Build Thread-85 Cutlass Brougham-New Pics Added!

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, it died today. It's not terminal, but I found out why it won't run properly. It seems the old fuel filter let plenty of rust particles from the gas tank get by it, and they did a wonderful job on the carburetor. I guess not seeing a full tank of fuel in about 10 years has a way of forming rust. The carb is not full of rust, but it is bad enough that it seized the primary metering rod piston in it's bore. How did I know what was wrong? Well, here's my tip for the day: Fuel should not be coming out of the accelerator pump piston actuator rod's hole at idle, or any other time. It was and that could only mean that the needle and seat were stuck open and flooding the engine with fuel. It's gonna probably run me about $35 for the rebuild kit and carb cleaner, so it won't get done today. I'll probably have to wait until Monday before I can afford to do it. I will also be installing a filter on the carb as well as my clear plastic filter that I keep in the feed line. This way, the sediments will have a harder time getting to the carb. It's not ideal, but I figure it's an acceptable stop gap measure until I can come up with the cash to find and buy a new tank. Why not clean it out? I ran over a big rock backing up one day in around 1994 and the tank is in bad shape. It's lost about 4 gallons of capacity, and I just don't want to try to fix it.

 

[78mali350]

at least you figured out what was wrong before it became a major issue! good job on puttin it together any new interior shots?

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I do have a few new shots, but I have been too lazy to post them anywhere. I am going to try to finish putting the seats in over the next few days, and will take a completed shot at that time.

As for the car, I am just glad I got it home! I had it running for a few minutes, but it would always sputter out and die. Eventually, it would no longer start and that is when I decided to take it apart. The intake is now sealed with duct tape which is covered by a storage bin lid and the air filter housing is on top of that. I figure that should keep water and debris out while I deal with the carb. As for the carb, it is sitting in a sealed plastic garbage bag on the stainless steel work bench on my front porch that I have for fixing things like carburetors.

I may have an alternate solution too. I may just clean out the carb and put it back on, but add a giant metal canister fuel filter from an EFI application. I will do that in series with a clear filter last. This way, I can see if the primary filter is letting anything get by.

I also got the last of the stuff I need to build my LED dome light today. I will see how it turns out. Hopefully I don't have a capacitor blow up in my face...

 

[SV6 REGAL]

Don't worry, I am not quitting quitting, just maybe taking a small break. It is just an overwhelming project to take on by yourself, and I need to try and catch some other stuff up-like money! Anyhow, tomorrow I am going to try to do a water pump on a Honda D series in a Civic. It's for a girl I work with and I am making a little cash off of it. I just need to figure out how to align and tension the timing belt on a Honda D16Y8 VTEC 4. The water pump is driven off the timing belt and should be a real nightmare. I am sure I will figure it out. It can't be as bad as the one on a 4G63t in a 1G DSM (Eclipse AWD Turbo), and I have already done those before. Am I getting a lot of money to do it? No. I am only charging $50 labor for it because she is in a bad spot and I am a sucker for a damsel in distress. I'm not so kind to guys in similar situations as I feel that if you can't fix a car, you are not really much of a man and I have no sympathy for you.

Hope you change the belt to because a bad belt will do the same damage as a bad water pump(honda belts every 100,000kms or 4-5 yrs).

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I (thankfully) dodged the bullet and didn't end up doing it. Yes, I could have used the cash, but right now I am tired of working on stuff and don't even want to touch my own, let alone someone else's. My driveway gets full sun until around 3pm, and it is hard to work out there.

 

[79GP6.6L]

Your build thread just made me get up, go rummage through the kitchen cabinets, and make myself a cup of ramen noodles. Thought you'd like to know.

 

[lightemup2]

Your build thread just made me get up, go rummage through the kitchen cabinets, and make myself a cup of ramen noodles. Thought you'd like to know.

i love ramen noodles!!! 😀

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I may just have to start eating me some Ramen Noodles again if the tips don't pick back up soon! I had moved up in the world to the Nissin Chow Mein Noodles at $0.87 per meal, but I can't keep up such a lavish diet much longer. I still have Oodles of Noodles and Cup Of Noodles left over from earlier this year, I think I will have some for dinner tomorrow in a show of solidarity with everyone else who has started eating them because of me.

I also learned today that I may be getting a "new" car soon! It is free, so I can afford it too!. My mom is talking about getting a new car and giving my sister her 2000 Maxima. If that happens, I will be the proud new owner of a 1991 Toyota Corolla DX with cold A/C, a CD player, new paint and a decent baby diaper (after canned peaches) brown interior. Yes, my sister's first car will be all mine to use as a delivery beater. It has a 1.6 liter 4A-FE engine (and unfortunately, a 3 speed auto trans) that is newer than the car in it, and should give me 26+mpg city. I wanted a Corolla, but not one this new... Oh well, it will serve my needs well if it happens and there is always a 4A-GE 20 valve/5 speed swap if it gets too boring.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I got it running again. I went to Auto zone and perused their fuel filters for the largest one they had which would take a hose with a clamp. I got one that is from a fuel injected...something... and about 4x4 inches (I think EFI filters have a finer media than carb ones do). I also cleaned out the carb and put it back together with the old gasket that I had carefully preserved. I figured that if it clogged up again, I didn't want to waste the cost of a carb kit, and I will do a full rebuild later once it has a new tank. The result? Well... It runs again and does not have any leaks, so that is good. Plus, the second filter ( I ran 2 in series) is a clear one and shows no rust particles after driving it and putting $5 worth of gas in it. However, it started running rough again and I had to bring it back home. This time though, there was no fuel shooting out of the top of the carb, it just wouldn't idle. So, I figured that one or both of the emulsion tubes must be plugged up. I squirted some carb cleaner down them, and it ran OK after that. A little rough, but I expect that from a car which has not seen new plug wires since around 1997. All in all I am not thrilled with how it runs, but am content that it does run. That means I can address the bigger issues with things like the steering next instead of spending the money to buy a new fuel tank. Steering is a bigger priority at this point than more power or maintenance items.

On the LED dome light, I tried my solderless breadboard out tonight, and found out that LED's are VERY sensitive to voltage, and smell really bad when you burn them out! I was running a 5 volt source to two or three in series, and they did not like it. I am surprised though as the voltage drop (via Ohm's Law) should have been enough to not have them burn out on me. it might have been an issue with current and not voltage, but I am still puzzled as I did not think USB was a high current standard. (I was running it off my laptop.) I am a little scared to try the capacitors I bought now. I have read they can blow up on you if they are wired wrong, and I don't want to have that happen.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

It runs so I drove it again, this time I did about 60-70 miles round trip with no carburetor issues. The steering is still spooky as the car will brake steer if you don't hit the end of the play in the box. The wipers work, but not very well. They hit the under side of the hood in the center, so I will need to add the bump stop pack in to make them work properly. And yes. It rained. I wound up putting them in intermittent and driving at 35 mph with the hood held down only with the safety latch. This gave me the clearance needed, but it was far from fun. They were also S-L-O-W, so I will be trying one of my other wiper motors to see if they will go a little faster. The front end also have a nasty shake or vibration which I attribute to awful, dry rotted tires and an alignment that is WAY out. I am quite happy that this car is not my daily driver because I don't think I could take it. It should be all finished in the next few months, and then I don't think I would mind, but as it sits it is a spooky beast to drive. I also managed to get the amps tuned in and the gains set up properly so that the system is very balanced. With six channels to set up, it took a little doing,but now I am ready to bolt down the sub box and install the seats tomorrow and call the interior pretty much done. I still have to fix the defroster grid, clean the overspray off the back window and tint the windows, but that should hopefully be done by the end of next week. I don't really have any cash to spend on the car at the moment, so I will spend next week finishing up the last of the interior details and the final few pieces of exterior trim then try to start on the steering and suspension work in October.