GTA-Force

Hi there, I've been looking at all your guys' message board threads on this site, and wow, it feels nice to see so much information and such a huge following of F-Body people.

After searching endless boards and threads trying to find tips and such for my car that my dad gave to me, I thought I'd ask you guys for help on this. Frankly, I'm new to car care, repairs, and what not (but wow, I've noticed that it sure resembles computer hardware repair in a big way), and I'm not real sure of myself in terms of the terms that's used here (no pun intended), so bear with me, I'm trying to learn as much as I can on my own by reading books and researching credible web sites, so I can minimize on the "stoopid newby questions and mistakes".

And my little philsophy for when I can't figure it out: When in doubt, take it to Pep Boys.

Here's the deal: I use this car mainly for commuting between home, work, and school. I take as good of care as I can, given my inexperience in working with cars. Mainly, I make sure I have the basics covered: fill it up with Unleaded Premium, make sure you get tune-ups and oil changes when needed, that kind of stuff). I have never really raced the car (except twice, I smoked a BMW [not sure why, I heard they're really fast, but then again, maybe the guy just didn't know how to use his stick ] and humiliated a rice rocket), I don't "red-line" the car, and mainly shift into 3rd gear when in a zone whose speed limit is 40 MPH or less (to maximize fuel economy...hit 170 miles on 1 tank recently ), and upshift into Drive when the speed limit increases (is this OK btw? I've been told it's fine) when the tachometer reaches about 2000 RPM...which is also usually the maximum power my car uses at any given time. In light of the whole "how long do you warm up your car" thread that I read earlier, I warm up the engine until the tachometer drops below 1000 RPM. In terms of the engine itself, it runs great, clean inside, and at times, it's so quiet, it's starting to rival my mom's 94 Grand Am.

Here's the specifics on the car that I've found *hats off to thirdgen.org and www.gtasourcepage.com, 1 finger salute to the jack@$$ previous owner (or dealer) that decided it was cool to not include any documentation for the car minus the RPO sticker*, I think it'll help you out:

Carline Series: Trans Am GTA, Formula
Year: 1989
Engine Code: 350 ci V8 B2L/L98 (1987-1992)
Transmission: 4-Speed Automatic
Mods: None, all stock, minus these cool Dunlop Sport 4000 A/S series tires that work fabulous in bad weather.
Miles: 80,100

Repairs Needed:

* replace front decal, chipped above the bird's head
* weld exhaust assembly so that it lies further inside the chassis; it's sagging out a bit, signs of scraping because of ungodly high speed bumps :/
* new paint job, maybe replace the spoiler (because it's showing signs of cracking at the curves).

I'd love to get maximum performance and life out of my car without "modding" it to death. What advice can you give me for this? If you guys could help, I'd totally appreciate it.

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by GTA-Force (edited February 18, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by GTA-Force (edited February 18, 2001).]

87kevroc

89 Trans Am. Nice Car.

Buy the GM shop manual and / or the GM Parts Illustrated catalog for your car either from a dealer or ebay. Use these to identify all components in the engine bay. You may not know how they work just yet, but you know what they are called, which will enable you to ask questions. Look for books that explain the basic operation of automotive engines and their subsystems.

If you don't have the owner's manual get one and use it (and the shop manuals) to create a maintenance schedule spreadsheet, follow it. When you get gas jot down the mileage on the receipt, it will enable you to calculate your mileage at any time. Document every nickel you spend on the car.

Check this and other sites for information on the popular bolt-on mods for thirdgens. If you decide you want to try a modification, be sure you know how it's supposed to improve performance and what it would take to reverse the mod if you decide you were better off without it. You're gonna like your car alot more if it's reliable and not as fast than fast and unreliable. As you gain knowledge and experience you can consider the more extensive/expensive mods.

There is a tremendous amount of good information on this board as well as the other boards on this site. Read the tech articles, then use the language in the articles to search posts on those subjects. This ought to get you started. Have fun.

RB83L69

Welcome to the elite group of F-car owners. You'll soon see why all of us enjoy our cars so much.

Learn to do some of the basic maintneance yourself. Start with the simple stuff, oil changes and brakes, that sort of thing. That will get you accustomed to where different parts are, what tools you need, etc.

As far as mainaining the car, the first thing I would suggest is to put synthetic fluids all the way from bumper to bumper. Just changing the rear end grease from dinosaur grease to synthetic fluid can be worth nearly 2 mpg. A good air filter (K&N) will help the engine breathe better, which is more free power.

You'll soon come to realize that very few BMWs are anything close to fast. Most of them are in fact grossly underpowered, as are the huge majority of other cars.

One quick thing that can make a HUGE difference: get the injectors cleaned and flow-matched. I don't mean Carburetor Clinic either. I have used Rich at Cruzin Performance www.cruzinperformance.com for mine in the past; it can make as much improvement in the way a car runs as anything else I know of, again without costing anything in terms og gas mileage or longevity.

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