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As some of you know I purchased the red-n-black 1994 cutlass, LQ1, from Ben. I thought I'd let ya all know whats going on.
He was concerned with a cam carrier leak on the front bank. It would leak bad enough to soak the spark plug bores and destroy the plug wires causing a miss. I've kept a close eye on it. When I picked her up she was also leaking oil from the cam carrier onto the exhaust manifold. By the time I made Cleveland the outside of the head and manifold were dry. I pulled the spark plug wires and found a few drops on the side of #4 plug boot but nothing else. I cleaned it, changed the oil to 10w30 Valvoline Maxlife Synthetic and substituted 1 quart of oil with a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil. I have since put close to another 3k miles on her. I recently opened my new auto repair shop in Medina and drive her to and from daily. I also check her daily. I changed the oil again, about 300 miles short of 3k, and again put valvoline 10w30 maxlife synthetic in her and again 1 quart of marvel. Wix filters if anyone cares. No leaks.
Both exterior door handles slightly out of adjustment and needed lubed. Lubed, tweeked the rods, and they work like silk (see below).
The week I bought the car I went to one of my favorite places in cleveland, Pull-a-Part, and purchased and few things off of a '94 cutlass rag-top. I found the driver's fender lower trim piece, in red, spray bombed it black and installed it.
I replaced both plug ends to the fog lamps(from donor), they would work intermittently and looked scorched. While I was at it, the front air dam was cut for a CAI, I replaced it with a used one, $2. Found a little rust on the radiator core support down there, I blasted it with sand blaster, treated, primer, and shot black with rustolium.
I traded 2 oil changes for a pair of used 12" MTX woofers in a vented box. I'm not big on bass and music (I can't hear most of it, I'm a bit hard of hearing) but the amp wiring was already there so...what the hell. A friend of mine gave me a pioneer 480w amp to power it. Upon wiring the amp in, remote wire wasn't present, I found that the positive wire to the right front speaker was wired into the remote power feed on the deck. I'm not knocking anyone here, a lot of wires in tight confines can get confusing. So I got power to the amp, and the speakers hit pretty good. The 6x9's are wasted, I got a set of no names in small boxes for free that I'm going to swap in for the hell of it. But I will say the mini tweets and other speakers make up were the 6x9's lack. Sounds decent.
I scored big time last week again in pull-a-part! I found another '94 cutlass with a HUD! So I got the dash pad, HUD unit, and HUD control for $4 with warranty! I think the girl was embarrassed and had no idea what I had. She kept trying to call it a cruise control and I had to spell out HUD 3 times....she still didn't get it. lol, I installed it yesterday, I always wanted one of those, it works great! The HUD control was busted on the cable adjustment for up and down. I reversed the spring in the HUD unit so the HUD control would push rather then pull to adjust. If anyone has one of those I'd like to have it right.
She ate a water pump last week. Cost me a whole whopping $14 for a new one, plus coolant. No biggy. Today she ate the outlet side heater hose/tube. This is the long one from the water pump, under the crank pulley, up the fire wall and half way to china, back to the heater core. The tube rusted out under the crank pulley, I cut the tube, and ran 2.5 feet of 3/4" heater hose back up to the water pump. Dealer only item, $68 my cost, it can wait till later this winter when I have the motor out. Then I'll fix her to stock.
Last, the driver's window keeps popping out of track on way up. It acts like the window gets caught on something in the front track and the back pops out, nosing down. I took the door apart, the front track looked mangled....back to pull-a-part. $3 later installed new/used front track. It worked much smoother going down, still makes it half way up and pops out of track. I've tried lube, works a little better, still out of track. I tried tight adjustment on the track, nope....I've tried loose adjustment, nope. I then decided to look into the rear track. While trying to remove it, didn't happen btw, it wouldn't budge. There are no mounting screws in it at all (3 are supposed to be there and were not present) and the damn thing still won't move. I gave up and put it back together. In the process I got the rods jammed in the door handle, didn't catch my screw up, and closed the door. I then spent the next day playing Dukes of Hazard till I could spend 4 hours trying to get the door to open while not trying to hurt the door panel. Fun....not. I broke the door handle and had to buy another one....$41. This is like a Visa commercial.
I still can't get the window to work right. I'm thinking rear track and worn window bushing, because I tried to remove the passenger window to get a look at that window bushing and the damn thing wont budge coming out. Figures. I didn't want to hurt anything in the window that works so I gave up. Any hints on this?
I also need the rubber hose from the MAF to air box with clamps. If anyone has one...or I'll just get one from a CAI at autotwits.
So here concludes my "book".
I love the car. No complaints. I would DEFINITELY buy another car from Ben. I have plans for a Turbo, rear hub bearings, tires, paint, and proper killer stereo. Now I need a winter beater because I couldn't bear to kill this car in salt. I always wanted a '94 cutlass LQ1, since they came out new. I got stuck with a Saturn because I couldn't afford the Cutlass. 2 days in a row I got to square off with a the early 2000 something monte carlo SS's. I killed them both! I will say the 110mph limiter was disappointing. gotta fix that.
Thanks again Ben. And to anyone who can help me out with the tech and parts listed above. HA HA! Now you got to read what you skipped over! :P
He was concerned with a cam carrier leak on the front bank. It would leak bad enough to soak the spark plug bores and destroy the plug wires causing a miss. I've kept a close eye on it. When I picked her up she was also leaking oil from the cam carrier onto the exhaust manifold. By the time I made Cleveland the outside of the head and manifold were dry. I pulled the spark plug wires and found a few drops on the side of #4 plug boot but nothing else. I cleaned it, changed the oil to 10w30 Valvoline Maxlife Synthetic and substituted 1 quart of oil with a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil. I have since put close to another 3k miles on her. I recently opened my new auto repair shop in Medina and drive her to and from daily. I also check her daily. I changed the oil again, about 300 miles short of 3k, and again put valvoline 10w30 maxlife synthetic in her and again 1 quart of marvel. Wix filters if anyone cares. No leaks.
Both exterior door handles slightly out of adjustment and needed lubed. Lubed, tweeked the rods, and they work like silk (see below).
The week I bought the car I went to one of my favorite places in cleveland, Pull-a-Part, and purchased and few things off of a '94 cutlass rag-top. I found the driver's fender lower trim piece, in red, spray bombed it black and installed it.
I replaced both plug ends to the fog lamps(from donor), they would work intermittently and looked scorched. While I was at it, the front air dam was cut for a CAI, I replaced it with a used one, $2. Found a little rust on the radiator core support down there, I blasted it with sand blaster, treated, primer, and shot black with rustolium.
I traded 2 oil changes for a pair of used 12" MTX woofers in a vented box. I'm not big on bass and music (I can't hear most of it, I'm a bit hard of hearing) but the amp wiring was already there so...what the hell. A friend of mine gave me a pioneer 480w amp to power it. Upon wiring the amp in, remote wire wasn't present, I found that the positive wire to the right front speaker was wired into the remote power feed on the deck. I'm not knocking anyone here, a lot of wires in tight confines can get confusing. So I got power to the amp, and the speakers hit pretty good. The 6x9's are wasted, I got a set of no names in small boxes for free that I'm going to swap in for the hell of it. But I will say the mini tweets and other speakers make up were the 6x9's lack. Sounds decent.
I scored big time last week again in pull-a-part! I found another '94 cutlass with a HUD! So I got the dash pad, HUD unit, and HUD control for $4 with warranty! I think the girl was embarrassed and had no idea what I had. She kept trying to call it a cruise control and I had to spell out HUD 3 times....she still didn't get it. lol, I installed it yesterday, I always wanted one of those, it works great! The HUD control was busted on the cable adjustment for up and down. I reversed the spring in the HUD unit so the HUD control would push rather then pull to adjust. If anyone has one of those I'd like to have it right.
She ate a water pump last week. Cost me a whole whopping $14 for a new one, plus coolant. No biggy. Today she ate the outlet side heater hose/tube. This is the long one from the water pump, under the crank pulley, up the fire wall and half way to china, back to the heater core. The tube rusted out under the crank pulley, I cut the tube, and ran 2.5 feet of 3/4" heater hose back up to the water pump. Dealer only item, $68 my cost, it can wait till later this winter when I have the motor out. Then I'll fix her to stock.
Last, the driver's window keeps popping out of track on way up. It acts like the window gets caught on something in the front track and the back pops out, nosing down. I took the door apart, the front track looked mangled....back to pull-a-part. $3 later installed new/used front track. It worked much smoother going down, still makes it half way up and pops out of track. I've tried lube, works a little better, still out of track. I tried tight adjustment on the track, nope....I've tried loose adjustment, nope. I then decided to look into the rear track. While trying to remove it, didn't happen btw, it wouldn't budge. There are no mounting screws in it at all (3 are supposed to be there and were not present) and the damn thing still won't move. I gave up and put it back together. In the process I got the rods jammed in the door handle, didn't catch my screw up, and closed the door. I then spent the next day playing Dukes of Hazard till I could spend 4 hours trying to get the door to open while not trying to hurt the door panel. Fun....not. I broke the door handle and had to buy another one....$41. This is like a Visa commercial.
I still can't get the window to work right. I'm thinking rear track and worn window bushing, because I tried to remove the passenger window to get a look at that window bushing and the damn thing wont budge coming out. Figures. I didn't want to hurt anything in the window that works so I gave up. Any hints on this?
I also need the rubber hose from the MAF to air box with clamps. If anyone has one...or I'll just get one from a CAI at autotwits.
So here concludes my "book".
I love the car. No complaints. I would DEFINITELY buy another car from Ben. I have plans for a Turbo, rear hub bearings, tires, paint, and proper killer stereo. Now I need a winter beater because I couldn't bear to kill this car in salt. I always wanted a '94 cutlass LQ1, since they came out new. I got stuck with a Saturn because I couldn't afford the Cutlass. 2 days in a row I got to square off with a the early 2000 something monte carlo SS's. I killed them both! I will say the 110mph limiter was disappointing. gotta fix that.
Thanks again Ben. And to anyone who can help me out with the tech and parts listed above. HA HA! Now you got to read what you skipped over! :P
She was a nice ride. And I'm still alive too. 
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