Thread: New member here 98 GTP Daytona

Just saying hello. Former GM/Honda/Toyota/Nissan certified technician. Just recently purchased a 1998 GTP Daytona SN 14xx. It was bought new by my mother, my father ended up with it in their divorce, he passed on and left the car to my sister. The car quit running on him when he parked it a couple days before he kicked the bucket. No one knows why it quit. Sister has had it parked for the last 3 years.

I went and looked at it earlier today. It is rough from all the sitting and definately needs a fair amount of work....assuming I can get the engine to fire up. It turned over no problems with a good battery. Had oil in it. It may be as simple as it was just out of gas.

I am going to go through it and see if I can get it to run. Will turn it into a work car as I travel alot and needed a car that has good power, MPG and comfortable ride.

I noticed the Daytona badges on the doors are all "yellowy". Does anyone know where I can get some replacements?

welcome aboard...You have good taste in cars.
not sure about the badges, I tear all mine off....But yours being a Daytona I'm sure someone will chime in

Welcome, I also have a 1998 Daytona. I love the color. As for the yellowin of the badges inside on the doors, i dont think you can fix em. I think someone said sanding them... Its only my driver one, the passenger badge is fine. Should post some pictures!

Yeah, once I get it here, I will get some pictures up. I can't remember the actual serial number.....I think its 14XX-ish.

Well, that was my first thought, but, it needs me to go through it before I go and fire it up and cause major damage. It needs the mice nests cleaned out, oil changed, wiring checked thanks to the mice, etc. Good news is that the motor does turn over and the supercharger spins by hand. However, it has sat for so long that I had to cut the belts off to get the motor to turn over as they were seized in place.

It appears that both tensioners will need replaced, idler pulleys are frozen, alternator has some odd noise when spinning by hand, I replaced the water pump about 3 months before it was parked ( may need it again ). Will need at least this done.....maybe more once I dig into it deeper: rotors, pads, calipers, brake fluid changed, hoses ( brake and coolant ), struts, wiper blades, plugs, wires, air filter, tranny fluid, SC fluid changed,etc.

I am hoping it did run out of gas as I am not wanting to drop the tank and replace all the fuel lines and injectors since it has sat motionless for the last 3 years. It would have retained some fuel in the system, but, as long as it is not completely gummed up, a couple bottles of Sea Foam should clean it out. You can hear the fuel pump is unusually loud, I am guessing ( hoping ) because there is not fuel in it.

Will probably go ahead and do the LIM gaskets while I am at it and port the intake.

My short term plan is to get it up to snuff and using it for work. Again, 240HP, 30MPG, a car/engine thats easy to find parts for means alot to me when I drive up to 1000 miles a week. Its nice having that passing power when you are in the mountains.

My long term plans are to get it up to about 350HP or better. The cool thing I have in mind is that I have a small PC notebook I am thinking of integrating into the console with different tunes set up. A very mild one set up for pure mileage and then another for performance. I am hoping to have most of that done if not all by fall of this year.

I am down here in Chillicothe......or as we affectionately call it.....Pillicothe due to all the pill heads...LOL!

Okay, finally got the car delivered today. Here is the scoop on it and what put it in the condition it is in.:

Serial #1496 out of 1500. Currently 128,000 miles.My mother bought this car new in 1998. The dealership had just got it in and the service guy new my mom liked specials cars.....especially blue ones. When he told her this color was " Gulf Ocean Blue " and was a Pace Car edition.....she said " Hold it.....I am coming to buy it. "

My mother and I take extremely good care of our vehicles. It is probably overkill to most, but, to us, cars are an extension of who we are. A car person understands this. After the first 2 oil changes, it was all synthetic from there on out. Maintanance was always done ahead of time and no money was spared.

My mother had this car and then bought a 2005 GTP in orange and this one sat in the garage for a short while. Eventually my father adopted the car. This was the beginning of neglect for it. My mother and father ended up getting divorced due to my father's pill addictions. This was the turning point for my father as he went into hardcore drug use. The car was parked because it quit running a couple days before he died back in 2007. It sat parked on the street for a month before it was towed to my sister's house. It has sat motionless for 6 years on top of a gravel driveway. Dad always said if anything happened to him, he wanted my sister to have the car.

Eventually, my sister decided to sell it to me as she knew I could take it and make it run again. Plus I was looking for a good horsepowered car that rode nice and still got 30 MPG.....and this fit the bill. Upon initial inspection, the battery was missing and it was in overall poor shape. I put jumper cables on it and could not get it to turn over. It would bump, but, that was it. I was afraid the motor was locked up due to dad not taking care of it and ran it out of oil. There was oil in it, but, it was about a quart low. As a last ditch effort, I cut the drive belts off and realized the belts were seized on the pulleys and the AC compressor was totally seized up. I put the jumper back on it and it turned over. I knew that was half the battle. The gas gauge was on "E". My hope was that this is why it was parked. Could I be that lucky?

I went ahead and bought it off my sister with still many unknowns regarding the engine. There was also quit a bit of rust on all the nuts and bolts around the car from sitting outside so long. I know there is going to be a lot of work needed to make it right, but, I think it will come out to about the same if I bought a GTP around the same year that ran.

As soon as we got it off the trailer today, I grabbed a gas can and headed off to get gas and a battery. Grabbed 5 gallons of 94 octane at Sunoco and a bottle of Sea Foam. I poured half the bottle of Sea Foam into the 5 gallons of gas and shook it a little. I pulled the oil filler tube off to look into the valve train area. It was actually really clean. No gunk or buildup. Probably from all the synthetic my mother ran through it.

I poured the gas in the tank and installed the battery. No belts since the AC is locked up. I cycled the key a few times to get the fuel pushed around. I turned it over and it started right away. No knocks or unusual noises. I let it run for about 2 minutes as the oil is no good at this point. All seems good so far. However, I have a long list of "knowns " that needs to be done as well as some " unknowns ".

Known issues: Brakes, rotors, calipers, brake hoses, struts, coolant drain and fill, AC compressor, belts, hoses, tune up, drivers side window regulator, oil change, super charger fluid change, LIM gasket change, valve cover gasket change, oil pan gasket and probably more that is slipping my mind right now.

Unknown: How are the main seals? Trans seals? CV joints? Transmission?

Body: Dents and deep scratches. Paint needs polished and buffed. Front bumper and hold have a minor spot I am not sure that can be fixed or repaired.

Interior: Needs CLEANED badly. Dad had shady people in this car doing shady things. Anyway, here are some pics of what I have to work with. It is a shame he never took care of it.

Atleast the exterior looks good lol

Thanks for the input guys! I would also like to add, and please do not take this the wrong way by any means.....but, I was a certified tech for GM certified tech from 1992 to 2006.....working mostly on Pontiacs/Buick. I don't know everything by any means and I can promise I will have questions about certain things. I still never understood GM killing Pontiac. Buick, I would understand, but, Pontiac was a surprise.