Northern Custom Cruiser

Well, i mean its there to keep everything flowing such as fuel, oil, air, coolant, and pretty much anyhing your heart would do. Which is im sure what your hinting towards. Bad circulation leads to problems because things arnt getting where they need to go. Thats why i have come here, to learn things everyone should know like what a compression test is, how to go about preforming one, and what tools are required. I realize the importance, just am lacking the know-how to fix it. But how can one read a book when he doesn't know how to speak the language?

oldcutlass

Because the book teaches you the language and tools required.

Professur

I asked the question as I did for a reason, and your answer tells me exactly what I wanted to know. Understand that your engine is at the heart, an air pump. Just like a compressor. It sucks air in the intake and pumps it out the tailpipe. The fuel is just there to give it a kick in the seat of the pants and move things about. Every time a piston goes down when it's intake valve is open, it's trying to suck air out of the intake manifold. That air is restricted by the throttle plates in the carb. So, when the plates are closed, the vacuum is high ... there's very little air can make it through. When the plates are open, the vacuum decreases ... there's lots more air, and less resistance to that airflow. All the air going in flows past tiny nozzles in the carb, and draws a tiny bit of fuel down into the intake with it. Any air that sneaks in that doesn't go through the carb gets to the cylinders without any fuel.

The other end of the pipe is the exhaust. If there's resistance in the exhaust, the dirty air in the cylinder has to fight to get out. That can leave dirty air in there when the next cycle comes about. Then there's the timing ... but stop! ... there's 2 different types of timing. There's the timing that controls the spark, and the timing that controls the valves and the airflow. Both are controlled and bound to the pistons by the timing chain and cam shaft. If the timing chain is sloppy, it can mean your valves aren't open at exactly the right times for optimal air movement. The spark timing is varied by the springs on the distributor AND by a vacuum hose (which tells the distributor how wide open the throttle plates are)

MDchanic

It would be a violation of Federal law for me to advise you on what your best choice is.

However, on a completely different topic, there is a device which used to be called a "cheater pipe" or "test pipe" which was simply a length of exhaust pipe with the proper fittings on the ends to connect it to your exhaust system in place of your cat. You used to be able to get them at all the auto parts stores, until someone noticed that selling them was a violation of Federal law, so now you can't. But you may be able to find one somewhere.

Back in the old days, people used to remove the cats, use a tire iron or similar implement of destruction to ram through the ceramic catalyst media, and then put the cat back on.


And, yes, we can give you more information in one post here, than you can get from your entire Chilton's. That's not because we're so great - it's because those manuals suck so much.

Get a factory manual, thumb through the whole thing over a period of days, then and go through the parts you're interested in more thoroughly, and you will know a huge amount more than you do now.


And, yes, beer is, at least sometimes, the elixir of life, but I, personally, never drink while I'm wrenching - it slows me down, makes me make mistakes, and lowers my frustration threshold. I know that some guys work well on it, but I've learned from experience that it doesn't help me.
AFTER I've got the tools cleaned up, on the other hand...


You're doing great!

- Eric

Northern Custom Cruiser

Yes but we all know things are easier to understand from the mind of a human rather than a book, i cant stop a book and ask it a question, or have it explain it a different way. I do understand alot in it, but what you guys have given me is the missing info i did not have, or was not able to produce myself. I thank you for that

Northern Custom Cruiser

I was actually contemplating on asking what purpose the cat serves in not to only be annoying and if it could efficiently be eliminated, but figured that might be illegal haha but just for information sake, does the cat need to exist there?

MDchanic

No. Your car does not have a second post-cat oxygen sensor (heck, I don't even know if it has the first one before the cat), so the car will never know whether the cat is there or not.

The catalytic converter is exactly what its name implies: a device that uses a catalyst to drive chemical reactions that convert pollutants into things that are less harmful.
It only works at very high temperatures, so it's doing nothing before the car is warmed up.

When working properly, the cat provides a final step in cleaning your exhaust gasses, but the old ones tended to accumulate crud, which closed them off and reduced flow and therefore performance (new ones do not generally have this problem).

Newer cars with OBD-II (and probably plenty without it) have an extra oxygen sensor after the cat, which senses how well the cat is working, so that if it is not working well, it can set a code and light the Check Engine light to tell you it's time to change it, but older cars like yours do not have this, so they will drive along merrily without a cat.

- Eric

GEARMAN69

With that pellet style you can knock the plug out and start it which will blow all the pellets out on the ground and free up the flow. Then just plug hole back up. It is seldom these days in 2016 a young fella can experience the joy of liberating there GM ride of the horrid 1st design catalytic converter. It isn't honeycomb if its the pellet design.

83hurstguy

Some of those low performance 307 carbs had DD rods because the secondary air valve had a limiter on the opening as well. If you're going to richen up the metering rods, you will need to make sure the air valve (top flaps on the secondaries) opens fully as well.

GEARMAN69

Yes ^^ bend that tang dont drink it though lol

Northern Custom Cruiser

I havent seen them open themselves, but they open freely when i push it in

Arrowstorm

I asked this same question 13 years ago when I first got my 85. The superintendent where I worked gave me some advice.

Basically, you're not going to get any real POWER out of that 307 that'll make your tires squeal or anything like that, but you can get enough to help the car really pick up.

The very first thing I did was buy a K&N air filter. (That's the first thing I do for any car I buy) After that, I took it to a muffer shop, had them gut the cat and ran true dual exhaust out the back. BUT.... that's not legal. The only other things you're really going to be able to do is give it a damn good tune-up with factory specs. Plugs, wires, and MAYBE perfomance cap and rotor, but I've not noticed much of a difference. SEEK AND STOP ANY AND ALL VACUUM LEAKS. You MIGHT be able to get a few extra horses with all that. I've read articles that claim that if you delete the AIR pump, you can increase output by a couple horses, but other articles that claim it's best not to.

The carb and distributor on this car are electronic, unfortunately, and to my knowledge, it doesn't give you much to play with unless you replace them for mechanical components, which will require you to replace the intake as well.

Throw that Chilton away or use the pages to wipe your hands after you're done fiddling around under the hood. You need the chassis service manual.

Like others have mentioned, the only way you're going to get the power that you "need and need it now" is to ... how did one other member put it to me once?.... "Jack up the air cleaner and put a 350 under it". Lol.

You have a "Cruiser", man. Not a Draggin Wagon. Maybe if you dropped that 307 in a Civic Hatchback you could get some serious POWER out of it, but in a Custom Cruiser, a smooth running engine that doesn't give you any crap or lag when you press that gas pedal and that will run forever is all you really need to ask for.

Northern Custom Cruiser

Is this the piece of crap pellet cat you guys mentioned?

MDchanic

Looks like one to me, but I never owned a car of that era.

- Eric

GEARMAN69

Certainly is and in the words of the original Ghost Busters.."A real nasty one too"

olds 307 and 403

They weren't a great design, removing it will help. Modern cats are almost no restriction to the exhaust.

droldsmorland

N02! Put a 100 hp sprayer on it. It will scoot like hell for at least a 1/4 mile before meting down. Then you can wedge in a 455.

Northern Custom Cruiser

Would you guys know what this dohicky is? I was messing around with the vacuum lines last night in comparison with my 87 Custom Cruiser and they are like two different systems, the 87 has so much more and in different places than my current 83. Arnt they supossed to have close to if not the exact same setup? The pic i posted shows whatever that is and on the 87 it is hooked to lines on the driver VC which connect to various things which seem sightly unimportant. On the 83 ,however, it was plugged in to lines which connect directly to the carb and it makes a MAJOR change in engine performance. The engine sounds like its going to die amd it almost does if you rev it in park. If i plug it in to the seeming pointless lines amd sensors like it was on the 87, it runs like a completely new engine. Where does it belong? I even went to all the parts stores in my area yesterday trying to hunt down somewhere that can identify it and replace it, to no avail. Air only goes one direction though it. Any ideas?

Northern Custom Cruiser

I believe i discovered what was making me unhappy, i really wasnt expecting this yacht ive got to smoke a 2016 camero, but i did want to be able to hit the gas and speed up from a red light as fast as everyone else, seriously, i couldnt even do that unless i floored it. But now with moving this "dohicky" i found it makes a night and day difference. And with the electric carb and distributor, would it be impractical to replace these with mechanical ones? I personally would like this car to be as mechanical as possible, this is my bugout wagon and id like it to be as EMP proof as she can get (;

MDchanic

Then you need an older mechanical diesel.

- Eric

Northern Custom Cruiser

Can i get one is a stylish, pimptastic ride?

MDchanic

That's the only way you can get them.

Good candidates are '80s to early '90s GM, Ford, and Dodge trucks and '50s through '70s Mercedes.

And, at least with the Mercedes, you can burn vegetable oil happily (the GMs are a bit finicky).

Olds made a diesel, too, but we prefer not to talk about that...

- Eric

Northern Custom Cruiser

Not to open a bad subject, but just for future reference, were they not... eh.... Performing as well as expected..?

MDchanic

Early ones suffered frequent and major failures, mostly head gaskets, but also more serious things, later ones were improved, but none had any power, and by the time they fixed the problems, nobody wanted them.

The blocks are excellent platforms for performance engines, though.

- Eric

oldcutlass

None of the engines in those years, gas or diesel, were known for being dramatic powerhouses. They were all anemic.

Professur

The biggest problem IMO with the olds diesel was they were sold to people who didn't know anything about diesels and tried to drive and maintain them like gas engines.

Northern Custom Cruiser

Were the issues with the olds diesels caused by the owners lack of know how to take proper care of them, or were there real design
issues?

olds 307 and 403

Both. Improper oil used/lack of maintenance and just poor training from GM really killed them. Many design issues and short cuts. First only using 4 head bolts per cylinder, later V6 diesels used 6 per cylinder but was too late. Early motors ran too short of main bolts causing major failure.No water/fuel separator, water in a cylinder with 22.5 to 1 compression and 4 head bolts equaled broken parts. Plus people used dry gas in their tanks and it attacked the pump seals throwing off timing and more blown head gaskets. Good mileage but terribly gutless, an Olds 260 gas would out accelerate them, along with noise and black smoke. Just a disaster for GM and killed diesels in modern cars till recently in North America.

83hurstguy

They will open as the engine revs under load. It's hard to get them to open when it's parked while revving it unless they are set really loose (and you don't want them to open that quick or the car will bog).

When you push them open do they go to a full 90 degrees?

Northern Custom Cruiser

Yes, i believe so. Someone has jacked this engine up, whoever the previous owner was needs to throw whoever thought they knew what they were doing to this engine off a cliff. I took it over to my other CC the other day and these vacuum lines are so messed up. I think im going to have to gut the whole thing and start over from scratch because there are entire systems that are missing along with everything being just thrown together. Im still trying to figure out what that little circular piece is that i posted pics of because it makes a huuuuuge difference when its unplugged but i dont want to just leave open vacuum lines going directly into the carb. This is a nightmare

MDchanic

You've GOT to get the factory service manual as soon as you can (I don't know whether it's called the Chassis Service Manual in your year - they did change it at some point) - it has all of this information, clearly described and illustrated.

Without it, you're just working in the dark.

- Eric

Professur

Actually, the FSM just says to look at the sticker under the hood for vacuum routing.

Northern Custom Cruiser

Please tell me your being sarcastic... That sticker isnt worth the time it takes to decipher, its quite vague and is missing pretty much everything. Id have better luck with the ink blot that is this Chilton manual I have. And i am getting a chassis service manual the second i can, sadly, that time has not yet come..

MDchanic

Oh.

That's kind of dumb.

That's why I like the older cars better - none of this BS.

So, if there's no sticker, then... He's hosed, right?

- Eric

MDchanic

So, 1983, presumably VIN code H?

How's this?



Follow the lines to get the name of that mystery part (and/or look up part number), then google the name to determine its function.

- Eric

Professur

Professur

That's terrible.

MDchanic

Well, I'm sure you can offer a reel improvement...

- Eric

Northern Custom Cruiser

Honestly, there are at LEAST 10 to ever 1 line that diagram shows, and i believe thats the same diagram in the Chilton manual i have, ironically. I also believe that the diagram is just a copy of whats under the hood......... Wow......... This is disappointing............... I was having dreams of page after page specifically showing where each and every little b****** goes... Looks like im "hosed" after all..

Northern Custom Cruiser

And that diagram is missing tremendous amounts of objects under the hood, i dont think itll be much use exept for the major systems. I just think some dude though he had this but soon realized this is a different beast and plugged everything in anywhere it would fit.