Lachlan's 1986 VL Calais auto

[VLC86]

well after a whole days work. I got the old exhaust out and put in my new 2.5" mandrel bent catback exhaust... Sounds really great and the best part is how satisfying it was to do all the work myself.

The car has been running like absolute sh*t latlely though. So yet to discover what the problem is now Possibly missing? or some electrical issue (as always)

Next on the list now is new rear tires, get the auto gearbox in and hopefuly get the car tuned to see it running well once again. Off to NZ for a week, so gearbox hopefully in on the weekend after.

Ill try to get a video of the exhaust soon. its really sounding nice, little drone and sounds good taking off

 

[VLC86]

Well pretty bad last few days.

Last night heading to work going in the pouring rain the car aquaplaned across the road and ran into a steel barrier and almost slid into oncoming traffic. Smashed the indicator (luckily i have a spare one) cracked the fibreglass ends of the headlights, dented the front passenger panel and cracked the front bumper.

Most likely due to the dangerously low amount of tread left on my rear tires.. So got 2 new tires today..

Also realised my chrome dump tip has fallen off somewhere. and hte car is STILL running like sh*t, something wrong with the EFI.

 

[nasty1]

nice car
bad luck with crash take it on the chin lol

whats happening with car running ruff>?explain?i may be able to throw some ideas

 

[VLC86]

thanks mate.

I had another go at fixing the problem of running rough. Checked the firing order and double checked all the leads were at the right spark plug. Checked distributor cap and all of the plugs which are brand new.. The car is still not firing on all cylinders. i took the ignition leads out one by one to see if it made it worse. the problem is that 2nd and 3rd leads didnt make any difference when i took them out.. so any ideas on what i need to check still?

Im going to take the car to ultratune tomorrow morning for a free check and see what they say, hopefully ill know pretty soon.

Here is a few pictures of the car after i spent the afternoon fixing what i could..resprayed the bumper, banged out some of the dents, put in new indicator

 

[detox_nath83]

do a compression test?
or could be injectors on those cylinders,,, try unplugging the injector and see if there is a difference as well.

could be a bung lead or plug even though u have replaced them could be a dicky one still. Test your leads with a multimeter. or shuffle the plugs to see if it moves cylinder..
Get a feeler gauge and check the Sprak gap
if they r bcpr6es11 plugs the 11 means gap of 1.1

 

[VLC86]

Thanks Nath, Im waiting till monday when the car is getting a look over and they will give me an idea of what to do/have fixed.

I have new spark plugs in there, and i took them out and checked, the gap seemed to be quite small, definately not the 1.1 like they were when i put them in. I fixed them, but it didn't seem to make a difference

Ill await the diagnosis on monday

 

[VLC86]

Well i have bad news. Got the car back from ultratune today, and the result is a blown head gasket with low compression in 2nd and 3rd cylinder

So i have a few options to choose from...
I sell the car [very unlikely as i need a car]
I scrap the car and buy a piece of **** car.. however i dont want to do this
I get the car fixed for some ridiculous price
ooorrrrr I put the car away for a few weeks, borrow my cousins spare car (kia carnival ) and spend my 3 month uni holidays fixing the car up properly.

Im planning on getting the car looked over again to get an estimate of the damage.

Any opinons on what i should do? I really love this car and dont want to part with it.. What damage could have occured to the engine if it has been driving on only 4 cylinders for about 2 weeks now?

the temp guage hasn't budged off 1/4 once so i doubt cracked head but....?

hopefully someone can help

 

[VL Jordy]

Hey guys anyone knows how to remove transmission fluid without full changeover/service?

 

[VLC86]

Hey guys anyone knows how to remove transmission fluid without full changeover/service?

Dunno dude, but an auto trans service really isnt that hard and if you do it you can make sure you put the right amount of oil in. I did one the other week. But best off to stick to your own thread haha

 

[cracker]

looks good.
buy a work shop manual and do the headgasket yourself, good luck