The time has come to get the Hawk ready for me to drive for the next five years...
Over the last three weeks, installed new EGR, new O2 sensor, rebuilt throttle body, new hoses (except that darn little S hose, can't figure out how to reach it without removing way more than I'm willing to remove for a friggin hose that looks just fine), replaced the PCV valve filter, and replaced the fan switch.
Currently dealing with installing the cat.
Acquired rear sway bar, spare doors and fenders, a turbo hood (thank you Alan!). Paul sent me the underbody brace.
While doing the exhaust, we decided to put it on four jacks. While doing that, what a surprise, I already have a rear sway bar! I never noticed it tucked up there in that crossbar, and I've never seen a setup like that. Getting the old cat off was quite the job, a friend somehow got creative and figured out how to get it out of my midpipe. Because my main pipe rusted a few weeks ago, I have to create a sleeve for the front of the cat to fit in (again).
I'll be waiting on doing the struts/shocks for a little, my friends have their own projects to work on.
Now if you have a 1.8, this next part is important: when rebuilding the throttle body, the base gasket that comes with the kit is the wrong gasket. Nobody stocks the gasket, and nobody has the gasket. I went to a GM dealer asking if they had the gasket, and it was not there. The guy at the parts counter did some checking and he printed a list of other GM dealers that show the gasket in their inventory. There were 14 left in the country! There are now 13 left since I took the one in Scranton.
I only have to install the new cat, and put on the alternator to get it running again. I can't wait to fire up the beast to see how much better it runs. When I pulled the EGR, there was so much carbon buildup in the rear hole, I thought it was a rubber stopper in there. Summer hasn't even really started, and I'm in no hurry for cold weather, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the cold now.
Once I get the car out of my friend's garage, it goes to my mechanic for the yearly inspection. Then it comes home and I will figure out a few more things I want done as far as the body is concerned, then off to the body shop.
Forget the Chinese year of the snake, 2013 is the year of the Hawk!!!!
SUPER!!
Glad to read you are getting results and making progress! Soon you will get to experience what few people in this country get to do..... Cruise in a Skyhawk!!
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Good deal on your progress.I soon will dig into my own car for a change!! I finished my nephews 02 civic he got it this past sat and soooo glad to be done with it.I probably won't touch sunny this wk trying to get some small things caught up in the house area first.One good thing is I have ALL my parts and just ordered the kit with 4 new bushings 19mm black for my rear sway bar to be installed.I went thru amazon to get and was like 14bucks with out checking my real reciept.
Great to see another J body saved and on the road.
I would love to see a pic of that brace installed...
Great news about your Skyhawk. I sure would love to see some pictures of it.
The brace will be waiting until I do the shocks/struts at a friend's house where he has air tools. Those bolts are in there darn tight.
Got everything back together today, tried to start it and fuel just sprayed everywhere from near the injector (I didn't bother to figure out exactly where). So the car didn't fire up, but other than that, everything went well.
Walter, search for the thread titled "finally some pics" and you will see some before and during pics. I plan to put more pics in there soon when I have time.
Lmao! on that one John.I do get pic
Got everything back together, and had no extra bolts! I'm so proud of myself.
Tried to start the car and fuel just sprayed everywhere. A friend of mine was rebuilding the TB while I was doing some of the other work. Last time he gets to work on my car sober...he forgot a gasket. We figured out where it was leaking and pulled off the TB a few times and still kept having trouble.
So when rebuilding the throttle body, I took Ron's advice and bought a new injector. Seemed like a good idea at the time...but I got a defective injector. I figured it was the same brand as the rebuild kit and wasn't Duralast, but yet another defective part from Autozone. The new injector was just dumping and leaking fuel so the car would fire up and stall out from being flooded.
Since it's a special order part, I can't just go and exchange it. I put the old one back in and it starts and idles just fine. I think the old one is so nice I'm just going to keep it in (if it ain't broke, don't fix it).
Now the check engine light is on, but I imagine I have to give it some highway time before it goes out since the O2 sensor is new.
I'm also wondering if there is a vacuum leak somewhere. I always had a few issues when the car was cold, and sometimes when it warmed up, as it would stall at low speeds. It idles fine in drive when stopped, but if I let off the brake and coast a bit it wants to stall, same in reverse. This issue seems to be worse now that the rest of the motor is running so well.
Any ideas what causes the stalling; and how far should I drive the highway for the engine light to go out?
Slowly getting there, about three weeks behind where I wanted to be and there's more to do, but I'll take this progress.
Check and make sure your MAP sensor is plugged in on the back side of the air cleaner housing. I forgot to do that on mine once and it glowed the CEL.....easy fix.
Just for kicks, disconnect vacuum to EGR and plug off, see if that affects your stalling issue. Have this problem on my Ford Ranger and when i plug off the Vacuum hose it goes away.......dunno why.
Just a country Boys experiences....heck maybe one of them might just work for you too....
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The idle might be the map sensor and easy to check that with a volt meter and two jumper wires.As for the egr orlen suggested the 1st thing that came to mind(he beat me to it).That check engine normally want just go off unless in most cases a item was corrected.You might try unhooking the neg battery cable if it does not clear after rolling around some if it is not a hard code.Just my thoughts and a touch tired.Gp Sorenson is the brand of injector I went with and most stores carry this brand as stock oem even if special order.I know years ago auto zone had the one I bought and packaged wrong from vendor(fit,but wayyy wrong) took it back and went to advance bc the orig/versus new from the zone were not notched the same and clearly just a issue with the wrong part for the wrong car listed in there system.Btw the wrong one dumped fuel like yours car ran but ugly.I printed pics from advance to prove they had a error plus showed the original.
I definitely remember not hooking up that MAP sensor, I'll be back at the car tonight, so hopefully that will do it.
MAP sensor hooked up, car runs great with no stalling or hesitations!
The Hawk has come home to roost!
Now to deal with some minor things and the struts & shocks. Hopefully I'll have time to post up some pics this weekend.
B R A V O ! ! !
Nothing like sweet Success!!
Glad to know a Buick J-Body is once again on the road.
Now comes the hard part.....trying to scrounge up all th rare parts you can while there are still a few out there...LoL
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Orlen Brown wrote:Now comes the hard part.....trying to scrounge up all th rare parts you can while there are still a few out there...LoL
Yeah definitely save every part you can find in junkyards, prices are getting ridiculous at junkyards these days especially if they know it's something rare. Was going to buy my dad a new/used passenger side mirror for his Saturn for Fathers day, $40-50 was the average price at the local junkyards
and those weren't mint either, a new one is $70 from dealers that still have them. I thought maybe it'd be $30 tops for a used one since it's just plastic.
Wayne glad the 'Hawk is back in flight
Funny you mentioned side mirrors, Spike J.....
Thought I'd price one for the passenger side at the online sites like Advance & AutoZone to see what one would cost. Know what? They don't sell a passenger side , side mirror for our J's. All they sell is the Drivers side.
Regarding prices a buddy of mine at work told me the new ones that are power , heated, and have that turn signal in them are a Kings Fortune to replace! He has a buddy that works at a NAPA.
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I have been collecting as much spare as I can handle...and with nowhere to put parts but at other people's garages.
I still need a spare header panel and q-panels, and I'm sure it wouldn't hurt for me to get another set of wheel wells.
I figure if I have enough body parts to have another car, that should do if anything ever happens. The odds of something happening where I will need one of those parts once is already probably pretty low, but something happening two times is astronomically low.
My junkyard is in my attic and some in the garage in the cabinets.I will not list the whole back up supply I have.I keep a lot for myself and some frivolous stuff and most of it is organized.The couple things simple I have spare 2.0 ohv engine,with everything,spare 4speed manual and a complete engine harness for said engine and ecm to boot.I want to go junkyarding bad just trying to play catch up with some house projects and eventually take a extra day off to go and take my time.Being my nephews civic is out of my hair I can finally work on some things for ME! Tired as dirt long 13hr day and was kinda close in thought to you today orlen (went to mt Crawford for a backhaul).Not super close but as I past us 64 I thought of you up there in Covington and I was on I 81 going to Greensboro.I picked up soy milk stuff YUCK.
