"New" Z on the way... 1991 #302

[VetteMed]

SO, the car arrived on Monday.

The problem list so far:

• Oil leak from rear diff, may be pinion seal, as entire pinion area is caked with grease.
• Leaking differential oil burning off from rear exhaust
• Oil leak from front of engine - can't determine source yet, passenger side framerail caked with grease and dirt, oil cooler lines suspected, can't yet rule out other sources.
• Wheel bearings are probably shot - whine/howl noise while driving.
• Clicking sound from rear driver's side, upon initial acceleration - suspect U-joints gone bad.
• Parking brake doesn't hold
• Parking brake switch inoperative - light stays on
• Bose is inoperative
• Wear on seat bolsters
• Cowl drains and hood hinge drains clogged with debris, preventing drainage (fixed )
• Paint has dark staining, vertical streaking (fixed - orbital buffer and polishing compound)
• Many paint chips, especially trailing edges of doors (temp fix with touch-up paint, full paint job in the future)
• Weatherstrip is in need of replacement - hatch completely shot, others marginal but will replace.
• Windshield delamination, not terrible, but there's a 1/2 inch stone chip blemish on the passenger side. I suspect I'll probably replace with a regular windshield.
• Dirty interior - dust, bits of grass
• Rear cross-drilled brake rotor cracked around cross-drilled hole
• Headlight motors need bushings

The good:

• The motor runs well, didn't really open it up fully because I haven't sorted out the driveline yet. Runs smoothly, good oil pressure.
• Everything is complete - nothing hacked up or missing. Original owner sent me the pizza box, all service records dating back to 1990, service manuals, receipts for any aftermarket parts (Baer rotors, upgraded Bilstein shock controller, Samco intake duct, accel injectors, etc)
• The suspension feels tight, even with 188K miles. It feels tighter than my 65K mile #1147 felt.
• Fluidyne radiator
• Carpets are in surprisingly good condition, just dirty.

First order of business is to pull the rearend, in order to replace the seals. Also pulled the plenum, of course, to replace plug wires/breather hoses/breather box gasket etc. New oil cooler lines waiting to go on, and of course the C5 brakes and A-Molds that I pulled from #1147 before selling.

Couple of pictures, prior to initial cleaning:


Here you can see some of the baked-in filth in the paint... the doors and rear bumper were most severely affected, but are cleaning up well.


Got my work cut out for me, but for under $10K I still think I did well.

[secondchance]

Clicking noise from the rear, especially if from driver side, may be incorrectly torqued king nut for rear wheel bearing and shouldered washer.

[VetteMed]

Originally Posted by secondchance

Clicking noise from the rear, especially if from driver side, may be incorrectly torqued king nut for rear wheel bearing and shouldered washer.

Good to know, thanks! I've already ordered new u-joints and hubs, since I don't want to take any chances at this kind of mileage.

[secondchance]

Make sure you have a pair of these washers on hand before tearing into rear bearing hubs.

[VetteMed]

Pulled the plenum and fuel rails last night, lots of seepage under there... Started "removing" the brittle old breather hoses before I snapped this pic, btw.

[Z51JEFF]

Congrats on the new car.If you dont have the breather hoses yet do some searching for my thread about new breather hoses.A set on Fleabay at $127,DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.Its good to know a useable replacement can be had for next to nothing.

[VetteMed]

Originally Posted by Z51JEFF

Congrats on the new car.If you dont have the breather hoses yet do some searching for my thread about new breather hoses.A set on Fleabay at $127,DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.Its good to know a useable replacement can be had for next to nothing.

I picked up the hose at Oreilly last night after work - Thanks!!

[scottfab]

Originally Posted by DMark

Under $10k....., Well Done!

Sounds like a future 415 engine car to me.

Well done indeed!!

[VetteMed]

Update:

Pulled plenum, injector housings, breather box, alternator, AC compressor, oil cooler, AC condenser, radiator, fans, tensioner.

I've removed the secondary butterfly assemblies, and I'm going to have Marc Haibeck burn a chip. I'm not going to reinstall all of the under-plenum vacuum plumbing, it's just too old and dried out for me to want to gamble. Everything plastic is just brittle and itching to crack. I was surprised at how relatively simple the process of removing the secondaries was.

The Fluidyne radiator is still in excellent shape, so that goes back in. Some loose paint on the oil cooler, cleaned that up, got new lines to install for that too. The AC condenser looked to be original, so that's being replaced.

I have a new AC compressor and a rebuilt alternator on the way. New water pump will be going in. Old alternator was making some noise, and the AC compressor was seeping oil everywhere.

The one thing I've found so far which concerns me a little, is some areas of rust-colored staining of the block at the areas of cyls 7 and 8. I worry that this may be a sign of headgasket seepage, but the oil and coolant both look fine, and there's no white smoke from the exhaust... so I'm going to button it all back up and hope for the best.

More to come...

[Huntingbigun]

keep up the good work send more pics