What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Let it idle for 7-9 minutes in the garage with the garage doors open. Bought some Iso-Heet to put in the Caprice and Wagon too for the winter storage in case of water accumulation, considering E10 fuel.

 

New tires today!

 

Yes! White Walls out! Thank you!

 

Since most of the crap going on with the 454 install in 91 OCC is finally sorted out, I undertook a number of deferred maintenance projects on the White Elephant (92 OCC) this past week. I replaced the passenger's side lower arm bushings, did a complete alignment (myself), rotated the front and rear tires on the passenger's side, replaced the power steering pressure hose (yuck), and replaced the power antenna (for the second time in 2 months). I still have to replace the leaking heater core, and some of the heater hoses...maybe next week.

 

Bought a brass TV cable bushing replacement for the Mercury. Feels good knowing I may have just saved the transmission from failure.

As for the Suburban ("Kind of a wagon",) the Sway Bar broke and I ordered another one which may be better than the stock one. It arrived and I have also ordered an ACDelco PCV valve since that was stuck open and dripping oil all too frequently. $62.xx on Amazon opposed to $120-$130 at the dealership. If I let go of the accelerator the engine goes up and down in RPMs and I wonder why. Old fuel filter? I have one but it's a more involved process to replace this on the 6.5 Diesel engine than on, say, a 2001 Impala. I can do it, I just didn't work on it yet.

NOT A WAGON: Thinking the 1984 Caprice may need emission equipment replaced and passages cleaned out in addition to the carburetor needing rebuilt. The car takes too many pumps to start and sometimes the cable sticks just a teensy little bit if I let go of the accelerator. I notice it but nobody else nearby seems to.

 

Haha, thanks! I confirmed twice with the service rep before handing over my keys lol.

 

101Volts, you may have a cracked hose between your fuel pump and the outgoing fuel line.

 

I would say the carb needs a rebuild. It's typical of those Q-pukes to be harder than abacus arithmetic to start when they haven't been touched since new. Plus, the MC solenoid may not be working and the lean air bleed may be clogged. Those are incidental, but legitemate when deciding if a carb needs rebuilding. Also, You should look for major vacuum leaks once the engine's running as that definitely hurts choking the air/fuel mixture.

 

Is this about the Caprice or Suburban? I didn't mention which engines are in which: Caprice has the 305 and Suburban has the 6.5 Turbo Diesel. Then again maybe folks here remember anyway. Thanks though

So I'm not alone in this? Good to know and thanks for the suggestions! I can guarantee the Quadrajet Carb hasn't been touched in the last 13k miles/6½ years and the vehicle's at 121k now. I'm thinking it may have not been touched since it was new; Grandpa bought it in 1985 and died in 1992. Grandma drove it for a while then stopped driving, it sat for some time and we got it in mid 2010. When I was replacing the water pump with my neighbor in late 2015 there was a hose disconnected too, he put a screw in it.

I also didn't mention why I was thinking of replacing the emission equipment. It's because it's been pinging under load, mostly in Overdrive and the exhaust seems to stink a good bit even if the engine's hot. Putting 91 octane E0 helped reduce pinging a little but didn't completely fix pinging. The cat seems to leak exhaust too, maybe it should be replaced. I've heard that cats can become a fire hazard sometimes. Maybe I'll put a dual exhaust system on it though.

 

The cracked hose could be on any car/truck with an electric fuel pump.

 

The pinging, along with the 'rotten egg' smell from the convertor, indicates the engine's running lean. It's one thing to put the screw in the hose, but where was it connected? Is that the source of the lean run?

 

Thanks. Duly noted.

Thanks. The vehicle's going to sit in the garage until spring, there's salt on the roads. Looks like it's an opportune time for me to rebuild the carb. I have to settle on which one, cheap ones aren't necessarily what I'm after and it must be ethanol resistant. I suppose most available are but I'll make sure anyway.

 

Patch panel is all welded into place, painted and cleared and it's baking.

 

If you just rebuild the current one, it's ethanol-capable from the factory. But it means figuring out what's up with the C3 system, and having the special tools and a 3-gas exhaust analyzer to dial it in. However, if you source a used Q-jet built from '76 on, it'll also be ethanol-capable.

 

Just dropped my 81 safari off to have a full engine rebuild.

It didn't NEED it yet, but it will be nice knowing I have a "new" engine under the hood. It'll also be nice not to have oil dripping in the garage for a while!

I must say, I am a little nervous. It's pretty major surgery.