Grand Am Off Topic Thread

[xeroinfinity]

Damn took 25-30 minutes to load this page

Hey Gir, I would have bid at least 200$ I was just refering to the low price of 100$.
I like this graphics with the map and all, havnt seen that one.

I used to get alot of Misfires and the Occasional ABS DTC's on the SE, but after fixing things myself and not the warrnty work its all held up pretty well considering how hard I run it.

grfnkl, You mean you havent maxed it yet
I figured you would have on the highway, just watch out for the policia , that would suck getting a ticket for over 100mph.

I thought that gauge would also be nice because of its 0-60 times and 1/4 read outs. That would be nice to have instead of my laptop sliding around in the seat.

The other night I did some 0-60 and 0-90 times and just that exhaust work on the GT lowered my 0-60 by 1.5-2 seconds and 3-4 secs of the 0-90mph.
The main reason I amped it up was the GT was getting so I could tell if it was running, then do stuff like , hit the key. :
That embarrassing ....


Enjoy the week everyone , its been great weather here!

[Gir-_-]

yea wtf, you tap the key a certain way and the car shuts off .. my cousin did that to me by accident and we stopped for a whole min in the wal*mart parking lot lol

yea the TB should be here by thurs or so.. ill take pics if I can and post em

Today I def took off the top can part or w/e upper piece of a upper intake on a 98 cobra... big dirty dome cover... we sprayed TB cleaner all over that thing and wiped it down as good as we could possibly do... it was pretty gross in there.. TB clean helped ALOT

[xeroinfinity]

Hey Gir that key thing doesnt sound good.

Might be your ignition switch


Well I talked to my insurance agent today, and since it was an animal that did the damage, I dont have to pay anything. Not even my deductable ! Thats kick ash!
Probly get a check tomarrow and start on it asap.

The SE is ready for spring, which it has been realy warm here. Friday, its supposed to snow and be in the 30's :

Had the SE out last night, cruised a good 100 miles just screwing around in town, a small town at that.
And GAS, that stuff is up to $2.55 for reg, I'm using the premium right now, $2.75

Seems the forum is working better today, thats another plus

[grfnkl]

The forums are running better today, much quicker on the load up!

well I haven't opened up the 6 yet, that was the best i've done so far. Unfortunetly, Northern NJ is very congested to much traffic and ALOT of "policia" Marked and unmarked. The place i did my little sprint in the 6, is known to be very congested, I just caught a break between congestions. So i was very lucky. Not many cops though, plus they JUST put guard rails down the center of the higway ( great idea for a 3 lane highway on both sides with a speed limit of 65mph) it amazes me that thye didn't think of this sooner. so now the cops can't cross the center grassy median! hahaha!

what's up with this gas price increase... I'm feeling it in my wallet recently! It's around 2.50 around here for regular!

becareful with that key thing Gir, all you need is to hit a bump on the highway and hve the car shut off.... that would suck!

[xeroinfinity]

Well things have picked up speed!

Ya conjested highways are no place to open it up.
Maybe at 2-3am

Well got all the BS done for the GT today, it was so nice I had to cruise. But I have to wait a week for the check and the parts place I'm using isnt going to have any to ship until the 21st

No big deal, I still will come out ahead a little, and I'm just going with stock facia. If I replaced the front with an aftermarket I'd realy want to change the side panels and proble the rear and that more then I want to spend on body work

Well I'm off to briter skys.

later

[Gir-_-]

hmm, the key thing isnt my biggest concern at the moment...

one small step at a time at the moment lol...

today while driving to work my check engine light came on.. and it was a p0440 .. something emissions, so I checked the cap, fine.. checked inside the engine and the end piece to the PCV valve in the back of the engine had popped off... soo I reconnected that.. now my car is running funky, hard to start and such lol.. doesnt want to keep idle... once going tho it feels peppy so thats a plus... but after I cleared the code the light came back on.. I havent checked under the hood again to see if it had popped off again but ehh.. Any other ideas?

since the HC bypass, engine temp stays in the 200-210F range which is alright I guess... makes me want to put that stat in right about now before it gets to hot for summer =p ... when I do the TB, I think im going to try and re-do the hose that the kwik kar dudes did... it has a slight kink in it and it just bugs me to see it there...

What would be the best way to drain coolant? going to do the TB and 180stat myself, and coolant and the spring on the side is the only thing im concerned about.. is there like a bolt holding the spring assembly on? No I havent looked

btw, XI... would you happen to know of any amazing photography that shows the exact bolt with some colorful arrows where I have to take off for the trans temp?... even with that trans diagram that shows im still unsure... I just want to double/triple/quad check before I unbolt something wrong ya know? .. I almost snapped off a tensioner pully by taking off the wrong bolt while doing a 3.1L belt haha

[xeroinfinity]

p0440

You could have just over filled. This can be an elusive sucker to find at times. I'd start with the lines under the rear. Thiers are several hose clamps that can loosen, the fill neck hose, and about 10 other things.

Check this post out by GM Merlin, it explains it in more detail. The GAS CAP code!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

210 is to hot for this time of year...
you wont get alot of coolant out when you remove those two hoses, you can loosen them from the black recirculator pipe, probley has those rediculas tension clamps Pliers works well on those.

As far as the throtle and cruise cables just lake sure you get them in the right spot on the new TB. You just turn the throtle WO and push/pull the end of the cable out. Kinda like a bicycle brake cable or motor cycle.

on the trans temp thing thiers just a plug in the trans and it is the Only thing in that area. Should be black.
I dont have any pics because I havent tried squeazing my camera or phone up in thier to get all dirty. You probly will have to remove the top radiator hose to acess that plug.

I have only seen them when the trans is out, or the front radiator and such is off
I'll look and see what I can find tomarrow.

Ok here is a pic with arrows and the like Lol

Should be straight down from the Trans plug-in, right below the 2nd bolt that connects the trans(drive train) and the trans side cover plate. It is on the right half.

transwhplug
1-top rad hose on the driver side.
2 its not there.
3- heat shield
4 recirculator tube
The red circle is the trans plug-in thats not it
Right below that.

This is why I havent installed one yet

[Gir-_-]

eh ill have to crawl under there when it stops raining and see from the bottom if I can...

as for the coolant there.. can I just uncap the tank and have pressure relieved that way? then disconnect the hoses.... I went ahead and grabbed a new TB gasket, figured it wont hurt anything...

210F is only the max ive seen it go.. and thats after hard driving I think, dunno.. hasnt been fixed long lol

my code came back after I cleared it, and it went away later as the day went on eh.. guess if it comes back its important

[Gir-_-]

hmm.. finally I found a O2 sensor sim for the cat... off-road in a grand am anyone?

https://www.zzperformance.com/grand_...ts1.php?id=179

Might buy this, and have a cat less GA... just grab this and their 2.5" zzp downpipe they offer

----
and this makes sense...
Daylight Running Light Switch Im sure it goes straight into the PCM/BCM or something...

[grfnkl]

It was absolutely beautiful outside today! 80 degrees! you can't beat that... except the fact it's only march 14th... a little warm outside for march,..... BUT i guess the down side is the snow storm we are getting just in time for the weekend. And to think I took off friday from work, and it will be snowing..... that absolutely sucks!!!

200-210 doesn't sound that bad for temps for the g/a mine always ran about 200-215/220. the only time it was lower was when the thermostat was bad and when i replaced my cat conv. I know the temps are supposed to be only around 190...

Well I;m off to enjoy my evening...

[xeroinfinity]

Gir that DRL switch does about the same thing I did except mine are off!
Thier used to be another unit for the 99-03 but they didnt sell them long, it was plug & play not cutting.

Yes the weather here was great the last two days, around 80.
Right now.... its 36 and a 20-30mph wind from the north

BTW Gir thankx for that zz performance site, I forgot it was out thier. Seems they have some cool stuff.
I like that Alternator Voltage Booster, & the B&M transmission cooler .

My GT is getting one of those B&M transmission coolers realy soon. The trans was running at 228-230 deg yeserday in the heat, that'll fry it quick trying to hotrod it

Well off to play outside in the mud

[Gir-_-]

yea i've always known about it just didnt seem to legit lol

think a cat less free flowing exhaust would be good performance wise? not worried about noise

rather than get the downpipe that comes with it, I was going to try the zzp site and get that o2sim and have the 2.5" matched to my original cat-back

[xeroinfinity]

That pipe would work , it removes the cat .
So if you get stopped by the policia,
and they notice you dont have a cat you can get fined in most states.
And IMO it wont give you any much if any HP gains.

If you get those headers , just get the high flo cat with them.

My high flo on the SE had holes through it bigger then a #2 pencil. SO it doesnt restrick much.
Also if you take away all you engine back pressure its not really good for teh engine. Can cause damage

So Gir, is it pretty flooded down your way?
I saw the news today and they showed flooded areas in Texas. With cars stuck in washed out roads .
Thats always fun in the dark

[Gir-_-]

yea rain sucks man lol... no flooding here tho

Yea, the cat-less idea is just in the air

I was thinkin about the engine and such, how it'd affect it... dont wanna do any damage... trying to make this engine last... its been thru so many miles already haha

but I also want it looudd hopefully the headers will accomplish that... as well my new throttle body ill be putting on maybe this coming monday ill also be doing the 180stat while im there.. WOo!

[grfnkl]

Well i just came in from shoveling 8inches of that white crap! from 80 degrees on wednesday to 8 inches of snow I'm sorry let me correct myself not snow, no 8inches of sleet, freezing rain and ice. OH yeah, I think i broke my back shoveling this crap!

Has either one of you seen the show Bullrun on Spike TV? I've only seen bits and pieces of it. It's kind of cool from what i've caught but the web page for that channel sucks, cuz it never loads for me. Oh well, I'll catch it again soon!

I'm off to relax before shovelin some more!