'96 Century general project thread

[LeftVentricle]

Non-update update. I've been meaning to write up a post about the 2000 mile road trip I took the wagon on during Thanksgiving, but the circumstances of the trip weren't fun. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right words. The car performed flawlessly, and averaged 24.7 mpg, including a high score of 30.9 on the final tank before arriving back home. I took plenty of pictures. I'll give it a shot this weekend, I think.

I can't be bothered to write a real post about this, so I'll just give you all a little bit of drama and move on.

My dad died a few days before Thanksgiving at age 59 of multiple organ failure. He'd been a long time alcoholic and was homeless for ten years, and that catches up with you. The 2000 mile trip was from Vegas to the Bay Area and back to try to handle is final affairs. The day before he died, my wife decided she was done, and wanted to move out. I put her on a plane to her mom's place in Kansas on January 29th. So I haven't really been in the mood to write up a real post. I will give you guys probably the two best photos I have ever taken of this car though.

Near the Golden Gate Bridge:


And in the Sierra Nevada mountains at a spot called Peddler's Hill:



That aside, I'm planning to get what I hope will be a reliable daily driver so I can stop worrying about whether George is going to start in the morning, what's that noise this time, and so on. Found another '96 wagon on Marketplace IN THE SAME CITY I BOUGHT GEORGE IN. After basically interviewing the guy over the last couple says, I feel like it will be a good daily. Lots of preventive maintenance done recently, including the ever-vulnerable lower intake gaskets, silly custom interior stuff, and a front clip swap from an '85 Century.

[young gun]

The car performed flawlessly, and averaged 24.7 mpg, including a high score

[LeftVentricle]

Pretty good fuel economy but thats quite a bit of driving. Was it all highway for the last tank?

Yeah. I wanna say that tank was cheating a bit, since it was "downhill" between Tonopah and Las Vegas, and also I do 65 on the highway because that's where this car does the best. Gotta say, that's the best number I've ever put down, even with the original engine (L82), or the first couple of years of the LX9 swap with the original highway gears (2.97) in the transmission. LX9 + 3.33 final has basically no downsides.

[SappySE107]

Pretty good fuel economy but thats quite a bit of driving. Was it all highway for the last tank?

[LeftVentricle]

Non-update update. I've been meaning to write up a post about the 2000 mile road trip I took the wagon on during Thanksgiving, but the circumstances of the trip weren't fun. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right words. The car performed flawlessly, and averaged 24.7 mpg, including a high score of 30.9 on the final tank before arriving back home. I took plenty of pictures. I'll give it a shot this weekend, I think.

[LeftVentricle]

Doesn't hurt to post pics or make videos for youtube these days, though it takes more time to document that stuff as well. 175k is good for a water pump and thankfully its usually a pretty easy job on these engines.

Yeah, letting the RTV cure took longer than the actual work.

[SappySE107]

Doesn't hurt to post pics or make videos for youtube these days, though it takes more time to document that stuff as well. 175k is good for a water pump and thankfully its usually a pretty easy job on these engines.

[LeftVentricle]

Changed the water pump on the wagon the other day. I took pictures but honestly, we've all done a water pump. It appeared to be the original part for the engine. Recall the engine is from a 2005 Malibu that had, according to LKQ, about 110k miles. I have put around 63k VERY HARD miles on it since installing it. I am not mad that it failed. After ~175k miles, it owed me nothing. Past Daniel had some foresight and bought the part 6 years ago, so the most difficult aspect was spelunking through the garage to find it.

[LeftVentricle]

Cruise cable and module from a 2001 Aurora. This will fit the big throttle body.

[LeftVentricle]

1996 Buick Century

P0502 Vehicle Speed Sensor A low input
P0503 Vehicle Speed Sensor A Intermittent, erratic, or high input

Symptoms:
"Service Engine Soon" light illuminated
Speedometer, odometer, trip odometer inoperative
Transmission shifting inoperative/erratic

Suddenly. Stuck in third, then first, then third. That made the trip home from work today, uh, interesting.

EDIT: At first it behaved like it did a few years ago when the fuse for the quad driver popped. Starts in third, access to 2nd and 3rd via manual shifting. Then I shut it off, started it up, and it was stuck in first. After annoying everyone in the city by doing 20 mph with my hazards on for a few miles, I gave it the beans so I could get up to a higher speed and coast. Around 31 mph or so it shifted into third, and I left it there. (speeds verified with a GPS speedometer app)

The cause is a broken wire to the VSS. I will have to hire someone to repair that, because I don't fuck with wiring.

In the meantime, I had little choice but to finally put a new water pump on the Ram (it had been leaking for some time), since I still need to get to work for the rest of the week. This went well, except for the battery being stone dead. Jumper cables hooked up to the wagon eventually got it started, and I left it running for something like a half hour, driving to the gas station for fuel and back home. I shut it off, and it wouldn't restart. Bad battery. $130 later it's fine.

[young gun]

I was trying to figure out wtf you meant, since googling that acronym turns up a wikipedia article about a heart defect. I guess it's a reference to my username? In which case, no. My heart is fine. I've been using this name since at least 2006 because it seemed amusing.

As for the Silhouette wheels, I will likely get some new tires on them, since I plan to do some traveling in a few months, and maybe even acquire a parts car in Kansas. So I'll need some extra load tires to handle dragging the carcass back here.

I'm in the business of hearts so yeah I was referencing that, interesting that you just so happen to choose that!

[LeftVentricle]

Not so astute as I just noticed.... are you a transposition (D-TGA)?

I was trying to figure out wtf you meant, since googling that acronym turns up a wikipedia article about a heart defect. I guess it's a reference to my username? In which case, no. My heart is fine. I've been using this name since at least 2006 because it seemed amusing.

As for the Silhouette wheels, I will likely get some new tires on them, since I plan to do some traveling in a few months, and maybe even acquire a parts car in Kansas. So I'll need some extra load tires to handle dragging the carcass back here.

[young gun]

First and foremost congrats on the first post of 2022!

I've talked about this before, but the pan on a 4T60E has TWENTY FUCKING BOLTS holding it on. The filter is inside the transmission. If you don't have a drain plug (factory pans do not), it's an absolute mess to drain. Mine is Dorman branded, but a couple other outfits carry pans with drain plugs. If you have a car with a 4T60E, do yourself a favor and get one of those pans.

Haha pretty common to have that many bolts I believe, just as common to not have a drain plug! thankfully there are aftermarket options as you mentioned.

Now, astute readers may notice that I've changed wheels again. That is because...

Yay I'm astute! glad it wasn't catastrophic for you.

Not so astute as I just noticed.... are you a transposition (D-TGA)?

[LeftVentricle]

Time for my quarterly update!

Do some work for once instead of constantly complaining.

Services performed today: Replace blower motor, engine oil change, transmission oil/filter change. Click for bigger.

Begin.


Unhook the battery. The alternator has to be pulled to R&R the motor.


Belt off.


Alternator. It's much easier to just unbolt its mounting bracket from the cylinder head.


Plenty of room.


Motor out. It did not spin freely and made the entire car vibrate when I turned it on.



Part of the reason it failed is that, a while back, one of the bolts for the dogbone engine mount somehow fled, and the engine leaned back, and the fan on the alternator ground into the blower motor, seen here.


All buttoned up.


Up we go. (Take note of the Duralast filter and Walmart oil. Only the best for George.)


I've talked about this before, but the pan on a 4T60E has TWENTY FUCKING BOLTS holding it on. The filter is inside the transmission. If you don't have a drain plug (factory pans do not), it's an absolute mess to drain. Mine is Dorman branded, but a couple other outfits carry pans with drain plugs. If you have a car with a 4T60E, do yourself a favor and get one of those pans.

Then it was time to break this bad boy out.


Quinn digital torque wrench. I bought it last year but haven't really had the chance to use it. It beeps rapidly when you get close to the selected torque specification, then a solid tone when you're there, which was super annoying at first, but I got used to it. Pan to case torque spec is 151 inch pounds.

Engine: Wix 51040 filter and six quarts of Walmart high mileage full synthetic 5W-30.

Transmission: Duralast TF207 filter and five quarts of Dexron VI (recommended by the transmission builder) and a bottle of Lucas.

Now, astute readers may notice that I've changed wheels again. That is because...




I had a blowout. Lucky for me it was not sudden and catastrophic, or I may have crashed. It let go about as gently as it could, but it was a complete failure. This is because the tire was SIX YEARS OLD and I definitely should not have been driving on six year old tires. So I bought two new 16s on the Grand Am wheels and swapped back to those. I like the Olds crosslaces, but not enough to drop, ya know, $600 on a full set of 15s.

[young gun]

Started like this:


Ended like this, with wheels from a 1992 Silhouette with really good tires. I picked them up from the yard in June of last year, and they've been collecting dust in the garage since.

Oh wow quite the rake change there!

That blows about broken studs!

Never too much antiseize on your own stuff