Thread: Divorced in Two Days? (Long Read)

Did I just have the shortest love affair with my car?

Hello GPF peeps... I am new to forums & new to Pontiac and maybe it isn't for me? On Monday I sold my Cadillac CTS to free up some money. As I am going out of town for work in about 14 days, I wasn't going to buy another car til I returned. I saw a 97 GTP with high miles 1600k) for at what I thought was pretty cheap... A little fixer upper but a piece of **** in the mean time. Very clean interior but in pieces, rebuilt Trans & engine..."allegedly" It has rust but also new tires. Anyways, when I looked/bought the car, the battery was not there (I guess I over looked that detail in the small print) I hooked up jumper cables as a last resort and heard/saw it for about 10 seconds. It ran (rough) but started right up and had an instant CEL - MAF low circuit. I completed repair,with many more parts in the trunk. Spark plugs, wires, pcv valve, fuel filter, battery were all changed. I also clean the MAF with that spray. Also the throttle body & a few inches into the plenum. After doing that work, the car will not run. If I crank and feather the throttle, it sputters, falls on its face and feels like the last 3 seconds before running a gas tank dry. No CEL (of course, it only ran for 1.7 seconds...haha)Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated. Please help me, haha.. I've always loved these cars. GTO, Bonno, and G8 are all awesome, but the GP GTP... It brings me right back. Back to when I was 11 or 12 seeing my neighbors GTX on the weekend... thinking it was so that it was badass because it was supercharged, haha. I want to resurrect this thing! Anything would be greatly appreciated, thanks for reading that novel and the next beer is on me.


NOTE: I am mechanically inclined. I was apart of a pro Porsche series pit crew. I've made 70% of all my money since my legal working age from some form of the automobile. So someone putting a fuel filter on backwards (why are they arrowed for direction, if they only go one 1 way?) Or not hooking up the throttle cable would be funny.. I don't think I'll be the one this time. I have very little knowledge about engine issue diagnostics, basically I don't **** about it..

was all the crap laying in the trunk new? get the plug wires back on correctly? before i went looking for something new i would recheck my work that i already did.

also check for vacuum leaks and cracks in the plenum

Updated: I reassembled the top half of the engine doing the lower intake manifold gasket. It starts up, sometimes much crisper than other starts.Then sputters and sometimes sounds somewhat healthy, but once given throttle, the car instantly chokes. Sometimes it will keep running but never full recovers. At times it will run for 10 seconds and other times it will keep running (while never touching the throttle). Sometimes there is a very loud low pitch noise coming from the intake. CEL bulb works.. first 10 starts no CEL , then CEL on dash & scanner for TPS Performance Circuit, then went away on both dash & scanner (never disconnected battery) then a few starts later it only came on scanner. Disconnected the TPS and it actually ran better at times. Bought the car with a MAF code. Here are some of the new performance effecting parts-items that have been replaced. LIM Gasket, Supercharger Gasket, Thermostat w/gasket, Spark Plugs w/ Wires, obvious leaks in Vaccum lines, Fuel Filter, Oil & Filter, Air Filter, Coolant. Search for vaccum leaks and didn't find a whole lot... But it die once or twice when I sprayed over a vaccum source (see pic please). I am at a loss with my patience,time & money. Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated. This is my first 3800 and I am stumped.


Here is a video of how it sounds (did my best with the road noise by the house) Disregard all the RTV near the TB. I had to reuse the old one as a new one wasn't included in the gasket set. No leaks there. VERY LOUD VID- SET VOLUME to LOW

https://youtu.be/wt8fvsUpmAw

When I released the Schrader Valve I remembering a lot more PSI. Now it looks like this (Link Below) I will be getting a gauge on it asap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrXn...ature=youtu.be