New Owner Questions

[Boss358C]

Hi Fellow Turbo Owners!! I recently purchased a very rough 87 Grand National that didn't run for $1000. After piddling with off and on for about 10-12 hours total me and my friends discovered the previous owner wired the Control Module wrong and had the Cam Sensor 180 degress out of time. After correcting these problems the car started instantly. The car hadn't been run in 2 years prior to this. Anyways the car has been in Germany for at least 6 years and the salt hasn't been kind to the doors, rocker panels, and rear fender wells. However the interior is in pretty good condition and th engine seems ok. Here are the major problems I am hoping all the other experienced owners can help with are:
The car wants to idle high, say around 2000 rpm, I get the brake light when I apply the brakes and then the pedal gets real hard having to apply a whole lot of pressure to stop it, the engine is lazy on the bottom end but begins to pull decent around 20 mph (it want do a burnout power braking), and the heater controls don't work, AC Compressor does though. The car has the PowerMaster brake system, I guess that's a pretty much standard on theses cars, the previous had a brake booster and Master cylinder so I assume he was gonna convert it. Is this a hard conversion and is it worth the hassle.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ash]

I would keep the powermaster brake thingy if i were you. Its nice to have your breaks still working when your engine goes out on the road. I had a simular problem with mine and i ordered a new one. Its a hassle to change out The new one was leaking internaly. With rebuild powermaster breaks its a hit or miss. I just changed out the accumulator on it and it worked fine. The accumulator tends to go bad. You can order a new one from Cottons preformance there not too expencive and its a heck of a lot easyer to change out then replaceing the entire unit. also make shure that the switch on the unit is black and not gray. the gray ones were recalled by buick a long time ago but i have seen a few GN's with the old switch. make shure that you bleed all the pressure out of the accumulator before you take it out or you will have a big mess on your hands. when you get the thing installed and working your break fluid will appear to be low. alot of people will tell you that you need to add more fluid when they see it but if you do the fluied will over flow when you hit the breaks and pop the cover off. this makes a big mess and its also a good way to strip off your paint. read up on the mowermaster break before you try to work on it. I will post the new link to gnttype.org that has all the info on breaks for you when I get home cause right now i am on a computer with an internet link that is slower then my satarn station wagon. unless sombody can post the link for you.
Good luck and enjoy your new ride when you get it going.

 

[Geoff87]

Welcome to the board! It sounds like you got a hell of a deal on that car!

As far as the conversion to vacuum brakes goes, it is a very easy conversion to do! Whether or not you should convert? Well, that is up to you. Lots of Pros and Cons for both.

I have been using vacuum brakes since 1996 with no problems whatsoever, and will never go back!

 

[Boss358C]

Another Problem

While diagnosing my PowerMaster problem we attempted to start the car to observe the Hydraulic motor operation with the car running. When we got ignition the engine backfired splitting my already cracked plenum. First question, where and how much would a good used plenum be and cost and would a bad control module cause the engine to backfire?
Thanks for the response guys!!!

 

[Ash]

I have a stock plenum i could sell you if you need it. Just e-mail me. As for the backfiring that is normaly caused by the cam sencer not being lined up perfect. there is a tool that plungs into the sencer with a light on it you need to find TDC on your #1 cylinder, line up your timing mark and turn the cam sencer untill the light comes on. You are going to have to look on the net for this tool or find sombody who has one unless there is another way to line it up. Sombody else here might know how to do that. you alsow need to change your plugs cause if the engine has backfired chances are that they are now fouled up. I had that backfire problem when the pin sheared on my cam sencer twice. It turned out that my engine was putting out too much power for the stock cam sencer. the fix was to put a ateel pin in it to hold it together.

 

[Ash]

Your powermaster brake should run with out starting the engine. Just turn on the ignition and you will hear is run for a few seconds then stop after it has enough pressure.

 

[Boss358C]

Ash you have mail, Thanks for your reply.

 

[Tommyg]

brakes

I don't know too much about these cars either but I just ordered a vacumn system to replace the powermaster system. I got tired of driving around never knowing if I can stop or not. I'll let you know how it works out once I've installed it. Tommy

 

[Ash]

I send you mail again but i am not shure that you got it cause my wife was being a pain in the a$$ and grabed the computer from me.

_______________
Wife for sale

 

[Russell Stover]

for the brakes look in the parts for sale section and you will find a post by red regal t. He sells kits and makes it very easy to do for you. Mine car was pretty rough to and if it wasn't for people I met on this board it would still be. Good luck.

 

[rose1mr]

Hey...I have a stock Plenum I will GIVE you! Just to get it out of my garage.

Pay the shipping & its your's my friend....one turbo buick dude to another!