I don't have access to a scanner like that, but it's all good. Coolant was low, is all, so I added more. It warmed up this morning, climbed until the needle hit the butter zone, and never got any hotter. One of the things I love about my truck is having the full instrument cluster with needle gauges. For those vehicles with just idiot lights, I wouldn't have known it was running a little hot. I guess the red light wouldn't have come on until it was overheating?
FORDS ARE EVEN WORSE! Their oil pressure "gauges" are just analog idiot lights. They've been that way since the late '80s, and I hate it, because I love Ford trucks.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/30/l...e-bugatti-from-over-a-million-technic-pieces/ link says it all.
Is anyone familiar with "Mail order tunes"? Apparently that is the way to go instead of just chipping your car now. I'm looking at getting my Z28 tuned to 93 octane and a CAI, but I'm new to all of this... Do I need to purchase an OBDII reader and download the info onto that and then download the tune into the car? Any info would be helpful because I'm completely in the dark about this shit.
All my info is for newer cars so the LT1 may be slightly different but a mail order tune is where an experienced tuner loads a canned tune into a programmer* which you load into your cars ECU. Usually they tweak the timing and fuel tables to optimize power or take advantage of any modifications you've done. Cold air intake, headers, bigger throttle body etc. The downside of a canned tune is just that, it's canned. The tuner has no idea what your cars motor is doing so they take their experience of tuning cars on a dyno and then dial it back just a little bit to ensure that it's safe whereas if you had someone tune it on a dyno, that'll give you the most HP but at a higher cost. *Programmers vary by how they tune. Some are handheld units that plug into the OBD port and load it in, others plug into the actual ECU. In the early 90's, they sold "chips" that would be reflashed and plugged into your ECU. Some good bathroom reading here: https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/computer-diagnostics-tuning-36/
Day 1 of bringing my Z out of it's slumber. I took it in for an oil change and a flush and fill of the radiator. In 6 miles of stop and go traffic the temp needle was trying to touch the red zone in 80 degree heat...not a good sign. Turns out one of my cooling fans had gone tits up. I got kind of a laugh when the guy told me the thermostat was stuck shut....I informed him I saw the temp go down when the t-stat opened. He quickly backtracked and told me it was working twice as hard opening and shutting. Whatever. I was going to have them replace the t-stat after sitting for a year anyways. I just wanted them to feel like they'd upsold me shit and wouldn't bother me about anything else. Turns out the only other thing they could find wrong with the car was the upper & lower control arm bushings. And the washer reservoir leaks. Sadly I have to go back tomorrow. I was there until after 5 and as I took off in first gear I was wondering why the "Skip Shift" light wasn't going off after 21 mph in first. Because it wasn't the skip shift light.....it's the service engine light. I'm sure it's a vacuum hose, but the guy who worked on the car had already bailed for the night. A few of the guys at the shop went gaga over the car, which was kind of cool. It's been a while since I had a car that other car guys appreciate.
Toytoy, how are the tires? If it been sitting a long time, they could be old and rock hard even with good tread. I've had a few friends buy super low mile Corvettes and loop them because although the tires looked "new", they were 10 years old and had no traction.
The tires were replaced 4-5 months ago (Along with the rotors, pads, starter, alternator, & battery)...someone else did a lot of expensive work. The CEL last night turned out to be a blessing in disguise that it happened when it did. They had to do a smoke test on the system to find the vacuum leak (Which normally runs $125) and found 4 vacuum lines that were leaking. Obviously a 22 year old car that's been sitting for a year is going to have vacuum line issues and I fully expected it. It took 4 hours, but my cost was $0. I like $0. It's running stronger and stronger, the funny smells are dissipating, as are the strange noises. She is definitely waking up and wanting to G-O. I haven't even turned on the radio yet....I just love listening to the engine.....especially the brapple, brapple, brapple sound as it winds down during shifts or de-accelerating. Right now I'm getting around the skip shift by holding 1st gear till 21 MPH, I've learned though not to give it much throttle after the 1-2 shift at that speed because it's right in it's power band and will snap your neck. With shipping and the coolant system repair I'm only into the car for $4400, so I'm thrilled. Also, in the jockey box I found a Dwight Yoakam cassette and a bagpipe music cassette. Score.
Actually, his car has a hub/bearing assembly which is lubed for life, so unless it starts making noise or is loose, he should be good. Toytoy, I STRONGLY recommend that you get some kind of OBD2 scanner that can read live data. You can get a decent one for about $50. You don't need anything too fancy. As much as I hate to say it, old cars (15+ years old) can nickel and dime you on little repairs. If you can do some of these yourself, or at least know what they are/ why the check engine light is on, it can save you a lot of time and money. Anyway, as far as recommendations go, I'd be willing to wager that that car has never had a tuneup; most LT1 owners put them off because they are such a pain in the ass to work on. I'd recommend a full tuneup (Plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor), but if you aren't going to do it yourself, it could get expensive... You have to take the water pump off to get to the distributor.* Just to do the plugs on one of those cars, the shop I work at charges $200 on the labor. At the very least, do the plugs AND wires. And fuel filter. *Despite the answer that Flat Rate gave me a couple of pages ago, I STILL don't know why GM decided to use that damn Optispark distributor. They had been using distributorless coil-packs for about ten years prior, so you can't say that the technology wasn't there.
That's probably my next move. About 20 years ago a Nissan Z shop quoted me around $400 to change the plugs on my N/A 300ZX. "Fuck that" I thought to myself, "I can change my own fucking plugs." I bought a set of plugs, pulled it into the garage, opened the hood and stared. And stared. And stared. After about 15 minutes I shut the hood and paid them the $400 to deal with that bull shit. This LT1 looks damn near as bad. Maybe I'm just getting old? Years ago I had a '68 Fairlane with a 390 and headers...I had to pull the engine to change the plugs. Even worse, one of the header tubes wrapped around the tie rod and it was easier to cut the header tube than drop the headers. That was a pain in the ass, but I had no problem doing it. Y'all that make your living dealing with all this newer bull shit have my utmost respect. Pretty much if it's past 1980, I can't work on it unless it's the brakes or suspension. I can diagnose a problem because the basic internal combustion theory still applies, but fuck me if I could deal with all these cramped quarters and miles of hoses, sensors, and relays.
After a week and a half of having my Z28, I now have a pretty good idea of what the car needs, It's losing coolant somewhere. I have no idea where. There are no stains on the pavement underneath it, and the oil is clean. I would really hate to put stop leak in it, but that seems like my best option right now. Any ideas? The nose and hood need to be resprayed. The hood has marks on it that look like car wash beaters with a rock in them. The nose has been beat with gravel and bugs, the black around the headlights has been damaged by the sun. The car looks great, but the nose and hood really detract from the overall look of the car. Also the driver's side mirror is broke....it's a manual mirror and it had a dirt dobber nest in it and someone tried to adjust it. Now the mirror just kind of flops around. I'm hoping I can just order another mirror assembly and have the internals transferred into my painted casing to make it good. The engine is noisy. It's something in a rotating assembly....maybe a pulley, maybe the serpentine belt is to tight, maybe the new alternator is just noisy. I have no idea, but it's annoying me. I should just hear the engine, not one of the peripherals making noise. The upper and lower control arm bushings are shot in the front. The car pulls slightly to the right and the left front tire doesn't sit quite right. I'm figuring just having the whole front end rebuilt. Also the rear end makes a bit of noise when going over bumps at low speed. I'm guessing bushings. The car has been sitting for a year plus, so I already knew I was going to be dealing with bushings and shit. All in all my guess is about $5-6K to bring it up to speed. (It's going to have to be resprayed by a Chevrolet shop because of that stupid color changing paint, so I'm figuring $2K for that alone.) I dig the car, but this would put me close to $10K into it. I could bail out of it right now and make money, or I could see it through and have a car that is appreciating, but at the moment I'd be upside down. Not to mention that there are thousands of them out there with under 100K. But not many of them are 6 speeds and completely box stock. It's not like this was my dream car or anything, I just happened to stumble across it. But...man...when I turn the key, it fires right off, and i start rowing through the gears and it brapples through the exhaust every shift...it just makes me that much more attached to the car.
Toytoy, you were prepared to buy a BMW, and you're bitching about maintenance on a Chevy?! You can get most of this done for less than you probably think. I'll get back with you on this soon, but you obviously like the car, so keep it.
cant remember what year your is but I know the vortex truck engines with the plastic(?) intake had huge issues with there gaskets felpro made a gasket set just to fix there issue. mid90 to 2000. the v6 and the v8
Any chance the coolest leak is a blown head gasket? Just wondering as coolest level is down and nothing on the ground.
I don't think so, the oil is clean. A thought did occur to me yesterday though. When it was in the shop they replaced the radiator cap (For $20!) for some reason. They used a generic replacement cap. I'm kind of wondering if they just threw something that fit on there without regard to the pressure rating (It's needs an 18lb cap.) So yesterday I ordered the correct GM cap ($12 delivered) and will see if that alleviates the issue. I'm still keeping the stop leak in my back pocket as a last ditch fix, I hate the thought of gumming up the cooling system, especially if it's not needed. This is why I hate other people working on my vehicles. When something inevitably crops up afterwards I end up spending more money trying to figure out what they fucked up.
Are you planning on changing all the fluids and starting fresh? (I'm thinking differential, transmission, etc). I'd also change fuel filter, air filters, etc. I usually do that with a new-to-me car so that I know for a fact when the last time that stuff was done.