If you recall, my black SVX is history due to a very stupid driver that skidded out in front of me. However, life goes on and I have another one. :-) Since I was out of a car for a while, Tom (subymtnguy) offered to sell me his since it needed repairs and we could make a good one out of two.
It needed major mechanical repairs, but fortunately I have connections. At first, I had the engine re-sealed and the valve cover gaskets replaced as well as timing belt, water pump, and other misc stuff, but when I got it back the temperature would rise up really high, then fall back down. It would do this in cycles. Upon further investigation, subymtnguy and I concluded there were head gasket issues. So I took it back to my connection, who has three parts cars. One had a perfectly good engine with 97k on it. We took all the new parts off the original pearly engine and put them on the 97k engine. My connection gave me the engine for two cores. The one out of my black one, which I sold to him for 1k, and the core out of the new pearly. I just had to pay labor to have it swapped in. All the new parts came off the original engine (that had about 190k on it).
After the swap was complete, the car was test driven hard to make sure all was well. However, the same day I got it back after the engine swap, it blew the upper radiator hose and I immediately shut it down to avoid any damage. I then had it towed back to the guy who was working on it and he replaced both radiator hoses. Now, I have it and all appears to be fine. The low mileage engine is so smooth and quiet you can't even hear it run at idle. Also, the tranny has about 25k on it and was re-built with a shift kit.
Bottom line, I came out with a better car then when I started. The body of my new white one is in much better shape than the black one. No rattles and fewer door dings. The front and rear bumpers have weather-related blemishes (driving too fast :-)), but I plan on fixing them.
Some of you may remember Tom's SVX from the 10th anniversary meet in Lafayette, IN, Tom took extremely good care of his car. Here's a picture. Also, Tom is now looking for a liquid silver.
