TSG's Unified Fleet Thread

[thesameguy]

After some research I am wondering if the Suburban's leak isn't mostly the oil filter adapter... it's this thing:



on the passenger side of the engine - and mine looks a lot like that picture, very wet. Apparently the (undersized) o-ring seal in there gets weak and sometimes fails into pieces, allowing oil to squirt around a fair amount. I wonder if oil isn't traveling down the cooler lines and dripping onto the steering tie rod, leaving a mess there too. I imagine the front and/or rear seals aren't perfect, but if this theory pans out it's a simple inexpensive fix and might make a big difference. Plus, now I have the fear of this o-ring totally failing and dumping a bunch of oil real quick.

[novicius]

[thesameguy]

Fun story found during my research:

Mine was leaking a year or two ago, and me being stupid, i tried to tighten those bolts down while the truck was turned on...... Bad idea, I broke a bolt off inside the block and hot oil shot all over the driveway and me.

TOTALLY PRO!

[thesameguy]

Got the Fiero smogged at lunch... all is well, so it's legal again.



Pretty dramatic improvement on NOx, probably due to an intact manifold.

They smogged it right between a brand new Rolls and an F430, so it felt right at home.

Running well, passed smog, all should be well for another couple years.

[Random]

I thought your car was a refereed swap? Does the smog computer not know that?

[thesameguy]

The Fiero has an invisible swap - you can't tell a 2.8 from a 3.4 unless you crawl underneath it and identify either the different block webbing pattern or the bolt where a knock sensor used to be.

[Random]

Ah!

[thesameguy]

Some more fun:

Decided to go ahead and change the oil on the motorhome this evening - I haven't got any useful information from Speedhut yet, so the SPG remains partially disassembled.

While under the motorhome, I was pretty horrified to find a *&%^(*&ing ATF leak - pretty red ATF all over the pan. Like all over it. I should have left it alone, but well, I didn't.

I've initially ruled out the pan leaking, because if it was going to leak it would have after filling, not randomly months and months later. I thought maybe the input shaft seal, so I removed the slightly-damp torque converter cover and found nothing underneath. Ok, not the input shaft. I looked up at the shift shaft seal - which a shop replaced shortly after I got it - and that was dry as well. Grabbed a can of brake cleaner and went to town, cleaning dirt, ATF, and nostalgia-inducing playa off everything. In doing so, I moved the solenoid harness out of the way and - no joke - probably 2-3 tablespoons of ATF just dumped out of the wire sheath. I kind of wished that was recorded - because pouring liquid out of wires is pretty exciting, and I'm fairly certain I made a good WTFATF!!! face.

Seems like ATF is coming through the wire harness, dribbling down to the pan:case union, and then running around the transmission. Or, maybe also the pan gasket (PLEASE GOD NO!!!), but *at least* the connector. Unfortunately I can't tell whether it's coming from around the connector or through the connector. I guess both are possibilities, so I have a little investigation to do. Either way, the muthafuckin pan has to come off - either to replace the connector or the o-ring around it, so blech. Hey, at least it's easy to drain remove the pan! I guess I need to decide whether I spend $3 on an o-ring and hope, or spend $100 on wiring harnesses... apparently there was an update so if I replace the inside leaky-ass harness, I also have to replace the outside harness. That seems *really* annoying as it involved splicing like 20 wires. FML. Whaddayagonna do? I'm leaning towards just replacing the harness, as the early-style ones are prone to (wait for it) leaking through the connectors. No point in wasting time over $97.

No matter what, I'm not doing anything for a while, just good to have the information to plan.

And, since I gotta get greasy under there I'm thinking about modifying my power steering cooler - it was a good Rev 1, but if I can find a specific magic part I can make a kick-ass Rev 2.

But, uh, never got around to actually changing the oil. Whoops.

[novicius]

Replace both.

[dodint]

The Fiero has an invisible swap - you can't tell a 2.8 from a 3.4 unless you crawl underneath it and identify either the different block webbing pattern or the bolt where a knock sensor used to be.

You can bump a DMC-12 to 3.0 from 2.8 doing something very similar. Nets you no power gain at all and is an exercise in futility, but you can.