While Working on the Trans Am...
While Working on the Trans Am... 
05-16-2013, 09:31 AM
#7
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Haha, thanks all.
My camera is a Nikon D2x, Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 lens for those shots. Only PP was levels and my sig.
Motor-wise, not sure. Redlining can do this. There was definite valve float as well. Great. More work on it today thanks to my buddy Steve!
My camera is a Nikon D2x, Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 lens for those shots. Only PP was levels and my sig.
Motor-wise, not sure. Redlining can do this. There was definite valve float as well. Great. More work on it today thanks to my buddy Steve!
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05-20-2013, 11:08 PM
#8
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I was the buddy working with Rick on his Trans-Am. Some hack most likely put a used head on the car. The valve spring that went bad was aftermarket, the other head had stock springs. This caused coil bind and valve float. End result? Bent push rods and a broken spring. The cam is stock, that was verified with a dial indicator. Just when I thought I have seen just about everything I ran into this with Ricks car.
Its all good now and running great! Just about time for some burnouts
BTW, Rick Awsome pic of that storm that rolled in!!
Its all good now and running great! Just about time for some burnouts
BTW, Rick Awsome pic of that storm that rolled in!!
Last edited by Steve83ta; 05-20-2013 at 11:10 PM. Reason: add
05-21-2013, 10:11 AM
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I was the buddy working with Rick on his Trans-Am. Some hack most likely put a used head on the car. The valve spring that went bad was aftermarket, the other head had stock springs. This caused coil bind and valve float. End result? Bent push rods and a broken spring. The cam is stock, that was verified with a dial indicator. Just when I thought I have seen just about everything I ran into this with Ricks car.
Its all good now and running great! Just about time for some burnouts
BTW, Rick Awsome pic of that storm that rolled in!!
1998 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am WS7 - First Long Idle - Daytime Video - YouTube
Its all good now and running great! Just about time for some burnouts
BTW, Rick Awsome pic of that storm that rolled in!!
1998 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am WS7 - First Long Idle - Daytime Video - YouTube
Thanks again, Steve!!
05-22-2013, 10:09 AM
#12
wow. makes me want to check mine.
amazing photos.
also i notice you own a 98 5.9 Limited! love those jeeps. my friend has one with 90,xxx miles on it and the interior is in mint and the exterior is 9/10. i would pick one up myself but the 13/16 ish mpg's steer me away. my daily has to do better than that
amazing photos.
also i notice you own a 98 5.9 Limited! love those jeeps. my friend has one with 90,xxx miles on it and the interior is in mint and the exterior is 9/10. i would pick one up myself but the 13/16 ish mpg's steer me away. my daily has to do better than that
05-22-2013, 10:43 AM
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Haha, thanks man! You don't get many rainbows over in the UAE?
Thanks much! I really appreciate your help with checking it out in person. You were the first one to suggest a bad valve spring, and you were correct! Steve also got it on his first diagnosis time with the car.
These were aftermarket, look like PRC brand possibly.
Regarding the photos thank you!
And the 5.9, I absolutely LOVE! It's nice to know I can beat a Civic if I want lol. It runs a cool 15.0 to 15.2 haha. It's only my DD in winter (Or when the TA is down and too cold or wet for the bike lol). I have been averaging 14.5 MPG with 50 miles round trip daily of highway driving, plus some local stuff. That's UP from the 13.1 I was averaging prior. I have a CAI and stock exhaust - cutout ready to be installed.
Thanks much! I really appreciate your help with checking it out in person. You were the first one to suggest a bad valve spring, and you were correct! Steve also got it on his first diagnosis time with the car.
wow. makes me want to check mine.
amazing photos.
also i notice you own a 98 5.9 Limited! love those jeeps. my friend has one with 90,xxx miles on it and the interior is in mint and the exterior is 9/10. i would pick one up myself but the 13/16 ish mpg's steer me away. my daily has to do better than that
amazing photos.
also i notice you own a 98 5.9 Limited! love those jeeps. my friend has one with 90,xxx miles on it and the interior is in mint and the exterior is 9/10. i would pick one up myself but the 13/16 ish mpg's steer me away. my daily has to do better than that
Regarding the photos thank you!
And the 5.9, I absolutely LOVE! It's nice to know I can beat a Civic if I want lol. It runs a cool 15.0 to 15.2 haha. It's only my DD in winter (Or when the TA is down and too cold or wet for the bike lol). I have been averaging 14.5 MPG with 50 miles round trip daily of highway driving, plus some local stuff. That's UP from the 13.1 I was averaging prior. I have a CAI and stock exhaust - cutout ready to be installed.
05-27-2013, 01:22 AM
#14
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Yeah Rick mentioned it to me after I told him he had a broken spring or valve burned after I took a vac. test. Good call from the internet.
Thats whats these forums are about, ideas, and getting people together that live close to get a problem car back on the road. I just feel bad that Rick took it to 3-4 places to get an answer and no one had one plus he was out $500 and had no answers, talk about a shame... It shows you to many people are depending on the scan tools and not looking at the symptoms. You have to go back to basics and test like you would way back in the 70's 80s and 90's ....
There is no code saying Broken valve spring, but it would be nice if there was. The only odd thing was it the computer was monitoring the map sensor, and could see the map was all over the place so Im not entirely sure why it didn't throw a code for bad map readings, and I can't seem to find my code back right now. Its most likely because the MAP sensor is a primiary sensor like the MAF, so garbage in garbage out. So end result no code.
But like I said eairlier a 15 dollar vac gauge told me exactualy what was wong, just had to find the spring.
Good call once again, oh and those vids of the car running bad doen't do it justice. You got got to check out the before and after on Ricks Channel.
Before incase some have not seen it.
And After
It was real bad on some other forums, Ill leave them out becuase the guys are back yard shade tree know it all techs, actually techs isn't even the right word. More like borline hack. Some guys were really smart but others were dumb as a rock. They where throwing things around like oh there must have been an aftermarket cam in the becuase of those springs, on the passenger head, that doesnt explain why the drivers side had stock springs. So that wasn't it, plus the cam cover had no witness maks on it. I measured the cam at the valve with a dial indicatior and verifyed it was stock just to make sure. How many out there have mic's and dial indicators laying around?
Calling me out saying I don't know what Im doing, and all kind of BS. I'm glad Rick didn't buy into it. After spending time with me and my insane amount of equipment he felt very safe that the car would be safe perfect again.
Bottom line it is and Rick has got to be the happest person on the planet right now, its been a year of hell for him with this car, we met by chance and hit it off. Better yet I had the parts he needed so he didn't have to spend any money on hard parts. They were worthless to me and were going to be scrapped so I gave them to him free of charge.
The way I looked at it was who in their right mind wants a 98 ls1 stock head. NO ONE. LS6 yea and AFR, but not something stock. Plus this was a project to get his car back on the road and running right. And it is. Rick is on cloud 9, he got used to it running on 7 cylinders and with the exhaust blowing back up the intake it was more like 4. Im not kidding, it was that bad!!
The cars sounds perfect now and we are both very happy, he and I want to get back down to the track within the next three week.
His car and mine look almost exactly alike from a distance so we want to get a good track run against each other. Along with some awsome pics.
The whole process has been unbelieveable. We have become good friends and thats what this stite is all about.
Thats whats these forums are about, ideas, and getting people together that live close to get a problem car back on the road. I just feel bad that Rick took it to 3-4 places to get an answer and no one had one plus he was out $500 and had no answers, talk about a shame... It shows you to many people are depending on the scan tools and not looking at the symptoms. You have to go back to basics and test like you would way back in the 70's 80s and 90's ....
There is no code saying Broken valve spring, but it would be nice if there was. The only odd thing was it the computer was monitoring the map sensor, and could see the map was all over the place so Im not entirely sure why it didn't throw a code for bad map readings, and I can't seem to find my code back right now. Its most likely because the MAP sensor is a primiary sensor like the MAF, so garbage in garbage out. So end result no code.
But like I said eairlier a 15 dollar vac gauge told me exactualy what was wong, just had to find the spring.
Good call once again, oh and those vids of the car running bad doen't do it justice. You got got to check out the before and after on Ricks Channel.
Before incase some have not seen it.
And After
It was real bad on some other forums, Ill leave them out becuase the guys are back yard shade tree know it all techs, actually techs isn't even the right word. More like borline hack. Some guys were really smart but others were dumb as a rock. They where throwing things around like oh there must have been an aftermarket cam in the becuase of those springs, on the passenger head, that doesnt explain why the drivers side had stock springs. So that wasn't it, plus the cam cover had no witness maks on it. I measured the cam at the valve with a dial indicatior and verifyed it was stock just to make sure. How many out there have mic's and dial indicators laying around?
Calling me out saying I don't know what Im doing, and all kind of BS. I'm glad Rick didn't buy into it. After spending time with me and my insane amount of equipment he felt very safe that the car would be safe perfect again.
Bottom line it is and Rick has got to be the happest person on the planet right now, its been a year of hell for him with this car, we met by chance and hit it off. Better yet I had the parts he needed so he didn't have to spend any money on hard parts. They were worthless to me and were going to be scrapped so I gave them to him free of charge.
The way I looked at it was who in their right mind wants a 98 ls1 stock head. NO ONE. LS6 yea and AFR, but not something stock. Plus this was a project to get his car back on the road and running right. And it is. Rick is on cloud 9, he got used to it running on 7 cylinders and with the exhaust blowing back up the intake it was more like 4. Im not kidding, it was that bad!!
The cars sounds perfect now and we are both very happy, he and I want to get back down to the track within the next three week.
His car and mine look almost exactly alike from a distance so we want to get a good track run against each other. Along with some awsome pics.
The whole process has been unbelieveable. We have become good friends and thats what this stite is all about.
Last edited by Steve83ta; 05-28-2013 at 02:38 AM. Reason: Spell check.....
05-27-2013, 05:18 AM
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Preach it sir!! Steve's a good guy, he actually just helped me earlier today with pulling off my intake to figure out why my just changed knock sensors were already throwing codes again!!
I'd trust him with my car any day lol
I'd trust him with my car any day lol