Very CRUDE OCI!

[Number_35]

Oh, that was painful. Running the engine dry to squeeze out the last cc of dirty oil ... I felt sick. And then running on a fill of diesel. And the bottle jack on the brick, without any back-up. CRINGE.

Also, the valves sounded really loose - an adjustment would have been helpful.

Dacias were imported here in the early to mid-80s. They were a Romanian-built early-70's Renault, similarly to how the Lada Signet used old Fiat tooling. I didn't seem them around for long. My friend's dad phoned me one day, perhaps around 1986, to help him with a no-start on his Dacia, which I think was an '84. The distributor still had breaker points, and the 12 V supply connection had come loose. Easy repair. While checking out the car I was surprised to find a hand-crank handle included, just in case. They loved the car, and said it was much more comfortable than the '78 or so Olds Cutlass it had replaced. They didn't keep it for a long time, though, and I didn't see any of these around after about 1990. I think for a backyard mechanic like me it might have been a good car.

If I recall correctly, the body style was very similar to this, although the one I worked on was robin's egg blue:




We also got the Lada (USSR) and Skoda (from Czechoslovakia) here in the same era, but never the famed Yugo.

 

[onemig]

I think what really amps up the danger factor here is the bottle jack on top of the brick PLUS the brick being on the dried up, crusted dirt/mud driveway.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: pandus13
Yup, Romania.
Dacia was a local knock-off, continued for many years from a Renault license from the 70's
The reputation was, you had to have the motors/engines made to French specs to be in good shape...

Incidentally, some Scandinavian country had .... Dackia...


Funny, with the R16, they came to Oz CKD, and were assembled here.

They had some reliability problems, so according to the renault bloke that ended up servicing that car 10 years on, they randomly pulled down and re-assembled about 1:7 of the engines when they got here to see how the French were going on quality...showed us the additional stampings on Parent's block.

 

[Number_35]

I remember a friend telling me about this fine article back in the day, after I described working on my friend's Lada Signet. It's about a comparison test of various cheap imports of the day. Glad to have found it online:
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-r...-cheap-imports/

 

[bunnspecial]

About the only thing I liked was his rather innovative drain pan.

Maybe I'm lazy, but my usual strategy for maximizing the amount of oil drained is usually to pull the plug then go inside, have a cup or two of coffee, and maybe watch TV for a little while. Then I go back out and put the drain plug in a half hour or an hour later...by that time it's usually not dripping at all.

I usually change my oil on days when I really don't have anything else to do, so if it takes me a few trips to the garage over an hour or hour and a half, it's not a big deal.

 

[eyeofthetiger]

I get being cheap, dirty, and not caring if a car falls on your head, but what is this running the engine dry nonsense?

 

[TheLawnRanger]

This Romanian Dracula has just proven that we are overthinking the oil change. It's perfectly safe to "clean out" your engine with diesel. Why not mouthwash?

 

[SeaJay]

I bet there are a ton of non-BITOG posters that use some of these techniques.

 

[Rick in PA]

That was almost a Red Green Oil Change.

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
That was almost a Red Green Oil Change.


What? Never seen him operate without duct tape.

 

[RF Overlord]

I lost count of all the things he did wrong, but at least the poor car got fresh oil and a new filter. Probably puts it way ahead of most old Soviet-era cars.