Finally have my dream car (almost)

[Tat2Chick]

Just got a black 1986 Buick Regal
my dream car is a grand national, but a black buick regal is close enough!

so
all the guy told me is that it has a 350, it's geared low, the a/c works if you put freeon in it, it has air shocks, new interior, and an after market "sound system" (noise making subs in a box in the trunk)

basically that's all I know

I want to know more like what exhaust it has and what rear end it has, it is not hitting 3rd even when im going 60. It has a lot of torque, well, way more than my cutlass had (it had a 327 engine with a 480.480 hydrolic roller cam but the rear end was stock)

so this would be my first experience with low gears.

The guy said the engine was rebuilt he never told me how long ago (the guy was car illiterate) , but I do not hear any knocks or ticks...

also how the heck do I know the tempature?? guess the first thing i need to do is put in a temp guage...



so basically what do I need to look for to find out the rear end, and I would also like to know what engine my car originally came with, how would i find that too?

 

[Tat2Chick]

oh, also he said it has a shift kit.

 

[bigblockfrank]

from my experience,rotate the wheel one complete turn, at the same time count the turn on the driveshaft. ex: wheel one complete turn, and the drive shaft 2 and 3/4 turns, u have somewhere around 2:73-3:08. Engine i wouldnt know. could came out with any gm motor at that time. vin check would tell you.

 

[King_V]

Actually, do it with one wheel on the ground, and one wheel raised, and rotate the wheel TWICE, counting the number of times the driveshaft turns (easiest by looking at the u-joint at the differential).

If it's a posi-rear, then both wheels will have to be off the ground, and rotate a wheel ONCE... as the other should turn with it.


As to what type of exhaust it has, I'm not sure I understand the question exactly....

 

[85Supreme]

You should be able to check the vin or the RPO code label on the underside of the trunk lid. That will tell you the codes for all of the equipment the car came with from the factory. And then just look up the codes on the internet.

 

[pontiacgp]

Any car I buy I change the fluids in it including the rear end which goes neglected by almost everyone. With cover off it easy to see what the ratio is, the condition of the gears and if it's a posi.

 

[dirttrackmonte]

Take the cover off, grab a flash light and spin the ring gear around until you see a number. This number is how many teeth are on the ring gear. In my experience every pinion I've ever touched on a 7.5 had 11 teeth so if you trust a dumbass such as myself you would then divide the number on the ring by 11. Ex. Ring gear says 41 so 41÷11=3.727 round up to the hundredths decimal place and that gives you a 3.73 rear gear if for some odd reason you can't find the number A silver sharpie and the ability to count works just as well