a retainer clip come off of the transmission mount. Of course I could not find a retainer clip anywhere in town, and there was no way I was going to wait another week for a part as stupid as a retainer clip. So instead I decide to make my own out of some bar. Took about 10 minutes to make and it seems to work fine. So problem solved right? Wrong! Another thing I noticed on that fateful trip was a nice trail of oil/coolant/both along the entire path I took. (I actually used this to look for the lost retainer clip, obviously to no avail) So I suspect that this leak is the very loose hose clamps and quick fix on the oil return line. The oil return line had I assume rusted through, so instead of replace the line, he cut out a section of the tube and hose clamped a hose in its place. I assume he did this because he was selling the car and didn't want to wait on the part. The problem was that when I went to reassemble the line, I barely had enough hose to fit. So I went out and got a longer piece of hose and clamped that in place. I also replaced all the stock hose clamps with worm clamps. So problem solved right? Wrong again! I think that I'll be able to drive my car to work today. I get it out on the highway and I notice my cabin filling with smoke. I think "Oh good, my car's on fire. This is probably going to make me late for work". Luckily my car wasn't on fire, it just picked up a bad habit. At this point I'm suspecting one of two things: A very bad exhaust leak or the gallon per minute of oil that's spewing onto my downpipe. The exhaust leak I kind of suspected before, but I know for a fact that everything is torqued to spec. I am missing one exhaust manifold stud, but I can't see that causing much of a leak if any. As for the oil leak, WTF. It seems like the leak is relatively high and near the engine. I'm pretty new to working on turbocharged cars, so my experience is minimal. I think one of my holes for a banjo fitting is stripped out. It's a hole at the head, so I think it may be the oil feed line?? However, I thought it was a coolant line. Oh yeah even is I fix the oil leak, I still have to change out my transmission oil, transfer case oil, and diff oil. Plus there is no way I am racing with a fuel leak. Oh yeah did I forget to mention that? I'm leaking fuel at my fuel sending unit. I have no idea what it is. I kind of think it is a seal, but I haven't looked into it too closely. I think this because there was fuel around the unit on the tank, but no fuel on the unit. Plus I just found the fuel level sensor that the guy left in my car to be installed. Unfortunately it is bent to hell and there is no way it would work. Looks like I'm going to be guessing my fuel level for a while. Yay for me right? And to think, I traded a perfectly running stock FWD for this modded AWD. I'll pay someone $10 to come help me with my car.