What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Nothing to be nervous about. It should be pretty straightforward. What engine is in the car?

 

307 Olds. I'm also hoping it won't take more than 3 or 4 weeks to get it completely finished.

 

Depends on who you take it to and the workloads of the shop and the machine shop doing the actual rebuild. Are you doing a bone-stock rebuild? I would recommend a teardown first, see if everything's in spec. If it all is, new gaskets/seals, new oil pump, rebuild the carb and dial it in (even though it's computer-controlled, it can be adjusted), new water pump, starter and alternator, new radiator, service the trans. If it really does need a rebuild, then go that route and rebuild the carb, but do everything else later as you can afford.

 

I'm sure it is good hands.

 

Hubby took the Christmas tree and lights off the roof, the stickers out of the window, filled her full of gas, put in some Sta-bil, ran her around the block, parked her in her shelter, opened the windows a crack, removed the battery and called the insurance company to postpone the insurance. She is off the road until spring...

 

I've always had a little oil leak from the rear main seal, but I've recently had oil start leaking from the front too.

Those two things, coupled with the fact that I'm over 150k miles, and due for timing chain replacement, in addition to the pinging happening with low octane fuel, all indicated engine work needed at some point.

I'm also taking the three kids, (all under 5) on a 2500+/- mile road trip the end of February. Since the first half will be just the kids and me, picking the wife up halfway, in February, through mountains, Ozarks, and deep south, I figured I should probably do it before the trip, just to be safe.

As far as everything else, I've had the carb and transmission both rebuilt within the last year, so those are both good to go.

Besides, $5k for an engine rebuild is way better than $30k for a minivan!

 

A) You can get a decent used minivan for $5K;
B) The pinging is not because of the fuel. Not anymore. Fuel production is so spot-on as far as quality and EPA adherence to their standards, that about the only way to get bad fuel is if you pump diesel into a holding tank. If the C3 control system is fully intact, then it's likely you have a bad knock sensor or knock circuit. Knock sensors figure big-time in carburetor/TBI engine management;
C) The front and rear main seals, timing set, water pump, oil pump, radiator, starter and alternator can all be done, and Hell, even throw in a tune-up with new PCV and fuel filter on the carb (those little buggers only last 5K miles), and I'm very sure it all will be less than $3K. The only reason I'd go ahead and do a full engine rebuild is if the engine's actually shot.

 

I have been dormant for quite some time, guess i'll give my updates.
The family and I ended up having to move to a new house (one rental to another) and due to moving from an old big farm house with a decent sized yard I had to downsize by one car (don't panic, both the wagon's are ok), unfortunately (or fortunately) I had to call it quits on my 1983 olds regency 98 brougham that I had, ended up selling it to a scrapper for $50, BUT he told me he's fixing it up to put back on the road.
Before it went I robbed the motor out of it because I can use it in my 1987 pontiac safari wagon as the current motor has a rounding cam in it, it still runs but you can hear the ticking from it, and yes it's a 307 in both.
Also found out that motor in the olds was a factory replacement/rebuild in that car so that's sort of lucky.
My 1986 pontiac parisienne station wagon has been off the road for a few months due to the alternator screwing up in it during the move, luckily my 1989 thunderbird has a trailer hitch as well (but it's got low interior heat for the winter which sucks), btw the 1986 has a 305 in it.
The 1986 I bought (I think) either a 120 amp or 95 amp alternator for it but the casing was a slightly bigger casing (by about 1/4 of an inch or close) and so it impeded the normal bracket for the alternator to go into, but my dad and I ended up elongating one of the mount holes on the bracket (the one that bolts to the top of the water pump, not the front) and by elongating that hole slightly we managed to fit the new alt in there perfectly.
While this was going on, I contacted "The Carburetor Guy" in chilliwack BC (which is only a few cities from me) and got him to rebuild the carb on the car, cost me $240 with 3 old carbs for cores as well, my dad and I tried to setup the carb on the car but he fell ill with that nasty flu going around and now with the cold weather I have to wait for warmer weather to take the car out to the carb guy as I found out the first visit for adjustment and setup is free after a rebuild.
I still need to do a rad replacement in the 86 as well but I have the rad at home, and thanks to working as a driver for an auto parts store I bought 10 fuel filters for the cars. YES you read that right, 10, I figured those little paper filters can be a pain and my cost on them was something like $0.48 so I figured "why not stock up?" was good anyways as I accidentally ran the 86 out of gas so I changed the filter in it after that and also found that my float in the tank is acting up and mis reading as it was showing 1/8th of a tank when it ran out on a level driveway.
Looking into getting in coil airbag suspension helpers but they say this kit is only compatible with the 87 to 89 safari wagon's, I'm trying to find out if they will fit a 1986 as they are the exact same body and frame, the only change is the motor from a 305 to 307, this is the kit: http://www.sdtrucksprings.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6604.
So that's what's been going on so far, other than finding out a neighbor 3 doors up from me tends to have older wagons show up randomly, usually in the 70's era.

 

As for the pinging, I guess I'm not really sure what "pinging" actually means. What I have going on is more of a deep rattle that happens when the engine is under load. It happens pretty much constantly when I use low octane fuel, occasionally when I use midgrade, and rarely when I use high octane. Because of that, I only have been using high octane, and waiting on the rebuild to correct that.

You are correct, I don't HAVE to rebuild the whole thing. The way I figure it though, the engine has to come out to get the rear seal. Once it's out, it has to be taken halfway apart to replace the various other seals and gaskets. If I'm out a car for one or two weeks, and paying $3k for the first half of the work to be done, I might as well have the car in the shop for a couple more weeks, pay another $2k, and have a zero mile engine that will be good to go for another 10+ years and 150,000+ miles.

Besides, the engine is 36 years old. All those parts and pieces are old and worn out, and I like to take care of my vehicles.

 

The way you described the "rattling" sound makes it seem like timing was out on it, of course many things can cause timing to be out, but getting the engine rebuilt will obviously cure most if not all of those issues.

 

Those knock sensors are a fair pattern failure, so when the engine's out, have them look at/fix the wiring and a new sensor for it.

 

I've heard that rattlely sound before...could it be a lifter?

 

Usually, any valvetrain noise is all the time, even at idle. Spark knock is only under load.

 

About this "knock sensor", are you sure about that? Nothing I can find would seem to indicate that there was a knock sensor for 1981.

 

Last winter was the first time we every stored a car in a tent shelter. It did the job but I found that the car seemed to have some dampness inside. For instance, when I had to retrieve some papers from the glove box that felt damp. So I thought if the papers are damp is the fabric also? We had left the windows open a crack thinking that would help keep the air circulating The car didn't smell damp, I just didn't like that the papers felt damp. I suppose it could have been because the glove box was closet and not much air could get in there.
This winter I have decided to put a bunch of silica gel packs throughout the interior and I removed anything that might hope moisture.





So this is how she looks all tucked away...