Newbie w. New GN

[bryes]

I bought mine new 1 year ago. Unlike yours It doesn't heat up and fade away, instead it fades away the moment the engine fires.
I just wonder if I don't have a bad diode in the alternator. I tested it when I had it apart and something didn't seem right. I was using a method from a little bit different model though so I attributed it to this and user error. I'm pretty sure it isn't charging, so that will be the first thing I try now. I'll do that and run the wire right from the battery. Hopefully between the two I'll be able to read the data the next time I fire it up. It's going to be awhile because I'm going to Ohio for a week over labor day.

[Steve Wood]

put your meter on AC volts and the probes on the battery posts...see what reading you get

[bryes]

I assume you meant to probe for AC volts when the car is running? If so it will be awhile before I get a chance.
 
 
For possible future reference, the battery itself is disconnected and brand new,  and shows about 12.5 v DC when probed.
 

[daveismissing]

It would be interesting to disconnect power to the scanmaster start the car then power it up.
What would the displayed sequence be?

[Steve Wood]

I assume you meant to probe for AC volts when the car is running? If so it will be awhile before I get a chance.
 
 
For possible future reference, the battery itself is disconnected and brand new,  and shows about 12.5 v DC when probed.

yep....

if a diode is bad, you will find a larger AC voltage.  Normally, it should be less than half a volt

[bryes]

Well I've been working on the car this weekend and a little bit last,  so I have some progress to report. I've successfully fixed several gremlins and a couple of demons, mostly of my own doing, but I still have a few more.

The motor is finally running good and broken in.  I found out at least one spark plug wire wasn't snapped completely into the spark plug which made it miss. It was the one I pulled off to test the ignition. Now it starts well and idles nice, seems pretty good at higher revs but I'll pass final judgement when its on the road. I've adjusted tps to 0.42 and iac was at 20.... I think, I'll double check that.

Before it was running right, the motor also started making some additional racket. I'd describe it as a metallic white noise sound at the front of the engine, with distinct regular "banging" to go with it. I thought it was my power steering pump, but found the problem when i noticed my serpentine belt was being chewed up. The water pump pulley bolts had loosened and I caught them just before they started flying off!

I had to replace the coolant temp sensor which was showing -36. As it turns out one of the blades was bent so wasn't engaging into the female end. I replaced it with a new one anyway.

The radiator has a leak at the inlet tube where the solder has broken loose. The upper hose was stuck badly, so I probably damaged it when I removed it. I sand blasted it tonight in preparation to re-solder tomorrow.


The scanmaster still fades out at elevated rpms, at least it is clear at idle. I probed for AC volts and it was < 0.5 V, additionally the system shows about 13.8 volts at idle, so seems like it might be charging ok. I think I'll try to mess with the connections, seems like it must be something easy.

The main problem now is that darn oil leak that is shown in a picture a few posts back. Oil was leaking right where I drew that arrow, I even ran it without the intercooler a bit to make sure it wasn't leaking down from another place. I have ran the motor long enough now, so I decided to change the oil and take apart the pump to fix the leak.

I thought maybe I left some bolts loose on the oil pump housing, but when I was pulling it apart they were tight and I remember using my 1/4" torque wrench. When I took the pump apart the gasket that was leaking looked good and had a nice pattern all the way around, so I could find nothing visually   to explain why it leaked.

I wonder if the front cover doesn't have a defect that is causing this leak. There was probably a 1/2" of old nasty greasy oil coating the intercooler bracket, which is right where this leak winds up. I thought it was just from oil filter changes, but when I pulled the filter off today the oil missed that bracket. What do you guys think? Do most buicks have oil buildup on that bracket?

I'm not sure what the best approach to use when I put the pump back together, but I hate the thought of throwing silicone at it, because it will squeeze right into the pump gear. I'm thinking about maybe using gasket sealant,  and make darn sure to use as little as possible.

Hopefully a local store has that gasket too, anyone have the pt #?

As always thanks in advance for your responses.

Bryes

[Steve Wood]

is there a crack in the housing?  that is common.  Could it be the o ring behind the adapter?

No silicone!  you don't want to screw up the clearance

[bryes]

I looked for a crack, but couldn't see anything. I did find a small dimple high spot using layout die that I was able to polish out before I reassembled the oil pump, this time with gasket adhesive. I ran out of time before I had a chance to prime the engine, but hopefully I'll be able to verify the leak when I do.


I soldered up the inlet tube in the radiator, painted the affected area and re-installed it into the car. So at least that is done.


Hopefully I'll have the car back on the road this year, assuming that these issues are fixed, the major hurdles going forward are:


1: Fix PM or convert to vacuum (Brake light is on continuously).
2: Tires all around (I'd like to replace my crappy rims with OEMs,  I need 2 more for a complete set.).
3: Rear Window
4: Repair hole in DS floor. (I'm going the easy (if there is such a thing) route with this one for now)


I've got a trip to south dakota coming up in a couple of weeks, so I might not be getting a whole lot done until November.

[daveismissing]

You need to test that scanmaster in another car

[bryes]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't know of anyone on the Savannah who has a GN to test it with. Also I did a real hack job to wire up the SM and gauges because the ds door doesn't open wide enough in that shed for me to do a decent job. Now that I can pull it out I hope that the problem won't be too evasive.

I hate to jinx myself but it looks like the engine is a done deal... well as done as a project like this is ever going to be. I primed the oil with a drill the other day, and ran it today for about 20 minutes and from what I can tell  the oil leak is now fixed. Also, my radiator seems to be fixed as well, no leaks at my solder joint that I saw.

Tomorrow I'm going to get after the Powermaster. The brake light is on continuously and I have never heard it making any noise like I've read it should. Also, the brakes feel terrible and are the same whether the ignition is on or not even after pumping them about 20 times. I’ll have to start going through the checklist that I’ve seen on TB unless someone knows of a better troubleshootin g guide to start with.
 
I knew this was an issue awhile back, so I have been able to piece together all the parts for a working PM unit (in theory at least), so I’ll be able to swap out parts if not the whole thing.
 

[earlbrown]

On the oil pump, don't use any sealer. none, nada, zilch.  Once you pick out the gasket and get the clearances where you want it, match port the gasket to make sure none of the material is in the way of the ports, then soak it with oil so it swells a little. After a minute or three torque the filter adapter down.  If both surfaces are boogar and scratch free, there will be no leaks.

When the scanmaster fades out what is the DC voltage on the line?  An overcharging event can shut down electronics too.  You might be able to test the scanmaster by powering it up in another car. I can't recall what it does after it doesn't see a data signal. It might stay on enough to see if it flakes out.

[Steve Wood]

thought I told him not to use sealer on it...but, I figured it was too late and he was happy so....

[bryes]

Sorry Steve, I hate that it seems like I ignored your advice, but I read it as saying to not use silicone in particular... but my impression was that gasket adhesive (gaskacinch) was OK bc a small amount would have less (negligible?) impact on clearances. Judging by the side of the gasket that is visible after I was finished, there wan't anything major oozing out, which  happens when I use silicone.


Earl, thanks for the advice as always. My first attempt at sealing that oil pump was done using the method you describe. I couldn't find the reason why it failed, so I tried the different approach.  I just wonder if my pump cover is a little out of spec or something, because judging by the oil buildup on the intercooler bracket, I think it is likely that it was leaking from the same spot before I tore it down. Maybe that high spot that I polished down was at fault, but I was more comfortable using gasket adhesive in case it wasn't.


Am I right though that the end game is good oil pressure (and a clean driveway)? Mine's like 75 cold and I didn't see it drop much yesterday. Or am I missing whole point?

[Steve Wood]

Long as it has good oil pressure on a hot day after a few full throttle blasts, it is okay

[earlbrown]

Maybe that high spot that I polished down was at fault, but I was more comfortable using gasket adhesive in case it wasn't.

If you hand lapped the filter adapter, pay close attention to the ring of material outside of the ovaled outlet hole.  If the sandpaper curls up ANY it will raduis that section and could possible cause a leak. That section of gasket holds back full pump outlet pressure so it really needs to be flat and square.  What I like to do is after I make my figure 8's, I drag the cover in a straight line for about 2~3 inches (with that outlet port on the trailing side).   If you're lapping correctly, that thin ring will have the parallel lines on it.  If it's low or radiused, the anomaly will light up like a chrimmus tree.