I started the Subaru today, and it ran just like before--shitty. It can mean only one thing--the head gaskets were ok, but the engine was blown. The cylinders looked fine when I had the heads off, but apparently something is very wrong internally. The car started right up, but it wouldn't rev higher than about 2300 RPM. After running for about 15 seconds, the exhaust started smoking really badly from the gear oil that I spilled on it when filling the transmission, but it shouldn't have been that hot that soon.

I'm not as pissed as I should be right now. I never really got my hopes up that this car would even work. I spent about $350 total on it, and it was worth the risk--had the engine not been shot, it would have been a pretty reliable car at a dirt-cheap price.

Since I was willing to spend the money registering and insuring the Subaru, I'll just do the same for the Mazda instead. At least I know with absolute certainty that it'll pass the safety inspection, and the registration fee is the same, but it will cost slightly more to insure.

As long as it's dry down near Moab, the Mazda should be able to get us two miles closer to the cache and save us a lot of hiking. Here's a picture of Sister Superior. The cache page says that it's a 2,000 foot gain in elevation over 0.8 miles, but by looking at the topo map, it looks more like 1,500 feet to me. Either way, that picture shows what the slope looks like, and I'm glad I'll have somebody there with me just in case I take a tumble down that hill.