There's Buick Roady Wagon that I might want to put an offer on but was wondering if anyone was in the vicinity to check it out?
It looks like I've found someone.
Who?
Mike
I got pointed to a Wagon forum called "LongRoof".
A guy there is in Savannah and is going to check out the car tomorrow. It seems there is also someone else on the forum who wanted him to check out the car so if competition gets steep, I'll walk.
Ahh I see you're already looking on other forums; a suggestion I just posted in another thread.
Good luck.
Ah. I hope you find a good one. These are great cars. My BIL had 2 of them and loved them both. The first he had was a '95 Limited with the trailering package. It was an awesome car. But rust got to it in all the usual places and it had to be scrapped.
But one caution on the trailering package. It comes with the mechanical fan which makes access to the Opti-Spark very difficult.
Mike
Is the mechanical fan that tough to take off?
It is a PIA. There is a big shroud, The fan itself, extra belt, brackets. Probably about 1/2 to 3/4 hour disassembly to get at the front of the engine. Then it has to go back together.
But that is the main drawback of the package. On the upside you have the capability to pull a really big trailer, a lower axle ratio (3.36 I believe) the wiring harness and some extra HD components.
If you want to pull a smaller trailer, then you won't likely need that package. the Limited comes with ELC, which can compensate for some tongue weight.
But those guys on the forum could elaborate better than I can off the top of my head.
Mike
So your vote is 92-93?
Ueah, rugged and durable. But only the 305 was offered in the Estate for '91-'93. It is a bit underpowered.
Mike
Also, the 4L60-E is essentially an electronically controlled 700.
Mike
My literature shows the 5.7 being available only and standard in the Sedan. But if in the US the 5.7 was available in the Estate, then that would be the way to go.
Torque for the LO5 is 300 lb/ft, the LT1 330 ft lb. Power is 190 and 260 respectively. The LO3 made 170 HP and I'd have to look up the torque values, but it is significantly less than the LO5.
Mike
Everything I've read says the Wagons were standard with the 5.0 in 91, 5.7 LO5 in 92/93, and 5.7LT1 in 94/95/96.
From 91-93 the L03 was standard in the Caprice. L05 in the buick 92-3.
Whatever you do, don't buy a L03 wagon unless you like cleaning bugs off the back window.
Think your 4100 is slow? You won't after driving an L03.
Don't worry about the LT1. If you need to do an optispark, no sweat. I can do it really quick.
Replacing ignition wires.... now that's a bitch of a job.
GJ
I'll have to recheck my stuff. But I never recalled seeing a 91-93 wagon with anything but a 305.
Mike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Estate
QuoteBuick revived the Roadmaster name with the introduction of the Roadmaster Estate in 1991. A "Vista Roof", a fixed sunroof over the second row seats, was standard. Initially the Roadmaster Estate used Chevrolet's 5.0 L small-block V8, but used the larger 5.7 L version from 1992. In 1994 the 5.7 L LT1 engine with dual exhaust became standard, the same as used on the Impala SS and on Chevrolet police cars. It was the first time that a high performance engine was offered on a GM station wagon since 1974. GM discontinued the Roadmaster Estate in 1996, ending production on December 13 of that year.[4]
It also appears as if the Sedan only came with the 5.7 for 92 and on as well.
I stand corrected. '92 and '93 both the sedan and wagon came with the 5.7. '91 had the 5.0.
I've got all the brochures here if you want to come by and look at them sometime.
Mike
Has anyone changed the Optispark on one of these cars ? ,I know on the Corvette it's a bitch , is the Buick easier to do ???
In these cars without the big mechanical fan in the way it's a walk in the park. The front of the engine is wide open. Lots of room.
Mike
Quote from: Tailfin Joe on January 15, 2014, 12:24:08 PM
Has anyone changed the Optispark on one of these cars ? ,I know on the Corvette it's a bitch , is the Buick easier to do ???
I've done it a few times.
Anything is a bitch on the Corvette. It's a very easy job on the B-D body cars.
Remove serpentine belt, drain coolant, pull water pump/AIR bracket, remove harmonic balancer, pull plug wires of opti and vent tubes (2). remove 3 bolts and it comes right off.
GJ
Can be removed in 1/2 hour.
Mike
Quote from: guidematic on January 16, 2014, 05:20:10 AM
Can be removed in 1/2 hour.
Mike
This doesn't include the time to get your tools together, cleaning up and putting everything away, draining the system, refilling and burping it.....
a 3 hour job.
Pull up to my garage door. Everything is right there. But I said removed in 1/2 hour. The entire job, start to finish including road test would be in the area of a couple of hours.
Mike
Luckily this car has a regular distributor.
I tried to post a bunch of pictures I took but the site says they're to large to post.
Even still, that distributor is a bit of a prick to get at. It's buried under the cowl. I used to remove them with a socket on a universal on a socket driver.
When it goes back on, be sure to lube the bolts with a bit of anti-sieze. I posted on what else to look for in there on then CISO forum.
Send the pics to Jon or I and we can resize and post them if you can't do it.
Mike
Pics are on the way, Mike.
Quote from: guidematic on January 16, 2014, 03:25:25 PM
The entire job, start to finish including road test would be in the area of a couple of hours.
You forgot to add the beer drinking time in. :Cold Beer:
GJ
Beer drinking after the road test. :yes:
Mike
Quote from: Otto Skorzeny on January 16, 2014, 07:46:40 PM
Pics are on the way, Mike.
Got them! Wow 67 pics. That took awhile top download. I may just put them all on my PB account and post the link here.
Mike
I downloaded them all to my PB account.
http://s273.photobucket.com/user/guidematic/library/92%20Roadmaster?sort=2&page=1
Man, that thing is damned near pristine under there. Jon, you'll want to have it oiled ASAP! I think I may have a $10 off coupon for Krown if you're interested.
Mike
Yeah, it's getting oiled as soon as possible. I'll take a coupon if you've got one.
Yes, it's pretty nice. It mainly just needs a thorough cleaning and detailing. The guy lives on a gravel road so the tires are filthy and the underside has a layer of dirt and sand stuck to it. There are leaves and debris stuck in the cowl vents and door hinge areas.
I hate that. I can't stand driving a dirty vehicle - even my truck to a job site.
Anyway, I think I'm as excited as Jon because I can see the potential this car has. A weekend of TLC will bring it up several notches. Degrease and clean the engine bay, peel the rest of the black strips off the chrome or replace them with the chrome from the guy up the road here, get a Cooper whitewall to replace that one with the white letters and this car is going to be good enough to show!
I feel sorry for it having to move to the rust belt after living its its 22 years in the salt free South. Hopefully that Krown oil will do the trick to keep it rust free.
Krown can do some amazing things. I regret not getting my truck treated since at this point it is still as strong as ever mechanically but absolutely toast bodywise. I'll never be able to sell it for anything because there's not a panel on the truck that doesn't need to be replaced.
On the Buick, I'd clean the underside and buy a couple bottles of that rust converter sold at NAPA or Home Depot and brush it on all the parts with surface rust before having it treated with oil. That stuff works really well. After it's dry you could spray it with Rustoleum semi-gloss black.
I did the entire underside of the Bismarck that way 6 or 7 years ago.
Post some pics of the truck, Jon. That will shock and awe the southern folk. Those Dakotas are among the worst rusters I have seen in a very long time.
Mike
Quote from: Otto Skorzeny on January 17, 2014, 03:29:54 PM
On the Buick, I'd clean the underside and buy a couple bottles of that rust converter sold at NAPA or Home Depot and brush it on all the parts with surface rust before having it treated with oil. That stuff works really well. After it's dry you could spray it with Rustoleum semi-gloss black.
I did the entire underside of the Bismarck that way 6 or 7 years ago.
A small amount of dirt and some surface rust will give the Krown something to bite to. The oil effectively stops any rust since it prevents O2 and moisture from getting to it.
Mike
How old is your Dakota?
I didn't want to go through the trouble of brushing the snow off or crawling under neath it. So this is just the stuff at the lower molding level. There's plenty more on the hood and roof and underneath.
Wow! That's awful. Might as well just drive it until it can't be driven anymore.
I had an '88 that I sold with 231,000 miles on it and it looked like new. It didn't even have as much surface rust as the Buick.
Around here there are lots of laws about what kind of condition your bumpers and fenders are in, to be honest I can't believe I haven't been pulled over yet and given a warning. Since replacement bumpers can't be found in the wreckers and it's not worth it to put any more money into the truck I'm getting the Buick as the replacement. I'll keep the truck going as long as I can since I need it to move the engines and stuff I have when we sell our house. But it will be kept off the road with no insurance on it until I need to use it. Once we move, I'll probably ditch it. It's got an oil leak (you guessed it, rusted through oil pan) that I can't stop without jacking the engine up, which apparently requires pulling the intake manifold. I think that if I start trying to move things to get the oil pan off, more things will crumble. It's got close to 200k miles on it.
Clean the rusted oil pan and slap some JB Weld on the hole.
Best to leave well enough alone. Once you start picking at the crusty and flakey rust, there could be a hole the size of a quarter or bigger.
Mike
Quote from: Otto Skorzeny on January 17, 2014, 04:24:53 PM
Clean the rusted oil pan and slap some JB Weld on the hole.
Unfortunately it's not a identifiable hole. The whole pan has become porous (apparently it's pretty common for these trucks) and the oil is seeping out all over the place.
Spray the whole thing with Rustoleum Leak Seal. $10 at Home Depot.
It's sort of like that stuff that guy on uses on his boat with a screen door bottom.
Not a bad idea. I was a little hesitant to do anything like that because I didn't want moisture to get trapped at make it worse, at least with the oil all over the place it's protected now. There's no point in crawling under the truck in the snow right now, my driveway is oil stained enough as it is. But for the new place I'll probably look into trying that.