mptank

Hello there ThirdGen.

I've been reading through these forums for years now for misc. issues people have answered, but only now have I decided to get an account and come out of lurker land, so hello :]. I apologize for posting a similar question in the General forum, but I figured the TPI forum may be a better place for this issue.

I have an 86 TA that I *believe* has a blown head gasket, it would get a bit hot and I couldn't drive it much. Prior to that, it needed the fuel injectors cleaned and shortly afterward (~1k miles) it started to develop the heating issue.

It would start, then a few minutes later idle really rough for a few moments (giving it fuel would cause it to die), then recover and the car would be fine again until next time it was started. Sometimes during its rough idles it would die completely and could only be restarted again by holding down the accelerator and turning it over several times in a row to get it started back up (sometimes it'd take several minutes). Shortly after around the time this started happening the car would get hot, which lead me to believe it was a head gasket issue.

I parked the car (so it never did get too hot and ruin) and due to circumstances at the time I had no time to work on it. It has been sitting in the garage for 5 years now, and I'd really like to get the car on the road again. The car has a sentimental value to me and I intend to keep it, and I'd hate to see it just sit there.

So here is my real question: Is there anything that comes to mind as to what could possibly be the issue if it isn't what I suspect (head gasket)? The engine is a 5.0l TPI LB9 V8. The engine itself has never had a rebuild and is sitting at around ~140k miles-ish. I was considering yanking the engine and doing a complete rebuild on it since it had so many miles and original parts, and I'd like to drive it for a while before issues start cropping up again.

If I were to go the rebuild route, what parts would you swap out on a stock TPI LB9 for better performance? I've heard the cam shaft ("peanut cam") weren't very great in those and should consider putting a better one in. What else would you do to get the most performance out of this LB9? I have several thousand dollars to put towards doing this, but frankly I have no clue what needs to be done to get the most bang for the buck of out this LB9. I was considering possibly converting it to carb, then boring it to a 350 (5.7l), but I'm no expert at all, so I was hoping you experts here can help point me in the right direction as to what I may be able to do/buy/swap to this stock LB9 to get the most out of it.

I really love this car, I'd really like for it to be the loud rough idling muscle car I know it can be. Thank you for taking the time to read, any advice at all would be appreciated. I intend to make this "that one fast car" every F-Body owner has that they wont depart with, no matter how much the wife hates it :].


** Please forgive me for any mistakes or misconceptions I may stated/posted-- the only cars I know well are 3rd gen F-Bodies and I never was an engine guy, I can rebuild them but know little little about performance.

Thank you for reading! Any input at all is appreciated.

Rolling Thunder

I kind of question the head gasket diagnosis. A blown head gasket may cause the car to overheat but there are good number of other things that come along with it like perhaps water in the oil or a bubbling overflow tank ect. I would certainly run a compression test at least before tearing down the motor. It kinda sounds like your running lean or perhaps too rich. As a random shot in the dark I would thoroughly inspect those fuel injectors for starters. Secondly do you have any trouble codes?

Camaro86IrocZ

iTrader: (1)

Start with the simple basics like resetting the iac and checking the tps voltage... I've had great luck with chevron techron products for keeping the injectors clean.. Distributor also has a piece that can go bad, and early 86's did ship with some bugged proms..