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I'm never going into a junkyard without my camera phone again. The SHORT list: 1964 Ford short bed (with a 3-speed on the column and a dent in the door) 1970 El Camino SS 1974 Malibu Classic sedan in pea soup green 1978 Chevy C30 tow truck with no doors, windows, or front clip, still being used daily to drag wrecks around 1991 Suburban sitting on blocks with fresh (December 08 expiration) inspection and tags, front clip laying on the ground in front of it

I just checked the ad, the price has been dropped to $9,500, the cost of the original conversion!!!

Agreed. I'll be renting a car for two weeks at the end of the month and I'm going to avoid the archetypical secretary and dental assistant Mustang if at all possible. If all goes well I'll have a Malibu or an Impala or even a Cobalt. Hell, compared to a Mustang, an Aveo would be pleasant.

Tore down the top end of the motor a couple weeks back. Very gooey inside. I'll send it to the machine shop as soon as I have the $60 to pay for the resurfacing, cleaning, and valve job.

well, we're in that little corner of 35W and 820, off Mark IV... but I must update this thread to mention the sale of the Moose, $1300, to finance buying my wife a POS Taurus for work. Good news is I got a 1997 Intrepid out of the deal. Bad news is it had two blown head gaskets. That's fixed (took me 3 weeks to do it though, with all the busyness we've been dealing with), and it will be my daily driver until it sells. Moose is headed for a deer lease down south of San Antonio.

I see the latest generation Corolla 5-speed with 32 city, 41 highway. The Saturn S-Series with 5-speed got 29 city, 40 highway. No Cobalt, Cavalier, Sunfire, G5, or Prizm has come close. The Geo/Chevy Metro is about it, and in its final 2000 year, the 4-cylinder/5-speed Metro was only rated 36/42, down from 39/43 in 98-99. And that's smaller than an Echo or Tercel, so it's not a fair comparison. Now if you want to talk gas mileage, cars in the mid-80s did WAY better than today's cars. Take the 1985 models of the popular small cars, with standard manual transmissions (4-speed if available, 5-speed if not) 26/35 Chevrolet Cavalier (and other 2.0/4-speed J-bodies) 28/34 Chevrolet Chevette (and Pontiac T1000) 30/37 Chevrolet Nova (and Toyota Corolla) 38/43 Chevrolet Spectrum (and Isuzu I-Mark) 47/53 Chevrolet Sprint 37/41 Dodge Colt (and Mitsubishi Mirage and Plymouth Colt) 30/40 Dodge Omni (and Charger, Plymouth Horizon and Turismo) 34/44 Ford Escort (1.6L early) (and Mercury Lynx) 33/43 Ford Escort (1.9L late) (and Mercury Lynx) 38/42 Honda Civic 49/54 Honda CRX HF 31/37 Nissan Sentra 34/40 Renault Alliance/Encore (1.4L) 31/36 Subaru Standard 35/39 Toyota Tercel 27/34 Volkswagen Golf (and Jetta) Now I don't know about everyone else, but I was perfectly happy with a 4-speed Mercury Lynx in high school. Getting high 30s for mileage was nice compared to the '75 Cutlass I had before it, but it was definitely NOT as cool to drive and rode like a buckboard.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'll take a front-drive A-body (82-96) before any other FWD car. The Celebrity was only made through 1987 in coupe, 1989 in sedan, and 1990 in wagon form, but they are simple, comfortable, and efficient with the 4-cylinder. I only wish they had kept making the Celebrity long enough to put the 2.2L Cavalier engine in it like GM did with the Century and Ciera. I'm considering all kinds of motors for my 1989 Celebrity sedan. A Cavalier 2.2 is one of them. EPA ratings on the 2.5 in 1989 were 23 city, 30 highway. EPA ratings on the 2.2 in a 1995 Century were 25 city, 32 highway. And that's for a Century with airbag, antilock brakes, tilt, cruise, power windows and locks and seat recliners, and more. I'm sure my stripped down (AC, radio, and defrost only) Celebrity could do even better, maybe 27/34 or so. The Century has to be my favorite, though. Mostly because of the flat dashboard which provides excellent visibility, and allows me to reach onto the passenger floorboard to pick up whatever fell off during my last panic stop without putting my head below dash level. I also like the map light on the dash, the console armrest with cupholders (although they break off easily and are impossible to find in junkyards), and the '88 models have the newer steering wheel and the older square roofline so it's my favorite year. It was also the last year for silver brushed trim on the dashboard on Custom models. I'll take an '88 4-cylinder Century sedan over any W-body or darn near any other car, save for Torinos and Cutlasses and other 70s intermediates. Lumina is the best W-body to me, mostly for the large rear door openings, spacious trunk, 6-passenger seating, and great controls placement.

Shouldn't be a lot of money. A lot of the parts needed for the conversion are GM stock parts for other vehicles. Grand Prixs, Fieros, Park Avenues, etc... If I can't find them in junkyards I can still buy new parts from a GM dealer. I also managed to locate and save to my computer, 15 pages of a swap article describing how a Cadillac 4.9 engine was dropped in a Citation. The motor and transmission mounts came from other GM vehicles and only one of them needed a hole drilled into it to accept the bracket and bolt onto the cradle. He used a 1988 Celebrity cradle in the Citation. Much of his wiring harness came from that '88. I'm already working with an '89 Celebrity, so I can use my own cradle provided it's still in good condition (Texas car, should be fine) The grand total of parts he purchased (without the engine itself) was about $600. That's including coolant, oil, plugs, wires, belts, electric fans, everything! The most expensive thing he did was have custom-length CV axles made. Everything else came from a Celebrity parts car or the donor Cadillac. That or I could put in a 3800NA or 3800SC motor, also not requiring a whole lot of modifications other than the wiring harness. The 3.8 engine was used in Ciera and Century A-bodies from 1985-1988, so there shouldn't be much that I can't get either at a junkyard or by ordering parts at NAPA or whatever for say, a 1988 Century with the 3.8. Even the computer harness will plug right in. The biggest "modification" I'd have to make to the car would be to swap the transmission gear indicator from PRND21 to PRN@D21 so I can tell what gear I'm in. It would be the easier swap to do, and knowing the Cadillac aluminum engine's reliability record, it might also be the more dependable swap. My other option is to find a running 2.5L engine or fix the one in there. I have a new head, but it might be damaged. Won't know until I pull it off. I'll try and tackle that sometime this month. I want to have this car running and driving and inspected and tagged ASAP so I can stop driving the 9mpg Suburban everywhere when we don't need more than 6 seatbelts.

Our family went to the mall to walk around and get some food court grub. We made our last stop at K-B Toys and I bought the gold '66 Nova with black stripes for my 15-month old. He didn't let go of it once it came out of the package. Took it to bed with him and all. His car obsession MUST be genetic. For 86 cents including tax, you can't beat a good Matchbox/HotWheels car. By the way, the K-B in my mall had a nice selection of Johnny Lightning cars marked down to 99 cents each plus tax. There was a flat black '57 Lincoln among them that I almost got for myself. I need to go back there are buy them out of that stock and resell them on eBay for $3 apiece, LOL!!!

I found a 1992 Cadillac 4.9L PFI V8 to transplant into the $300 Celebrity I bought which just isn't going to run right. Water in the oil, oil in the water, backfiring when cold, damn near impossible to start even with starting fluid, and I'm thinking with a free 200hp engine, why bother messing with the stock motor? The first issue is getting the engine home from 10 miles away. The tailgate is jammed on the Suburban and it won't fit in the doors or through the window. So I'd either need the guy to bring it to me, or else rent a trailer. In either case I need to buy an engine crane, engine stand, jackstands, and a good solid floor jack. I've done some checking around and I've been a member of a-body.net to see that it can be done. The biggest problems, in order, are as follows: 1) It'll take a lot of rewiring to get the motor to run in the car, since I have to change the 1989 Celebrity computer for a 1992 DeVille computer or else the PFI system will NOT work. 2) The transmission will bolt to the engine and the torque converter and flywheel are essentially the same. The problem here is some metal has to be removed from the back of the engine to allow the 125C transmission to fit completely. The transmission requires no modifications. The axles will still work. The steering will still work. 3) I may have to cut a portion of the Celebrity's engine cradle to allow clearance for accessory belts and pulleys for the power steering, AC compressor, and the water pump. 4) I will have to have motor mounts fabricated to attach the engine to the frame/cradle. 5) I am worried the 158,000 miles 125C transmission won't be powerful enough, and I'd have to go with a 4T60E transmission from a 1992 DeVille. Best scenario is the 125C will handle it for awhile. Good scenario is I find a cheap non-running 1992 DeVille with a good transmission, then I have to fabricate transmission mounts and get a set of V6/4T60 axles if they don't match up to the stock ones. Worst scenario is that I have to buy a used or rebuilt 4T60E and do the same fabrication. 6) I might need to replace the front struts, but I'm thinking the weight difference between the two engines is 70lbs, and might not be needed. If I have to put in a 4T60E, the difference becomes 100lbs, still not TOO much. So what do you think? Drop in the V8, or fix the 4-cylinder? Otherwise I'm putting the V8 up for sale. EDIT: it was gone, I missed it by 10 minutes. Suckage... But I'm STILL going to try and find a 4.9 donor car and do this swap anyway. Why spend money on the 2.5 if I can put in a 4.9?

I just set Wikipedia on fire trying to find a car with a 58 in it. The best thing I found was the 1985 Jaguar XJ6 driven by the Equalizer had 5809 in the license plate.

Paper clip is a lot cheaper than the little plug-in $10 thing you can buy at AutoZone. It does the same thing, jumps A to B. Paper clip does it too and the only drawback is it might not stay in place. You might have to hold it there while watching the Check Engine or Service Engine Soon light flash. It won't shock you, it's just data. Not power.

I don't know about technology being too much better. Back in 1994 I bought a 1986 Mercury Lynx from an impound auction. Carbureted 1.9 liter engine, 4-speed manual, cable operated clutch. I got exactly the 36/42 EPA ratings out of that thing, as abused and neglected as it was. Keep in mind I learned to drive stick on that car (drove it home from the auction in heavy snow even!) That car cost me $60, plus $6 for the title, and $24 for the tags. Sales tax back then in Indiana was 5%, so $3 in sales tax. I spent more than that on my first BMX bike! I haven't had a car since that did that well. Fuel injected 1989 Escort, 5-speed, was in the mid-30s but I never got 40+ on the road. 1995 Ford Aspire came close with a 1.3 liter engine. 1995 Geo Metro with the 4-cylinder and automatic got 32mpg no matter how hard or gentle I drove it. 2000 model Saturn SL topped out at 38mpg or so and it's supposed to get 40mpg highway.

10 front, 14 rear, I hadn't actually counted the bolts right the first time. Bumped my head on the receiver and must've lost count. 4wd pulls good on this thing. But it sure hates turning on wet concrete. Front end shakes from side to side like my wheels were bent in half! It likes gravel and mud, though.

If the 2006 Suburban rebates are $6000, and local dealers are offering double rebates, it means I can get a $36K truck for $24K and that sounds good to me. Problem is...there aren't any 2006's at those dealers. They advertise them, but don't have any. Does anyone know of a dealer with 2006 Suburbans in stock? Rebate on the 2007's is $2000, doubled to $4000, but that would put a payment out of our price range. A $24K truck, $4500 down, over 6 years at 10% is a $412 payment which we can handle ($400 would be better, $350 best). But a $32K truck, $4500 down, over 6 years at 10% is way out of budget. I guess maybe we need to look at a nice used 2004... How is the depreciation on these things anyway? Would it be worth buying a used 2005 or 2006 or do they retain more value?

I like looking through those pictures. The 15-20mph crashes most cars do ok, no intrusion into the seats, but over 20mph you see the big ugly stuff. I did find it amusing that a Chevette fared better than an F-150 pickup at around 22mph.

I sold my '79 Delta 88 back in February. Around September I got a notice in the mail that the car was in an impound about 20 miles away. I called in and found that the person who bought it from me sold it to someone else, didn't bother transferring the title, and got pulled over for the license plate light being burned out. Turns out the driver had NO INSURANCE. So the car was impounded and they sent the letter to me to come pay all the fees and everything. Forget it. I figured I'd wait until auction time and then buy it. But they didn't sell it in October, November, or December. I finally get another certified letter yesterday, it's going to be up for sale the 3rd Thursday of January. So I'm going to go try and buy it back. Sitting for 4 months, it probably won't start, but I know it's got a new fuel pump and the carb wasn't too badly out of tune, plus the kid I sold it to did a lot of work to it before reselling it. I sold the car for $500. I wonder if it'll cost half that much to get it back.

*joy* I found the hood ornament under the front seat. Will have to put that on if it ever stops raining here. Also scrubbed it down while it was pouring. Got all the dirt out of the paint except for the parts of the roof I couldn't reach. Was raining too hard to climb up there, I would have fallen off and probably broken my neck. BIG truck. My wife looks like an Oompa-Loompa hopping out of the passenger seat.

The horn sounds like a dying moose. Hence the name. So my wife and I were facing a choice of putting an engine in her Lumina (camshaft broke from cam bearing wear when it had an intake gasket failure, long before we bought it), or buying something else. The car lot absolved us of responsibility to pay off the note (we only owed $1800) and we took our cash and picked up a Suburban. Now we aren't stuffing four kids in a back seat which isn't even comfortable for three. Now we can put the noisy rowdy 5- and 7-year old kids in the third seat under the very loud rear AC unit, put the babies and the older quieter 12-year old kid in the middle seat, and my wife and I can sit up front in peace. The $900 paid for it includes a fresh inspection sticker, fresh tags, clear title, and sales tax. $180 in freebies. Not a bad deal, considering the Goodwrench 350 4-bolt under the hood is worth more than the truck itself. The Warn hubs, chrome grab handles, stainless running boards, and Class IV receiver are bonuses, too. If it dies tomorrow I'll double my investment in parts alone! The truck also has new exhaust including a converter and a correct tailpipe angle! Finally, a muffler shop that knows what it is doing! It needs a mirror glass for the passenger side mirror (those low-profile mirrors are cheap), one turn signal bulb up front needs to be amber instead of clear, and the brakes are squealing (pads). The steering wheel is a bit loose, the headliner's falling, and it's rusty to the point I'm afraid to open the tailgate! But it puts out amazing heat, all the power windows work, the power locks work, the tailgate window works, and it runs well. A little rich, but I can tune that. It wasn't so rich as to fail state emissions testing on a dyno, so I'm not TOO worried. I've got 19 pictures up on CarDomain, so here's one teaser picture and a link... http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2534514 The scary thing is it's almost as tall as the house. Forget fitting it in the garage, we're just lucky it doesn't hang out over the curb into the street! And the $1000 '82 International 24-passenger school bus we looked at an hour before buying this would have done just that. The kids already think it's a school bus with all the yellow exposed metal inside. Scottsdale package doesn't cover it all!

Page is up on CarDomain with 19 pictures of the truck and a page full of wheel options and other things I want to do. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2534514

Fixed. SPID label confirms tank is 40-gallon. It's out behind the rear axle. My mother rear-ended a Suburban back in '88. The guy didn't care that she smacked her face on the steering wheel, didn't care that my sister hurt her wrist on her car seat, didn't care that I hit the windshield with my head. He didn't want his 40-gallon tank to leak. Anyway, the sending unit must be shot. Full tank reads 1/3 full on the gauge. At empty I could onlyu squeeze in 19.5 gallons. WARN hubs, 5000/10000# hitch, big front bumper guards, 9-passenger seating, stock Delco AM-FM radio, and the original bottle jack, handles, and lug wrench are all still under the hood. For $900, I'm darned impressed. Started easy cold this morning, too. But definitely need a battery. 525CCA ain't gonna cut it when its hot.

OK, it's home. It's big. Reminds me of an '87 C30 Crew Cab I used to drive as a company truck. Except no bed. And no amber rotating light on the roof. I found the '84 truck brochure at TOCMP. According to page 8, the GVWR for a K20 should be 8600#. Some guy on another forum told me the GCWR should be 12000#. But I haven't found anything on the truck to confirm it yet. I'll need to copy down the SPID label and see what I can find out. But it's no problem. No matter what the truck can pull, it won't be doing it with this receiver hitch since it's rated for only up to 5000#. But if I need to tow more than that, I'll probably be looking at a different truck. This one came from Colorado apparently, and the tailgate and door bottoms are pretty well rusted through. Frame is solid. Got the NP208 and 10-bolts front and rear. New exhaust, stainless, the converter and everything behind it. Definitely needs a battery (525CCA FTL), probably needs a starter (painfully slow cranking when hot, hope the battery swap fixes it FTW), and the brakes pull to the right (expensive 3/4 ton HD parts FTL). For $900 including fresh tags and state inspection, I'm pleased.

Wouldn't bother me. I won't be crashing any Citations into it at 45mph with gas bottles under the hood. I'm not NBC. The guy isn't calling me back, but we exchanged six or seven emails last night. Guess he hasn't woke up yet. If he doesn't call back I'll be forced to find something else.

There's an '88 Caprice wagon for $700 around the corner from me. Needs an AC compressor and a headliner. Why not?

I would see about pulling any codes from the ALDI connector, key on, engine off, paper clip from A to B. 14 or 15 are the codes you're looking for as it means the temperature sensor thinks your engine is too hot (14) or too cold (15) all the time. Check for open or grounded connections to the temperature sensor (probably located near the water outlet/thermostat). Otherwise, if your car has a mass air flow sensor, it could be dirty. If you have an intake air temperature sensor, it might be giving a false reading. You also may be experiencing the first indications of a failing ignition module or coil pack(s). I have the exact opposite problem you have. My Celebrity is IMPOSSIBLE to start cold. It idles funny and stalls and backfires and misses until it's warmed up. Then it will run fine the rest of the day. Then again I'm suspecting a blown head gasket on my car (white smoke on startup, milky residue in the oil cap).