Last year my dads friend decided to sell both his 1988 Firebird Formula 350's. The deal was a red working car and a blue parts car (blown motor, no interior) for $2000. My parents bought them for me for my 17th birthday for $1800. They brought the red one up here for me and left the blue one at my dad's friends house (will finally be brought up here within 2 weeks of now).

The car was manufactured in Van Nuys, and originally sold in Texas. The original dealer glued a little cast-iron texas emplem to the left rear-bumber. Bill Waterson's, I think.

At the time I didn't have my liscence (and still don't.. For financial reasons we decided to wait untill I was 18...3 days from now), and since I "got" the car, it has sat in my driveway and has been driven very little. All told, I've driven it for maybe a total of 15 minutes.

I know that sitting is VERY bad for cars, and I generally tried to keep it in running condition by going out every so often and let it run for a bit. Over the past year, I've had to jump the battery 5+ times and fill the tires three times (and one more before I can drive it again). Is this just a product of sitting without being driven, or do I need to fork over the money for a new battery and tires? The battery is an interstate that's only a few years old, and the water reservoir inside is full. The tires were supposed to be fairly new - my dads friend bought the set for $600 only a few months before selling the car.

Also, it smokes. When I first start it after not having it run for a while, white smokes comes from the exhaust. Is this normal? I'm not sure what exhaust system it has, but I was told that it had a flowmaster put in at some point.

It not only smokes, but it steams. When I run it for 15-20 minutes and pop the hood, the coolant reservoir is at a rolling boil and sometimes emits steam. The temp gauge seems to be reading normal, so I ask again: Is this normal?

Also, the headlight motors are broken, and appear to have been wired to stay up with...wire hangers?

I was also told, when I got it, that it needed new shocks and the tranny sticks a little. I was supposed to be able to pull the shocks and tranny (in better condition) from the blue car, but i'm sure that after sitting a year (or more? I dunno when the engine blew) the shocks and tranny aren't that much better than the red car.

Another thing... I know there were 2 recalls done on the '88 Formula's: seatbelt buckles and fuel hose assembly. Even though I'm not the original owner, can I get these taken care of for free? Or will pontiac charge me for 'em? The drivers side buckle is already trashed, and I'm sure the passenger side isn't far behind it.

I tried to do my homework with this car, but I'm sure I'm missing something. Or lots.

With the exception of gas, all the fluids have been filled and refilled. I know a little about cars, but won't deny that I'm a complete and utter newb. This is my first car, and I want to be the last owner that this car will ever have. With some love, this could be one sexy beast.

Can anyone give me any advice or tips?

The reason I post this in SoCal is because I was wondering if anyone might be willing to stop by and show me around the car (I live in the Valencia area -- Think of Six Flags Magic Mountain). Like I said, I want to put this car in great working order, and hopefully be the last owner it ever has. I dunno how I could pay you, aside from buying you lunch or if you want any graphics/web design work done.

here's some pics of my mom in the car when she first gave it to me (July 27th, 2004). It looks the same now, with the exception of new seat and stearing-wheel covers

Thanks a lot,
--Derek

 

Looks good

Lonsal - Owner TDS can definitely help you out with the window motors.

The smoke emitted from the exhaust is most likely due the valve seals begin a bit worn in the heads, they do not seal completely thus oil leaks down once it burns with the fuel it comes out of the exhaust as smoke - while this is not uncommon it is not normal either. Just keep an eye on the oil level and obviously get it repaired if it smokes quite a lot once you start driving it more.

I would flush the coolant system and see if perhaps there is a blockage causing the steaming, make sure you check the hoses from and to the radiator, make sure they all retain their shape and that they do not collapse.

I would just also do a bit of maintenance to replace parts on a schedule, fuel filter, ignition module, PVC (when you do the oil change), air filer, etc.

I would also avoid running all sorts of fuel addatives through the system, just run it for a while once it gotten used to driving, although people might tell you the addatives will help I would just give the car a chance to get used to being driven, also some of us have not had the best experience with fuel addatives.

I hope some of this info helps

 

Steam out the exhaust is normal while it is warming up (condensation occurring in the exhaust when the hot exhaust gases meet the cold steel exhaust pipe). If it continues to steam once the car is hot, then you have a problem (most likely a bad head gasket or intake gasket).

These cars did not come with valve seals from the factory, so a little puff of bluish smoke on startup is normal. Once the valves start to wear a bit, it will start to burn oil and play hell with making a smog check an easy task. If it's burning a quart or more of oil betwen changes, it's probably time for a valve job.

If you are going long periods of time between driving/starting it, it is probably best to disconnect the battery when it is not driven.

If the seat belts do not have a small metal clip on the female end next to the red release button (it is on the outside of the buckle and is obvious) and/or the red button is seriously discolored or deteriorating, then it was probably never taken in for the seat belt recall.

That's a very clean looking Formula- take care of it and hope to see it in person someday!

 

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll probably look into new headlight motors last, as I want to focus on the aesthetic things later...The lights work, just don't go down.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that there is a popping noise when I rev it up any significant amount. My friend had a similar problem with his '77 Camaro (2nd gen.. I know, I know. I feel bad for him too) and he said it was a deteriorating vacuum hose. Think it could be the same problem? Where else should I check for problems?

Drop-top, you'll see it someday. I want to go to one of the 3gen meets that you guys hold every so often (Didn't find out about the July 16th BBQ untill yesterday. ), so if you're ever around there, you'll hopefully see me.

 

Window motors? Help for those is coming soon. I'll help out you Camaro guys. Them's called "headlight motors", aka headlight actuators. Yes, I sell a headlight repair kit for the 1987-92 Firebird headlights.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

Haha. Great! What about shipping? What do you use to ship, and is there any extra cost?

 

This would ship by First Class mail. Or you can choose to pick it up at the next meeting (Saturday 8/6/05).

Lon

 

Where can I get info on the next meetings?

 

http://www.sc3g.org/thetrack/
Official club website

 

UPDATE: I just got done letting it run for a solid 20 minutes. Only ten minutes, almost to the second, after starting it up, the coolant in the reservoir began to simmer, and within another 5 minutes it was at a rapid boil. Some steam was coming out from under the cap, and I found out I have a coolant leak there, too.

Temp gauge only crawled a butthair past 220. Obviously I need a new coolant tank. Could I also have a flawed temp gauge? I'll look into flushing the coolant system.

 

Yeah, I tried to register there but COPPA red flagged me even though I'm over 13 and I'll be 18 in 3 days. Dunno why. *shrug*

 

Your fan(s) may not be running. That could be why it is over heating. Not hard to fix but do not drive it in that condition. Have someone look at it. Allen

 

 

Which makes me want to say that maybe that steam coming out of the pipe may not all be condensation...

Temperature rise could be a number of things- Fan switch not working, thermostat not opening, bad water pump, bad radiator cap, radiator clogged, etc. etc. Whatever you do, DO NOT drive the car (or even let it heat up to 220!) until you can put your finger on the problem (not literally, of course... )

 

There's no steam coming out the tailpipe, it's a light blue-ish smoke. Apparently blue smoke = oil?

 

Im in CC too....check your PMs!

 

Wow, what a trip! PM recieved and repy sent.

 

That's normal. As small block Chevy engines age, they are notorious for developing that puff of blue smoke at start-up. On the 1st and 2nd gen cars, it's due to worn valve seals.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, unless you're burning quite a bit of oil between changes.

Not sure what to tell you about the coolant issue. The gauge reads 220°. but the water is boiling in the reservoir bottle?

The headlight motors are an easy fix. Most likely they just need new inserts in the gears. Lon will hook you up on that.

 

when you have bubbling in the overflow tank cant that be a sign of a blown head gasket? i think i read that one time.

is your engine oil normal colored?

 

If you have boiling collant in the resevoir, something to do is to replace the radiator cap. This is osmething that a lot of people overlook as unimportant, but if you can't keep the pressure in the radiator, it'll come out into the resevoir.

With a typical 14lb cap you shouldn't start to go back into the resevoir until about 240-ish IIRC.

 

Y'know, I didn't even think of that. Thanks for the tip. I'm gonna go and flush the cooling system right now, and if that doesn't help then I'll look into a radiator cap. Thanks!

 

UPDATE: Well, just finished flushing the coolant system, and bought a new radiator cap. Let it run for about 30 mins and it didn't overheat, so yay for that.

Also, aside from not overheating, the popping only happens at about 4500RPM, instead of around 3500 now. I also saw a hose that was cracked and deteriorated, so I'm hoping that replacing that will eliminate the popping alltogether.

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

Now the popping you are talking about is it like a backfire through your intake? Like a muffled pop under the hood? if so you have a issue. You need to see if it is infact a backfire in the intake because if it is its a missfire and you might need to check the timing and adjust it or repalce some spack control componants like rotor and cap, spark modual, coil things of that nature

 

No, the popping is out the exhaust when it revs up to +4000RPM's. Like I said, my friend had a similar problem with his '77 camaro and it was only like a $1 hose. I'll see if replacing the damaged hose helps the problem. Even if it doesn't resolve the popping, it won't hurt the car.

 

You can try replacing the hose but I really think your missfireing because if you had an air leak it would run bad all the time not just at 4000 rpm. Now your friends 77 relys on vacume to control its spark advancement so at high rpms for him he will have a problem with a leak like that because he needs the vacume to pull more spark advance but with our cars it relys on the computer not vacume for the spark advancement

 

But I Don't think it's a missifring problem... Wouldn't missfires be louder booms? And also, wouldn't the noise be coming form the engine, not the exhaust?

 

Hey kid nice to see another young guy finally seeing the light of V-8s and american go fast. With the back firing are you holding it at 4500 or is doing it on its way up to 5000. you know like revin her up. Because if your just holdin her up at the point i haven't heard a car to date that i didn't have a quiet pop every once in a while. Kinda like WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAApop
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAApop
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPOP
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPOP. kinda spartic and not even. Sorry for the stupid looking letters but it seemed like the easiest way to describe it. I'm over here in Glendora and have a nice 90 camaro convert. I'll be glad to lend a hand with anything.

 

finally seeing the light of v8's? lol, i've always wanted a muscle car. Why anyone wants their car to sound like angry bees farting around in a coffeecan is beyond me. It sounds like dookie, like there's no real power in the engine. I've always wanted a car that would rumble n roar. You have no idea how excited I was when my dads friend decided to sell his bird because I knew there was a chance I'd get it. I was even more stoked when I did get it.

I havn't held her up past 4000 for very long, I usually let off when it starts to pop. It's not a quiet pop, but it's not loud like a backfire. For me it's usually like... waaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAApoppopAAAApoppoppopAAAAAAaaaaaa...

It's hard to describe... I'll take my laptop out there tomorow and record it.

 

I could do both if it missfires on the exhaust stroke then it will be out the exhaust if it missfires on the intake stroke then it will be a back fire through the intake. Just trying to help you keep your clean car on the road as long as possible man

 

Well, I replaced the cracked hose to the PCV Valve (was a b**** to get on), and there's still some slight popping, though it's mostly gone. Dunno what else it could be, though the guy at AutoZone (who lives two houses down from me basically said what 1fsstgta said... missfiring. He went into more detail, though..Said it could be predetonation do to carbon buildup on the plugs. So I'll check the plugs next, I guess.

 

first thing i did with my car when i bought it a year ago was to do an almost full tune up (minus timing and fuel filter, didnt have the right equipment to do it) I changed Dizzy cap, the plugs, air filter, changed my oil, new O2 sensor, new belts (they looked real bad when i bought the car) plug wires. try doing a tune up and see how it is after words. Also couldnt a cracked dizzy cap cause a misfire?