The Beater Thread

[KC10Chief]

Thanks Matt, now I just spent 6 hours reading your Dad's story. Makes me wanna sattle my bike and go somewhere.
Say hello for me and tell him that he is a real inspiration to me.

Thanks! Will do. You can send him an E-mail too if you like. It's fulks19@aol.com.

 

[Crazy]

Very cool trip. I'd be lucky to make it to the store. I love the name of the website.

 

[the_experience03]

and crimped off the gizmo that returns air to the airbox in case of too much pressure (not sure what that's called)

Don't leave that clamped off if you're going to drive it. The purpose is to release boost pressure in the intake piping back to the turbo when the throttle plates shut. It helps keep the turbo spooled so you have some boost after you shift, but more importantly it also keeps the turbo from spinning relatively easily moving compressed air to a darn near stalled position trying to push against pressure without anywhere to go.

7 psi is not very impressive, but I'm not sure I would condemn the turbo right away. I think you're on the right track looking for leaks. It also might not be a bad idea to clean up the wastegate. When turbos go it's usually the bearings (as I'm sure you know) which will make a lot of noise, burn some oil, etc, but won't really affect boost pressures unless the shaft seals REALLY take a dive. If the compressor blades were bunk and causing it to not build pressure I think you'd know by the pieces of metal going into the engine.

 

[lapeer20m]

the wastegate is highly suspect. Now it's literally freezing cold outside so it'll take a while for me to get the ambition to tear it apart.

 

[the_experience03]

Any snow yet? Freezing is nothing new...I've been scraping the windshield every day for atleast 3 weeks...but this white stuff from the sky...yuck.

 

[phillbus914]

I intercepted my roommates junkyard bound 94 Plymouth Acclaim last week. It blew a head gasket on his way home from work, and he bought a new car. The junkyard offered him 200 bucks for it, but I decided to fix it and give him the $200. I spent a few hours a day for the past few days workin on it and it's done, I've spent about $100 total in parts... I figure if I sell it for 800, I'll make $500. Not bad for about 8 hours work.

Here's the add I just put on craigs list.

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/car/468902649.html

The add's been up for about 3 hours now, and I've already had 2 calls and one email on it.

woo hoo!

I just sold that Plymouth that I fixed up last week. I got $900 for it, have to pay the roommate $200 for the car, spent $125 in parts - so I made $575 profit.

Oh the link on craigs list isn't good anymore, I'm pulling the add so I stop getting calls on it.

 

[lapeer20m]

congrats! i'll stop by later tonight so you can take me out for dinner to celebrate.


I swapped out the turbo on my tsi today. The turbo was just fine, but the wastegate was bad on the old housing. The hole the little flipper is supposed to cover was significantly enlarged rendering the wastegate usless.

The new turbo/wastegate is amazing! it's like hitting the little blue bottle every time you step on the throttle.

if i had kids, i wouldn't let them have a turbo talon!

 

[the_experience03]

I'm kind of curious how that cast iron housing got hollowed out. Huh...

Those little DSM's are supposed to fly with just the addition of a manual boost controller to the wastegate and a free flow intake and exhaust.

 

[bdavis441]

I've had so many beaters, I don't know where to start. The current is a 1994 Geo Tracker bought for $250, put on a new top and tires, fixed a few things and have a nice little commuter for about $700. My wife works nights, I work days. We both drive it to work and keep the big trucks on reserve (2500 suburban 4x4, hers, 2500 Ram 4x4, mine). The little thing hardly ever sits still. Had a 1989 VW fox, nice little car, got it in trade for a truck I traded for a $100 motorcycle. I just traded the Fox for a 1995 F150. As you can see, I like to deal. Another noteworthy beater was the 77Nova 4door with 300K miles, drove it to Daytona from Indy with plastic for driver's side windows and the axle propped up on 4x4 blocks due to broken leaf springs. Got over 20mpg! I always keep a cheap car around so I can still have my trucks and not go broke buying fuel.

 

[phillbus914]

My new beater

I just bought another fixer uper off craigs list. It's a 95 Chevy Lumina that was posted as needing paint and a battery, asking $350. I brought a battery with me when I went to go look at it. I forgot that a battery in a Lumina is buried under the washer tank and a brace. Anyway about 1/2 hour later I got it to start. The motor seems to run good, and it drives ok and it has 2 new tires on it.

It does have a strange issue I have to figure out before I can sell it. When the engine is started cold it runs fine, but once it's warmed up it has a hard time starting and hesitates/stalls. It seems like it's not getting fuel, or maybe the throttle position sensor is bad... although I don't know why that'd happen only when warmed up.

Anyway once I get that figured out, I should be able to flip it for a profit. I only paid $310 for the car.

 

[the_experience03]

Start ohming the sensors. I would GUESS that the coolant temp sensor is acting up just based on the hot/cold thing. Other things to look at that commonly went on those cars would be the TPS like you said, a faulty MAP sensor (between the engine and firewall...single vacuum line, 3 wire connector), and the idle air on those things gets MIGHTY dirty over time. Take it apart, clean it with throttlebody cleaner, put it back together, and prepare for it to take a long time to relearn idle.

 

[bdavis441]

hey phil, that's my kind of car right there! That's how I paid for my bus, by flipping crappy cars!

 

[pete c-SKO]

slap a new fuel filter in there just for the heck of it. could also be some sort of sensor. how many miles on it? it looks pretty nice other than the peeling paint.

 

[phillbus914]

I was thinking fuel filter at first too, except that now I notice that it's only acting up when the engine's warmed up and restarted. I'm going to test the TP sensor with my fancy ohm meter that I never use and go from there. I was reading a little online last night and that seems to be a common problem.

The car has 206,000 on it, but I guess they're mostly highway miles.

 

[the_experience03]

Sensors are the devil on those GM cars. At about 175,000 miles they start to go. None of the sensors are particularly expensive, but for the common person it can add up in labor and downtime. For you, on the other hand, it should be a simple cheap fix. If you don't still have access to All Data or Mitchell let me know and I can get you whatever test procedures and crap you need.

 

[phillbus914]

Well I replaced the throttle position sensor on it last week, I tried to test it with my Ohm meter but it was hard to do with the tiny pins on the sensor. It felt real loose, like it was broken inside - so I figured I'd try a new sensor. Well as soon as I put it on and started the car I noticed it idles at 1700 RPM's now... I went out and drove it and it coughed and sputtered but seemed to clear up.

Well it's been sitting for about a week and today I drove it and it's idling high and sputtering a lot worse now. Do these things have to relearn? Should I have cleared something - maybe by disconnecting the battery? Maybe I got a bad sensor... I don't knwo... Stupid Chevys.

 

[the_experience03]

Yes, they need to relearn and it can take up to 30 minutes of idling to do so. Try pulling the PCM fuse or the negative battery cable (your choice) for half an hour (longer than necessary, but muh...) and then try it again. Don't be worried about it acting a little funny, atleast at first. If it continues to give you problems, however...

 

[pete c-SKO]

after you pull the battery cable, step on the brake pedal for a few seconds. Any pesky electrons left loitering around will be sucked out through the tail lights.

 

[phillbus914]

Well that made a big difference. Now it idles normally, and starts right up. There's still the occasional stumble on acceleration. I'm gunna drive it some more tomorrow, and maybe clean out the IAC.

I put the add up on craigs list already; thinking that I'd start high on my price, and I'd have it running smooth by the time someone was ready to buy it. I've had 3 people email me asking about it already. Here's my add... http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/car/497921804.html

I've found that when selling a beater, the less you describe the car the better. We sold my girlfriends 93 Intrepid in 5 hours with a 3 line add once. Something like "93 Dodge Intrepid Runs, drives $600 obo" 5 hours later we sold it for $500 bucks, we must have had 10 calls on it. It was such a heap - she was ready to take it to the junk yard (that's what kind of shape it was in)

 

[Crazy]

Is that why no mention of beater status?