A Fabricobbler's Guide to the Turbo Buick Galaxy- Cutlass Rehash

[81cutlass]

Located the speed sensor I was missing. I was going to source one on the forum but realized I had one still on the wagon so I bugged the new owner and robbed the sensor out since he isn't using it being it's an LS swap now.

Crisis averted 😛

 

[81cutlass]

Dash wiring oh my. More 15-17 year old me decisions that are being changed since I didn't know what I was doing at the time and dad was telling me what to do. Now that I understand I can do it how GM did it, how dad instructed me is correct on essentially everything but I have some more perspective on what really needs to be done so I can make it more streamlined. Also cleaning up stuff since the car started out as an 81 with granny gages and the carb turbo and evolved to a 81 dash harness and rally gages and then to a 85 dash harness with rally gages so lots of changes.

Trying to finalize why my gauges weren't working today.

The tach wire was not connected through the firewall bulkhead and was cut & spliced and ran through the speedometer hole and straight to the distributor so had to un-cut that wire

I accidentally soldered the temp signal from the GN engine harness into the dummy light temp wire and not the gage wire so had to repin the dash harness as it was easier than pulling the harness out under the hood and fixing it there.

Now I'm trying to decipher VSS and check engine light wiring. Probably worthless as I have a scanmaster but ohh well.

 

[81cutlass]

Dash wiring is done

I realized 75% of the wiring I needed was left in the dash harness so instead of running this second standalone harness I built for the wagon I repinned some stuff in the Cutlass dash harness.

In my infinite wisdom I decided to cut the obd port out of the car back when I put this 85 harness in so most of my effort was adding the obd port back in and finding a better internally fused panel circuit for the scanmaster and wideband power instead of tapping into a fuse panel tap.

Its not super pretty because it's got a dozen butt connectors but I'm a lot more happy with it and tucks under the dash so it's out of sight.

I wanted to get the power steering pump changed but I ran out of time.

I determined It doesn't make noise until lightly turn the wheel and then it instantly makes noise and cavitates the fluid. Not sure if it's actually the pump or something with a hose? It is quiet on startup and the fluid is normal but as soon as It sees load it airreates the fluid and makes noise. Not sure what to think.

 

[81cutlass]

Got the rest of the dash together tonight.

Fixed the power steering pump whine by topping off the resovoir. Kinda embarrassed I ordered up a pump and didn't check fluid level first but at least I didn't spend the time changing a good pump. All im out is return shipping. Like I say, it's important to proudly wave your idiot flag when the time comes.

Fixed the blinkers by connecting the ground wire at the header panel and wiggling a tail light bulb.

Took it for a drive and the tach and speed signal work.

Coolant temp is only 155-165. It was cool tonight but I need to check the tstat and go up to a 180.

Overall drives really nice. Trans feels like a rubber band at mid throttle and it feels like it doesn't know what gear to be in, CVT like. Its fine at under 10% throttle and ok over 50% throttle but it builds say 0-5 psi at 25% throttle and the engine sounds like it's revving pretty decent but the trans doesn't really do anything, and I can't much tell if it's not at the shift point, slipping or normal and just making so much intake/wind noise I can't tell. Its a stock 88ish caprice takeout with nothing more than a cut down governor and a GN D5 converter so I can't complain to much.

I did pick up a sonnax servo that I'm planning to swap and see if I can sneak in a bigger boost valve without pulling the entire trans to get me through the summer before I totally toast what's left of the band and direct clutch.

It makes 12 psi and the AFR is 12.9-13.2. The scanmaster is picking up more than just a tickle of KR and I could hear a bit of detonation out the window so i know it's real. I haven't done anything more than a very limited number of short WOT blasts. Its got 91 so it shouldn't detonate at only 12 psi but it's a bit lean and I have zero idea what the chip has in it so I'm going to lay off the throttle until I get data logging capabilities.


Car is really quiet, like 75% of the noise is just intake and turbo.

Its ready for daily/cruiser status though!

 

[64nailhead]

Did you check line pressure?

 

[motorheadmike]

Got the rest of the dash together tonight.

Fixed the power steering pump whine by topping off the resovoir. Kinda embarrassed I ordered up a pump and didn't check fluid level first but at least I didn't spend the time changing a good pump. All im out is return shipping. Like I say, it's important to proudly wave your idiot flag when the time comes.

Fixed the blinkers by connecting the ground wire at the header panel and wiggling a tail light bulb.

Took it for a drive and the tach and speed signal work.

Coolant temp is only 155-165. It was cool tonight but I need to check the tstat and go up to a 180.

Overall drives really nice. Trans feels like a rubber band at mid throttle and it feels like it doesn't know what gear to be in, CVT like. Its fine at under 10% throttle and ok over 50% throttle but it builds say 0-5 psi at 25% throttle and the engine sounds like it's revving pretty decent but the trans doesn't really do anything, and I can't much tell if it's not at the shift point, slipping or normal and just making so much intake/wind noise I can't tell. Its a stock 88ish caprice takeout with nothing more than a cut down governor and a GN D5 converter so I can't complain to much.

I did pick up a sonnax servo that I'm planning to swap and see if I can sneak in a bigger boost valve without pulling the entire trans to get me through the summer before I totally toast what's left of the band and direct clutch.

It makes 12 psi and the AFR is 12.9-13.2. The scanmaster is picking up more than just a tickle of KR and I could hear a bit of detonation out the window so i know it's real. I haven't done anything more than a very limited number of short WOT blasts. Its got 91 so it shouldn't detonate at only 12 psi but it's a bit lean and I have zero idea what the chip has in it so I'm going to lay off the throttle until I get data logging capabilities.


Car is really quiet, like 75% of the noise is just intake and turbo.

Its ready for daily/cruiser status though!

 

[Northernregal]

Did you check line pressure?

If he had a Terminator he could wire in a sensor and log it. Just saying.

 

[81cutlass]

Did you check line pressure?

Not yet.

I have a lowdoller 400psi sensor, I just don't have a pcm to read it yet.

If he had a Terminator he could wire in a sensor and log it. Just saying.

 

[64nailhead]

Manual gauge is all that is needed.

 

[64nailhead]

I know it's not a regularly checked item, but I check the line pressure every time the trans comes apart and gets put back in. If for only to know what it was when installed for diagnostic purposes later. I don't make it out of the driveway without the gauge hooked up.

If you can imagine an old man spaz moment, then picture this, fresh trans install and gauge in hand trying to watch it at WOT as the boost starts climbing over 15. I'm sure if I were to show a video of that to my wife that she'd burn the car while I was at work :-0

Keep in mind, just trying to set an example for ya 😉