Lessons of a new SC owner (long)

scoupe90

Registered User
1). These things are hard to work on
2). These things co$t money to work on
3). Lot$ of things can and do go wrong with em
4). Finding a parts car is your friend

Some of my brief history so far.

I found this beautiful 1990 SC - that was driven by a little old lady only on Sundays.

Ok, you've all heard that story before. I actually got an SC that has a very clean body - meaning no rust here in Iowa - and 102,000 miles on it. There are issues as most 18 year old cars have, motors that don't work on the windows, glass not attached to the retaining clips, locks that need replacing... many other mostly cosmetic problems to be dealt with overtime.

My plans are to restore the car and then have some fun building it into a nice quiet surprise the kid down the block street machine.

First issue I encountered, and the one that has driven me nuts so far is getting the car running. I am guessing many of you have heard the story, the engine cranks and fires, but doesn't seem to catch. I figured bad plugs and wires, since it seems to be getting plenty of fuel - and had been sitting for sometime. Replace the plugs and wires, and discover lesson #1. Put the key in and crank and it sounds pretty much the same as it did before the new plugs and wires.

Stand back - cuss at it a bit and try to go through what it takes to start the car. Check for spark at the coil, and see it has plenty on all the coils. Spray some ether into the intake and hear it fire, but not catch. Think ok, possible bad crank sensor, cam sensor or DIS module. Pull the DIS and take it to get tested and find it fails! Yes, it won't take much now to get this resolved (refer to lesson 2 this time).

Return to the car and put the new DIS on using some heatsink compound, turn the key - it fires a lot better and then the serpentine belt jumps off the ilder... hmmm...what caused that. Get the breaker bar and a 18mm socket out and attempt to retension the idler and look down and see the crank pulley jump everytime I release and restore tension... hmm that can't be good. Think ok, lets try and tighten the harmonic balancer, it must have somehow come loose. Figure out it isn't going any tighter and come back to SCCoA and do some reading.

Refer to lessons 2 and 3 above... I ended up ordering a BHJ harmonic balancer (damper) this morning.

I still have a nice looking 1990 SC and thanks to a parts car I am getting the cosmetic stuff done a lot sooner than I expected too... but making a car look good sitting in the garage is getting old. The parts car didn't have an engine or tranny, but cost me very little (read about 1/4 the cost of the BHJ harmonic) and has provided many of the interior motors for the seats and seatbelts and windows already. It also had 2 sets of wheels (90 and 95) with 1 set of nice Kuhomo tires. Throw in the ABS brake unit and other sensors and it will pay for itself eventually when I part it out and when I haul it to the metal scrap yard, I'll get what I paid for it as junk metal.

Ok... looking forward to the day when I can get this thing to run.

dgp
 
you seem to have a handle on what needs to be done so far. they seem less complex the more you work on them. once you pull off the supercharger, intercooler tubes and accessory brackets it even looks like a regular engine. BHJ is a great investment. i've already wrecked 3 stock balancers. all the help you could ever need is right here. guys on this forum give there time, expertise, and in some cases even parts to help people out. good luck with the car and post some pics
 
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