'95 Formula M6
02-08-2014, 09:35 PM
#1
'95 Formula M6 Hello everyone.
I got my new car home today. I feel pretty lucky to have picked it up. The seller received a lot of calls about it. I went to see it the morning after he posted it. One guy had been there before me and was thinking it over. Another guy called while I was there and said he was headed over. I offered the seller $200 less than he was asking. He accepted the offer and we shook on it. He was still getting calls days later. I paid $1800 for the car and got a a free tow home through my AAA membership.
The vehicle has some mods, but I haven't had much time to go through anything. It seems to have an SLP exhaust, some kind of coated headers, CAI, and the Corvette wheels. The interior is clean, with the stock stereo in place. The underside looks clean from what I can see. I am eager to get it up in the air and really get a good look under there.
The car has no battery so I haven't been able to test anything. I was told that it died on the street one day and will crank but not start. Could be a number of things. I'll start to check them one by one. I also have a '95 Roadmaster wagon that is my daily driver and which I have been ding a lot of work on. I still want to do some more stuff to that car. So, I have a pretty modest budget that is spread across two vehicles now. Progress on the Formula might be slow, but I sure would love to be driving it by late spring.
I got my new car home today. I feel pretty lucky to have picked it up. The seller received a lot of calls about it. I went to see it the morning after he posted it. One guy had been there before me and was thinking it over. Another guy called while I was there and said he was headed over. I offered the seller $200 less than he was asking. He accepted the offer and we shook on it. He was still getting calls days later. I paid $1800 for the car and got a a free tow home through my AAA membership.
The vehicle has some mods, but I haven't had much time to go through anything. It seems to have an SLP exhaust, some kind of coated headers, CAI, and the Corvette wheels. The interior is clean, with the stock stereo in place. The underside looks clean from what I can see. I am eager to get it up in the air and really get a good look under there.
The car has no battery so I haven't been able to test anything. I was told that it died on the street one day and will crank but not start. Could be a number of things. I'll start to check them one by one. I also have a '95 Roadmaster wagon that is my daily driver and which I have been ding a lot of work on. I still want to do some more stuff to that car. So, I have a pretty modest budget that is spread across two vehicles now. Progress on the Formula might be slow, but I sure would love to be driving it by late spring.
02-09-2014, 09:16 AM
#3
TECH Junkie
Sure looks decent in the photo. Can't go wrong for that money unless everything from the engine to tranny are no good. You'll find out soon enough. It's worth a gamble. How many miles? Good luck!
02-09-2014, 11:22 AM
#4
Thank you, sir!
I don't have great luck, but am hoping it is good enough to keep my from finding an absolute drivetrain disaster. Even if they were both grenaded I imagine I could part the vehicle out for more than my purchase price. Fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that!
It has around 110k miles, which in my personal opinion is "low-ish" for a car of this era. My '95 Roadmaster wagon, which s my daily, has 160k on the clock.
It has around 110k miles, which in my personal opinion is "low-ish" for a car of this era. My '95 Roadmaster wagon, which s my daily, has 160k on the clock.
02-09-2014, 12:21 PM
#6
17 x 11 rears, 17 x 9-1/2 fronts. They're the ZR1 wheels. The rear wheels width & offset is the maximum with wheel/tire combination for these cars. It usually involves rolling the wheel opening lip, removing the axle bump stop and a little massaging on the wheel well with a BFH.
Here they are: http://www.oewheelsllc.com/Wheels_3/...k#.UvfGzLQ3Ue-
Here they are: http://www.oewheelsllc.com/Wheels_3/...k#.UvfGzLQ3Ue-
02-09-2014, 12:57 PM
#7
17 x 11 rears, 17 x 9-1/2 fronts. They're the ZR1 wheels. The rear wheels width & offset is the maximum with wheel/tire combination for these cars. It usually involves rolling the wheel opening lip, removing the axle bump stop and a little massaging on the wheel well with a BFH.
Here they are: http://www.oewheelsllc.com/Wheels_3/...k#.UvfGzLQ3Ue-
Here they are: http://www.oewheelsllc.com/Wheels_3/...k#.UvfGzLQ3Ue-
This car looks to have been owned by someone who had some degree of taste. It's not all hacked up and bedecked with cheap baubles and gizmos. The mods are pretty neat.
I'm going to need to see if I can replace the Corvette wheel logos with Pontiac/Firebird logos.
Trending Topics
02-09-2014, 03:30 PM
#12
Mental illness? Someone doing it as a gag?
There was a late '70s/early 80s G-body that a cafeteria worker at my college had. It was painted by the owner, with a giant letter T on the roof and weird stripes. The car had a fake parachute bag on the rear, inverted brownie pan hood scoop, Slimer doll from Ghostbusters inside, fake car phone, just all kinds of whacky stuff. The owner looked tweaked.
There was a late '70s/early 80s G-body that a cafeteria worker at my college had. It was painted by the owner, with a giant letter T on the roof and weird stripes. The car had a fake parachute bag on the rear, inverted brownie pan hood scoop, Slimer doll from Ghostbusters inside, fake car phone, just all kinds of whacky stuff. The owner looked tweaked.
02-09-2014, 07:27 PM
#14
03-08-2014, 08:40 PM
#15
Today is the first day of my vacation, so instead of spending any spare moment doing schoolwork, I am able to peck away at some projects.
I got a new Exide battery for the car. After installing it, the car wouldn't even try to turn over and there was no solenoid click at the starter. I tried a few times with no luck. The voltmeter read only 8 or so volts, but the battery is fresh and I even put it on a trickle charger overnight. I started testing some other electrical things, like the headlights, and tried to start it again. Remarkably, it actually did start.
It ran for about a minute. It smelled like it was running rich and perhaps vibrating. Then, it died. Subsequent attempts to restart it failed at first, but after a period of perhaps ten minutes it did start again, but only ran for a second before dying.
The SES light is on, as is the "Check Gauges" light. The airbag light came on a few times.
In poking around the engine bay I began to see that perhaps the car has a divided history. It might have been owned and cared for by someone who was careful at one point, and then at another point by someone less careful. The #5 plug boot was not on the plug at all. There is something like sticky blue gum or putty mushed onto newish looking Delco plug wires to keep them together. One end of the negative battery cable has frayed, broken strands and lots of green corrosion on the exposed copper, more than the below pic shows. There is electrical tape on a couple rubber hoses. Unwrapping one, I found a large split, so the tape was obviously to combat that. There is a vacuum line on the PS of the intake that is plugged by a screw, and one on the DS that I think goes to the Optispark that is plugged with a bolt. The plastic battery cable junction is not attached to the fender well. These point to a history, perhaps a recent one, of less than careful maintenance.
I have an OBD 2 scanner, but this car has an OBD 2 port w/OBD1 computer. My scanner will plug into it, but can't communicate with the vehicle. I know there are workarounds to this, but don't yet know the best solution. I would like to see what codes it is throwing.
The guy I bought it from did not tell me it would start and die, just that it wouldn't start/run at all, so I am glad to have heard the engine run. Why it runs as described above, I don't know. I have a full set of FSMs for the car that I will start going through. If you guys have ideas, I'm all ears.
This is the harness that the vac line on the DS that is plugged with a bolt goes to; I believe if I follow it it will go to the PS of the Opti.
I got a new Exide battery for the car. After installing it, the car wouldn't even try to turn over and there was no solenoid click at the starter. I tried a few times with no luck. The voltmeter read only 8 or so volts, but the battery is fresh and I even put it on a trickle charger overnight. I started testing some other electrical things, like the headlights, and tried to start it again. Remarkably, it actually did start.
It ran for about a minute. It smelled like it was running rich and perhaps vibrating. Then, it died. Subsequent attempts to restart it failed at first, but after a period of perhaps ten minutes it did start again, but only ran for a second before dying.
The SES light is on, as is the "Check Gauges" light. The airbag light came on a few times.
In poking around the engine bay I began to see that perhaps the car has a divided history. It might have been owned and cared for by someone who was careful at one point, and then at another point by someone less careful. The #5 plug boot was not on the plug at all. There is something like sticky blue gum or putty mushed onto newish looking Delco plug wires to keep them together. One end of the negative battery cable has frayed, broken strands and lots of green corrosion on the exposed copper, more than the below pic shows. There is electrical tape on a couple rubber hoses. Unwrapping one, I found a large split, so the tape was obviously to combat that. There is a vacuum line on the PS of the intake that is plugged by a screw, and one on the DS that I think goes to the Optispark that is plugged with a bolt. The plastic battery cable junction is not attached to the fender well. These point to a history, perhaps a recent one, of less than careful maintenance.
I have an OBD 2 scanner, but this car has an OBD 2 port w/OBD1 computer. My scanner will plug into it, but can't communicate with the vehicle. I know there are workarounds to this, but don't yet know the best solution. I would like to see what codes it is throwing.
The guy I bought it from did not tell me it would start and die, just that it wouldn't start/run at all, so I am glad to have heard the engine run. Why it runs as described above, I don't know. I have a full set of FSMs for the car that I will start going through. If you guys have ideas, I'm all ears.
This is the harness that the vac line on the DS that is plugged with a bolt goes to; I believe if I follow it it will go to the PS of the Opti.
03-09-2014, 01:50 AM
#18
I do know that I have my work cut out for me. Ideally, I'd like to isolate the causes of the stalling/no-start issue and fix them, then tackle much of the other stuff when the vehicle is a driver-project.
Does anyone know if the vacuum line lengths and routing are identical or nearly so for both B and F bodies? I know of a source for a full silicone vacuum line kit for B-bodies. I used it on my Roadmaster wagon with great success.
Does anyone know if the vacuum line lengths and routing are identical or nearly so for both B and F bodies? I know of a source for a full silicone vacuum line kit for B-bodies. I used it on my Roadmaster wagon with great success.
03-12-2014, 09:16 PM
#20
I got my ALDL cable today and used it and Scan9495 to do my first ever scan. It's pretty awesome, but I'd love to learn how to interpret and use all the numbers on the screen for voltages and readings. Also, the Scan9495 fellow needs to be compensated somehow for what he has done for the '94/'95 owners!
I had two DTCs: 16 and 42, both of which are in the ignition circuit and both of which will cut the fuel supply, hence my runs for a minute then dies issue. I will follow the diagnostic procedures in the FSM for each code and hopefully be able to pinpoint what is causing the codes.
I had two DTCs: 16 and 42, both of which are in the ignition circuit and both of which will cut the fuel supply, hence my runs for a minute then dies issue. I will follow the diagnostic procedures in the FSM for each code and hopefully be able to pinpoint what is causing the codes.