Neenjah

iTrader: (4)

I bought a 99 Trans Am Ram Air/Automatic car last night with some issues that the lady owning it decided not to address and just dump the car so I got it fairly cheap.

I know it probably just needs the motor pulled and cammed and 2500-3000 stalled but that's not in the budget right now! So lets see if we can revive this sickly LS1 so I can get some miles ot of her!

For starters it leaks some engine oil, power steering pump leaks and adversely the alternator isn't charging/will not run without a battery (will run after jump started), it has one injector pissing fuel all over the intake and there's some water in the oil (its has milk on the dip stick).
It has a new water pump though! Chick probably over heated it and blew a head gasket.

So all of this taken into account the milky oil is obviously the deciding factor on whether or not this poor car can be saved.

So first things first, is there any easy way to know that the bottom end is alright? I'll run a compression test on the cylinders to see if the rings are ok. If I pull the heads and replaced the head gaskets is there any way to flush out the coolant in the oil? I planned on flushing the cooling system to remove any oil in it when the time came, replace the alternator and power steering pump, that's pretty straight forward.

As for the fuel leak I think I'll pull the fuel rails off and take the injectors into my ulltrasonic cleaner at work. I run a waterjet so its a perk of the job I guess, haha.

Any and all assistance will be greatly appreciated!

ramairetransam

iTrader: (18)

fix the fuel leak , then change the oil

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

The injector leak might be as simple as replacing the oring that holds the tip in the intake. I'd pull the heads and change the gaskets, and when you drain the oil let it drain for a while. I even like to let it drain level, then jack the rearend up and let it drain, the jack the front up and let it drain. Then I would run some cheap *** oil for like 50-100 miles then drain it again. Good luck man it seems like you got a super deal and only have to fix easy stuff.

Neenjah

iTrader: (4)

That sounds like a good place to start

I was thinking maybe running some seafoam in with the oil, maybe it'll pull some extra sludge out. I'll know about the o-rings when I pull the fuel rails off tonight.


Thanks for the input guys.

WS.SIX

iTrader: (3)

If you are going to put anything in your oil for cleaning, put in some "gunk" engine flush not seafoam. Set it at idle for 5 mins or so NO REVVING and drain.

Neenjah

iTrader: (4)

I knew Gunk made a lot of "oh ****...well maybe." Kind of products but not that in particular. Thanks ill look for it.

Neenjah

iTrader: (4)

Not much of an update but its worth posting.

So O'Reilly's sells a BWD pt# 274081 injector o-ring kit for $3.xx and I picked up the Gunk engine oil flush and some oil and a filter.

When I got home after work I got the leaky injector out and another one so I could visually compare them. The only thing I found with the leaky one is the orange plastic thing at the end is cracked. The fat black o-ring on the end appeared fine, maybe a little dry cracked but it should have sealed.

Pic:

http://i48.tinypic.com/254v7tf.jpg


But I found this
Cracked Orange Discs on ls1 injectors

Which says they aren't required. They kind of just seem like an o-ring retainer?

Thoughts?

Neenjah

iTrader: (4)

At last. The weekend.

Today I got a little bit accomplished, so here comes an update. I'd really like some advice now!

So after replacing the o-rings on the leaky injector I didn't like how the injector port looked on the intake, so I swapped on a spare LS1 intake I had laying around. After I made a fuel line disconnect tool at work on the waterjet I finally got the fuel rail off last night. Today I took the intake off and was glad I did. The gaskets were super mashed and really didn't look like they could have been sealing, but who knows.

Spare Intake:


Intake off:



If you look close the oil pressure sending unit is broke in this picture. I dont know if I did that when I was pulling the intake off or if somehow it was already broken. I replaced it with a new one and cleaned up the intake ports on the heads and put the other intake on. When I test fired it to see if the fuel leak was gone the motor knocked 4-5 times but then went away. I killed it and poured the Gunk engine oil flush in and started it back up to let it run for the 5 minutes it suggests. When I fired it this second time I went back and looked at the exhaust and I didnt have any white smoke, so thats good I guess.

Running:



I did an oil change and while it was draining I pulled a spark plug to see what it looked like. Looked normal to me?



After the oil change I let it run for 10-15 minutes and killed it, let it cool down and pulled the dipstick and the oil looked normal. I then took it for a drive up the hill and back, maybe 3/8 of a mile round trip and it sputtered a little on the way back and I had to click it into neutral and rev it up a little to keep it running but it never died. I then let it run for a good 20-25 minutes and it never got hot on the gauge, never above the 140? mark, the tick half way between 100 and 210. So then I took it for a fairly spirited drive, figuring what the hell, if it blows up ill just chain it home. It did just fine aside from being a little choppy, it needs a tune up id say. After this i let it sit and idle for 10-15 minutes more and it never got warm, but the low coolant light did come on. I let it cool down for a good hour or so and went out and checked the oil, still looks clean and the radiator is completely full so I really dont know what to think about it.

Opinions?

chrisfrost

iTrader: (8)

Check the head bolts ,,,,,,,,there maybe some or all of them are loose ,,,,,,it is possible to overheat enough to cause oil to coolant and vise-versa under head gasket without cracking/warping the heads or maybe warping them a little . I replaced a Chevy 3.4L that was grossly over-heated a few times ,,,,,,,bad enough to crack the cylinders but when I removed the heads They were'nt cracked or warped at all ,,,,,,,,,,,I was surprised . So if over heated generally the head bolts will be pretty loose as compared with how tight They are at time of installation because They stretch and They'll never again get tight enough . You can buy new head bolts and install to directions and be fine as long as the heads /block are not cracked at all or warped very much at all .

Neenjah

iTrader: (4)

That's an idea I suppose.

Well last night I cleaned the MAF and TB and took it for a rip and ran it hard. When I got back home I bounced the rev limiter a couple times... its still running lol. I may put insurance on it and start taking it on short drives on the weekends