92 Ultra has some probs

looked at a 92 ultra today for a friend to buy 180k miles

supercharger rattles like bearings going bad, radiator leaks.. no probs there, both easy to correct.


the fun part is the oil in the coolant. its thick and murkey looking. the owners said they called the radiator shop and were told that it was the oil cooler. but its awfully thick. could be intake manifold or even bad head gasket which are both expensive.

one last thing, the owners mentioned that the supercharger wasnt reqired to run the car (i already knew this) but they said they were told without the supercharger, they would have no Air Condition. Does this sound crazy to anyone else?>

yeah it does, and i dont know how you can run the car wihtout the SC, don't forget the ECM is programmed to work with a SC.. if you remove it, it will have some problems for sure, besides, a 3.8 SC doesn't have the same internals as a normal one.. rods, pistons, ect.. and the compression is lowered in order to accept boost more easily.. so if you remove it, you end up with a 3.8 with lower compression , a real sludge and a ECU thats not meant to work without a SC.. better fix it... if it rattles it COULd be that little plastic coupler thats worth 40$... of course bearing wouldn't hurt either.. if you do it yourself and have enough knowledge to do it then go for it. as for the coolant with oil in it.. theres a 75% chance it's the intake manifold gasket...which is not that bad.. 3800 are not prone to head gasket failures... it does happen but since your removing the SC for a rebuilt, check it out while yer there.

Deadring

Deadring is right about the Supercharger; the engine will run without it, but it's not going to be much fun. It should only be run without the supercharger to "limp home". On my P.A., the supercharger shares an accessory belt with the AC compressor and water pump, so if you were to disconnect the belt from the supercharger, you'd also be disconnecting it from the compressor, thus giving you no AC. The problem I see though is that you'd also be disconnecting the water pump, and would overheat.

The transmission fluid is cooled by the engine water coolant in the radiator, so possibly it's the transmission "oil" fluid that's getting into the coolant. Otherwise you must have leaks inside the engine, so that the engine oil is leaking past the seals into the coolant.

My son and I just purchased a PAU with a ruined shaft on the supercharger. we drove it home, but other posts are correct. You'll probably have to replace it. Don't know if this will help, but several folks at the junkyard where we found the replacement (had to buy the whole engine - $600), pointed out that there is a "not so obvious" place to add turbine oil and two guys there said that this is the most common reason that they go bad. Try putting in some turbine oil and you might get lucky.

Now if someone can tell me how to find the rear drain hole for the sunroof, and tell me how to pull the rdaio, I'll be cookin!

By the way, mine has over 200,000 miles on it and you could cut diamonds on the hood, it runs so smooth. Has problems with some of the relays, I think.

My son and I just purchased a PAU with a ruined shaft on the supercharger. we drove it home, but other posts are correct. You'll probably have to replace it. Don't know if this will help, but several folks at the junkyard where we found the replacement (had to buy the whole engine - $600), pointed out that there is a "not so obvious" place to add turbine oil and two guys there said that this is the most common reason that they go bad. Try putting in some turbine oil and you might get lucky.

Now if someone can tell me how to find the rear drain hole for the sunroof, and tell me how to pull the rdaio, I'll be cookin!

By the way, mine has over 200,000 miles on it and you could cut diamonds on the hood, it runs so smooth. Has problems with some of the relays, I think.

REAR DRAIN HOLES FOR THE SUNROOF...
I searched for those myself... At the end of the rocker panels, under each side left and right to the end of the rear doors, you will see some rubber grommets with a hole in the middle.Those go all the way up to the sunroof, you can either use a very long wire to push them trough or get some help with a garden hose. Here is what I did.I opened the sunroof, then started poking and pushing from the bottom of the car (rockers) to try and loosen the dirt.Then I used my garden hose, with a strong stream,held it against the grommets, and voila, blew the channels free.You don't have to be afraid that water will run into your car, once it shoots up through the rear channels, it will exit the car through the front drainage holes.It is kinda fun to watch, you shoot water up the rear, and you see it exit at the front fenders...lol

Can't help you with the radio...

Pulling the radio? First, take off the woodgrain panels on the dash. They pull right out. The four heater/AC vents pull right out (use a needlenose pliers), and then you can unscrew the 4 screws behind where the vents go, as well as the other 5 or so screws behind where the woodgrain panels were. This will take the dash right off, then you can unscrew the radio, take it out, and unhook the connector.