Assorted ramblings and bolt-ons with Daniel and George

[Century7667]

Keep these posts coming. You're in the same exact setup as I am in. '96 in a garage.

Thanks,
Ken T.

[Duke George V]

*crickets chirping*
*tumbleweed rolls by*

Drivetrain out. Obligatory stand in the engine bay photo.


I forgot to drain the transmissin before yanking it. It made a mess.


Need to clean the subframe. It's grody.


Went out to southern California and met up with Nick Ferrari (user Electra_T_Type) who gave me a set of these wheels:


They're from a LeSabre T-Type. 15 x 6. Look for them on the wagon in the near future.

[Keiths1976]

I so want a set for the century I might have someone down at Florida . Daniel how do the center caps sit inside that ?

[Duke George V]

I so want a set for the century I might have someone down at Florida . Daniel how do the center caps sit inside that ?

They clip in similarly to the Malibu caps you and I are using.

[Keiths1976]

Ahh awesome thank you my friend ! I wasn’t sure of if they were bolted in somehow

[Duke George V]

New whitewalls on the sedan.


Developed a coolant leak in the sedan. This is not unexpected. Last summer it came close to overheating, and I found a severely clogged radiator to be the culprit. When I pulled the petcock valve, nothing came out, but the coolant level was fine. I changed it out for the one in my parts car, and now it's leaking. No big. I ordered an all-aluminum replacement from Rock Auto, similar to the one I picked up for the wagon a while back. Core is 1/4" thicker, which is nice. I will also replace the thermostat, since that appears to have stuck open. Symptoms are lack of heat on the commute and the converter not locking up/unlocking while cruising due to low coolant temp.

I have lined up a local shop to rebuild the transmission for the wagon. Hopefully it can be slammed back in in the next few weeks.

[CorvairGeek]

Awesome! What brand? I'm running Hankook WWs on both Century's and my Caprice.

[Duke George V]

Awesome! What brand? I'm running Hankook WWs on both Century's and my Caprice.

Same. Hankook Optimo in stock 195-75-14 size. I'm rethinking the VR wheels though, since they're wider than the stock steels, so the tires look funky. Stretched, I guess? I mean, the car rides the same as before, so I'm probably worried over nothing.

I got new tires installed on the LeSabre/Reatta wheels I got from Nick Ferrari. Tiger Paws in 215-60-15. I also ordered some center caps from ebay. Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/362539325457

Nick wasn't able to scare up a full set of the black caps, and I can't abide capless wheels on my car.

[CorvairGeek]

Same. Hankook Optimo in stock 195-75-14 size. I'm rethinking the VR wheels though, since they're wider than the stock steels, so the tires look funky. Stretched, I guess? I mean, the car rides the same as before, so I'm probably worried over nothing.

I've always thought they looked skinny myself, especially on the '96 Custom. Somewhere I read it has 14x6 wheels rather than the 14x5.5 on the '92, but don't know if that is accurate. I took off 205/70/R14 Michelin's before these, so it was like night and day. So few choices in what used to be a popular size, especially if you want WWs.

[papawhellie]

I was wondering what brand loaded van strut you went with. I?m a little wary of eBay cheaper options but the name brand if Monroe is such a thing are scary also. I bought some moog cutlass cruiser direct replacements but have not yet installed them. Those springs are listed for front but looks like they really helped your stance. My cruiser needs them also. The new Gabriel shocks made little impact on the ocean liner sweels.

[Duke George V]

I was wondering what brand loaded van strut you went with. I?m a little wary of eBay cheaper options but the name brand if Monroe is such a thing are scary also.

Monroe 171820 quick struts. I've been using Monroes for a while. The only time I've had issue with them is when I bought a set for my old Trans Sport from Rock Auto many years ago and they showed up broken. Rock Auto refunded me without complaint though. Part number for the cars is 171771 if you were wondering. Also, I recommend using KYB KG5555 shocks on the rear, and some variable rate springs. Check my post in this thread from April 11, 2018, for part numbers and installation tips.

[Duke George V]

Here's how I started the day. With my LeSabre wheels. They're a bit grody, but will be serviceable. Time to fit those fancy center caps I grabbed from ebay!



Yeah, that looks great. Fits perfectly.


Um... not really.


Turns out, they do not fit in the slightest. This is despite the fact that I searched for the same year LeSabre, and made sure the cap and the inside of the wheel where it would mount were the same diameter. I guess 8-1/4" is not 8-1/4". Well, lesson learned. At least they were "only" $10 each. Maybe Hub Cap Annie will buy them from me?

Time to move on to the meat and potatoes of the day.


I guess when you buy an engine from LKQ, they REALLY want you to remember where you got it from.


Air tools are loud. Definitely wear hearing protection. I bought these at a NASCAR race, so they should work well enough, yeah?


Draining the transmission for transport.


Pan does not look good.


Yuck.


Wipe off the magnet...



That would explain the seven neutrals. I thought that was only a 4L60E thing though???

If the pan and magnet look like that, what horrors lie within this guy?


Then my brother showed up. He recently picked up this '04 Silverado. 5.3, 2WD, cloth interior, looks like LT package (debadged by a previous owner).


He shall be my courier since I don't have the use of my station wagon at the moment. Kind of silly, that it would be piss easy to transport the wagon's transmission to the rebuilder if the wagon were working.

So there are two units in this image. The one on the left, with the blue converter still attached, is the wagon's. The one on the right is a used one I grabbed back in early 2018, from a 1996 Grand Prix. That will be the parts donor, since the GP trans was of unknown provenance. I chose to not believe the owner's pleas of "ran when pulled, only pulled due to engine knocking". The donor shall give up the drive chain and sprockets, so that my overdriven drive will turn into direct drive, for that sweet sweet 3.33 final drive.


Aw, he looks so sad without his dance partner.


I mean yeah, I could buy this stuff, but rather than take the chance of not properly flushing out the cooler, I bitched out and bought a new one. And why not upgrade while I'm at it?


The new one is like twice the height of the old one. Bigger is better, right? Especially in this car, which I beat on mercilessly.



Okay, yeah, I probably will buy that flush in a can, and if it works well enough, I'll install the small guy on the yellow sedan. What could possibly go wrong?

[Duke George V]

Carnage time!

One half of the transmission oil pump housing:


Other half:


Valve body:


Input shaft, I guess it's called?


That bit is still inside the converter, I would imagine:


Another hard part I forgot what the guy called it:


Draggin' ass.


The 4T60E weighs somewhere around 170 lbs empty.


Looks like the oil pump broke, among other things, which is why I had nothing either forward or reverse. There was also the expected roasted clutches and accumulator pistons and springs and other things I can't remember the names of. When I break shit, I put my entire ass into it. No half measures. I provided a donor trans as well?the '96 Grand Prix unit?which gave its valve body, drive chain and sprockets (1:1), and probably other hard parts. I need to go back and pick up my converter tomorrow, which will be similar to the one I was running before. Woven clutch (PWM and on-off compatible), 2095 stall. I will also be pouring in some Dexron VI, in a bid to increase longevity.

[turbokinetic]

Carnage time!
...
Looks like the oil pump broke, among other things,.

Hi Daniel. That failure is sort of common with the 440T4 / 4T60E pump bearing. The shaft will spall and fail in that manner at the journal where the roller bearing rides. Once it completely falls apart, it will lock up the pump and cause it to shear the shaft. It's aggravated by cheap Chinese shafts; as well as running high modulator pressures over many years.

I always always always replace that shaft with an OEM one or a name brand if OEM is not available. Once that failure happens, it usually causes massive contamination in the valve body and it's darn near impossible to get the valves to shift smoothly again.

The 4T65E pump bearing and shaft design improved on that.

[Duke George V]

There was progress. Then there was regress. Then there was progress.

First off, I entreated my wife to do some cleaning for me in the engine bay. Years of oil leaks on the old 3.1 left the subframe quite gross.


Grody.



Torque converter. (It's in the box) It's a BU21W service number, which is a woven clutch and 2095 stall, basically the highest stall you could get stock on a V6 of the era. If I wanted higher, it would have to be specified for, like, a Quad 4, which gets a bit silly (2795 I think).



Hard at work.



While she was doing that, I set myself to an equally important but incredibly tedious task: filling the converter with oil.


Dexron VI was recommended by the builder, so I bought some of the good stuff.


With the subframe as clean as it was going to get, I blasted it with some water to rinse everything, then blasted it with air to dry it, then blasted it with high heat black so it doesn't rust. Yeah, Las Vegas doesn't have rust, but whatever.


Then I was an ape, and broke something, which killed my motivation for a couple weeks.



Instead of, you know, taking it easy and being patient about lining the engine and transmission up before I bolt them together, I tried to force them together by tightening the bolts. This made quite the noise, I'm sure you can imagine.

After consulting with my brother, who is a metal worker, and someone else at the shop who does most of the aluminum work there, I was told to "send it". So I did.


Engine and transmission are now remarried.



That was quitting time, since it's only just the end of April and summer is already creeping back in.

In the mean time, I also have to deal with this piece of shit leaving me actually broken down on the highway. (yes this image was taken in a parking lot so what big whoop wanna fight about it)


After about 30-40 minutes of driving, it will just stall and not restart for a very long time. I am suspecting it's the crank position sensor shorting out and overheating (is that a thing?), which is a kick in the dick to replace on this car. It's behind the balancer, but that's not really the difficult part (although the 220 ft-lbs of torque on the crank bolt adds to the fun). The sensor has to be a certain distance away from the reluctor, but I don't know what that distance is, and neither does the part. The part comes on a bracket that has adjustment built in to it, and I did not have very good luck on my MIL's old Bonneville several years ago when it went out on it. That era of 3.3 and 3.8 shared that part of the ignition system. Probably going to hire a mobile mechanic to diagnose it while I'm at work, and probably do the job if it is the CKP.