Our '99 Bonneville (Granny)

[TheLoyale]

EDITED:

Thanks for the kind comment After a good long look at wheels next to a picture of the car, I think I finally found a winner.

Pictures.

[TheLoyale]

Just wanted to test the waters. Would there be any interest if this car came up for sale? I'm thinking price would be $4,500obo. As you can see thru the thread, I've put a lot of time into the car. Its turn key and go, needs nothing (Except for some summer rubber)

We have been tossing the idea back and forth of selling the good ole' Bonne before I buy Summer shoes for it.

Cheers all!
-Tom

[TheLoyale]

Sunday I went out to get in the car and noticed a 16" diameter puddle under the front passenger side; which turned out to be coolant. So I jacked up and and noticed the coolant was leaking from above the power steering reservoir, Grabbed a flashlight and looked at the lower coolant bypass elbow and sure enough it was the culprit!

So since I already had the Aluminum dorman elbows handy, I replaced both Monday. This could be a 30min job as its pretty easy, but I took some extra time to clean things up with degreaser. I also noticed that both of the old coolant elbows were cracked off where the O-ring goes into the intake. Someone had once spooled RTV over the area, which must have worked up until 163k

So a few pics of the job.




After removing the elbows. I also noticed these say "Made in China" are these genuine?


New replacements.




All finished up.

[98SSE]

Looking good. Intake gasket ever been done?

[1oldman]

Nice looking work. - BC

[TheLoyale]

No the intake gasket leaks pretty good, nice pools of oil sit in the Manifold and Head castings. Been wanting to change it out, but I really don't want to pull the Fuel rail off to do it. I hate getting Injectors reseated haha. Maybe I'll get to it before the motor bursts into flames :p

-Tom

[TheLoyale]

Finally got off the winter tires and put on some 18x8 Rial Leichtmetallfelgen P10 wrapped in 235/45/18 General G-Max AS-03. Rides pretty good, less sidewall scrub and better steering response. Pretty happy with the result!









Cheers all!
-Tom

[96 SSEi]

looks great for a ride that's pushing 2 decades

[WhiteArrow3800]

Wow those look much better on the car than I figured! Great choice!

[TheLoyale]

So since I haven't been to a junkyard yet to take a gander, Do all H-body SSEis have larger sway-bars (F/R) than any SE? Also, are they routed the same? I think the next step for this car is definitely larger sways.

I still need to get under the car and see what size is on it now.

[MattStrike]

All SSEi's and most SSE's have the larger sway bars.

[98SSE]

Looks good!

[TheLoyale]

Thanks guys!

[TheLoyale]

Update: Upper and Lower Intake gaskets.

So I am getting ready to replace the upper and lower intake gaskets along with Valve cover seals, as I've noticed a decent amount of Oil in the radiator.

So far I have a new Dorman Upper Intake assembly (Comes with plenum gasket, Throttle assembly seal, PCV and EGR tube, Fuel Injector O-rings and two metal tubes)

I am getting a Fel-Pro lower intake set which comes with a whole bunch of seals and gaskets. It is listed as a "2nd Version" I am guessing it is an improved design? Or do different generation L27s use other styles of gaskets?

I am also getting Fel-pro valve cover seals, which do not come with grommets. Are there any grommets to replace? I'm also getting a genuine Thermostat as well.

Is there anything else I should get or need to know before digging into this? I have an FSM from 1992 which seems kinda vague about the procedure. I plan on getting this done within a weekend.

Anything else, give me a holler
-Tom

[1oldman]

Update: Upper and Lower Intake gaskets.

I am also getting Fel-pro valve cover seals, which do not come with grommets. Are there any grommets to replace? I'm also getting a genuine Thermostat as well.

Anything else, give me a holler
-Tom

Felpro Grommet Set Part No. ES 72833 $11.99
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/felp ... r+grommets

hope this helps on the parts. - BC

[1oldman]

Update: Upper and Lower Intake gaskets.

I am also getting Fel-pro valve cover seals, which do not come with grommets. Are there any grommets to replace? I'm also getting a genuine Thermostat as well.

Anything else, give me a holler
-Tom

Felpro Grommet Set Part No. ES 72833 $11.99
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/felp ... r+grommets

hope this helps on the parts. - BC

[TheLoyale]

Awesome, thanks for the part number! Time to start gathering parts.

-Tom

[TheLoyale]

Gonna be replacing Upper and Lower Intake gaskets, Valve cover seals, Thermostat, Heater Hoses and Rad hoses this weekend. Got everything, went with genuine ACDelco Thermostat. Fel-pro gaskets and Gates Hoses.

Question I have is Torque specs and Sequence for The Upper and Lower intake bolts along with the Valve cover bolts. I have a '92 FSM which lists 88 In.lbs for the Intake and Valve covers. Is this correct?

Torque sequence for the Lower intake Starts in the middle, moves to the left 2, then to the right 2, then the 2 closest to the belts (Front) and finally the two closest to the Trans (Rear) Is this correct, or does any of this change from between '92-'99?

[TheLoyale]

Well there doesn't seem to be any torque sequence for the upper intake in the FSM, but it does say 22ft.lbs on those bolts. 88 In.lbs on the Lower intake and Valve covers (Which seems a bit much for plastic valve covers with grommets)

Doubled checked and I should have everything needed for the job. One thing is throwing me off though, the FSM shows there is a flat gasket for the Thermostat housing, yet all the Genuine GM part sites I have visited along with O'reilly's does not list said gasket. They only show the Thermostat assy which comes with the rubber seal.

That is how I have the currant Thermostat, hasn't leaked yet anyhow.

Tomorrow I'll snap a few photos during the work for giggles.

-Tom

[TheLoyale]

After a week everything seems to be holding real good, no leaks that I can see, and no more oil entering the coolant system (There are still a few drops of residual floating around even though I flushed the block and rad)

Anyway, was pretty shocked when I removed the Upper Intake and the Valve covers, only to find gobs of baked on sludge and gunk. It was actually somewhat horrifying! I scrapped as much off as I could while sucking with a vac to keep stuff out of the block. I did change the oil afterwards just to be safe.

Here are some pictures during the process.

After removing and unclipping a few things, just before removing the Intake and Valve covers.




String to hold the harness out of the way.


Lots of oil pooling up.


After removing the upper intake, this is what I found. Just slathered in a sooty oil mix of grit. Needless to say I'm happy I bought a new intake just for the sake of not having to clean this one.




The Lower Intake was no better, actually a lot worse. Some of the passages were caked up and blocked off from this gritty sludge. The valley and balance shaft were pretty caked up as well. I've actually never seen pushrods this built up with oil.






A decent look at the valve springs and the piles of debris all around the heads. Spent about 30min scrapping and sucking to try and clean things up a bit. I did check for play in the rocker arms, everything seems pretty solid surprising, didn't find any slop other than a little norman side to side movement.


And the final result, after soaking the valve covers and lower intake in some oven cleaner and scrubbing the ever loving **** outta them, turned out good, I got the intake pretty clean, the valve covers were a little difficult but most came out.


Installed new Injector O-rings on the bottom side (Where they press into the Intake) nice and sealed, seemed to have a little difficulty getting the quick disconnect on the fuel rail to reseal, but seemed to seal up finally and isn't leaking.




All in all, it was a pretty easy job, took me about 12hrs, most of the time was spent just cleaning things up and also running to the store for some cleaners.

I would have taking some more pictures of the assembly, but it was getting late (12am) and cold (30s) and wanted to get it done.

Up next will be some pictures of the Winter wheels (Factory original) cleaned them up and sprayed them with Black bed liner. All ready for Winter.