So I did something stupid this weekend.....

[TheBac]

Engine in and all hooked up other than turbo and cat. Thats for Saturday. Found that the AWD versions of these engines do have one small difference over the FWD versions other than the oil pan design.....the center support bracket for the right CV axle. The FWD lower bracket bolt hole is about 3/4" lower on the AWD oil pan, as this is used for the Tcase support on the AWD version....and in GMs wisdom they didnt just use the same hole locations. So, going to have to modify my bracket a bit. Shouldnt be a big deal, cut and add some material in to space the hole downward. I should remove the CVs anyway when i do the hubs and brakes.

Other than that, the 14-17 FWD and AWD versions of these engines are exactly the same.

 

[TheBac]

Wed-Fri was up to Silver Lake with my wife, meeting up with some HS friends. Stayed at a nice BnB, too. Needed the break.

Had a problem while installing the turbo today. Found a stripped stud thread in the turbo mount. Had to remove the manifold to address that, and wouldnt you know it....found a busted manifold bolt in the head. That took a little bit of time to drill and tap, but its done. Kinda glad that its addressed. Having an exhaust leak pop up after all this work wouldve sucked.

I just have to change the spark plugs, change oil/filter, fill with coolant and then I should be able to start the car. Then its on to suspension/brakes/hubs.

 

[TheBac]

.......and the GS runs again.

Now to sort out the hubs/brakes and shocks.

 

[TheBac]

Im finding as I delve farther into this car that the previous owner beat the living snot out of it and just didnt care. Pretty much everything driveline-wise is toast or close to it. A lot was hidden. Really sucks. I was blinded by the beautiful body.....

For example, had the tires taken off the 20s so I can refinish the wheels. The two front tires were way beyond done, and I knew that going in.....but the two rears had great tread and I thought they would be resellable. Nope. Both of them had nails in the tread.
I cannot believe someone would destroy a $1200 set of Michelin Pilot Sport tires like that. Insanity.

Thank God I can do this work myself, and parts for these cars are relatively inexpensive.

 

[TheBac]

Im finding that this Regal is the nicest car that was treated the worst that I have ever seen.

 

[1FastBrick]

Im finding that this Regal is the nicest car that was treated the worst that I have ever seen.

How do think Jason's poor new truck feels?

 

[2004LB7]

How do think Jason's poor new truck feels?

My "new" truck is kinda the opposite though. Treated so nice by the previous owner. Now I'm sticking needles in it, giving it electric shock therapy and generally making it feel miserable. But all in the name of Science

 

[TheBac]

Stience. Just wait til it goes fast, though....

 

[1FastBrick]

My "new" truck is kinda the opposite though. Treated so nice by the previous owner. Now I'm sticking needles in it, giving it electric shock therapy and generally making it feel miserable. But all in the name of Science

That's what I am getting at. The old man took care of it and now your poking and prodding it and giving it a little shock therapy from what I heard too...

 

[TheBac]

....and the hits keep coming. Pulling the suspension apart, both LH and RH rear and LH front in decent shape other than being worn out. Get to RH front and the fun begins. Lower control arm to knuckle bolt bent and control arm holes ovalled out. Mustve hit something decently hard. Luckily nothing else was damaged or bent.

Thank God Im resilient.

 

[TheBac]

Another thing crossed off my list. They look SO much better grey....

 

[Ridin'GMC]

....and the hits keep coming. Pulling the suspension apart, both LH and RH rear and LH front in decent shape other than being worn out. Get to RH front and the fun begins. Lower control arm to knuckle bolt bent and control arm holes ovalled out. Mustve hit something decently hard. Luckily nothing else was damaged or bent.

Thank God Im resilient.

What made you go into the suspension, loose or noise? I can imagine the mess you're in, pretty much any car with the LTG are beat to death.

I had the same situation when I was looking for a daily driver, ended up finding my 15' ATS with 18k miles owned by an old lady in damn near excellent condition that's always been garaged.

For the updated pistons you mentioned, what year did the updated pistons come from the factory? Never knew about those.

 

[TheBac]

Just age/miles. I was expecting brakes/hubs/shocks, but not expecting the rest. Aw well....car will be darn close to new when Im done.

IIRC, the updated pistons were 2016-ish up. But LSPI is an issue with all the GM small turbo engines.
Everything Ive read says to use low-calcium oil, change it on time, run 91 octane and there shouldnt be a problem.

 

[Hoser]

It seems hard to know when the pistons changed because IIRC, the part number stayed the same. I drive my LTG pretty hard and track it, but I take care of it and it hasn’t given me any trouble, and it’s an earlier engine.

 

[Hoser]

Enjoy hearing about the progress on rebuilding this thing. What pads did you go with after painting the Brembos?

 

[TheBac]

I went with euro-spec pads and coated rotors from a company called Dynamic Friction. Its only going to be a DD, so nothing special.

 

[TheBac]

One more thing off my list:

Adding that 1" of length to that mount is the only diff between installing an awd and fwd engine in a fwd car. Awd has full aluminum pan that holds 1 more qt of oil, too.

 

[Ridin'GMC]

Tom,

The AWD does state it has 1 qt more for the oil pan capacity but I've found in my last several oil changes it takes about 6.5- 6.75 quarts to be at a full level. If I put in 6 quarts in my AWD ATS, it always show it's a quarter low on the dipstick every time. I'm kind of curious how hot does the oil get in the LTG, I have a feeling that it gets pretty hot on long drives from the condition of the oil I see during the oil changes.

 

[TheBac]

Ya know, come to think about it, I saw that as well when I filled the oil just after I installed the engine. 6qt put it at the "add" line. ~7qt pan is certainly fine with me. Its not like Im not used to 10qt oil changes already....

 

[Leadfoot]

I was blinded by the beautiful body.....

I think everyone of us here has probably experienced that....