5th chapter in kids cars: the budget GTP!

[Blue85]

The car came with a free shovel handle. It's very annoying not having functional hood struts, but I was able to swap the ends off one onto a strut I had from something and now the hood feels light. Surprisingly the best deal on this part is at Autozone, for $7.99, but you have to call to get it to a store . Even if you paid their $8 shipping charge to get it next day (instead of a week), that would be cheaper than RockAuto or Amazon and it comes with a warranty.

 

[Blue85]

Budget GTP runs much better with new LIM gaskets. It was also leaking from the rad cap and it looks like the shaft seal on the water pump is leaking. But it's good to see it hold pressure and cool itself. It's hard to get it hot enough now to turn on the fans (factory turn on temp is 220 or some crap).

Filled it with some cleaner:



Still have to swap the pump and figure out why the fuel trims are high.

Can't attach the wheel spin video for some reason.

 

[Blue85]

I got lucky with this yesterday. While warming it up to burp the air and run the coolant cleaner, it showed the intermittent flashing check engine light. Code was cylinder #5 misfire and my stethoscope was right there. #1 and #3 were clicking. #5 no clicking. It read open circuit. Look, there are 4 of this part number in the stash. Swapped and ran good. After cool down, that injector reads 12 Ohms, so the coil is intermittent.

 

[Blue85]

Today it got a new water pump. Took a while to get the air out, but it's running good and no leaks or loss of pressure. The O2 signal is sluggish, but improving with run time, so we may be burning the coolant contamination off or just getting closer to real stoich. When that signal looks good we'll pay more attention to the trim numbers, get more aggressive and determine if it needs a new sensor.

Obviously with an intermittent injector, trims can get skewed. It's good to see the temperatures so stable now.

 

[JoshHefnerX]

Sounds like this thing was a big basket of neglect. But at least you've got a stash.

 

[Blue85]

Sounds like this thing was a big basket of neglect. But at least you've got a stash.

Absolutely. Cars need people who listen and care and some people just can't do it. I thought my stash was gone because I sold the house and moved after my 3800 phase, but obviously I still have stuff.

Even general stuff helps. Today my son drove new junk over with a whistling intake. Found a grommet in a bin that fit the PCV valve to the valve cover and it's good for temp/forever.

 

[Blue85]

The car is plated and on the road. She did a Cerakote headlight restore on the lights/fogs and now they're actually clear again. It had the dirtiest K&N air filter I've ever seen, so we cleaned that up (with the official kit) and put it back in service. Cleaned the leaves out of the air box and cleaned the MAF while in there. After resetting the trims, it seems to be coming up with reasonable numbers, but there are 2 things I don't like:

1. It can't seem to get an O2 reading at idle. It's always hovering at 0.1 something volts. I can't find a vacuum leak, so I'm suspecting an exhaust leak. If I can't find one, the sensor will get swapped (admittedly, this may be a used part ). This car has only 2 sensors, one before the cat and one after.
2. It's logging Knock Retard at pretty much all real loads. I don't think it's unusual for this model year, but I want to understand it and make sure it's not increasing as boost comes on. I have to put on my L67/L32 remembering hat. It might make sense to go one step colder with the plugs. They need replacing anyway. At any rate #1 needs to be solved first.

 

[Blue85]

We realized that it has a passive tire pressure monitoring system. That is, there are no sensors, it just compares wheel speed. The only option on the DIC is to reset it (which tells it the current ratio between tires is normal). I had that setup on a '97, then it went away for several years. I don't know how many had this passive system before they got regular TPMS in 2006. In some ways it's better - no sensor to replace or program.