New guy...

Powertechn2

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2014
As it states, I am a new guy here, Oakland county, Mi.
Bought an 87 GN, needs work, kinda rough. It had gone a resto years and years ago.
Doesn't run right, not sure if it really ever ran 100% 10 years ago or not. It spent time in a barn, then eventually just sitting in the yard.

I may ask a lot of question, I may need a lot of answers and guidance.
Eventually I hope to get it right and make the car street capable and enjoyable.



So, now for the info. I wasn't aware this forum saves data as you add it, that is nice. Not much is worse than typing a lengthy post only to have the server time-out and you lose everything.

Anyways. Car has 140xxx on odo (43k showing, I can only assume 143...) has what I have read is a Terry Houston down pipe, was only told that the downpipe is badass and was made by a guy who went to jail for... Has a precision turbo, think 66mm, not 100% on that, yet. 60 something lb/hr injectors, has a chip, also in question as to which chip, intake pipe with K&N conical filter (needs replacing, been cleaned wrong at one point) also lt1 maf. Does have hot wire fuel pump mod, think the pump itself was also upgraded. Heads are ported and polished oem heads, exhaust is not stock, not sure exactly what was changed. Front mount intercooler... Ran low 12's to 12 even back before it was parked and forgotten about. Has a scanmaster which the wires were pulled out below dash, so no connection. Broken glass front bumper, bags in the rear springs... Did I mention it spend most of the last 6-7 years sitting outside, in Michigan? :wtf:
I know the engine was rebuilt around what would have been the 20-35k on odo mark, like I say, 120-135k ish.

I did manage to drive it home, in January, roads were dry, clean. was all over the place without sway bars and with one torn off air bag hose in the rear, low tire pressure, nice dry rotted front tires, and 28x12.5 ET streets, all at varying degrees of way too low pressure, made a few heads turn with the exhaust dump wide open (was told the plate was in the back floor area lol).
L.e.d. tach in cluster is stuck at around 4k rpm, not sure where it gets its reading from. Runs excessively rich when not under boost, also was told that when at wot and you let off it pops and smokes black (excessively rich also) runs like the injectors are staying open too long. You start it and all you can smell is unburnt fuel, it will load up badly. Was supposed to buy this car about 2.5 years ago, went on vacation and another buddy bought it out from under me for more money. Bought it now for less money now, but has rust holes in both rear quarters in front of tires now. Wasn't this way, but I can only imagine the cancer had already set in and was just chomping away. Almost seems like the ecu thinks the car is at 4k all the time. Not sure at this point. Only had 1-2 seconds under 1/2 to 3/4 throttle on the way home just to see if it cleared up. Ran strong under those minute circumstances, but didn't wanna chance hurting it with the scanmaster inop, also not knowing what kind of fuel is in it. Smells like a blend of 110 torco and unleaded. I am sure someone on here helped the pre-previous owner build this car as I have known him for many years and he said he met many people who helped him along the way thru the GN community.

I may ramble on at times. I would rather give too much info than not enough.

Nice to be here. Already found info and questions which I need to find the answers to.
 
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welcome aboard,

the tach failure is common, the tach signal is fed from the ignition, the ECM is not involved.

there are lots of preliminaries to get done first, most of which you mentioned. Check the chip and let us know whats in there, drain and replace the fuel. check all the vaccuum hoses you can find, pay special attention to the ones feeding the wastegate as engine damage from overboost is way too easy.

get the scanmaster reconnected, and the exhaust capped up.

Take some more pics and post them, there is a lot of experience on the board to help out.

Its going to be a fun spring (when it ever gets here)

Bob
 
Yea, by spring, you mean June at this point lol. Gonna take April showers to melt the snow, May's showers to wash away all the damned road salt lol. By June we might see 60°'s hahaha.

I am not sure how the scanmaster connects, I tried searching around online for a wiring diagram and failed at that, everything I find brings up every single thread ever posted where someone mentioned scanmaster.
My buddy who's garage it is stored in just had another son, and with the snow I have been too busy to make it around his schedule to check out the ecu, at least I have read how to get to it without zapping it on here.
Glad that the tach signal comes from the ignition, I was told way back before I almost bought the car the first time that it needed a new coil, and the module underneath as well, and that the harness might need to be replaced. I was worried the ecu was thinking it was at 4k all the time. However, that might also mean that one or more of the injectors may be shot from sitting with e10 in them.

I will post up info as it comes to me. People aren't always that easy to give up info on what was once their baby, now turned into grown 24 year old daughter.
Thanks for the welcome, as well as reply.
 
Assuming you have a Scanmaster 2.1, here's the instructions
 

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Holy....
Thanks man, looks like what I have and what I am in need of.


Btw, I am an outdoor power equipment tech, I can offer help on pretty much anything you use outdoors to maintain a yard/snow removal... I don't have much to offer in GN experience, but will help out where I can.
 
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Post some close up engine pics
Pm ing u my #
Call me if u need help this weekend
Ill be glad to help u

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app
 
Will do.
Car is in my buds basement currently, only 1 mile away never seemed so far, lol.
Since I drove the car home, then had it flat bedded there and only ran it to get it inside and parked it has started leaking oil, bud says it is running down the oil pan. Great.
Nothing that comes as a deal is ever simple haha.

I do have an extra girdled block if necessary, but it is likely v/c gaskets leaking. Maybe timing cover. Oil pans never really leak alot at one time, he said it has made a small puddle on the floor, was supposed to go there to put a drip tray under it but he just had another son today. Congrats to him.
 
Holy....
Thanks man, looks like what I have and what I am in need of.


Btw, I am an outdoor power equipment tech, I can offer help on pretty much anything you use outdoors to maintain a yard/snow removal... I don't have much to offer in GN experience, but will help out where I can.
Once you get it powered up it will should display "2.1" briefly. If not, you could have an older 2.0 model. Read this to help decipher what all the numbers mean.
 

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Cool, thanks for all the info. I have this weekend off, assuming we don't get a shi-ton more snow... Again.
Assuming all goes right, or at least not horribly wrong I should have some time to tinker with the car.
 








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So, work got crazy busy, needed saturday to rest up a lil bit, also my buddy was selling his 85 regal to a guy from Minnesota, didn't wanna be there working on my car and end up being in the way. His regal hadn't seen winter before, the guy drove all the way here to buy his car, drag car, no heater core, no interior fan, not made at all for comfort, AND DRIVE IT ALL THE WAY BACK in below freezing in the snow o_O

So, I was able to get some up close shots, also pulled the ecu and the chip, not really sure who made the chip or anything at all about it, so not really much to see. Did find that the steering box is leaking like crazy now, likely from all the austin powers turning I had to do to get the car in place in the garage.

Also, what is the purpose of the strap that is holding the engine down on the drivers side?
 
That's a red Armstrong 93 octane chip (quadair) Time to update that with turbotweak. As mentioned, get that fuel out of there. Vac lines. You have vacuum brakes. Your neighbors mailbox is relieved.
Scanmaster re-hook up ASAP. You aren't in that bad a shape at all.

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app
 
Thanks for the info on the chip.
Yea, the guy who built it did a vac brake conversion, I asked him and he did use the vac peddle.
Found out it has 55lb injectors, 60mm turbo, 255lph fuel pump with hotwire mod, LT maf (thought that was, but confirmed) and translator box, said he had a translator plus and that it has dip switches in it with instructions on how to adjust it...
I am guessing that should be enough info to get an updated chip, right?

The car has 3/4 tank of fuel that was put in there in october, I know it is starting to go stale most likely, it was a blend of 110 and 93 according to the guy who had it last, as well as the smell. I guess I will have fuel for my tractor lol.
 
So, read up on the RA chip, alot said it caused rich running @ idle, and poor idle. The person who had the car for years and years said that it had always idled bad since they installed that chip, might be the issue.
I was looking at TT, and saw they offer a set of injectors and chip as a package. Being as the car had been sitting for several years up until 2011, would it just be best to replace the injectors instead of clean them or sending them out?
Not sure what it costs to have injectors serviced. I have only sent out diesel injectors before, those were reasonable.
 
Fuel delivery being as important as it is, if it were my car I would just get a new Chip and Injector combo. All things considered the cost is minimal. If on a budget, cleaning your 55's would also work but I don't know what they charge these days. Chuck Leeper on this board provides good injector cleaning services I hear. Might want to PM him.
 
I was already leaning towards just replacing the injectors, just because I really don't want to send them out only to find out one is bad and have to replace them anyways. I will PM Chuck when I figure out exactly what injectors I have, as of now I only know lb/hr rating. Thanks
 
Ok, winter finally ended for a bit, was able to get the car to my house, re-do all sortsa rigged bs including the hotwire... Last guy that only owned it for a short time said the fan kept running and that a relay have failed so he was just shoving a wire into the fuse box :fail:

ANyways, the relay was actually for the hot wire, he used a section of 18ga wire and shoved it into the 10ga hotwire to the fuel pump. Fuel pump now sounds so much better, car runs wayyyy better, less unburnt fuel. Assuming the low pressure was causing the injectors to just drizzle fuel instead of atomizing it.

Still have a long way to go. Fan still is on if the car is on, that doesn't really bother me as its better than no fan like before.

Re-connected the scan master. Not retarding at all, but the guy also turned the boost down to 12 psi.
Have to replace all vac lines still to be safe but none look cracked.

Car starts to get an erratic stall for no reason when it gets warm, like shutting the key off, lets out a backfire right before stalling sometimes. I am replacing the old unknown supplier coil pack and the ignition module as well. This thing is a bastardized birds nest of wires that I need to situate too.

Still have to replace the chip/injectors anyways just have not had the time to order, the over 10 year old MT Et's are cracked as well as the fronts, those are also up there on the priority list and should be getting swapped out this week for some radials this week...


Is there a complete wiring diagram available or a book?
All I could find was a generic book at the autoparts store, seems to just vaguely cover all g bodies...

Thanks

BTW, damn, just the injectors and chip combo is wayyyyy cheaper than ONE diesel injector lol, I was glad to see that ;)
 
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