[BirdDog]

I have a (relatively) low milage 2001 S - she's just about to break 80K miles. I bought it because I was looking for an after work / weekend project car. I work in an office all day, and NEED to get my hands dirty. SO, I bought it as a therapy car. The car had been driven hard and put away wet by the previous owner (only 1 previous owner) and the car needed lots of TLC. It was exactly what I needed.

I started with the easy stuff (brakes, suspension, trim, etc) while I got things ready to do an IMS bearing, only to discover that the camshaft timing deviations were right on the limit of bad. I didn't have the space to drop the engine, so I sent it up to Jake Raby and Flat-6 Innovations to take care of the engine work. I am SO glad I did! Their pre-qualification uncovered metal and plastic bits in the lower sump and oil filter. They dug into the engine looking for the cause, and it turned out to be the main timing chain (that big mama chain that connects the crankshaft to the IMS). Even with the tensioner paddle at full throw, the chain was so stretched that you could still remove a link, it was that loose! How it didn't grenade is beyond me. To fix it they had to tear the engine down completely and rebuild it from the bottom up. The spreadsheet of parts that were replaced was staggering. It cost a bunch of money, but you know what, these cars are actually worth it. Not so much in $ - they made a million of them and you can pick up older ones for practically nothing right now - but in the absolute fun they give you driving them.

Speaking of which, time to do some driving...