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Original craigslist ad: Price is right! When I showed up to look at the car, the guy said he would take $200. Even better! The transmission was mostly dry from a leak, so my brother and I dragged it back to my house. Upon arrival: (As always, click for a larger image)      Preliminary analysis: rough but serviceable. I dug in to it a little more this morning. THE GOOD -Engine runs well -Nearly new tires -Tie rod ends recently replaced -Front brakes in excellent condition -Suspension feels tight, not in need of attention -Third seat -3.3 -Four speed -Air conditioning works well -Local car, little to no rust THE BAD -Car has been sitting for some time, so it needs fresh gas and oil -CTSY fuse keeps popping, even a 30 amp, so I don't have radio, interior lights or horn -Rear brakes are in need of attention --Left rear is adjusted far too tightly, and broken to boot. The "W" retainer spring fell apart when I pulled the drum -Ball joints appear to be original -Steering is quite heavy, despite a full PS reservoir -Driver's seat and armrest console are a mess -Driver's door is a disaster: doesn't close properly, outside handle is broken, the upper hinge has been torn off the door and will need to be welded or the door replaced entirely, door panel was in the back of the car -Driver's window held up by a plank of wood -Passenger window motor dead, window stuck 3/4 up -Shift indicator not lined up at all, stuck on 1 -Little bit of cosmetic impact damage over RR wheel, left side of tailgate -Needs new struts for tailgate glass and hatch THE UGLY -Transmission leak is coming from between the engine and bellhousing, which is probably either the torque converter seal or input shaft seal. -Transmission seems to be toasted regardless The leak:  Dirty 3300.  Quarter panel:  Tailgate:  Some kind of antenna?  Local car.  Custom badges.  Full gauge cluster.  Torn hinge:   SPID:  Little storage cubby on driver's side. I wonder if there's anything in there.  RED ALERT RED ALERT ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS ENEMY SIGHTED  After putting three quarts of fluid into the transmission, it started working. I drove it around the block, and found that it's basically on its last legs. I'm gonna dump in some stop leak, because at this point it can't hurt. If it works, great. If not, oh well, time for a transmission.
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Aug 23, 2015 20:43
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Powershift posted:You must really, really like that specific body style. It seems to me at the end of the day, something like a roadmaster would be cheaper to restore/maintain, and be more valuable once complete. I do, but I challenge anyone to find a $200 Roadmaster wagon in running, driving condition.
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Aug 23, 2015 23:50
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PBCrunch posted:There is a good chance the courtesy fuse keeps popping because of a metal object in the cigarette lighter. I checked that. I didn't see anything in there. I will look again though. CornHolio posted:Man, it's gotta be worth more than that in scrap alone. I'd call it a good deal. Absolutely. That's why I got it. Even if the transmission is pooched, everything else is worth the price I paid. The tires, the engine, the suspension. At worst, it can be a parts car for my other two Centurys. slidebite posted:So what are your plans? Keeping it as another driver or flipping it? Junkyard transmission I assume? Kinda playing it by ear with this one. I'll wait and see what a can of stop leak does for the transmission leak. If it does nothing, it'll be an interim parts car. It's mechanically identical to my yellow '92 sedan, which desperately needs front hubs, and it's a wagon, so wagon-specific stuff can be used for my white '96 wagon. If it works, I may just pull the driver's door off the '92 and slap it on. SouthsideSaint posted:All my friends in high school had these cars. They ran for forever and I put many an intake gasket and W brake spring on these things. Such a comfortable ride and a perfect beater car. Best part is, the Buick 3.3 doesn't have the intake gasket problem that the Chevy 3100 does! Elephanthead posted:The iron duke version requires less maintenance. This is true. I am well aware of the cockroach status of the Duke. But four cylinder wagons are like hen's teeth.
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Aug 24, 2015 18:02
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CornHolio posted:And here we see the depth of the patient's madness. 
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Aug 24, 2015 19:15
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PBCrunch posted:So does the 3100 suffer because of a design departure from the 3.3, or is the difference in reliability related more to owner habits (Buick drivers being older, and more likely to have their car serviced by qualified professionals)? Little from column A, little from column B. The 3.3 is a smaller displacement version of the 3.8, which is a Buick design dating form the late 60s. The 3100 and its derivatives are based on the old 2.8, a Chevy design. The 3100/3400 have nylon intake manifold gaskets, which get eaten away by Dexcool coolant. Later 3.8s went to the same sort of design and had the same leaking gasket, but this early one does not. EDIT: After a discussion with my wife and MIL (who fronted the $200 to buy the wagon) it has been decided that an effort will be made to make the wagon into a decent car, mostly based on the fact that the air conditioning went out on the yellow sedan a couple days ago. So the driver's door will be swapped from the yellow sedan to the woody wagon, stop leak will be dumped into the transmission, and if it doesn't help, the trans from the yellow sedan will be swapped into the woody wagon. The front seats from the white wagon will also be swapped into the woody, since they're in decent shape. Left Ventricle fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Aug 24, 2015 |
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Aug 24, 2015 20:31
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Raluek posted:Does that mean that a supercharged late 3800 just plugs right in? 
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Aug 24, 2015 21:07
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Frankenstein possibilities: 3.3: 3.7" 93.98mm bore, 3.16" 80.26mm stroke 3.8: 3.8" 96.5mm bore, 3.4" 86.4mm stroke 3.0: 3.8" 96.5mm bore, 2.66" 67.56mm stroke 3.3 bore + 3.8 stroke = 3.6L 3.8 bore + 3.3 stroke = 3.5L 3.3 bore + 3.0 stroke = 2.8L Heads on a '93 are shared with the L27 Series I (TPI) 3.8. That means I could use these 1.8 ratio rocker arms.
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Aug 24, 2015 23:59
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8ender posted:Important: Does it make the same clickity click noise when you're on the gas as the 3800? It's like a tiny tap dancer going buck wild in your engine bay. Easily one of the happiest engine noises I've heard Not that I've noticed. I'll check next time I drive it. That won't be for some time though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU3EokaSnnc I had momentary plans of swapping the front hubs from the gold wagon to the yellow sedan, but then this happened. I don't want to take any chances of anything breaking and leaving me stranded, so the yellow sedan is parked. The white wagon will be pressed back into service, and when money comes in again, the gold wagon will be properly registered, the door will be swapped from the yellow sedan, and at a later date so will the transmission.
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Aug 30, 2015 19:32
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SouthsideSaint posted:That sounds like the rubber in the harmonic balancer. Even more so when the camera goes down and you can see the crank pulley doing the worn rubber dance. Also the valve covers are cheap to buy and easy to do. Just take them off and give all the valves and lifters a check. But old GM harmonic balancers are notorious for making that noise. The folks over at a-body.net seem to agree with you. That's a good reason to park it, yeah? Especially since I have no money for parts of any kind right now. PBCrunch posted:I assumed the 3.3 was yet another displacement variation of the 60* GM V-6 (which to my knowledge has been sold as 2.8, 3.1, 3100, 3400, 3500, and 3900). It makes sense that a variation of the nearly-indestructible 3800 would be a lot better than a 3100. Honestly, the 3100 in my white wagon hasn't been that bad. Yeah, it popped its head gaskets a few days after I bought it, but that was due to a stuck thermostat. 40k miles later it runs amazing. Listening to it, you couldn't tell it has 170k on it. I eventually want to get a 3500 put in it. An extra 40 hp should be fun.  KennyLoggins posted:I really want a Century T-Type coupe  Your pic is actually a Century GS. Nerd moment: Only a little over a thousand of them were made in 1986, and they were the only A-body cars to get 15 in wheels from the factory. All others had 14s (or some early ones had 13s!).KennyLoggins posted:I hate 90+ A bodies with the stupid door mounted belts, dumb design. I share your opinion, but the problem is the Century and Cutlass Ciera were made for much longer than the Celebrity and 6000, so there are just more of them still out there, so your options for pillar-mounted belts are slim. Over the years of having owned these cars though, I've grown accustomed to the door belts. And just to show you all the true depths of my madness, here is a list of A-body cars I've owned. Included is the U-body vans that are largely based on them. -1984 Pontiac 6000 (carb 2.8) -1990 Oldsmobile Silhouette (TBI 3.1) -1990 Pontiac 6000 (Iron Duke) -1989 Chevrolet Celebrity wagon (MFI 2.8) -1992 Buick Century (Buick 3.3) -1995 Pontiac Trans Sport (Buick 3.8) -1996 Buick Century wagon (Chevy 3100) -1992 Buick Century (Buick 3.3) -1993 Buick Century wagon (Buick 3.3)
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Aug 31, 2015 00:30
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As posted on the last page, the harmonic balancer gave up the ghost on my yellow sedan, so I pressed the white wagon back into service. I lost my job a couple months ago, so money has been tight, with my wife being the only income, and hers isn't much. Well, the white wagon has its own problems, namely non-functional AC, and it's nearly out of fuel, so I'm putting this gold wagon on the road, since it has an indicated half tank. Toward that end, I took it on a slightly more extended drive to get a feel for what kind of shape it's in, mechanically. I let it idle in the driveway for a couple minutes before I set off, and at a glance, the stop leak I poured into the transmission doesn't seem to have helped any. It's still just gushing out of the bellhousing, just like before. There was enough in the trans to make it drivable though, so off I went, with a short mix of city and highway to see how it behaves. It shifted through all four gears and the converter locked, which was a good sign, but as it warmed up, it became more and more reticent about shifting up from 1 to 2. This tells me that my initial diagnosis of the transmission was correct: to use a technical term, it's pooched. So I will need to get a "new" one, probably donated by the yellow sedan. I also want to swap the driver's door from the yellow car to the gold wagon, but further inspection led me to two conclusions that tell me that might not help as much as I want it to. First, upon inspection by my brother, who is a welder, he said he was confident he could repair the torn hinge, as long as I could get the car to the shop he works for. Second, it looks like there are a couple of cut wires in the door harness inside the rubber covering where it comes out of the body and goes into the door. Not being particularly well-versed in wiring, I don't know what they're for, and they are quite difficult to get a clear picture of with the camera on my phone.  tl;dr warning! Engine nerding ahead! Raluek posted:Does that mean that a supercharged late 3800 just plugs right in? KozmoNaut posted:My username is KozmoNaut, and I approve this message. To that end, I've been doing some reading about the various permutations of the Buick V6, and I think I have found a suitable candidate for an engine swap. I have other performance-enhancing mods in mind as well, so I'm going to bounce some ideas off you all. Any input from our resident Buick engine experts would be greatly appreciated. First things first: The stock transmission has a 3.06 differential with an overdrive chain, giving an overall 2.73 final drive. In a word, LAZY. That has to go. I will get another transmission built with, likely, a 3.33 diff and direct drive chain, since that seems to be a good match for the Buick engine's power profile and my driving style. I do mostly city driving, so having good punch off the line is vital, and a 3.33 provides MUCH better acceleration than a 2.73, and the engine will spin right at peak torque at 65 mph (a hair under 2000 rpm with stock size tires), which should provide very good highway economy. Also, the stock converter has a 1420 stall. I will replace it with an 1895 stall converter, to better match the gearing. After that comes power. To that end, I would like to install a more potent power plant with a minimum of fuss. It seems to me that the L27 3.8L "3800 TPI" Buick V6 is probably the easiest swap candidate. Getting an additional 10 hp and 40 ft-lbs is a great improvement, in my opinion. So far, my research has indicated that it should drop back in to the Century with stock A-body mounts and run on the stock wiring and computer with only a few changes. The following will have to be retained from the LG7:
 To make up for the likely power reduction, I will probably have the intake and heads ported and install the 1.8 rockers I linked earlier, along with slightly higher flow injectors. The injector design is shared with a few other GM engines, including the Cadillac HT V8 and turbo 3.1 used in the early W-body Grand Prix. ACCEL even sells them for the TGP in 24 and 30 pound flow rates! Left Ventricle fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Sep 7, 2015 |
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Sep 7, 2015 05:22
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KennyLoggins posted:Why go with the L27 when the L67 exists. Isn't there a guy with the Ciera coupe with a turbo 3800? I seem to remember reading it one of the GM car forums and that it has like 400+ hp. His username on a-body is skalor. You are correct. He dynoed 413 hp to the wheels through a 4T65 HD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5NMPUP8798 As I said up above, I need the swap to be sneaky so I don't incur the wrath of the DMV when I go to have it smog tested. In Nevada, ALL cars from MY1995 all the way back to MY1968 have to be sniffed, and MY1996 and newer have to be OBD tested. The only way around that is to get "classic" registration, which gives you an emissions exemption, but the car has to be at least 25 years old and you are only permitted to drive 5000 miles or less per year. I drive 5000 miles in two months, sometimes. Nevada looks very unkindly on engine swaps of any kind, unless it's like-for-like, or you hide it. Also, I'm not looking to make this a race car. Just something that will surprise people when they assume I'm driving grandpa's Buick, and still get decent fuel economy. That, and I want to be different. The L67 is the equivalent of an LS swap, basically. The 3500/3900 is a Chevy design, and is physically the same size as the 3100/3400. I have pipe dream plans of doing a 3500 swap on my '96 white wagon with a 3100 upper to throw off emissions testers. The LS4 was designed for a transverse layout, and many Fiero owners have done that swap, so I don't see why it wouldn't work, but again, it wouldn't fly with the DMV, even if it is less polluting than the stock engine.
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Sep 7, 2015 23:27
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Yep, definitely need a harmonic balancer. Click for bigger.
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Sep 16, 2015 01:11
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Hey, here's some actual content! A minor life crisis came up, so I don't have the money to buy the balancer right now. But that just leaves me with time to do free stuff. So I decided to put my fancy seats to use. Some of you may recall that I acquired some stuff from a 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport VR, namely the front and rear seats. I did a test fit of the front seats in my white wagon a few months back, but it's all been taking up space and collecting dust in my garage. I installed them in the yellow sedan. Click all for bigger.   So let's get started!  The front seats in these cars are held in by 13 mm nuts at each corner.     Then unhook the wires going to the power controls. This car only has power recline, but the 10-way seats are a drop-in upgrade and use the same harness.  Driver's seat out.  A little messy, but not bad.  Driver's seat back in.  Minor difference, one corner on the stock seats has two mounting points, while these buckets only use one. No worries though.  Passenger seat on its way out too.     Out.  Center console in.   Passenger bucket in.  Again, one unused mount stud.  The lower cushion in the rear is slightly tricky, but uses no fasteners. Pull up on the back, then slide the frame out of the slots.  Upper cushion has two 10 mm bolts with fender washers.   Then lift up so the frame slides out of its slots.  Both out. Still in amazing shape considering the age of the car.  Installation is the reverse of removal.    Fancy.   The gold wagon has a terrible driver's seat, so I figured I would replace both with the recently liberated seats from the yellow sedan. Passenger seat out.  What the gently caress is that?!    Close-up of the labels on the back.  I dumped the yellow seats back in and buttoned up. Nice solid two hours of work on an unseasonably cool morning (something like 72 degrees!)
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Sep 17, 2015 01:15
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cursedshitbox posted:Hey on the L27 head, wouldn't that be EGR? cursedshitbox posted:also tint your windows asap. The vegas heat is gonna kill those awesome seats in about a summer maybe two.
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Sep 18, 2015 22:14
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I went to the junkyard today and got some small things for the white wagon! Click all images to enlargen. In their infinite wisdom, GM decided that the Century would use a strut to hold the hood up. These invariably fail after a decade, and you end up having to use a pole or ax handle or whatever to hold the hood up. The Cutlass Ciera, however, still used a proper hood prop.  And it bolts right on to the Century header panel with no fuss, no muss. The Century hood doesn't have a dedicated hole specifically for a hood prop, but there's one that works well enough in the same general area.  I also snagged this vacuum line.  It goes from the back of the intake manifold to some tiny little line that ends up controlling the HVAC blend doors. The stock one was in terrible shape, and leaked like crazy. If I accelerated briskly, or had to climb a hill, the air would stop coming out of the front of the dash and instead blow out of the defrost vents. Original:  New one installed. It's just to the right of the alternator and the power steering hard lines.  Also, at some point, the ABS wiring on the front passenger side ripped itself apart.  So I got a new wire.  And put it on.  Definitely worth the trip.
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Nov 2, 2015 01:22
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There is an upgrade path for these cars, believe it or not. Setting aside the obvious LX9 3.5L engine swap, suspension, steering and brake parts from the U platform vans bolt on without modification. I've already done one of what I like to call the Big Three, which is the van front sway bar, on the white wagon, but I picked up another bar yesterday at the yard, and will be installing it on the yellow sedan. I will document the swap here. It's not difficult at all. I am also going to do the van brakes, which requires a laundry list of new parts, and van struts. Other plans for this car include the aforementioned LX9 swap with some WOT-Tech goodies, like their MPG/torque cam and ported top end, a 3.33 final drive transmission from Triple Edge Performance to replace the stock 2.97, and a tuneable 1997 computer from Milzy Motorsports.
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Nov 2, 2015 22:27
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Replaced the balancer on the yellow '92 sedan, with a little assistance from a mobile mechanic. So the car runs again. But the belt is squeaking a bit. I will probably just replace it soon. I also tried to narrow down which hub needs to be swapped for a new one, but couldn't really figure it out. So I'm just gonna go with the original plan of replacing both front hubs just to be safe. Then I spent the better part of three hours fighting a van sway bar which just would not bolt in. Every time I would get one of the brackets bolted to the control arm, the other side would be way off, like at least 1/2", and no amount of raising one arm and lowering the other would make up the difference. So I just slapped the stock bar back in. I don't know if that is because the car is a '92 and I got the bar from a '96 van? Would that actually make a difference? Because it was not even an issue when I put a '95 van bar in the white '96 wagon. Everything lined up exactly.
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Nov 6, 2015 04:02
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Can't tell, it's covered in greasy dirt. I didn't even think about it being bent. I may have to go to another yard and get another one then.
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Nov 6, 2015 16:13
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kastein posted:Then you'll see... that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.  Here's a comparison picture of the stock bar from my white wagon (top) and the van bar I just bought (bottom). 
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Nov 7, 2015 03:43
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Double postin' like a boss. Me and the yellow sedan over the last few days:  A couple months back, the AC compressor pulley somehow came in contact with the lower radiator hose. I replaced the hose, but coolant made its way into the internals of the compressor, unbeknownst to me. After replacing the balancer, I still had some noise. I ended up tracing it fairly unequivocally to the compressor when I tested the AC and a) the clutch didn't move and b) smoke immediately began pouring off of it. $43 later a bypass pulley is in its place, which I guess is actually unnecessary on the 3.3, since the belt routing diagram sticker actually shows a non-AC routing, so I probably could have spent less on a shorter belt. Luckily it is now winter in Las Vegas, so I don't have to worry about the complete lack of air conditioning for a few months. I got a couple quotes to rebuild the whole system in the $1500-2000 range, with Firestone at the high end. They say the main reason it's so much is that it is "company policy" not to convert R12 systems to R134a, so about 20% of the bill is recharging with Freon. Everything quieted down for a bit, then the belt started making noise again. So I yanked the belt off the gold wagon, since it's not driving right now anyway, and threw it on. The belt was quiet for about three minutes, then started shrieking again. I dealt with it for a day, then went and bought some belt dressing. Spraying that on the belt only made it angrier, and I seriously nearly sustained some hearing damage because of how loud it got. So I decided to put the old one back on. In the process of removing it, the belt got hung up on something near the balancer. Closer inspection revealed the passenger side engine mount disintegrating, causing the engine to sag enough that the belt was rubbing on the mount bracket. The old belt was quiet again though. I drove around on a few errands for a few hours, then went to the store for dinner. As I was pulling out of the parking space to leave, there was a thump, and the battery light came on, and I suddenly no longer had power steering.  Rather than risk blowing everything up by driving it without water circulation or battery charging, I called my mother-in-law, who was at my house, and asked her to bring me the other belt so I could at least get this pig home. She showed up about an hour later with the belt, but I didn't have any tools to put it on! I ended up walking the two miles back home, getting the white wagon, and returning with the 18 mm wrench. Upon closer inspection, it appears that the harmonic balancer I just put on has to come back off to access the top bolts for the engine mount... Is the balancer bolt torque-to-yield? Does it have to be replaced when it comes out?
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Nov 12, 2015 06:10
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I don't normally post about silly poo poo like this, but it's driving me batty. I used to have a Bluetooth FM transmitter in my white wagon, which I used for making phone calls and listening to music. It was taken by the thieves who stole my car, so I bought a cassette adapter since I can't afford anything Bluetooth at the moment. Most of the time it's fine, but more and more frequently the tape deck starts switching between forward and reverse while the adapter is in, as if it's reaching the end of a regular tape. I can't really figure out how to make it stop. Is there something I can do to either the adapter or the deck to make it behave? Or do I just have to deal with it?
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Nov 14, 2015 00:27
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Cached Money posted:Has anyone tried these by the way:?  That's hot poo poo right there!Seat Safety Switch posted:This guy has a potential fix: I will see about this. Thanks!
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Nov 14, 2015 01:50
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KennyLoggins posted:Those VR seats are pretty  KennyLoggins posted:I like the Celebrity VR coupe but it needs a more potent power plant. Some parts for the yellow sedan are on the way! I had them overnighted from  . Should be here when I get home from work tomorrow.
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Nov 18, 2015 07:15
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Left Ventricle posted:Some parts for the yellow sedan are on the way! I had them overnighted from Yeah, the hubs are Chinese... Good news: the yellow sedan is road-worthy again! Bad news: it still has all the other problems it had before. In summary: I spent several hours on the car, first trying to figure out how the belt got ruined. I found out that the engine mount bracket on the passenger side, which bolts to the block behind the balancer, has a lip on it, presumably for added structural integrity. This lip appears to be just slightly longer than it actually needs to be, and the belt was coming in contact with it, which caused the destruction. I had my brother come over with a grinder and ground down the area of that lip that was contacting the belt, put on a new Gatorback belt, and all is right again! I then moved on to the issue of the hub. I had my wife ride with me in the car a while back, trying to determine which side the horrible hub bearing noise is coming from, since it's tough to tell when you're sitting in the driver's seat. She narrowed it down to the passenger side, so I tackled that hub. I was a bit worried, since I didn't have any of the specialty tools the repair manual recommended, but they ended up being completely unnecessary. Everything came apart and went back together pretty easily. A test drive on the highway, and all is quiet. The driver's side hub does not need to be changed at this time. I also replaced the lug nuts, since they're cheap, and for the first time on any car I've owned, I torqued them on with my new 1/2" torque wrench. I put them to 105 ft-lbs on the rear wheels, and the right front with the new hub. I did not replace the left fronts, since I broke a stud a while back, and will probably end up breaking more later. I picked up some more lug studs, and will probably slap some on tomorrow.
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Dec 6, 2015 01:31
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Triple posting (like a boss). I replaced the vacuum line going from the charcoal canister to the throttle body on the yellow car, and it idles a hell of a lot better now. It still is hard to start, even after a new fuel pump and pressure regulator. I'm gonna have to do some troubleshooting on that. A quick search of a-body.net says it could be a bad throttle position sensor, a dirty mass air flow sensor, or an injector on its way out. Good places to start. Any other input is appreciated, even though I know it's difficult to diagnose driveability issues over the internet. The white wagon took a dump on me though. I was out an about last Tuesday, and the transmission suddenly started slipping. I wasn't far from home, so I turned around to return there. Within a half mile, the transmission had leaked out enough fluid to not go into gear anymore. I pushed it home with the yellow car and help from my wife, and have been so disgusted I haven't even thought about digging into it to find out what the gently caress. A very cursory glance underhood revealed trans fluid coating the driver's inner CV boot and plenty on the transmission end cover. I've never heard of one of these 4T60E transmissions having an explosive loss of fluid before. As for the gold wagon, which was the original subject of this thread, the mother-in-law has decided that it should not be resurrected, and instead picked clean of any parts I can find useful for the other two cars, then junked. The tires alone are worth at least the $200 she paid for the car, so anything else, including whatever Pic-A-Part will give us for the carcass, is just icing. Alternator, injectors, fuel tank, instrument cluster, radio, wheels and tires, suspension, tailgate glass, seats, door handles, etc. are just what I can think of off the top of my head to put to immediate or near-future use.
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Dec 16, 2015 01:26
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I think I had a little bit of an alignment issue on the yellow sedan.
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Dec 24, 2015 20:48
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The yellow sedan has been giving me lots of grief recently. The fuel pump suddenly up and died last week when I was at my sister's wedding in Pahrump, NV, about 80 miles from my house, and Autozone helpfully gave me exactly the parts I asked for, which ended up being wrong twice. So I had to spend the night at her dad's house, then replace the pump with the correct part and high-tail it home. It hasn't been running correctly for some time, even before the fuel pump went out, so I replaced the filter twice, changed the spark plugs and wires, and gave it an overdue oil change. Those things all helped, as it starts much easier than before, but it still runs roughly at idle, and seems to be down on power. I will be doing a little more troubleshooting this weekend, testing the ignition coils and fuel injectors with my multimeter to see if they're within spec (5-8k ohms on coils, 12-14 ohms on injectors). I can't really think of anything else that would cause it to run like is does. In addition to all this, there is a code 39 stored, which is TCC-related. When the converter is locked, the car shakes violently. The effect is much more pronounced in fourth gear than it is in third, so I've been treating the car as if it has a three speed, staying out of fourth entirely. The final drive is tall enough (2.73) that it's not terrible on the highway in third. Some research says that the fix for a code 39 is to replace the TCC solenoid, which is a right kick in the dick to do on the four speed. And I haven't even looked at the white wagon to find out where the transmission leak is.
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Dec 31, 2015 06:11
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some texas redneck posted:The TCC solenoid is a common as hell issue on FWD V6 GMs of that era. I keep hearing that it's fine to do that on the three speeds, but the fluid will overheat on the four speed and blow the hell up. I can't find any evidence for or against. The CEL light does come on, then goes off, then on and off at random when the trans wiring harness is unhooked.
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Dec 31, 2015 08:49
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After putting it off for going on three weeks, I finally just broke down and crawled under the white wagon to find out the cause of the enormous transmission leak. Click for larger, please. As some of you may recall, earlier in the year, I took a trip to Kansas and towed a trailer full of my mother-in-law's stuff back to Las Vegas. Naturally, I had a hitch and external transmission cooler installed by U-Haul at the same time. The image above is the meeting between the stock trans cooler line and the hose going to the external cooler. What appears to have occurred is the metal tube joining the two hoses popped out, and the trans oil pump dutifully pumped most of the fluid onto the street while I was driving. As you can see, the end of the metal tube is not flared, so the hose clamp had nothing to hang on to. What's surprising is that it lasted this long. I brought this to the attention of the manager of the U-Haul store. He was skeptical at first when I showed him that picture, but when I removed the hose from the car and presented it to him, he was incredibly accommodating. Since he is not a mechanic, he said to take the metal bit to a shop and have it flared (I don't own a flaring tool) and bring him the receipt, and I will be recompensated. I did just that, but the flared end ended up being too large to fit back in the rubber hose. I then went to a hardware store and purchased a barbed fitting, 5/16" on each end, which solved the whole leak problem. It took six quarts to bring the fluid back to a useable level. I have driven the car about 40 miles, including steady highway cruising, and it seems to be mostly okay. However, I believe it may have sustained some damage in this whole thing. The shift from first to second is not the same as it was before. It slips more, behaving much like the old transmission this one replaced did. I considered adding some Lucas additive this morning, but the fluid level is good, and I don't want to overfill it. I asked the U-Haul manager what steps we would need to take if damage had occurred to my transmission. His response was that "U-Haul Legal" would then have to be involved. I think U-Haul Legal may have to be involved.
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Jan 3, 2016 19:44
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I have opened a claim with U-haul's insurance company. That's probably all I am legally allowed to disclose at this point now.
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Jan 4, 2016 22:33
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Non-update on the yellow sedan: in an effort to cure the rough running and lack of power, I have swapped the ignition coils for a set of known-good coils. It did not change the engine's behavior. I might try an ignition module, but I'm leaning more towards fuel injector(s) not operating correctly. Good thing I have a parts car in the garage!
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Jan 9, 2016 05:39
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Geirskogul posted:Try unplugging the MAF. You posting that made me go out and check that right now. Unplugging the MAF resulted in no change. I then swapped over the MAF from the gold wagon. Idle quality improved quite a bit. So I took it out for a quick spin. It still is hesitant off the line, and still feels like it has a misfire at higher speeds, ie when the torque converter is locked, but the violent shaking is much less pronounced. Especially in fourth gear with converter lock. Changing the MAF helped, but hasn't completely cured it. Thank you. Speaking of the gold wagon, I finally got around to getting to the DMV to transfer the title to my name. That's the motivation I need to start tearing it down in preparation for scrapping. I briefly considered making it my project car, but even after getting another transmission in it, it has some sort of electrical problem that I am not physically and mentally equipped to tackle myself, and not financially equipped to have someone else fix it. The only way I would be satisfied would probably be to replace the entire harness from bumper to bumper, which is a galactically impractical and hugely expensive consideration on a car I literally bought for scrap value.
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Jan 9, 2016 08:16
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Yellow sedan update. It has had a slow but steady transmission leak since I acquired it, which I haven't been able to pinpoint, due to how air moves under the car. I think it might be the pan gasket. I added a bottle of Lucas additive, and it helped a lot. The converter lockup shaking is much less than before, and it seems to shift a little easier. I have also elected to give it to my mother-in-law, in the interests of keeping the peace in my house. The gold wagon is starting to disappear.        Items removed so far, in no particular order:
I had planned on pulling and keeping the seats, but the fronts were ruined, so they were taken by the garbage men months ago; the middle seat is gross with dog hair; and the third seat is vinyl, which I somehow only found out the other day despite this car sitting in my garage since August! Also on the list are the fuel tank and filler neck, vent windows, maybe also the other wagon-specific glass, wheels and tires, header panel and grille, and if I get the gumption, the top end of the engine. The '93 heads are very similar to L27 heads, so I want to keep them around if I ever get another LG7 car, to facilitate a sneaky L27 swap (detailed earlier in the thread).
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Jan 18, 2016 21:30
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The title for the gold wagon arrived in the mail today! So whenever I deem that I have removed whatever I need, it can now be scrapped. Toward that end, I pulled the struts from it and slammed them onto the white wagon. So far so good.
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Jan 26, 2016 06:02
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I had Pic-A-Part scheduled to pick up the husk of the gold wagon today, for the princely sum of $50 (scrap steel is apparently only $40/ton these days). The truck just showed up, saw that I had removed things from the car, and told me that the price just went from $50 to $0. Sounds like you just wasted your time, bud. Have a good day. So the plan has changed from "pull stuff I feel like" to "strip to bare chassis, liberally apply sawzall, take bits to recycling facility". Anyone in Vegas up to join me?
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Feb 1, 2016 21:09
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Be careful friends. If you rub the lamp on the dashboard and let the genie out, this is what happens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh0stiZXSy4
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Feb 7, 2016 19:51
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I'm debating whether I want to get a stock replacement and do a big port swap or get a 3.5. I can get either an L82 or an LX9 locally for about the same price.
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Feb 7, 2016 23:34
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An L36 fits just fine, but it's not "easy". I would need to swap the entire harness, whereas another Chevy engine will drop right back in and get the car rolling again quicker.
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Feb 8, 2016 01:00
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Feb 16, 2016 04:52
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It is an LX9 "3500", which is a 3.5L variant of the 60 degree Chevy V6. This particular one came from a 2005 Chevrolet Malibu, with 116k miles according to LKQ. This 3.5, unlike the later ones, is based on the 3.4L "3400" LA1, with updated head and intake designs, and gaskets that won't fail like the earlier Chevy engines. The later 3.5s are a smaller displacement version of the 3.9L, so they have variable valve timing and E85 capability, which are very difficult to make work in older cars. This engine is not really plug-and-play. I have had to order the 3500 swap kit and 1997 PCM from Milzy Motorsports. Mike spent almost two hours on the phone with me, ironing out all the details of this swap, making sure the computer would be programmed how I wanted it, doing up a custom throttle body, and all that. He also said that, if there were interest in the A-body community, he might put together a swap kit specifically for A-bodies, using my car as the prototype! Particulars of swapping this engine into my car, in no particular order:
I'm sure more will come up once I yank the stock engine and start transferring over parts. Look for that in the coming days.
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Feb 16, 2016 18:48
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