What's the best tuneup i can do to that motor? what should i do first? best parts? and etc...... Thanks!

 

Does the car stutter? miss? get horrible gas mileage? What makes you think it NEEDS a tune up?

You can go out and buy a new cap, new rotor, coil, plugs, plug wires, air filter, fuel filter, oil and oil filter, PCV valves, 02 sensor, etc and install all of it, and if you didnt have a problem with the parts you replaced, the car will run exactly the same.

Unless your car has been visciously abused by the previous owner, its not worth the $50-100 or more, that you'd spend on the above parts. Most of the stuff you can check yourself before replacing the parts. Its probably not a bad idea to change the fuel filter, PCV valve, and O2 sensor, since most people don't know they're there or that they need to be replaced at regular intervals. You can check your cap and rotor for wear and deposits, same with plugs, plug wires can be checked with an ohm meter, etc...

 

I fully disagree. Parts wear with age. Cap/rotor contacts not only build up deposits, but wear down. Plug wires develop cracks in the insulation, which leads to spark leak. Spark plug contacts wear down. Fluids break down. Etc, etc. If his car was running good now, and he did a major tuneup, his car would probably run better- UNLESS the previous owner did a major tuneup a few weeks before. I've gotten at least 5 emails over my "major tuneup life" that have thanked me for the file, because the people's cars were suddenly more powerful, and some V6's could spin their rear tires after the work!

'Course, if you don't want to keep your car tuned up, I'll just pass you on the freeway.

I've posted my major tuneup message many times, and it's here: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=62882

 

Differences in opinion... I've gone thru the trouble of tuning up every car I've owned, and the only time I've seen a difference is if there's a problem to begin with. But then again usually I don't buy cars that don't run well or are poorly maintained. A V6 thirdgen isn't suddenly going to gain 50hp from a set of plugs, wires, and a cap/rotor... Same goes for any car. The factory ignition setup is more than these cars need, and if they're in good condition you're just replacing the part for piece of mind.

 

For once I agree with drew. And yet again disagree with tomp. NOT every car out there will gain anything from 100-150 in tune parts being thrown at it. Hell most cars just need the regular cap/plugs/wires/rotor about every 9 months to a year and they will live a long and happy life.
MAYBE at 90-100K rebuild the distrib. I mean all of us knows that the purpose of mechanical parts is to fail right? Well if not you know that now.

02 sensor about every 9 months to a year normal driving, then again, I just replaced mine and found it was factory AC/Delco. had a A/F guage hooked to it and it read just fine so

PVC I TRY to replace about every 6 months. Fuel filter once a year. Typical cap rotor plus ect when it needs them. meaning when a small miss/lag developes first check timing, then the spark system. Most the time its just really one wire that is starting to go bad but what the hell

 

I totally agree with Tom . My cap does not really need changing right now , but it has some deposits on the terminals . I've had plugboots (3) "plugboot toaster " After I have changed that boot , the car had more pickup in it . Yes, I could have drove it with the cracked boot on there .YOU DEFFINATELY feel a tune-up even if the car is not in a real need for one .If I was not such a tightwad Id do the Tom's tuneup every year .

 

True, but who knows what this car has gone thru before he got it? Sounds like this is the first tuneup he's giving it, and I'd rather see him spend $100 and do it himself than have a mech charge him $100 for plugs/wires/air filter/fuel filter (what a garage does for a tuneup), and leave all the other parts unchanged. I'm not saying he'll nab 50hp, he might not nab any, but why put aftermarket parts on a car that's got a 5 year old cap/rotor, and a slight miss? It just doesn't make sense.

I had a friend who was getting raped for $120 for plugs/wires/air filter/fuel filter on his old '91 Formula. I did the whole major tuneup for less than that, and he couldn't believe how much better his car acted. His distributor cap was the original '91 piece, and you wouldn't believe how bad the terminals were inside. You'd think that ripoff shop would've at least pulled the cap to take a look!

Plus, how many problems do we see on here that we immediately ask "how's the plugs? how's the timing? is the fuel filter changed? did you ever adjust the TV cable? Is the throttle body & IAC dirty? Is the trans fluid old? Etc?" A major tuneup fixes all these!!

Besides, I don't tell everyone to do the major tuneup every year; it's just what I do. (I find it fun, but hey, that's just me. )But a first owner should do a major tuneup to his car immediately! Then he can keep track of how old the plug wires are, or how many miles the fuel filter has on it, or how clean the TB is. But if you don't know the condition of everything, you're better off replacing it.

Well, that's just my view on it...

 

All I'm saying is to check the parts rather than just arbitrarily replacing them. If the car runs right, you're going to know it. If it doesn't and you don't notice, then you probably shouldn't be working on your own car. If you're replacing parts to try to resolve a problem thats one thing, if you're doing preventive maintenance thats good too, but the way that tune ups are represented on this board, it seems that everyone expects to gain gobs of power from replacing parts that probably don't need to be replaced.

Its false advertising. The only time that kinda thing is going to help is if there's a problem with the current parts. A quick inspection is all that is needed to tell if a part needs to be changed. 20 minutes under the hood can save $100+ and an hour or two of labor.

 

I never represent a tuneup as a way to gain horsepower. The beginning of my message says that "you must make sure your motor is in TOP RUNNING CONDITION before adding any aftermarket parts." And I'd never run with old tuneup parts, unless I was dead broke. Some of you guys go so far on a distributor cap/rotor & PCV valve & plug wires that it amazes me.

Would anyone on this board -really- run their engine with original "came with the car" +15 year old Packard (GM) 7.5mm wires, if they "tested" okay?

 

actually, yes I would given the situation... In the case of my Iroc and my RS, hell yes I'm going to keep the original wires if they work correctly. When a car is original, with low mileage, and in great shape, the value difference is in the details. On a V6, I woulnd't have any problems scrapping the stock wires cause we all know V6's aren't and never will be worth anything. Its all subject to the situation.

This is one of those topics where we'll have to agree to disagree. You feel that everyone should do a complete tune up regardless of everything, I feel that the people should only replace parts that need to be replaced because they aren't working effectively. I dont believe in spending money on something thats not going to make any difference. If you're going to feel better about your car cause you replaced a bunch of parts that were fine and were working 110%, with new parts, then by all means do it. But I have a problem with fixing something thats not broken.

 

I concur, it's just a difference of opinion. I would've left it at that, but I wanted to point out that I never said a tuneup will give out major horsepower; just that it'll put the engine in it's original running condition.

Hell, I used to spout this info off at the V8 guys all the time, before I ever came to thirdgen.org!

 

hehehe, I didn't mean to sound like you were, just that the general hype here makes it sound as though its the very first thing everyone should do. I've done it on just about every one of my cars, and in most cases I replaced parts that were fine. I don't think there's anything wrong with it unless the person spending the money has unrealistic expectations... If a person has the luxury of the extra money to spend on replacing everythign, its not a bad idea, but there's no reason to replace working parts other than preventive maintenence and peace of mind... etc... With that said, I'm gonna go back to the garage and pickup where I left off on the Iroc.

 

[QUOTE
but there's no reason to replace working parts other than preventive maintenence and peace of mind... etc... [/QUOTE]

Other than pm? PM is the primary reason for doing the type of tuneup TomP advocates. Lack of good PM is the second most common reason for the majority of the problems I see on this board (the first being a tie between the age of our cars and the propensity some people have for running hard).

Frequency of the "major tuneup" is another issue - only a few diehards like TomP will do this every year. But if you've got a 10+ year old car, and you've never given it a full tuneup since you bought it, you're just asking for something to break/wear/drop out of spec/etc.

Gotta side with TomP on this one.

 

Well I think I will add my 10 cents worth.
I aggree with Tom But then I somewhat aggree with Drew.

#2 if you do a tune-up you will gain lost original HP you will not exceed your orignal 135 or 140.

If you buy a car and notice it runs like crap I would say do a tune-up.
If you buy a car, and look under the hood, and notice the distributor to look fairly new and a set of plugs to be fairly new, then why replace them?

Tune-up is a great way to start off your newest car. Because there is alot more to a tune-up then what most people advertise.
Alot of people feel chaning the plugs is a tune-up.

So I would say use your brain and decide for yourself.
If the car runs terrible when you first buy it, do a complete tune-up. This will allow you to know when the parts were last put on, and when you will need to replace them next.

If the car runs fine LEAVE IT ALONE.

Like I said before a new car to you, is a good Idea to tune-up. Then you know what has been replaced.

Thats my 10 cents.