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What did you do to your car today? Vol 2.0



Finally had a chance to get some very long overdue work done on the GP today. Replaced the valve cover gaskets/grommets, PCV valve, spark plugs and wires and an oil change.

My tape on the underside of the hood indicated that the plugs/wires were last changed at 411K in 2020. Sitting at 517K now so it was due. Amazingly the plugs that I pulled out read really good. The gap wasn't far out and they look to be burning well. Iridiums seem to be holding up well. The rockers showed no signs of strange heat/wear on them, just a golden brown color. With the engine coming up on 400K I was happy to see that everything looks good.


GP rockers.jpg


GP plugs.jpg
Once I got everything back together I sprayed the bay down and gave it a scrub and a wash to get rid of all the oil that the covers were throwing around. Looks much nicer now.
 
Pretty much. Can't say Bluie owes me anything at this point.

Although I believe I angered the car gods by doing all that work and today it decided that it took alot of cranking to get him to start. Threw a new FPR on it and same issue. No external leaks. After messing with it for a bit I realized that all I had to do was look up at my A-pillar and read the damn fuel pressure gauge, lol... Prime went up to 42 like normal, then within 20 seconds bled down to no more than 10. Ordered a new Delco pump assembly.

I hate ****ing with pulling the pump, but this should give me a chance to finally have an accurate fuel gauge too as that's been random for a few years now. At least with the access panel in the trunk and the fold down GXP rear seats I should have much better access to the trunk than last time.
 
Had my fuel pump changed last Sept. after the rocker panel replacement.
Doing that restored the fuel gauge on the dash panel !
 


Yep, still on the road, well, will be again soon. I had a lifter that decided to f*ck off shortly after around 414K (on the engine) and I had to pull it. Still ran with no misfires but definetly had a nice hard tap from the top end so I shut er down before it took the cam with it. Found a replacement from an '08 Buick Lacrosse with 143,864 mi. on it. In the meantime I saved up and had a new trans built and have been accumulating/installing new parts along the way. Long list of parts but it turned into "well, everything is out might as well" type thing. Sure, probably stupid and some would consider a waste of money, but it's my car so suck it. I have made a resolve that this will be the last run for me and Bluie tho. If anything major tanks in the next few years it will be time to demod and send him on. Time is catching up and rust is slowly trying to take him. I also would like to move to a newer vehicle so the money can go towards that. Plan is to save money and DD this one and then get what I want along the way. I'm almost ready to mate the engine and trans back up and drop it in as a unit. Did add a nice trans. cooler too on the drivers side to protect my $$$ trans.
 


Got the new engine and trans mated up tonight. Need to move a few things in the engine bay and it'll be time to drop it all back in. I have some help lined up so hopefully all goes smooth. Probably not going to try this until next weekend so we'll see I guess. Baby steps, lol.
 
Got everything back in last week and have been slowly working on it. At 7:55pm tonight I squinted one eye and turned the key. It fired right off with a cough and idled right up. Once the lifters pumped back up it's running nice and quiet. Let it idle for an hour while I was filling the transmission back up, checking for fuel leaks, etc. So far no leaks and everything looks to be in order. Time to bleed the front brakes and get the 2 front tires replaced and it should be back on the street again soon. Then needs alignment, a safety inspection and I'll be rockin the GP one last time.
 
Well, it's officially road legal as of Friday. Passed with no issues. Guys at the shop couldn't believe the 517K on the odo, lol.. Spent a night using my buffer and compounded/polished/waxed the entire thing. Don't think I can make the paint look much better than it does right now. Hood is so clean that I can almost read the wattage on the light bulb in my ceiling fan in the garage, lol.. Have some tidying up to do on the interior and it'll be done for now. I'm going to wait for a sunny day this week and grab some good pics before the snow flies and it gets all ****ted up. Driving it around the last 2 days has been a lesson on remebering that it's lowered and I can't just cruise over speedbumps anymore like in the Fusion I've been borrowing, lol.. And since there's now a Series III engine in it I have the aluminum oil pan to watch out for. Pretty sure they aren't as forgiving as the steel ones. I was also reminded that the rear struts are still shot and one of them is knocking. I'll likely have that taken care of over the winter if I can swing it. I still have concerns of the intergrity of the rear strut towers that I may have to address.
 


Well, it appears that all my work was for not currently. My daughter and I were out for a drive to meet with a friend to deliver some fundraising items and after we parted ways we were heading into town to grab some stuff from the parts store and as we were all sitting in rush hour traffic a person decided they didn't want to pay attention whatsoever and clipped me in the drivers side rear. Luckily my daughter didn't see it coming, but I did as I just happened to glance in the rearview at that moment. Hit hard enough that I tapped the car in front of me (no damage there thankfully). My car was so clean that the dirt from the person in front transferred to my front bumper, lol... The person that caused it tried to swerve but hit right at the drivers tail light. It WILL be fixed. Not going out like that, not after all the money and time I just dropped into it. Bluie was 100% again and it will be fixed that way. I had 2 of our marching band parents from my daughters HS show up to help get Bluie home. Pulled the rear splash guard out of the wheelwell, zip tied the bumper cover sides back to the body and drove it slowly home. Big props to them both for coming out to help us in our time of need. Was able to get the trunk open when I got home so I pulled my SLP Gen I spoiler off (luckily didn't get damaged). Now he sits in the garage once again while I start the inevitable insurance co. fight.... But, in the end, the humans are ok and it's just sheet metal, so it'll be ok. Now I definetly need to get pics of it while it's clean so I have it for the insurance co.
 
man that blows. sadly ins will total it just when they hear the age of the car. iirc you just swapped a engine and stuff, if the old one is still around id be dropping it back in there so you got a spare engine for the next one you find ;)
 
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