New Battery for the 84 Yesterday. AC Delco, getting harder to find around here. Last one was new in 2003 so pretty happy with the longevity.

WOW - did you get the years outta that one!! My poor old Wagon has cheapo-Wally World juice maker.

Hmmm....makes you think. I'll bet there is a business out there somewhere that refurbishes old car batteries. You know that those cars that are at the Pebble Beach Concours wouldn't be caught sporting an Autozone Battery!! '

Anything you want out there, but at a price.

I couldn't even find the origional battery size that came in my '86 Ranger. So I just measured the box and bought the biggest one I could cram in there!!
Forget 13" Whitewalls. Can't get the 80's series tires anymore, Cant get 195/70/13 Raised Letter tires anymore. I got the last basic lifetime muffler for my Sunbird. Now AC/Delco batteries getting rare. Am I getting old, or is the times just changing?? Looks like someone needs to get that working time machine built!!



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Harder to find in my area. The dealer still has them. Autozone, Murrays(Orielly), and Advance no longer have them. I ended up gettin mine from Hastings. Expensive little bugger at $75.

So I get the battery and then think I am going to drive a little - silly me.

I go to leave the driveway and my rear end is clunking every time I hit a seam in the pavement. I check my shock mounts and all is good. I lift up the rear of the car and start pounding away with a rubber mallet - nothing makes the sound. My next step is the sway bar. Gonna pull it and see if the noise goes away. May have to go back to rubber bushings on the body mounts if they really make this much noise.

And as you may recall, I still have a headgasket/cracked head to deal with as I burn coolant like crazy at startup.

Am scaling back my console project as I can't get the front to come together the way I want it to. Looks like just the armrest for now.


The good news is my camaro appears to be running well (other than dragging its rear brakes every once in a while). I will be paying with that a bit this summer as well as trying to get my ss hood to fit a little better. As long as I have one project to drive

Gonna take a step back and a deep breath and start at it again tomorrow.

I only use the auto zone duralast gold batteries here in all 3 rides we have.Solid and my trucks battery went for 8.5yrs and not one issue it just gradually stop charging up to full capacity,so got a new one back in aug of 08.Cavs duralast bit the dust after two yrs so got a NEW free replacement bc of warranty (free for 3yrs any defects period) did this last yr would not stay charged up even with a trickle charger on it in my freaking garage.Now my battery for me is running low,long day of drvg and just winding down with a cold one.I am done tired is kicking hard.

Looking at this now it seems to be a bit of a downer.

Sorry about that, the projects were getting to me

Will post progress soon. I have to keep the Sunbird together for some car shows. May tear it down after Woodward in August. We will see

Sorry to hear of your woes Paul. :.-(

Something that occured to me on the drive home was the powder coating process for your sway bar. I'm no expert on the subject, but I believe powder coats are baked at a certain temperature for a certain period of time. Could that affect the temper of your sway bar ?
Perhaps that along with the age of the sway bar might change the stiffness of it, resulting in clunking from lack of tension. Just an old country boy thinking out loud....LoL

Also I noticed in the Shop manual on page 6A1-14 an additional procedure when torquing the head bolts. I says after you finish all the head bolts at 180 degrees, and after you reassemble the engine - to start the engine and run it till the thermostat opens - then torque all cylinder bolts in sequence an additional 30 to 50 degrees. Common sense would suggest you'd shut the engine down first!! I don't remember seeing this final procedure listed outside the shop manual, and I wonder if failing to do this might be leading to some of those pesky head gasket failures. I wasn't sure if you had caught this or not. Can't help but wonder, though, since the turbo models are running at higher pressures if there was a different procedure for those heads, but using that upper torque number probably couldn't hurt any!

At any rate, Paul, keep your chin up. Your Pontiac is almost 30 years old, and just takes ever more TLC. Time is on your side, and you can get everything sorted along the way.Just be glad it isn't one of these new - can't work on yourself - jobs, or even one of those quad 4 - LD9's!! I saw a VW head on the internet some time ago - 4cyl with 20 valves!! Yes!! 5 valves per/cyl.!! That rebuilt head cost well over $1K w/shipping!! :-O Knowing you, you'll probably work in a few upgrades and tweeks while you are into everything !! This just gives you a good excuse, doesn't it!! You know we all look forward to seeing what you come up with in the end!!


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Thanks Orlen.

I will be looking at the bar again this weekend. I did the extra torque after warm-up step right after I did the head gasket in 2003 . It can't hurt to ask. I have a spare set of head bolts. I just need the gasket itself and a cylinder head check. I may end up getting more stuff powder coated while it is apart. So - another opportunity

Had a few minutes to play with the car tonight. I pulled the sway bar and that was not it. I checked all of the mounts around the shocks and springs and found one of the lower shock bolts loose. I tightened it back to spec and cruise around for an hour with the top down. Best therapy there is. I had a guy in an early corvette convertible give me a thumbs up

Lots of cruisers on the road tonight.

Will be shopping for a head gasket and spare 1.8 head. May get the intake and cam cover powder-coted while disassembled later this year.

So, so nice to hear it was just one of a one of those " " problems!!

Keep an eye on the oil till ya can get the gasket changed. Change it right away if you see signs of snot!!

Will be interesting to see where you source your head.I've noticed even EBay doesn't list them anymore. I'm sitting on 2 bad ones myself for the day when I might have to get a rebuild one day.

I did a little reading on the subject - was surprised how complex head work really is!! If you remove any valve seat material - this makes the valve head sit a little deeper - this in turn makes the opposite end of the valve stick up a little more. Next thing you know you aren't getting proper valve closing which can cause a burned valve and start the process all over again. It isn't like you can't do a little valve lapping and bing - everything is all better. I would think turbo & supercharged heads are even more critical because of higher pressures and heat. Just my personal opinion, but I think an iron head on the turbos would have been a great design change.



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I may get lucky and it is just the head gasket, but I am not counting on that so want to be prepared. I have done this before so definately know what I am in for. I have to start shopping machine shops in the area. Was hoping to eek out a little more with a valve job but we will see what the bill is.

The whole iron vs. aluminum battle rages on. You like the weight savings but iron has some benefits (like same expamsion and contraction as the lower part of your engine)

Just curious. Just what is the weight savings of the iron vs. aluminum head? If it was less than 100lbs. it would seem to have been a better idea to use aluminum in the body panels instead - less rust and more durability inside and out. Of course modern autos have all aluminum engines and a lot of plastic body panels - a win, win design!!

.....then there was the practice of using a timing belt instead of a chain on interference engines was another design of great wonderment!!

I'm surprised after over 100 years there hasn't been a replacement for the engine valve. I'm a crazy country boy dreaming up ideas of air injectors much like fuel injectors. Oh heck, if I'm going that far, why not just make one big injector that mix it , and inject all at the same time. design a reverse injector that could open to remove the exhaust. No more chains, belts, valves, or maybe even a head. We can't work on the new ones anymore anyway, so why not finish it off. All I know is something needs to be done. Friend of mine told me the other day a timing chain kit of the F-150 DOHC V-8 cost over $900 at NAPA - and that is at cost. The cab has to be removed to pull the engine, so I'd bet it needs to go to have access to replace the chain too.The whole system has gotten overly complex, costly, and impossible for anyone to fix outside the dealership. When these kind of vehicles get as old as our J-Bodies they will be pretty much worthless. Once the dealerships phase out the tools and parts, no one will be able to fix this stuff.
I do remember one of the selling points of the venerable Ford Pinto was ease of service. The home mechanic could fix most anything. Maybe we'll see the day when things turn full circle!!

I guess till then , Paul, be greatful you don't have to remove the body to get to your 1.8, and then have to deal with a DOHC and maybe 6 ft. of timing chain!!
Sorry, the old man is rattlin' on again!



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