Underhood rehabilitation
 

After a couple of long weeks and many hours in the garage, we were finally able to take our car for a shakedown cruise this evening. Thanks to everyone on here that answered questions and pointed me in the right direction. Still have a few things to do, but I am very happy to be able to finally enjoy our car.

BEFORE:

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...psa6fa5bd9.jpg


AFTER:

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...psa9eb3677.jpg


Details on all the work can be found here (with lots of pics): http://www.ls1.com/forums/f70/1987-b...-turbo-172774/

(If the link is an issue, please delete it)

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Looks great under the hood now!

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Thanks! Got into it a little deeper than originally planned, but very happy with the result. What was the factory finish on the stock turbo heat shield? I wasn't sure and not being a fan of anything painted silver I went with some Eastwood Spray Gray for now.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Wow! Great work ... looks MUCH more like it should. Sounds like the elbow grease paid off!

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

It was just a unpolished stainless steel. They turn steel brown over the years like mine. Now your making me want to pick up a ceramic coated one!

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Ok - that makes sense. It didn't quite have the look of either tin/zinc or cadmium plating, nor a painted finish.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Even a new heater valve but at least spend $7 on a new overflow cap lol!

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

hello; Real nice job and it must of taken a while. I think you want it to look factory and you did exept for the turbo shield. Just because it came from the factory there might be room for improvement and if it was me I'd get that shield ceramic coated or what ever they call heat removal coating. Powder coating and chrome IMO is not the way to go.
keep up the good work
IBBY

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

The original heater valve was pretty crusty. Actually, the overflow cap is in real good shape. It just looks bad as my digital camera sometimes does not take the best picture. I ended up replacing the overflow tank though as the original had been epoxied at the hose fitting and was leaking just a bit. The new one was sourced from Highway Stars and I found that the hose is about 2" shorter than stock. It still works, but the hose doesn't have a whole lot of slack in it.



Thanks! I'll keep that in mind.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Here she is all washed up. Still have a few minor things to take car of, but she runs and drives great. I took care of the noise up front by dabbing a bit of grease onto the rear center hood support. Have an odd squeak out back that I am still hunting for. No noise when I bounce the car on its suspension, but if I rock it side to side I can hear it. Could be suspension bushings, but not sure yet.


http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps09f8f3c6.jpg


http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...psdd9bfae5.jpg

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

G-Body has a ceramic coated turbo shield for $99. I'm thinking of picking up one myself this week.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Looks great!

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Thanks! Still have a few things to take care of -- need to re-run the windshield washer hose, replace the wipers (picked up some stainless blade holders at Carlisle last week) and rehab the drive arms. I have a small coolant weep on the inside heater hose pipe above the intake that may just need a little sealant to remedy. Underneath, she is getting new sway bar bushings and end links up front, along with new high strength u-joints and a driveshaft safety loop out back. This car is so fun to drive. May try to make the Turbo Buick Reunion at GM Carlisle in June.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Be sure to get the U joints WITHOUT the grease zerks. Those are the strongest and won't shatter if the car hooks up hard on a good launch.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

That's what I went with -- non-greasable.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Real sexy !
Great work :cheers:

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Thank you. I put her back up in the air last night and it appears that there is a small leak where the oil drain tube attaches to the turbo. I was able to pick up a set of factory service manuals for the car while at Spring Carlisle so I'll have to see what type of seal is used in that location. Is the drain tube fairly sturdy, or is that a part that should be replaced?

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

The gasket is basically a standard fiber one. I usually smear a small bi of copper rtv on both sides.

The tube isn't a wear item and should be fine.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

I'll take a closer look at it tonight and check the bolts. I assume the existing gasket is probably a bit "crispy" at this point in its life. I wasn't sure if the tube or fittings were prone to cracking.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Picked up a Fel-Pro turbo gasket set from Napa last week. Going to change it out this afternoon.

Only remaining issue is a squeak I have in the back somewhere. I can reproduce the noise when I rock the car side-to-side. With the trunk open, it sounds like it is coming from the area of the upper control arms. I hit them all with WD-40, but no effect. Thoughts?

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Check the bushings in the upper and lower control arms

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Visually, the bushings look good. I may just have to pop them off and see what is going on. This is going to be a "driving restoration", so I'll be taking it one vehicle system or component at a time in order to avoid taking the car completely off the road.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Might be a good idea for you to get under the rear end and have somebody else rock the rear to see if you can localize the noise before pulling off control arms if the bushings look ok to you. Could just be a shock or a loose bolt on the sway bar.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Or even a trunk bumper or seal that could use a bit of lube.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

It's always something silly for the most part!

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

nice looking car... need more go fast parts under the hood tho:stir:

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Thanks. I have other another car for going fast -- this one will always stay mostly stock.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Looks great......good save.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Did you do anything with the intake manifold and valve covers? I want to repaint mine to stock color but don't know what to order. Was looking at Eastwood's Aluma blast which they have a video with close-ups. Or their Silver CAD. Anyone know what it is?

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

The valve covers were pretty grungy:

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...pscb629563.jpg


The covers were hosed down with brake cleaner and then scrubbed in hot soapy water. I then used a brass wire wheel and a very fine wire cup in my die grinders to clean them back up. I elected not to polish the covers, leaving them with a dull gray natural finish:


http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...pse7e9b1d2.jpg

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

I haven't touched the intake yet. That will most likely be removed during the winter months and cleaned up. I will probably keep it a natural finish like the valve covers. However, I have used a bunch of Eastwood's restoration paints on our other cars, including the aluminum, silver cad and such. For the most part, I have been pleased with the results and they seem to hold up well. My favorite is their spray gray for a bare cast iron look.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Do you know what, or anybody know, what GM used?

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

It was probably bare aluminum. Someone else will have to chime in on this one though.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

The intake is coated, not bare. The valve covers bare. I wanted to know what GM used on the intake. Haven't seen anybody say what it is on all the post searches I did.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Pretty sure those were painted from the factory.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Yes, I know that but what paint or heat coating did they use is what I am trying to find out. I've got answers to everything but what I'm trying to find out.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

This is pretty close and Richard Clarks uses it

http://www.kirbanperformance.com/pro...t+%237419.html

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Thanks, just ordered up a can.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

The rehabilitation effort moved to the dash today. I had a non-functional tripometer reset, a fuel gauge that reads all over the place, and a jumpy speedometer. I found Casper's instructions for tearing apart the tripometer and fixing it. Wasn't too bad to do and hopefully it will work as it should now.

My biggest issue was removing the cluster from the dash. For whatever reason, I had almost no slack in the tach/boost gauge harness and couldn't access the top right bolt for the speedo assembly. It took some effort to finally get at it as I was being very careful not to break anything. The bolt in the VSS next to the speedometer cable was a bit fun to access as well. I ended up removing the entire I/P surround and used a dab of strip caulk to hold the bolt in the socket to reinstall it.

With the cluster out, I pulled and lubed the speedometer cable. Per Kirban's recommendations, I left the last couple of inches on the top side of the cable alone. Apparently, the lube can work its way up and spray around the cluster making a mess of things. The cable was essentially dry, so hopefully that will calm things down a bit.

I determined what the prongs were on the back of the fuel gauge and then used a spare battery to test it. Connecting the positive and negative prongs it rose to "Full" and grounding the sender it fell to "Empty". I cleaned the prongs with steel wool and the contacts in the gauge cluster with some 400 grit. Clearly, the gauge is functioning properly so if the issue continues it has to be in the sender or wiring.

Re: Underhood rehabilitation
 

Very cool ...

On the fuel gauge ... my bet is on the sender/float.