TechSmurf

I coaxed my girl into her first car.. well.. not really.. I think I was holding her back with a leash trying to get a decent look at it before she bought it.. but anyway. '83 Firebird, LG4, in need of TLC.. Some parts are trashed, some are just plain missing.. but it's not in bad condition on the whole.. for the most part, every "normal" thing that wears on a thirdgen is royally screwed up.

Needs a hood. Any straight hood will do. $$ is the driving factor. The more you want to get rid of it, the more likely we are to help you

Power window motors and switches would be nice... interior door panels and possibly armrests (I don't recall if they were even in the car)... not sure on colors offhand.. interior looks like it was supposed to be white.. and there's more that we need.. I'll post a complete list in the next couple days when we get it over to the house and I can sit down and actually figure it out.

GTA4ME

I've got some parts, just post your list and I'll let you know!

elevario

I have a straight hood in need of some paint. I'll let you have it for 10 dollars if you want it. PM me and maybe we can work something out.


Edit: scratch that, just saw it was a firebird. Don't have that.

fast86z28

I sent you a pm

aziroc

an 83 'bird for a first car? i hipe its in really good mechanica condition or shes gong to be pissed here in a few months when **** starts breaking 4 no reason...

GTA4ME

That just makes it more INTERESTING!!!

TechSmurf

The price tag more than makes up for anything we run into down the road. I don't think we could have scored the wheels on this thing for the price we paid for the whole car under everyday circumstances.

If all hell breaks loose, we can part it out for serious profit and look at getting her something in better condition, but I'm going to at least attempt to ressurect it. I'm stubborn like that

82Z28NAZ

I have a set of headers on if you're interested. They're for 82-87 with the LG4

TechSmurf

Interested in headers, yes. Bolt up to stock Y-pipe? Have AIR tubes? $$?

TechSmurf

Well, manifolds/headers dropped off my concern list.. never realized the AIR tubes used NTP fittings.. heh. 8 block-off plugs later, she's alot quieter. Also plugged a bunch of vacuum leaks, and she's idling much better. Now I just need to start getting the vacuum and wiring setups in order. New plugs and wires going in tomorrow, she should be running on all 8.

TechSmurf

Augh.. I hate carbs. The cold idle is good, hot idle is now horrible. Borrowed a dwell meter and hopefully can get idle tuned to spec now. Engine sounds rather healthy free revving in park, though. Good throttle response.

The smoke previous owners warned us about has been traced to the valve covers, which are a little loose, covered in sludge, and probably need new gaskets anyway... and here I thought he meant it was smoke out the tailpipe indicative of shot valve seals... should make her a little more friendly working under the hood with her running

Every time I get under the hood of this car I seem to just find more and more proof of neglected maintainence, and less and less proof of serious mechanical problems. I love this... gf paid almost nothing for a car that needs a boatload of TLC and relatively few actual parts.. and now I can tell her to get her hands dirty, too.. it's her car, she better be doing some of the work

Justins86bird

Going to go on a low carb diet?

Ahh, the q-jet. SO misunderstood. But they are great carbs. Totally disassemble it and give it a good rebuild. Then tune it and be happy

TechSmurf

Yeah.. probably a good idea.. but we can't afford a rebuild kit right now, so I'm just going to keep tapping away at every little problem I see. Need to get my laptop in that car and see if the ECU has any hints on the problems, and get the dwell meter in to make sure the idle bleed and mixture are in spec.

Now when tax returns come back.. that's a different story

TechSmurf

Alright.. got half of the plug wires replaced.. tightened down the valve cover and the leak slowed dramatically.. got her idling hot and hooked up a dwell meter to the MC solenoid dwell test so I could set the idle air bleed.. and...... the idle air bleed affects absolutely nothing... I'm really starting to wonder about these vehicles

Justins86bird

Clear the ECM and try again.

TechSmurf

from what I understand, adjusting the idle air bleed should have an immediate affect on MC dwell and idle quality during adjustment.. haynes even goes so far as to say it's extremely sensitive and should be done in 1/8 turns.. but I can bottom the thing or almost remove it with no change whatsoever in between... but yeah.. can't hurt to blank the ecu. Gotta find a way to do it on this car that's easier than unhooking the battery.. too lazy

Justins86bird

Depends on how far other adjustments are off. If they are way wrong the IAB will never get to the dwell you want. Whats the dwell reading? How much range do you have between the lean and rich stops and how many turns out are the mixture screws? And replace that fuel filter. NOW!

TechSmurf

lol.. new fuel filter was purchased days ago and is going in after I finish the plug wires..

Idle dwell seems to be stuck at 30 degrees, as if it's stuck in open loop... the dwell flutters a little bit, but as I said, IBV adjustment has absolutely no bearing on the situation. I haven't even touched the MC lean/rich stops or the idle mix screws yet, though I've been doing research on the carb board concerning them. As I said, I've never really played with a carb, so I'm trying to take this one step at a time to understand what each individual thing does before tackling something else. Hopefully by May I'll be able to just tear into the thing at will

Over the past week I've put about half a 19 oz can of gumout carb cleaner down the throat of this thing, and it seems to be improving on a daily basis, so it could just be dried fuel deposits working their way out. Yes, I know, rebuild it... working on finding a spare qjet first to play with so I know what I'm dealing with when I go to do that.. need a good understanding of this carb anyway.

TechSmurf

GAH!!! forget it! I quit! The carb's coming off! Can't take it any longer!

Sprayed some gumout into the bowls and let it sit while I finished changing the plug wires (plug wires look VERY nice.. especially on the solid black background *shudder*) and it appears to have knocked some of the gunk in there loose... and clogged the jets.

The idle mixture plugs are missing, so they've been tampered with.. who knows where the idle bleed is now.. I'm gonna spend about another hour tinkering with the damn thing tomorrow, and if nothing good happens, I'm pulling the carb off to rebuild it. period. It's bad.

Ooh.. and behold, my gf has keen eyes. I may have never noticed, but one of the terminals on the dist cap is bent and loose! heh.. more accel parts (unless someone knows where I can buy a blue or clear copper-internal dist cap)