Hello all.

New to the forum, new to the platform, pulled a wrench or 2 over the years.

Picked up a $150 "beater" for my apprentice to drive to work. Needed a rear spring, a new tire (broken spring took out tire) and intake manifold gaskets (surprise!).

The fuel gauge was intermittent, and the speedometer only works on right turns when hot (wtf?).

Installed complete struts in the rear ($62 cad each), adjusted park brakes, new tire, new transmission output sensor, fel pro aluminum LIM gaskets, new upper manifold, new fuel level sender, aluminum coolant elbow, the list goes on.

Apparently I did not install an oring, or otherwise did something wrong installing the upper manifold as there is a massive vacuum in the bottom end, which kills the motor when I open the oil cap. Likely PCV related. With any luck I did not cause any damage with that.

The speedometer still only works properly on right turns when hot, which also causes the transmission to shift badly. Will be doing some soul searching about that one. I hate intermittents.

Otherwise the car is dollar for dollar the best vehicle I have ever owned. Reminds me of pretty much every GM car I have driven from 1988-2008.