A Fabricobbler's Guide to the Turbo Buick Galaxy- Cutlass Rehash
- Thread starter 81cutlass
- Start date
Can't disagree with the Haltech, but the hell with the Atlas and that money pit disaster.Shoulda just put an Atlas 4200 with a Haltech into it
Ok I got a leakdown tester on order today about 1230 and it showed up at my door at 630 when I was making dinner, dang Amazon... I'm impressed.
I wanted to work through the service manual no start flowchart and cross everything off that list.
I noticed my crank sensor was really loose and really dirty. The crank sensor is really hokey on these.
There's some little rubber isolators inside between the plastic sensor and the aluminum bracket and they were almost falling out. There was also a lot of iron filings sitting in the gap probably due to the fact that it was sitting under my workbench or at a full time turbo fabricators shop for 18 months and and metal dust might have floated up and stuck to it.
Cleaned up the sensor and reset it and no change. Still miss on 1&5.
Went through the rest of the no start flow chart and every time it goes back to the ignition module being bad.
I also posted a quick question on the turbo Buick forum and I've gotten a bunch of comments to change the cam sensor cap. I have an adjustable Casper's LED cap to aid setting and the OEM one I had was bad so I bought this as a replacement because it's the only one available. According to multiple people they aren't good and cause misfires. I need to hunt down a OEM style cap.
I also leakdown tested and although it's not great news it's not bad.
Cyl 1- 25%
Cyl 3- 2%
Cyl 5- 11%
I didn't get a chance to check the passenger side.
I'd say half to 2/3 the leakage air in cyl 1 was coming out of the crank and 1/2-1/3 out the intake. I think the cyl 1 intake valve is hung or not seating well. Its probably contributing to the backfire if In fact the ignition module is shot and it's sending good spark but it's poorly timed.
Im supposed to get the new ignition module tomorrow so I'll toss that in and see what it does.
I also had fuel on the plugs this time now that I just cranked it and it never really started so I'm beginning to think it's boiling down to the ignition module not controlling the spark and telling the ECM where the cam is to fuel at the right time.
World's hokiest crank sensor that requires adjustment too.
Cyl #5
I wanted to work through the service manual no start flowchart and cross everything off that list.
I noticed my crank sensor was really loose and really dirty. The crank sensor is really hokey on these.
There's some little rubber isolators inside between the plastic sensor and the aluminum bracket and they were almost falling out. There was also a lot of iron filings sitting in the gap probably due to the fact that it was sitting under my workbench or at a full time turbo fabricators shop for 18 months and and metal dust might have floated up and stuck to it.
Cleaned up the sensor and reset it and no change. Still miss on 1&5.
Went through the rest of the no start flow chart and every time it goes back to the ignition module being bad.
I also posted a quick question on the turbo Buick forum and I've gotten a bunch of comments to change the cam sensor cap. I have an adjustable Casper's LED cap to aid setting and the OEM one I had was bad so I bought this as a replacement because it's the only one available. According to multiple people they aren't good and cause misfires. I need to hunt down a OEM style cap.
I also leakdown tested and although it's not great news it's not bad.
Cyl 1- 25%
Cyl 3- 2%
Cyl 5- 11%
I didn't get a chance to check the passenger side.
I'd say half to 2/3 the leakage air in cyl 1 was coming out of the crank and 1/2-1/3 out the intake. I think the cyl 1 intake valve is hung or not seating well. Its probably contributing to the backfire if In fact the ignition module is shot and it's sending good spark but it's poorly timed.
Im supposed to get the new ignition module tomorrow so I'll toss that in and see what it does.
I also had fuel on the plugs this time now that I just cranked it and it never really started so I'm beginning to think it's boiling down to the ignition module not controlling the spark and telling the ECM where the cam is to fuel at the right time.
World's hokiest crank sensor that requires adjustment too.
Cyl #5
I cleaned my valves/runners after washing the block by removing the rockers, hooking up an air line to the spark plug, like I was swapping springs, and smacking the valve with a rubber mallet. Whatever shmooo was stuck on the back of the valve was knocked off and blown away after 4-5 healthy taps. All the valves sealed perfect after this procedure.
Its OK to fly your idiot flag when you've been an idiot.
My new ICM showed up today and I installed it to no improvement. I guess it went into batch fire mode now but still missing. Its funny that my last 2 ignition modules were bad, it's just they weren't bad enough to fully kill the car.
I pulled the driver's valve cover off and checked all the push rods and rockers were there and yep. I hooked the leakdown tester hose to shop air and tapped the #1 intake valve, it went from like 25% leak to maybe 22% so there was something but not enough to do a ton.
Then I decided to check my wiring in my coil driver harness, maybe a ground was bad, power cutting out or something. I checked continuity between cool 1 and 4 and the igniter pin on the plug that goes into the coil and it only went to 4. Huh? Turns out coil 5 connected to coil 4 and coil 1 connected to 2. Then it hit me, somehow I had the harness laid out backwards on the driver's side. I vaguely remembered I made the harness wrong and flipped the igniter wire when I built the harness and quick fixed it by flipping the leg. I forgot about that since it's been 3 years and I never marked the coil plugs.
So in effect I had the #1 coil on the #5 plug and vice versa.
So although I feel dumb at least it only took 2 days to fix and only involved a $150 ICM which was bad anyway, a $80 leakdown tester which is good to have on the shelf and some time, but it's been so nice I'm not complaining spending it in the garage.
Took the car for a few short laps around the block and man something is a lot better with this engine in this car vs. the wagon. The wagon was fast but was always laggy down low. Maybe the new ignition coil is doing better down low, this trans is slightly more healthy than the old one and has a proper D5 turbo converter, has 3.42 instead of 3.08, and has a full 2.5" car back vs. the pea shooter exhaust with a boost dump in the wagon but it all adds up.
The PS pump is howling like a wolf on a full moon night (I might have a kinked suction hose) and it's smoking a little (maybe just burning off some oil and stuff from the aftercooler) but I'm happy.
I might find a couple band aids to limp the trans together before I totally cook it and see if I can take it to the track and shoot for a 12?
My new ICM showed up today and I installed it to no improvement. I guess it went into batch fire mode now but still missing. Its funny that my last 2 ignition modules were bad, it's just they weren't bad enough to fully kill the car.
I pulled the driver's valve cover off and checked all the push rods and rockers were there and yep. I hooked the leakdown tester hose to shop air and tapped the #1 intake valve, it went from like 25% leak to maybe 22% so there was something but not enough to do a ton.
Then I decided to check my wiring in my coil driver harness, maybe a ground was bad, power cutting out or something. I checked continuity between cool 1 and 4 and the igniter pin on the plug that goes into the coil and it only went to 4. Huh? Turns out coil 5 connected to coil 4 and coil 1 connected to 2. Then it hit me, somehow I had the harness laid out backwards on the driver's side. I vaguely remembered I made the harness wrong and flipped the igniter wire when I built the harness and quick fixed it by flipping the leg. I forgot about that since it's been 3 years and I never marked the coil plugs.
So in effect I had the #1 coil on the #5 plug and vice versa.
So although I feel dumb at least it only took 2 days to fix and only involved a $150 ICM which was bad anyway, a $80 leakdown tester which is good to have on the shelf and some time, but it's been so nice I'm not complaining spending it in the garage.
Took the car for a few short laps around the block and man something is a lot better with this engine in this car vs. the wagon. The wagon was fast but was always laggy down low. Maybe the new ignition coil is doing better down low, this trans is slightly more healthy than the old one and has a proper D5 turbo converter, has 3.42 instead of 3.08, and has a full 2.5" car back vs. the pea shooter exhaust with a boost dump in the wagon but it all adds up.
The PS pump is howling like a wolf on a full moon night (I might have a kinked suction hose) and it's smoking a little (maybe just burning off some oil and stuff from the aftercooler) but I'm happy.
I might find a couple band aids to limp the trans together before I totally cook it and see if I can take it to the track and shoot for a 12?
Dang that's movin'
8.72 stock block with a VSR 78/75.
By that logic the 61/62 I've got should go 10's (I have no desire to go below 11.50's with this car lol)
8.72 stock block with a VSR 78/75.
By that logic the 61/62 I've got should go 10's (I have no desire to go below 11.50's with this car lol)
Gone are the days of the $2500 turbos.
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