The car that just wants to die
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The car that just wants to die
Id figure id post this up to give you guys a good shop story. IM going to try and put all this in the correct order the best I can.
The background on the car: Its a 1984 Caddilac De Ville with a 4.1 V8 motor. It was owned by an older couple all its life. It was given to their daughter to sell. A customer/friend at the shop bought it for $700 with somewhere over 100k miles on it.
When he bought it it had a small oil leak. But before even having us look it over or even asked us about the car before buying. Just to give you an idea of what kinda POS this was from the factory, it is factoryed filled with stop leak in the cooling system to stop seepage past the cylinder o-ring seals since its a alumn. block with iron sleeves.
Well he got the car a paint job, new tires, put a new exhaust system on it with a flowmaster muffler and stuff on it. Sounded alright. The entire time he had it, it leaked a little oil and it kept getting worse. It seemed like an oil pangasket leak.
So he finally brings it over to have us look it over. Get it on the lift, yea seems like oil pan leak. So we drop the pan, and see the cylinder sleeves and front timing chain cover are leaking. So I oull it all apart, we order a new timing chain cover, timing chain, and water pump for it. and I must say that was a bitch in a half to do. Reinstall the pan with a good gasket, button it all back up and put fresh stop leak in it.
Well its still leaking oil. We leaked it over somemore still looks like its leaking from the rear around the oil pan, so my boss makes me drop it again to check and make sure the gasket isnt messed up. It seems fine. We put it back up with a little rtv in the corners, and put it back together. Still leaking.
So we are like so maybe its the rear main seal. We see for this year car its a 2 piece design, which means no pulling the tranny to do it. Which is nice. So we drop the pan, and pull the rear bearing cap to check the rear main seal. Well it seems a little loose, so thats good, but guess what. Its a 1 piece design so we do have to pull the tranny.
We pull the tranny and replace the rear main seal and ran the car in the air with no tranny attached. No Leaks. Put it all back together, ran it for a bit.
The 4.1 has an external oil feed tube that goes outside the block inside the bellhousing. It goes from the oil pump to the oil filter adaptor up top. So we drop the pan again, and pull the oil filter adaptor and pull the tube up. It just has 1 oring on it for a seal, so we replace it and slap it back in as well.
Pull it outside, guess what its leaking
We pull the oil filter adaptor again and the tube to be sure. The o ring tore going in. So we order a whole new tube and o ring from GM.
It all arrives, we replace it all, No leaks, thank god. Seems to run good. Well it starts leaking again.
So we are like wtf... we order a new oil pump cause maybe the old one is pushing too much pressure and is blowing past the seal and a new pan gasket.
We pull the tranny 1 more time(believe me this tranny is a complete PITA to pull!) to make sure everything is kosher. We clean the block all off and start it up again. Guess what, we found the problem. The block has a crack in the back of it.
At this point we really just wanna burn the car. We tell the customer and show him the crack.
Hes going to put a new motor in it. So now I have the task of pulling the damn thing. He orders a motor from I think its reman.com. It arrives and looks a hella lot better than the old one. We slap everything over onto it. Install it and the tranny.
Its got a slight knock at times and ti doesnt run quite right. We do lots of trouble shooting and try and figure it out. Well as my boss was going on a test drive, the minute he pulls outta the shop, the oil filter adapator cracks and he doesnt know it, he drove a block with it spewing oil out. Finally the oil light came on, but by then there was no oil left in it.
So we replace it with an adaptor thats froma 4.5 cause we couldnt find a correct one. We had to fab up some cooler lines and what not. Fill it with oil, the knocking noise is stil there and a little worse than before and its still running kinda week.
My boss does some more trouble shooting and discovers cylinder #8 is dead. We do a leak down and discover it has a bent a valve on the intake it seems.
So here i am pulling it all apart again for a head job. We have it sent it off. It seems the ppl that built it didnt do a great job on maching the valve seat and left a part open. While its apart we install new lifters as well
Slap it all together, its finally running a lot better but still has some issues for some reason.
My boss and the customer talk it over, we are going to pull the oil pan again and see what the main bearings look like.
Well I pull the pan and the oil is like mud for some reason. I pull a few main caps and they all seem good just some questionable marks, nothing really huge. The on my day off my boss pulls the front main bearing cap. He discovers it just finger tight on the both bolts. Upon closer inspection he founds out all the threads are stripped on both bolt holes and that some of the cam lobes are being eating away.
I found out monday about, I wasnt too thrilled to say the least. Its decided its going back to its owner for awhile cause we have it far too long to even mention and we will get back to it when we get a few other projects outta the way.
So here lies the story of the car that just wants to die.
The background on the car: Its a 1984 Caddilac De Ville with a 4.1 V8 motor. It was owned by an older couple all its life. It was given to their daughter to sell. A customer/friend at the shop bought it for $700 with somewhere over 100k miles on it.
When he bought it it had a small oil leak. But before even having us look it over or even asked us about the car before buying. Just to give you an idea of what kinda POS this was from the factory, it is factoryed filled with stop leak in the cooling system to stop seepage past the cylinder o-ring seals since its a alumn. block with iron sleeves.
Well he got the car a paint job, new tires, put a new exhaust system on it with a flowmaster muffler and stuff on it. Sounded alright. The entire time he had it, it leaked a little oil and it kept getting worse. It seemed like an oil pangasket leak.
So he finally brings it over to have us look it over. Get it on the lift, yea seems like oil pan leak. So we drop the pan, and see the cylinder sleeves and front timing chain cover are leaking. So I oull it all apart, we order a new timing chain cover, timing chain, and water pump for it. and I must say that was a bitch in a half to do. Reinstall the pan with a good gasket, button it all back up and put fresh stop leak in it.
Well its still leaking oil. We leaked it over somemore still looks like its leaking from the rear around the oil pan, so my boss makes me drop it again to check and make sure the gasket isnt messed up. It seems fine. We put it back up with a little rtv in the corners, and put it back together. Still leaking.
So we are like so maybe its the rear main seal. We see for this year car its a 2 piece design, which means no pulling the tranny to do it. Which is nice. So we drop the pan, and pull the rear bearing cap to check the rear main seal. Well it seems a little loose, so thats good, but guess what. Its a 1 piece design so we do have to pull the tranny.
We pull the tranny and replace the rear main seal and ran the car in the air with no tranny attached. No Leaks. Put it all back together, ran it for a bit.
The 4.1 has an external oil feed tube that goes outside the block inside the bellhousing. It goes from the oil pump to the oil filter adaptor up top. So we drop the pan again, and pull the oil filter adaptor and pull the tube up. It just has 1 oring on it for a seal, so we replace it and slap it back in as well.
Pull it outside, guess what its leaking
We pull the oil filter adaptor again and the tube to be sure. The o ring tore going in. So we order a whole new tube and o ring from GM.It all arrives, we replace it all, No leaks, thank god. Seems to run good. Well it starts leaking again.
So we are like wtf... we order a new oil pump cause maybe the old one is pushing too much pressure and is blowing past the seal and a new pan gasket.
We pull the tranny 1 more time(believe me this tranny is a complete PITA to pull!) to make sure everything is kosher. We clean the block all off and start it up again. Guess what, we found the problem. The block has a crack in the back of it.
At this point we really just wanna burn the car. We tell the customer and show him the crack.
Hes going to put a new motor in it. So now I have the task of pulling the damn thing. He orders a motor from I think its reman.com. It arrives and looks a hella lot better than the old one. We slap everything over onto it. Install it and the tranny.
Its got a slight knock at times and ti doesnt run quite right. We do lots of trouble shooting and try and figure it out. Well as my boss was going on a test drive, the minute he pulls outta the shop, the oil filter adapator cracks and he doesnt know it, he drove a block with it spewing oil out. Finally the oil light came on, but by then there was no oil left in it.
So we replace it with an adaptor thats froma 4.5 cause we couldnt find a correct one. We had to fab up some cooler lines and what not. Fill it with oil, the knocking noise is stil there and a little worse than before and its still running kinda week.
My boss does some more trouble shooting and discovers cylinder #8 is dead. We do a leak down and discover it has a bent a valve on the intake it seems.
So here i am pulling it all apart again for a head job. We have it sent it off. It seems the ppl that built it didnt do a great job on maching the valve seat and left a part open. While its apart we install new lifters as well
Slap it all together, its finally running a lot better but still has some issues for some reason.
My boss and the customer talk it over, we are going to pull the oil pan again and see what the main bearings look like.
Well I pull the pan and the oil is like mud for some reason. I pull a few main caps and they all seem good just some questionable marks, nothing really huge. The on my day off my boss pulls the front main bearing cap. He discovers it just finger tight on the both bolts. Upon closer inspection he founds out all the threads are stripped on both bolt holes and that some of the cam lobes are being eating away.
I found out monday about, I wasnt too thrilled to say the least. Its decided its going back to its owner for awhile cause we have it far too long to even mention and we will get back to it when we get a few other projects outta the way.
So here lies the story of the car that just wants to die.
! Ne shab'rud'ni !
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 11,030
Likes: 0
that sux.
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if you can only race me in a straight line then whats the point 
...91 SMF SCCA
...91 SMF SCCAhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/8341770@N07/5601083432/http://www.flickr.com/photos/8341770@N07/5601083432/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/8341770@N07/, on Flickr
I see people out there spending money on the car to improve it … If you spend half that effort just working on your driving skills, making you and the car work together as a team, then you’ll go faster – period. To make the car go a second faster on the track takes a lot more energy and money than making yourself drive it one second faster.
– the late Tom Thrash SCCA Solo E Production
teh clit wiggler
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 5,011
Likes: 0
WOW. talk about a fucking car from hell.
well at least you learned something man. good luck slappin another good motor on that POS. lolz
well at least you learned something man. good luck slappin another good motor on that POS. lolz
Livin' Large
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 13,218
Likes: 0
4.1's suck, I won't buy them, and a warranty company I work with charges $55 extra just for a 90/3000 limited powertrain warranty on one. The last wet and wild race I was in (25 laps at sunshine in demo derby style cars on a wet track 
) had one 4.1 cadillac entry, and it overheated sitting in the infield waiting to line up, he never even made a lap. In case I wasn't clear, 4.1's SUCK!!
) had one 4.1 cadillac entry, and it overheated sitting in the infield waiting to line up, he never even made a lap. In case I wasn't clear, 4.1's SUCK!!
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