Thread: What did you do to your Car today?

I've done that, except it was a hornet.

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Yeah it started getting cold the last few days. My first inclination is that it was in the hoody, but I couldn't say for sure. Either way, I wasn't taking any chances.

New axle, drain and fill trans with new filter, then a alignment.

Originally Posted by Russosaur

Idrivejunk, if you want I'll take that decklid off your hands for free and pay the shipping for you to ship it here
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Man I ended up watching the 1978 Dawn of the dead last night. Classic. One zombie gets it with a screwdriver in the ear! saw that one in the theatre when it came out, lol.

Dinoguy, I'd like for you to have it if you want. 40th spoilers look sillier than our flat units do, to me. BUT- the complete decklid assembly is about the only item with any value and I have made no attempts to sell locally yet. So keep circling (like a buzzard), buddy. U never know.

My GTP is making a habit of turning the ABS light on lately, its probably hub time again. Parking and sharp low speed turns, I get the bzzzt in the pedal then ABS / TCS lamps. A restart always turns off the lamps and gets it back. But I'm actually using the front hubs off my rollover... I thought no way, but they were still tight. Lasted awhile anyway.

The problem is shipping would be kinda high and hoping not too damage anything, hopefully you can find someone local to buy it.

ABS issues are always fun, I gave up on mine for now. I fixed the front (i think) only too have problems with the rear (another brokem wire someplace). I don't think I'm going to miss ABS or TCS this winter tho.


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The dash lights are annoying though! So is the bzzt. A friend has the ABS unit off my 02, he has tried everything else but replacing that to get rid of his wife's 98's persistent ABS lite. Wonder if he tried swapping that yet and if it was the fix.

After that big teardown, I am leaning towards retro-ing an entire GTP. If a guy threw out most of the factory embellishments on one of these cars, it would be a lot easier to live with. No airbags, ABS, or TCS, retro tilt column. Mostly using free parts from old cars. Window, sunroof, ignition switches with no automatic features. No shift or key interlock, just locking steering and neutral safety. Etcetera, you get the idea. Car would look the same outside but from the driver's seat it could look and operate like a 69 Firebird. Stand-alone tune for the engine / trans like in an offroad application and mostly stock. So I could feel like an old car guy while driving a mommy car, y'know? Can't stand a car that asks too many questions or second guesses my decisions, and the GTP is like one of those playskool busy boxes. It could be SO much simpler. The design of things behind the dash is absolute nonsense!

I bet that lid wouldn't be more than 80 to ship. I could pack it fine. Pester me about it in a couple months. Grab Bill and a trailer and come shoot me a price on ALL of it.

I'll try to remember, I forget a lot of things.

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Also the decklid and all survived the rollover?

Sounds like our friend keith rolling his car 2 or 3 times breaking ever bit of glass in the car but the sunroof.

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What a hell of a weekend. Stayed up all Thursday night to find out that I passed the Ohio bar exam at 7 AM when the results were released. Hauled ass down to Kentucky to be with the family, ate lunch there, came back and crashed by 2 PM Friday, hadn't slept in 30 hours. Woke up at 8:30 to a friend wanting to party. She got there by 10, I was drunk by 12, and in bed by 7 AM, Saturday.

9:30 AM Saturday, after 2 hours of sleep, I haul ass up to Dyno Brian's for a tune. It was 3800 day. I was the first car on the rollers after a slowstang got out of the way.



Brian described the previous tune as "having Tourette's." I was able to get the 3.0 pulley back on there and throw some timing at it. Now I get zero KR except random blips when I downshift from 4-3. I'll take it. The car hauls ass now, as soon as it was done, I pulled out of DTM, make a right on US 40, and gave it a boot full.

Dan's car after several pulls in the mid-290's finally cranked out a 315 whp pull, but he's losing quite a bit of power - the piston rings or some such is worn, and quite a bit of smoke would come out of the top of the engine under full load. He says he has a new block that will go in, in the spring. His trans works great though.

Paul's car has problems. He tried to pulley down to a 2.6" (XP cam, FSIC, e85, 60#), which resulted in a series of horrid misfiring and then belt slip out the ass. Both times requiring the car to be wrenched on while the car was on the dyno, holding up the other cars. Well, eventually it got all sorted out and he pulled 310 whp, with 400+ ft-lbs. We wondered why he got 20 WHP more in 2nd gear versus third... well, we learned an hour later that he broke down somewhere in Ohio, his trans is toast. The car is going to Dan's to get a new trans (or it will sit there until Dan's wife gets pissed and has it towed away).

Devin's car got ~280 whp, but ran out of injector. Got some timing thrown at it with zero knock, but he will need to upgrade from his 42# injectors. Returnless systems suck, evidently.

Clay didn't get any dyno time. He pussed out and didn't put his rockers on like he said he would. I'm thoroughly surprised (but not complaining) that my car put the most power to the wheels today.

***

A few thoughts from the day: IAT's matter a whole lot more than we've been led to believe. There may be something to the JMB/Wizaired/K&N/other fenderwell setups. I had IAT's about 60* lower than Dan (who has an open cone - I have a Wizaired). Since GM was cheap and didn't put the IAT after the blower where it belongs, we don't know what the actual IAT is when it gets into the engine. Obviously, the hotter it is, the less timing you can throw at it without having detonation. But GM didn't compensate for this, either.

Ideally, you would have a more aggressive timing profile, with an IAT sensor post-intercooler, and then yank timing as the IAT's climb above a certain temperature threshold. Obviously a FWI or box of some kind would help reduce IAT's considerably... although an open cone would likely produce the same HP on the same tune... does a FWI/CAI/box allow you to add timing and thus in a roundabout way more power?

Originally Posted by Russosaur

I'll try to remember, I forget a lot of things.

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I resemble that! No worries.

Yea, the decklid survived unscarred and so did one mirror. Oh, and the lower door mldgs, handles, and one rocker molding lived. OE paint still good on all that, too. Scoops scratched no crax, but the drip tray is cracked. I went back to the ditch and found my lost roof rail, those are in primer (for me) now. Otherwise, pretty much destroyed. Sunroof glass is only scratched, but man thats tempered. Very hard to bust. FYI- when you have one of thes upside down, the roof is alarmingly "soft". Its the window frames on the doors (AND seatbelt!!!) that save your head. I was dealt a very lucky hand, man.

Note to self DONT ROLL MY GP


got it

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Its .... REALLY easy to do. If you feel sporty, check tire pressures before you head out. My lard-butt 69 is GLUED down like its riding rails, by comparison. I'm skeered in the GTP.

That last post with the dyno sheet .... restores my faith in mankind a little. People will always hot rod whatever is available. Nice!

I don't know, my gp seems pretty stable swerving pretty hard at high speeds. Could be the 36mm front sway bar and hard Moog links and bushings. At 70 mph if I cut the wheel as hard as I could it would probable just understeer and make a bunch of screeching noise. Hitting a big bump or pothole when doing this, that's a different story. Lowering your car 2 inches under stock height would help that a ton

Yeah his numbers weren't bad for a $2600 Craigslist special

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Originally Posted by 02NavyBlue

I don't know, my gp seems pretty stable swerving pretty hard at high speeds. Could be the 36mm front sway bar and hard Moog links and bushings. At 70 mph if I cut the wheel as hard as I could it would probable just understeer and make a bunch of screeching noise. Hitting a big bump or pothole when doing this, that's a different story. Lowering your car 2 inches under stock height would help that a ton

"Probably"... could get you in trouble. As far as I know, at stock height these cars push first. Fairly easily on stock size tires. Then when you lift, the tail snaps around. I believe strut condition is a big factor in a skid. As I said tire pressure has to be there too. And as you said, it don't take but one "marble" to trip ya. I still don't know what happened really, but that spot in the old road constantly has fresh skid marks and glass in the ditch! Yep, theres even a sign.

So you entered a skid before it happened. Luckily my gp makes it really hard to break the rear wheels loose. Which is strange because our impalas rear wheels break loose so easily.

I braked hard but let up just before turning, so the rear was probably too unloaded. She understeered and lightly skidded when I cranked the wheel. Turning that into a four wheel drift was the best I could do, too much speed still. The rear began to hang out but I steered in and kept my line... until the tail end caught a bite and I lost it. Two fishtails on 135K stock struts, and I'd bet ya I was only touching ground on the left front for a moment. With the entire weight on one tire, she went over. Gently and just a flip then grind to a halt on windshield and hood, no actual rolling. Somehow, the right rear trailing arm was turned into a horseshoe shape. I'll never know.

That's sad. I'd have a bad month over a bad day if that happened to me. Especially if it was nice, and a 40th. Did it have original sway bars and hardware? I know it only helps to a certain point.

Thanks Blue, I thought it was sad, too. They made less than 1,200 40th GTP coupes and it was super-nice for the miles. I had more money in that car than any other ever, and it was my newest year model ever. I only got to drive it about 3,000 miles, and spent the entire day of the wreck detailing it and had just topped up the tank. In retrospect, the full tank added to the pedulum effect during fishtailing. Brand new trans rebuild too. But yep, the struts / sways / links were OE. No problems found with suspension, my best guess is I had a low tire. FWIW, the car did not respond as I thought it would. That may be because my reflexes are forever tuned to RWD. With FWD, theres no "steering" (shifting weight) with the throttle and to me that means once I hear tire sqeal I gotta back off. Not so with RWD. In the end, its fortunate because I did not like the 02 anywhere near as well as i do the 99s. The differences are few and small but all in the wrong direction for me.

Been really busy the last week or so throwing my trans back together in time for dyno day at brian's. I got my trans done wed, busy thursday, test drove to work friday, and drove to brian's sat. Dyno'd 315/400 needing a new short block. I learned a ton saturday about tuning and what my car needs to be a1. I'm gonna fix my issues and head back to brian's to break 350whp.