Slide Presentation
Between my father and I we have accumulated 310,000 miles on the Ventura II. It is amazingly solid and I believe it will continue to be so. I have continually maintained it and invested some restorative maintenance in it, but now the time has come when my personal value of the Ventura II has exceeded my personal benefit. Erin inquired about the the condition of it and I gave a more in detail description of its present condition. Here I include that description, with the original description I gave of it. I have also included a detailed slide presentation of it which I hope you enjoy. Thanks for visiting the Ventura II's home page.
Please email me or fill out the response form if you wish to comment on the Ventura II.
Why in hell do you want to get rid of such a fine car? Is it really not in as good condition as it appears?Brian Lavender
Yes the car is in good condition. Of course being that it is 25 years old it has ventured through some wear and tear and minor mishaps. When it was about six years old another truck hit it on the side. That damage was repaired with a new rear driver side door and the area behind the drivers side door had a new piece welded into it and bondoed over. At the present time that bondo cracked over the repaired area and I sanded it and repainted with some spray paint. That is the worst damage on it. It could be repaired with new bondo. I have some pictures coming back in the next few days that will show that area that has been repainted over. They will be clearer than the other one posted on my web site.ArenI have driven the car for the last twelve years and it has accumulated 310,000 miles on the current engine. It has always been a reliable car, but the maintenance costs started becoming more unpredictable and the gas mileage, even though decent at 16 or 17 mpg, is far below most newer cars. Two years ago, I took the entire front end off the car and I replaced all the bushings. That was an extensive job and I did not have the car to drive for two weeks. The bushing are all new now and in that respect it handles great.
The areas that I know are solid are the engine, the transmission, the brakes, the suspension, and the stereo. I have always changed the oil every 2500 miles. A year and a half ago I did have a strange problem happen to it. I was driving and it was running perfectly. Then it started chugging and it stalled. I tried to restart it and it would not respond. I took it to my mechanic suspecting that it was the ignition. It has the points that can be adjusted by sticking an allen wrench through the distributor cap and sometimes they will slip and close on their own causing the car to run rough and eventually stall if they close enough. My mechanic replaced the spark plug wires, the points, and the spark plugs and it would still backfire some. He then replaced the carburetor and it ran decent. It still backfires sometimes.
Four years ago just after leaded fuel was banned here in CA, it overheated damaging two valves causing the engine to loose compression in those cylinders. I needed the car, so I decided to replace those heads with two remanufactured heads that have the hardened valves and pressed in valve seats. That restored the engine back to good condition. I believe my father dismantled the engine when the car was around ten years old and reborred the cylinders. It has always had good compression, about 135 psi all around.
I would consider it still reliable, but with 310,000 miles it certainly will require additional maintenance. I know the rear end bearings will have to be changed in the future. I can hear some noise from that area and the mileage predicts replacement.
The reason I am selling it is I bought a 94 GEO Prizm a year ago. I wanted to keep my Ventura II being that it has sentimental value, but I think there comes a time to let go. Also my Prizm is surprisingly quick in acceleration and has a top speed rivaling my Ventura II. It's not a V8 though. I also need the cash. When I was making good money I wanted to keep it, but now I am not. I have been rather slow about selling it and I hope whoever buys it has as much fun as I have had with it.
Does it have a working A/C?Brian
The air conditioning is 2/55.Aren
Oh... a technical thing: does your Ventura have a Pontiac or Chevy engine?Brian
The engine is a chevy(stock)307 small block.
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