Penglii's 1989 TGP

[mediabandit]

Congrats on the purchase. Looks really good.

[Penglii]

Awesome!! Valance!!!! FTMFW!!!!!

Even better, the damage to that part of the bumper cover that connects it into the wheelwell (caused by the tires being too big) does not affect the Valance.

I have a extra red emblem i can spare to sell if you want to replace your missing one..

I have the emblem, actually... it was not attached very well (the other 2 are fine) so I pulled it off until I can clean it up and re-attach it.
However, if your emblem is in nice shape I might still want it...

Also IMO ditch the spolier.. Get another red spoilerless trunk lid and put it on.. TGP's just have there own look being spoilerless, no miniquads, and valance's...

I agree about the TGP's having their own look, and I usually don't like spoilers... but for some reason I like the one on this car. I cannot put my finger on why.

[Addicted2bass]

Loosk good! Paint looks to be in pretty damn good shape for a red TGP, alot better then mine when i bought it. Seats arent to beat up either. Clean that engine bay and get a K&N on there pronto! My car also makes a clunk when put into reverse, its not as bad if i put it into gear slowly, its been doing that for the three years ive had it. My oil pressure gauge is a little funky to. Basically it sound like you have some of the typical TGP problems. How many miles on it?

[Penglii]

Loosk good! Paint looks to be in pretty damn good shape for a red TGP, alot better then mine when i bought it. Seats arent to beat up either. Clean that engine bay and get a K&N on there pronto!

Yeah, aside from several places where the clear coat is gone and maybe half a dozen small dings and scratches. A couple very minor rust spots starting, that I need to sand down and touch up very soon before they get any ideas. lol. For a car whose 21st birthday is in 11 days she really is looking good.

I really do need to clean up the engine bay and get a K&N in there. The engine is not actually very grimy, just needs some elbow grease to make everything shine again. Overall the bay is still clean from her recent engine rebuild... like five hundred miles ago kinda recent (to answer your question the body has 135,0xx miles on it). There's still some things to be fixed before I get too distracted though...

Also I noticed that the spazzing out of the oil pressure gauge is accompanied by a rough idle (it only spazzes on idle) and a rich smell to the exhaust (but no color). Also the gas mileage is bad. I figure since the crossover is stock and even has the assload of stock shielding and insulation still on it that there's a 100% chance of it being broken. I wonder what I should do about that...

[White93z34]

can you hear exhaust in the engine bay?

GOT2B GM repairs them, drop him a line.

[Penglii]

can you hear exhaust in the engine bay?

Not sure, it has been too rainy these past few days. Maybe I'll get a chance to check tonight.
What would the noise sound like? I assume it would be a sort of puttering sound coming from the driver's side of the engine bay and behind the turbo? Or would it be more of a constant wooshing sound?

I think I also read somewhere that another way to test the leakyness of the crossover is to "blip" the throttle and if the RPMs drop slightly before rising that indicates a bad xover. I paid attention to this and sure enough my revs drop slightly before rising... so I can probably expect to hear the exhaust sound in the engine bay too.

GOT2B GM repairs them, drop him a line.

I will definitely contact him as soon as I've scrounged up enough money for the repair... hopefully that will be soon somehow.
Is there anything I can do in the meantime? Or is it basically a "deal with it until it's totally fixed" sort of thing?

[White93z34]

yeah if it is broken it can cause a host of problems. after I replaced mine the car ran 1000x better.

[Penglii]

Good call... it is at the top of my 'things to buy that I don't have the money for yet' list.

In the meantime is there anything I can do, that won't get trashed by the bad Xover?
Obviously the O2 sensor needs replacing, but that will just get trashed right away so I should probably wait on that?
I have a spare IAC that I was thinking about swapping into the TGP... might that smooth out my uneven idle any? Or is the idle the way it is because of the rich fuel mix thanks to the bad xover/O2 sensor?
Fuel Filter is probably an obvious thing to do.
Spark Plugs/Wires might be new or might be super old... I gotta find out still. Coilpacks are for sure brand new.
K&N Filter can probably wait until after a new crossover unless I get too bored...
Oil Pressure Gauge Sensor can probably be replaced whenever I get to it...
Battety terminals could stand to be cleaned...
Vac lines could be checked...

Hmmm... I feel like I am forgetting something obvious that I could potentially do/replace this weekend... any ideas?

Sorry about all the questions... I hope they are at least reasonably intelligent ones :laugh: LOL

[mfewtrail]

It wouldn't hurt to grab a $2-3 PCV valve and replace it while you're at it. It's on the rear valve cover and kinda out of sight, so it's often neglected.

[Penglii]

good call

[Penglii]

UPDATE 05/24/10:
So I tried briefly to pull my Dash Pad off to replace my HUD... it was so hot and humid that I gave up very quickly, mostly because I did not want the heat to piss me off and cause me to break something. LOL

I removed all three of the screws... and a few good yanks got most of the clips to detach... but I gave up when clips on the passenger side would not budge. There's not much to hold onto for leverage on that side of the dash pad... is there a trick to this that I'm missing?

I'm thinking using a trim removal tool as a careful prybar to release the stubborn clips ought to do it?

I like how easy the factory service manual makes it sound. They are just like "remove the screws and give it a good yank towards ya"... 21 years later that's easier said than done. LOL

[94GPGTP]

pop it up on the drivers side and work it to the passenger side and slide back..

[Garrett Powered]

its up under the dash above the glove box. a 7 or 6mm nut driver should get it.

I think theres an access hole to it. not all w's have this screw, mostly just tgps

[Penglii]

its up under the dash above the glove box. a 7 or 6mm nut driver should get it.

I think theres an access hole to it. not all w's have this screw, mostly just tgps

That would explain the access hole in the top of the glove box then... and why it felt like something was still bolting the dash pad down!
I wonder why none of the literature mentions it... probably cause it just affects the TGP?

[Penglii]

Well now I'm just feeling dumb...

I obviously have removed the 2 screws above the gauge cluster... and I removed a screw from in the glovebox that seemed to be the correct screw, but now that I take a closer look it does not seem like it could even possibly have anything to do with holding the dash pad down. I cannot find any more correct seeming screws in that area though. There is an access hole in the top of the glovebox, but it does not provide any access to anything.

I still cannot get the dash pad off... everything will unclip except for the front couple of clips in the passanger side... exactly as though a screw or bolt is still holding it down. So either I'm overlooking something obvious (most likely) or I'm being too careful when yanking on the dash pad (less likely but still totally possible).

Anyone want to point out the super obvious?