The 1988 GTA

[L695speed]

ITS STARTING TO AWAKEN FROM ITS SLUMBER!!! It actually surprised me and fired while listening for the solenoid clicking. I have oil pressure and now have a place to start tomorrow. But it caught and fired briefly for a second or two on its first try.

[88WS-6]

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Woohoo!

[L695speed]

Originally Posted by 88WS-6

HELL YES! I'll have it running better sometime today or tomorrow. We're going to see the Batman flick at the Liberty Science Center so I may not have much time to play with it since we're cooking dinner early and I'm fixing my sister's flat... Speaking of sister's car, its hilarious. The GTA is parked on one side and her car being a 92 Mazda 323 hatch next to it. The GTA looks like a legit race car compared to that .

[L695speed]

ITS OFFICIALLY ALIVE!!! Ran for more than a minute without any loss in oil pressure or what not. But I gotta fix those vac leaks and timing needs to be fine tuned. It fired up and ran on the first try without any hesitation once I got the battery back up. I had to kill it because it was smoking from somewhere. Someone said its likely the rings needing to seal. The passenger exhaust is not 100% hooked up because of a crooked stud so that could be a factor too. NO leaks down below or anywhere as far as I can see. I really need another pair of eyes. TO be sure.

[greenformula92]

You will have some oil blow by until the rings fully seat which would explain the smoke

[L695speed]

Originally Posted by greenformula92

You will have some oil blow by until the rings fully seat which would explain the smoke

Yeah I forgot about that bit, someone else said the same. It was just a lil disconcerting bec it was so low to the ground and circulating weird. I didn't really want to get into it since we were supposed to head out in the evening and I had to cook dinner early. But tomorrow there should be nothing on the slate so I'll grab the timing light and set that it should be much better after that.

[L695speed]

Had it running for 30 minutes. No leaks, no smoking, no wild temp fluctuations. We're good to take it out. Get in, try to go, would barely creep at 3000. I was low on ATF big time even after I checked it....talk about an Auto trans noob mistake........

[1320B4U]

I loaded the rear hatch glove compartment w/moon rocks..sorry i forgot to tell you.

[L695speed]

Originally Posted by 1320B4U

I loaded the rear hatch glove compartment w/moon rocks..sorry i forgot to tell you.

BAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA. I deserve that. I thought I had some in it. Apparently more drained out than thought.... I honestly thought I had the brakes stuck from sitting for awhile. But I threw it in N and pushed and it moved easily, so then a friend texted me and said trans fluid. So I checked it. sure enough it was damn low, I added a qt and it still didin't show on the stick....

[L695speed]

And its on the street...only problem is speedo don't work but who needs speedos LOL. Seriously Matt did it work when you had it? If so what do I need to do to fix it. You're good as your word though, IT IS FAST compared to what my 84 was when I had that crap caprice motor in it. May be as quick as my bro's fiero.

[greenformula92]

check the vss plug

[L695speed]

Originally Posted by greenformula92

check the vss plug

THat was my first thought, it comes off the trans right? The only thing is I see the VSS referred to when dealing with digital gauges not the traditional analog ones. Are there two different setups or is it the same regardless of gauge cluster options for '88?

[//<86TA>\\]

the trans has an electric VSS, all birds after 85 had an electric on. On the tail shaft, driverside. It may have come off with all the work.

sorry about the trans being low, thats kinda my fault. You have to check it when its running and warm. When Matt and i took the front of the engine off to check for possible damper issues, we started it briefly without the radiator in the car, and the trans lines were going no where, so it barfed a bit of trans fluid everywhere, hence the shortage.

good to hear its up and running again!

[L695speed]

Originally Posted by //<86TA>\\

the trans has an electric VSS, all birds after 85 had an electric on. On the tail shaft, driverside. It may have come off with all the work.

sorry about the trans being low, thats kinda my fault. You have to check it when its running and warm. When Matt and i took the front of the engine off to check for possible damper issues, we started it briefly without the radiator in the car, and the trans lines were going no where, so it barfed a bit of trans fluid everywhere, hence the shortage.

good to hear its up and running again!

Ok I'll check that after I get the plates. And no worries about the trans, I'd just chalk it up to me being an auto trans noob. I drive manuals almost exclusively and I hardly ever check the trans fluid. No reason to unless something is wrong. With autos it seems you have to check it lol. I checked it when my buddy said check it and the car was running at the time had been running for some time too. I had it running while doing the timing and burping the cooling system. Had no leaks, no wild temp fluctuations, nothing to indicate a problem at all, oil pressure was good and steady, naturally changes when you push the RPMs up. But I don't see any reason to keep me from driving it whenever I want. Before I do that though, I'm having the local mechanic get that exhaust on for me and the vac leaks, I'll have him double check the trans fluid too make sure I didn't overfill it. Doesn't look like I did. But so far I'm impressed LOL. I'll have it at a meet soon enough, maybe I'll have it at the island meet if there is one there again.

[L695speed]

VSS is disconnected. I'm gonna go through the manual and search on TGO but if anyone knows off the top of their head what color the VSS wires are I'd appreciate it.

[L695speed]

I found it on TGO guys, it also answered the question of where this one square 4 pin connector went. Now I should know how fast I'm running, because if the 84 was any indication with a totally busted suspension, as I discovered, however fast you feel like you're going, you're really going like 20 MPH faster at least.....

[L695speed]

Plates on, speedo fixed. I drove it to the gas station 3 miles away, then came back and went past my house, probably a good 10 mile run speeds ranged from dead stop to 60 mph. Ran great, sounds great at speed, but I do need to get that exhaust fixed. I'll get pics when I get the chance. I still need to put the hood latch back in its place, but I think we can move this out of the project thread. Hell even the SES light didn't come on. But now I know something is out of wack on the daily...you know something is not right when a 25 year old car is more solid than a ten year old one.

[L695speed]

And now for the picture extravaganza! Excuse the mess, we use the garage for storage and cars. My brother is bad at putting stuff back where it belongs and some of the mess came from disassembly of the motor and etc. As I've said, I looked over the heads and decided to just clean up the chambers and leave them be.

Enough talk, time for the show.

Great another third gen in the driveway with no motor, now what?




Disassembly of the L98 not in order....but yeah.






Cause of death... Can see the bearing surfaces are grooved, totally destroyed.

[L695speed]

Pics continued....

Resurrection




















Putting it back where it belongs....






Finishing up...



I don't know if I have any further pics beyond that. But I will get more of it in places other than my driveway and in the air LOL.

[88WS-6]

Originally Posted by L695speed

And its on the street...only problem is speedo don't work but who needs speedos LOL. Seriously Matt did it work when you had it? If so what do I need to do to fix it. You're good as your word though, IT IS FAST compared to what my 84 was when I had that crap caprice motor in it. May be as quick as my bro's fiero.

Speedo worked fine. It didn't when I got the car because the PO put in the 3.70 gears, but I got that fixed. Details here:

http://www.njfboa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55254


Put a few hundred more miles on her, find some open road, brake stand it to 3k and hold on...

[88WS-6]

You should put your T56 into the GTA...

[L695speed]

Originally Posted by 88WS-6

You should put your T56 into the GTA...

You have no idea how tempted I am to do that............ But seeing as I am planning on picking up an engine for the 84, hopefully sometime this week, it seems kind of self defeating to take it back off the road. The T56 is already installed in the 84 and setup for it with the tailhousing machined for the mechanical speedo. So I would have to change more than just the trans. The 84 could very well be a runner before the year is out with a cash infusion for the machine work. I'll have to ask someone I know what he did with his Vortec heads to make the power hes making.

If I find another T56 for a steal like I did the first one......all bets are off as to what I do with it, it very well could go into the GTA.

[1320B4U]

What did you pay for the t56 you got by chance? complete??

[L695speed]

Originally Posted by 1320B4U

What did you pay for the t56 you got by chance? complete??

was 700 for the following from a 97 Z28 with like 93K miles on it,

Trans, bellhousing, slave (replaced slave as precaution), 4th gen pedals, hardware (though some was missing) clutch disc and pressure plate, flywheel, a 4th gen crossmember,

I had to get a fork and T pivot, and a shifter stick. I had the shifter but not the stick.

Naturally I had the housing machined to work with the mechanical speedo to save me the wiring hassle so it will work on cars with a mechanical speedo if change the gears to spec for mechanical speedo cars. But like I said, since its already setup for the 84 its kind of pointless. Especially since I theoretically could have the 84 on the street within a couple months after that. However, seeing as I'll be stroking the motor, it will be a lil more time before it sees the street under its own power.