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Replaced the drivers side cam cover gasket on the LC3 (N*) today... Reminded me why I have a love/hate relationship with them...

I was in the bone yard today ( scored a nice set of tail lights and center reflector as well as 2 of the 4 swoopies I need ) and noticed that the newer Grand Prix has an aluminum upper manifold instead of plastic.....I didn't look closely to see the year, but they must have started using Aluminum after 2005? Or was it a Gran Prix thing...

Its a grand prix thing with the drive by wire throttle body. Its a popular swap to get away from the plastic manifold but you need a throttle body adapter to bolt on L36 TB. Same adapter as the Gen 5 supercharger to L67 TB.

All series 3 L26 came with the aluminum UIM and drive by wire.

Today I finished up the downpipe/cat delete on the Passat. Which also meant putting in a new flex joint that was leaking. Now it's quiet except for the woosh of the turbo, and a bit quicker.

Hmmm, Well, there's nothing wrong with my Upper, so I'm going to pass...I was thinking it might be cool to get it and polish it up, but I like the engine cover on the engine.

Almost finished with this, Just have to mount the amplifier, adjust the gain and I'm set.

I put a full system in my '03 SE.



More pix in the Audio Forum.

I did something I probably haven't done in more than 20 years....

I changed the oil!

The DTS (my winter beater) went into storage this morning for the summer months. I changed the oil since I had to hoist it up anyway. Normally I just take it to the dealer. Disposing of the old oil and filter, along with cleaning the drain pan and mess in general irritates me. Anyway, it's done now. Not the worst, but not my favourite job.

I also replaced the air deflector panel under the engine and the blower motor. It was fully polished and detailed last week so that when I take it out in the fall, it's all ready to go.

That's an awesome color...do you happen to know the name of it?

redfury wrote:That's an awesome color...do you happen to know the name of it?

Thanks

Cadillac calls it 'Black Cherry', but our provincial government calls it maroon. There is a lot of metallic fleck in it which really helps it pop. The pics don't really do it justice. Having said that, It's a VERY high maintenance colour. I wouldn't buy another one, but it was a vehicle of opportunity last fall when I was trying to find something fairly quickly for the winter. If you look at it the wrong way you'll put light scratches and swirl marks in the finish. I'm very careful about the care of my cars and it still needs to be polished several times a year to keep looking good. If it was my summer daily driver, my head would probably explode with the frustration of keeping it top notch.

I've got just under 200,000km (124,000 miles) on it. Northstar is still running very strong.

repaired fuel return line - the quick connect was leaking.

Took care of a bad outside body mount on the passenger side of my 2000 SLE.
The bolt rusted off and the sub frame mas moving up and down and making a lot of noise.
I have a donor car and took the bolt off of it. (came right out)
We then used a drill with a hole saw to locate the retainer nut under the floor pan.(used this piece on my car)
After 6-8 holes we found it.
We then took precise measurements and drilled one hole in my car for access to my bad retainer nut.(bolt had broken off in it)
That was easy the hard part was getting the bolt out of my car.
After 3 hours and a few choice words we got it out.
The bolt had rusted to the retainer sleeve and would not drop down and come out.
We used pry bars and various type of shims to open it up and slide the piece out.(took the inside body mount bolt out to allow more room)
We then used a torch to get the broken bolt out of the sleeve.
Everything went great after that.
I am very lucky that my brother in law has a hoist and a torch and is good working on cars.
It is so nice not to hear the obnoxious clunking noise any more.

Last night I swapped the 3.6 pulley onto the Grand Prix as well as oiled the sunroof track, which fixed it after almost five years. (I don't know why I never thought of that before!). I also pulled the stereo out of the Passat to get it ready to go in the Grand Prix since I want to keep my pioneer head unit.

I replaced my front brakes today, Repainted the calipers red, and the bracket silver, also painted the rotor center black. over the weekend,
changed the oil and filter, I also waxed it Saturday. Going for new tires Thursday. also replaced tie rod ends. any suggestion on tires??
oh, boke a bolt to the caliper bracket had a hard time finding a replacement GM. bought a harden bolt at ACE hardware til I
can locate the right one, hmm a question for Andrew.

I walked to the Light Rail Transit station, went all the way to the end of the line, hopped in a cab and drove south about ten minutes. Then...

I drove my baby home from winter storage It looked beautiful and it handled wonderfully!

And that's what I did to my car today.

I took apart the Grand Prix in hopes to put the stock brakes back on and fix the control arm bushings. This still isn't done because when I do stuff things go awry. First I lost the key for the lugnuts somehow, so I had to break the locks off. Then the other studs I put in to accommodate the wheel spacers don't quite fit the stock rotors right. Ok fine so try to go to the junkyard to get different hubs but they were closing by the time I got there. Go back home and dig through the garage and I found some studs that will work but only six of them. I try to put them in the hub and immediately break the first one. So I gave up for the night and the car will just be on jackatands for a couple days until I have time to get it finished.

Put a boat roller in my car.

Today I did my first mods to the GTO. Disabled the DRL and hard wired the radar detector. Also took apart the handbrake lever and I think I saw why it's not working. When time allows I'm going to take it off the car and fix it, because I really hate leaving it in gear to keep it from rolling.

I may or may not have repaired a post maf vacuum leak causing po171
it was the piece on top of TB with 3 hoses - the one that is blocked off was spinning freely- put some permatex high-temp silicon to seal it and Pvc cover

I just changed the oil and transmission fluid.