At one time or another (possibly many times), most of us have bought at least one project car without giving it a thorough once-over. You remember—it’s that car that you ecstatically “stole” from its previous owner, only to find plywood where the floors once were, a hose clamp “securing” the transmission, and metallic-tinted 80-weight oil in the crankcase. There’s no known cure for the adrenaline rush that comes with buying a new project, but there’s nothing wrong with calming yourself long enough to perform a few basic tests on its engine—otherwise you’ll end up like us.
We forked over the cash for this ’78 Malibu after reveling in the original-paint cleanliness of its bodywork. We didn’t really think about the mechanicals until the next morning when the car refused to start. We convinced it to run, and while cruising around, noticed that the transmission only occasionally shifted into Third gear. Disappointed, but not discouraged, we crossed our fingers and dove in to assess the condition of the drivetrain. The cold-start and shifting problems were easily remedied with a new choke and transmission kick-down cable, but we figured this was a good time to perform a compression and leakdown test before tuning the car up for a required smog check. The test results hinted that the 305 probably hadn’t been rebuilt (as the previous owner claimed). It did, however, run well enough to pass smog and cruise us around Southern California. We think it’s a pretty happy ending to a $1,200 investment.
Power-hungry readers need not stress, because this is only the beginning of our late-model Malibu saga. Don’t count on the wee-oh-five surviving the transformation.