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I'm gonna have to watch this..loved the books...I've heard it was good

I watched the Bourne Supremacy last night..it was on ShoTime Sunday..I recorded it...I like Matt Damon..so I liked the movie...lots of shoot 'em up bang bang and a car chase to boot! He drove that Taxi to death and then killed the bad guy by making him run into the median in the tunnel...excellent...I would say if you liked the other Bourne movies you'd like this one as well...

Yep..painless for the most part...still can't get that leak fixed...the dude was working on his truck today so he didn't get around to another day of mine...can't say I blame him...we didn't intend to spend the day together on yesterday..lol. I'm sure he had a hard time explaining who I was to his mechanic buddies.... Anyhoo...I may just attempt to put in the new thermostat housing gasket myself since I watched him replace it...I think I can pull it off...plus I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last nite (umm...no I didn't..lol). The leak is small and very slow...but I have a gallon of water in my trunk just in case..and I'll keep a close eye on it. I may have to go to the Ford place for the gasket..but you wouldn't think something like that would require a specialty part...but I'm no mechanic..

Sorry so long getting back to you SS on this but I just got the work done yesterday..(had to wait for cash and for the dude to get a commitmentless day). In the mean time, my thermostat went bad w/the temp gauge just going up & down..never overheating but close....so...the guy that did this for me did a pretty good job. He replaced the valve cover gasket and those lil "donuts" that go around the bolts that hold the valve cover in place(I paid close attention and I think I could have done this...but now I know that I can..very simple). That took care of the oil on the plugs therefore the car is running much smoother...he also replace the thermostat and thermostat gasket...and there was a housing gasket that he tried to replace but had a bear of a time getting it to fit correctly. Every time he replace the housing w/that gasket on, the gasket flared out and when he put the screws in place the gasket would "squeeze" outside of the housing and it would obviously leak. We went to several auto parts stores trying to get a gasket like the one he removed but they were all just a bit thicker than the one he removed from the car. We noticed that the housing was "notched" in 3 places but the notches didn't necessarily line up w/anything on the motor...so he filed down the notches and put it on that way....worked well..but when the engine cooled there was a slow leak as I found out this morning. I went in search of the same type of gasket and think I may have found one..but not sure. He's going to the junk yard and look for a replacement housing(which is plastic btw) and is going to replace the one currently on there. He wasn't comfortable w/filing the notches and thought it should not have been that difficult to replace the thermostat..(took us from 11am to about 5pm trying to stop the leakage. He finally got it to where he thought I could get home & back w/o problems..and I did. The gauge never went above half way and it didn't fluctuate back & forth. He didn't think the ignition wires needed replacing and it did run much better w/o the oil on the plugs. I didn't get the compression test...he felt it wasn't necessary. If it goes back to running crappy again..I will get that done. Thanks for all of your help and advice and patience. Happy motoring!

Ok..I'll look into that and I should definitely take care of the oil on the plugs issue also right? Isn't there a risk of fire from the oil and plugs? I'll talk to another guy that works on cars tomorrow at work. I've been out sick for 2 days..so I'll bend his ear and see what he says or perhaps he'll offer to take a look-see for me. I know this dude better..he put a clutch in my old 86 Escort back in the day. Thanks so much for all the responses...at least I have a starting point and I can walk it down from there. Good looking out guys..I'll let yall know the outcome...that is if I have enough money left to pay the cable company when this is all finished.

I noticed the oil when I changed the plugs this past Saturday which was a week after the belt change. When I pulled the plugs there was oil on the threads. I knew that wasn't right. I've seen my husband tune up the car enough to know there shouldn't have been oil on the plug threads. The dude that did the work never mentioned anything about bent valves or anything..he just asked me when was the last time the car was tuned or if I thought I needed a tune up. He seems the type of guy that would have checked everything that is normally checked when this type of repair is done. But I don't know for sure as I've only dealt w/him 2 times before, he replaced an alternator for me and helped me w/ a battery issue. So if I get the compression test and it's not good, then perhaps a valve job is needed and not a complete engine replacement. I know if I tell my husband what's going on, he'd say get the compression test and then replace the valves if necessary and hope for the best.

Ok...so I need to get a compression test and if it passes that...fix the oil leak and hopefully things will be better. The rough running isn't there all the time but it's noticeable especially upon acceleration. Thanks for everyone's help and I'll let you know the outcome. I don't know if the dude that worked on the car checked for damaged valves or anything..I didn't ask. He seems pretty reputable when it comes to car repair...He seems honest and doesn't charge an arm & a leg for the most part.

Since coming back on Saturday nite...the CEL has been on constantly. The hesitation usually occurs upon acceleration..it feels like the car is not getting enough gas or not enough "umph" when you give it gas. It takes a little longer to start up as well. Usually when I hit the ignition it fires right up....over the past few days I've noticed that I have to hit the key 2-3 times before it starts. True about the timing not being set correctly..never thought of that. I do want to get the valve cover issue fixed tho...don't like the oil in there...don't want to cause more problems. Thanks for your help with this. I appreciate it.

It is a 2.0L 4 cyl DOHC Ztek engine. I was driving to work..I was about 4 blocks from home and the car cut off..at first I thought it wasn't getting fuel for some reason b/c that's what it felt like..a loss of power. I had it towed like I said before. The dude that fixed the car called it my timing belt(my bad for saying serpentine belt..apparently they are 2 different things :doh:). When he had pulled everything off to replace the belt(which cost only $25 btw) he called to tell me that the tension pulley bolts had broken and that's what caused the problem..he replaced the belt, the tension pulley and the bolts for a grand total of $275.00(he agreed to this price prior to working on the car thinking that this was a just a belt replacement..so he stuck it by it...actually he was only going to charge me $225 then came the pulley issue which was an additional $50. It took him longer than he initially thought). Once he had it fixed he called and asked me if the car needed to be tuned up b/c it sounded like it was missing to him..I told him I would take care of that which I did yesterday. The CEL came on the Tuesday after having the car fixed on Saturday. So the light came on after the belt issue. The light stayed on for about 24 hours and then went off. It then came back on Thursday night. I replaced the plugs and changed the oil and the light went off and then came back on last night. The oil only comes up to the where the threads end on the plugs. It doesn't appear to be on the wires, although there was some oil in the space where the wires lay in the engine (if that makes any sense). Thanks for all of you guys' help w/this btw. Perhaps I should just let someone else do the gasket thing especially since the bolts have to be torqued..I don't have a torque wrench nor do I know the #'s to use for torqueing.

OK...I was under the assumption the serpentine belt and timing belt are interchangeable terms in regards to this engine. Maybe I'm not qualified as I was dreaming. The guy who replaced the (what he called timing belt) asked me if I had tuned up the car recently as he heard some "hesitation" while it was running. It feels more like a loss of power while I'm driving. I don't know if it's an interference motor b/c I have no idea what that is..lol. Perhaps I should just get someone else to do this.

:doh: Sorry..yes it's a 2.0L 4 cyl DOHC Ztek engine...but you explained it well enough so I think I can pull it off...

Glad I found this thread again. I changed the spark plugs in my '02 Ford Escort ZX2 yesterday and saw that there was a good amount of oil on the threads when I pulled the old ones out. I'm no expert but I kinda knew something wasn't kosher w/that. Isn't that 1 indicator of the valve cover gasket being worn? Let me give a little bit of history. My serpentine belt(timing belt) broke about a week ago while I was driving. Had the car towed. Guy replaced it. Noticed that the car wasn't running particularly well, some roughness now & then, decided that perhaps I needed a tune up since it hadn't been done since the 30k mark and it's now at 73k. The "service engine now" idiot light is also on and staying on. How difficult is it to replace the valve cover gasket and could this be anything else? Is this something w/limited knowledge should attempt or should I get someone else to do it? Could you outline the steps needed in order for me to do it? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

Posted by Zoony..in the "Cooking a Turkey" thread. I would think it would be cramped but hey whatever floats your boat or in this case..cooks your turkey! <ols>

I can't believe someone notices things like this. Good eye...I guess. lol

I don't know about that. I'm a traditionalist at heart I suppose. I don't really like those 3rd alternate jerseys.

From the 'OK who else has the MFing flu?' thread Dang...only once a year...Poor thing!:laugh: http://extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241036&page=2&pp=15

Never thought I'd see a woman say this! :laugh: From the "Candace & paige rate my hotness" thread. http://extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240094&page=20&pp=15

From the "best concession @ fedex field" thread. Hmmmm...lol..useless w/o pics!:laugh: