Alright so I'm going to bitch a little bit :)
After nursing this baby along for 308,000 miles still on original tranny and engine and still doesn't burn anything I have to vent a little!!
Yes it's that time of the year again, right before emissions inspection.
Last year I was a little high on HC, but passed anyway and this was after the tune up.
I'm a little nervous this time.
The annual Caprice tune up. Cap/rotor/wires/pcv/fuel filter/air filter and PLUGS....................
Everything is easy except the plugs!!
GRRRRRRRR!!!
Some come out from below, some above, and some I still haven't figured out an easy way to do it in the 10 years I have owned the beast.
I have all the tools and I think I know most of the tricks like never-sieze and a little piece of tubing over the plug electrode to insert it and so forth.
Ahh yes, whomever designed that car has figured out perfectly every single place to put a razor sharp shield, an extra long bolt (The A/C drier mounting bracket), piece of sheet metal honed sharper than any knife, air induction system tubes that seem purposely bent right at the appropriate points so as to interfere with the socket set and just enough space where a small socket extension is too small, but the longer one is too long.
Do GM engineers go to school to learn this stuff or does it come naturally?
They must have really tried hard to do this one!
So after 3 hours and totally scraped up arms and hands I am done.
But after owning this beast for 10 years I am used to it.
Most plugs looked nice and clean after about 30k on them, but 2 were kind of cruddy with white/beige crud on them.
That might have been from the GM top engine cleaner I used last week to remove carbon and such from the pistons/valves because I was pinging a lot.
You should have seen the smoke coming out of the beast during that enema!!!
Filled the entire street to the point where I thought someone was going to call the fire dept!!
The GM mechanic warned me, but I thought he was exaggerating.
He wasn't.
Worked real good though because the car no longer pings and seems to have more zing to it.
I have NEVER put anything other than oil/gas and occasional STP fuel injector cleaner in any of my cars, but after 308k miles the pinging was getting terrible.
The Top cleaner solved the problem though, but I wonder what it damaged in the process. Seems like real nasty stuff to me but the GM guy said it works great on older cars like mine and it did for sure.
Oh well, it could be worse.
Like my 2000 Caravan for example that needs a true rubber screwdriver to replace the rear 3 plugs on a 3.3L. A lift will do if you have long arms but mine are so scratched and sore I think I'll pass :)
And how was your day?
psycho