New Guy from Toronto!

[81Caleh]

Hey everyone! name is Jake i'm 21 and my wishes have come true as my father has handed me down his keys to our baby that's been in the family since new! My grandfather purchased the cutlass brand new in 81 its a two door Calais model with most likely every option aside from t tops. It was two tone silver/maroon with a 260 and my grand father took extremely good care of it it was his weekend car so it never saw snow/salt. Heck the only rain it saw was from a hose. He also had it undercoated every other year a tradition my father carried on. I can attest to the fact that this car has absolutely no rust anywhere, underneath looks black greasy and new! anyways my father purchased the car off him in 91' drove it occasionally and by around 95' the car was sitting in our garage collecting dust. After a few years he decided to put some money into it and by 2000 the car had been stripped sand blasted and painted a Mercedes pewter silver, and the 260 had been pulled and replaced with a very very mild 350 4 bolt out of a 78 vette that was bored out over .30 and as far as he remembers has a tiny cam headers and edelbrock intake/carb. the car still sat a lot untill i started driving it two years ago, since the motor was put in way back in 99' its seen maybe 5000km. That's all that has been done to it everything else is original aside from the rear springs, and a set of brakes. However even though this car turns heads and looks sharp as ever, its almost become undriveable i don't even go near the highway. that's why i'm here! I have big big plans for the car and i need guidance!! here's some pics enjoy!

 

[85442/86buick]

Welcome ,
Sweet looking car , great choices of both colour & wheels.
i have to ask why is it almost undriveable ? what's the problem ?

Dave

 

[axisg]

I think he's afraid to put a scratch on it Nice wheels and I like the colour combo

 

[81Caleh]

Thanks for the comments! I agree the paint colour is great like a bottle of champagne. wheels are part of the undriveable issue! One of them is physically not round (now I know why they were so cheap) It has the worst shake you could imagine anywhere over 75km/h and the steering feels so vague you have to constantly adjust your direction. The car doesn't track straight, Its just not a very confidence Inspiring experience to put it nicely. And the motor . well it hasn't been touched at all other than plugs and wires that I did last year. oil changes every year and it has a tendency stumble to at certain throttle positions and the occasional backfire out the intake. Doesn't help and it has a ticking coming from the passenger right sounds like a lifter or rocker.

 

[mymontess]

Hello & welcome from a fellow Torontonian.
Beautiful mint Cutlass!
My advice is this: do you still have original wheels? Replace defective wheels with orig. or quality aftermarket (as you found out there is a lot of inferior offshore stuff out there), repair the driveability issues (sounds like a bad lifter- try elevating RPM for a minute or two & see if it helps- maybe bled down from lack of use). Backfire issue could simply be a dirty carb. from sitting. Check ignition / timing also. Shouldn't be very difficult to resolve. Sounds like the biggest issues is lack of use.
Good luck & keep us posted with your findings. Lots of knowledgeable folks on this site!
Rod

 

[81Caleh]

Unfortunately the car didn't come with nice wheels it just had wire wheel covers on steelies so this wheels are all I have for now I will probably end up getting a set of american racing wheels and toss these cheap knockoffs. The car sits yes but, I do take it to a local show applewood plaza Californias! and usually cruise around nice and slow after the show around lakeshore an hour , so the ticking issue won't be resolved from sustained high rpm . has been around for a while probably for the past 3 years so something is definitely not right. I really haven't touched much in recent years because it was my father's car but this year I'm tearing into this thing since its mine finally!

 

[85442/86buick]

OK , there's the start to dealing with your issues .

by the picture I thought you were running real AR torq thrust wheels , so order a set up quickly they are 1 of the best looking wheels going for my money.
your a truck & coach mechanic ?
is the front end toast ? ball joints ? tie rod ends ? bushing in the upper & lower control arms ? pitman arm ? all of these parts are fairly reasonably priced and i am sure you get them at trade pricing . can you work on personal projects at your employer's shop ? no not on the clock. with your training and skill set thinking this all straight forward.
a front end alignment is due , hell new front springs and shocks too , again they do not have to be lowering springs or bilstein's . just a good quantity part ..moog .

now for your engine issues...you work with gear heads...pick their minds , listen to them , there is at least 2 of the older guys in the shop who are hot rodders , find them , learn from them for what the price of a coffee ?
and learn to network it's a small world you will be surprised by how quickly you meet up with guys who in their sleep can help with your engine issues.

OH back to wheels , what tires are on this car ? cheap knock offs ? get real tires so you pay $800 for a set ....DO IT for your safety , your passengers safety and for the people on the street you do not hit , do not write off that beautiful car because you got a deal from some back alley guy with an ad on kijiji

but that's just my 2 cents , you will hear more

Dave
PS - still a great looking car

 

[oldtinsmith]

Welcome from mid-Michigan Jake!

Doug

 

[clean8485]

Welcome Jake, from just north of Oshawa. That's a nice looking car. As others have pointed out, you need to get some good quality wheels and tires on the car. When was the last time that the steering and suspension systems were thoroughly inspected? As for the ticking noise, could it be something in the exhaust system? Does the car have headers or exhaust manifolds on it? Is there a possibility of a small exhaust leak near the engine? Sometimes, something like that can be mistaken for a valvetrain noise.
Just thinking out loud here. Hope you can get your troubles sorted out. Good luck, and keep us updated.

 

[81Caleh]

First let me say i am in school right now! in a program to become a 310t apprentice so there is shop work/theory but mainly we've been were working on hydraulic systems, since im not at my placement yet, i don't have a chance to pick the brains of gearheads! hence why i am here that being said i do know my way around a car. Late last year i had the car on stands to try and polish the wheels so i tested the ball joints and they seem fine no play same with the control arms the bushings look fine no play. tie rods seemed okay but with the car being so old i think it would be best to replace as much as i can to get the 0 mile feel. anyone know a good place to get parts for these cars in the GTA? Also the wheels that are on the car now are american eagle wheels. my buddy has a set and he lucked out his are perfect no issues at all! its also on a set of nexen n7000 245 45 17 the wheel/tire combo was around 1k and it was from a tire shop (but they have since closed down) so the tires are definitely okay and are probably most of what we paid for. there damn sticky! this car couldn't break the tires loose if your life depended on it! especially not with the 2.29 open rear. (I have a set of 3.42's in the garage) The car does have headers but there not leaking they leaked at the collector a few years ago but the gaskets have since been swapped out. also i fiddled around with the carb late last year moved the accelerator pump up to the lowest setting on the bracket for the most fuel and that seemed to help tremendously with the stumble but its still not right and carbs are a mystery to me since i never fiddled with them i really don't want to touch anything else and make it worse. The car was supposed to be aligned early last year but upon arrival to the shop they said they didn't have the specs and couldn't align it, however they put it on the hoist for me and did an "inspection" and said everything checked out.