Good point, Dave!

Today a Canadian dollar is worth only 77 cents here in the U.S.

So MIPS' $3500CDN is only $2,700 in US dollars.

.

Yep, the C6 is almost industructible. In a car you should get 300K miles out of it with a oil change or 2. Ive ran them in trucks for many years and to show you my love of that tranny, I put one in my 1992 truck instead of its crappy 5 speed manual. That year did not come with them so I did some searching for parts to do it but worth it all. the only one I ever wore out was in a low geared 1/2 ton with over 300K. Cars have a lot less wind resistance so will last longer. The only downfall of the C6 is a little less mileage as they eat horsepower.

I didn't tow it to their shop instead of my house just for them to admire it, did I? It's almost like I wanted them to repair it because there are no other practical options. I'll do body, electrical, brakes and the engine but I don't dare disturb the dragons and unspoken black magic that lives inside the transmission of every car. I'll leave that to a professional.

Correct. Your USD price may seem lower but after conversion it's a different number.
I know someone who recently paid $3500USD for a Mercedes. That sounds like a great deal until you convert to $CDN, then it's $4545.05 before taxes.

Heh. And that right there is why I make a living.

Also, I didn't realize the disparity between our currencies, last time I looked, they weren't that far off. :/

An engine at least uses cheap specialty tools half the time, the other half you can make do with something as simple as a long breaker bar instead of a chain wrench. Transmissions are something where cleanliness and absolute tolerances are a bit more critical. I simply do not have the space or finances to afford most of the tools a transmission requires to service them, plus you try not to regularly drop and open your transmission for service when your life isn't drag racing. ;)

I know of some manual trans nuts who have gotten too good at replacing clutches.

Well the good news came in and with the transmission torn down the initial diagnoses is not as bad as it sounds. It wasn't a catastrophic failure. It's just old. :smoke:
The particles and burned fluid were just from several bands and clutches finally giving out and not due to prolonged damage on other components. The pump itself is just worn and is being replaced entirely. More major components like the torque converter and planetary are fine. The parts are already in the city so I again authorized for the full rebuild to proceed and hopefully it will be ready before Friday.

Good luck!

No doubt they're even better at tearing them up.
That's awesome, good on ya. You really dodged a bullet there.

It lives.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...t/CGS_8141.jpg

Went out last night to put some fresh gas through the fuel system along with some line antifreeze before it is winterized and today the front seats were pulled out to clean everything and inspect why the power seats are so sluggish. The front seats are bolted from UNDERNEATH THE CAR which seems stupid but strange to AMC's record so far the bolts were not rusted tight. I found $4 in loose coins. Was not however able to figure out how to remove the back seat (I assume it too unbolts from under the car) so that stays in for now but both the front and back need to be shampoo'd. It's like there is soot or something embedded in the fabric. I'm just gonna pay someone else to deal with that and I can work on the grime that's caked into the texture of the trim plastics,

I tested both power seat assemblies and it seems there must be a lot of gummed up grease. I gave it a quick clean and oil but it's persistant so I'll probably have to regrease the gearhouses on both seats.
Also I have a lot of oil getting into the intake. The current filter is soaked and ruined. I verified the choke and heated air actuators and gates were working fine and verified the PCV was not stuck closed. Found nothing so I cleaned everything and reassembled it. Didn't find new oil in a test drive so not sure what happened there....

In the case of one of my friends, the damage was by inheritance...He bought one used manual performance package equipped Honda Civic with a clutch that had very little life left and a hacked in security system and other mods by the previous owners that eventually made him give up on that one and get another just like it from the same place. The second had the same clutch wear but the electrical was not messed up by previous owner mods.

An oil soaked air filter usually means blow by.

My thought exactly.
If I read the service docs there's a hose that directly connects the air filter housing to the top of the valve cover. Onside the air filter housing the hose terminates at a small plastic bucket with a felt pad for a filter. It seems as if air is drawn in through this point so the valve cover can breathe but that then does not explain why the valve cover still has its own PCV. Likewise there must of been a LOT of oil that was coughed up as the bucket was full, the felt was drenched and everything around it was soaked.
The problem is known and mentioned here and I performed the steps to verify the mentioned actuators were working. They were, so I can't tell what happened. I will have to verify cylinder compression when I replace the plugs but the engine sure isn't burning oil.

I assume you checked the PCV valve and it's not clogged?

It could also have a bad baffle inside the valve cover letting oil into the vent hose.

Blow by should be pretty easy to spot - just take the oil cap off with the motor running. If it's farting out a lot of air, then it's blow by. I'd replace the PCV anyway, literally like $5, good for maintenance. You could always just install an oil catch can if all else fails.