general tuneup

[tombo9876]

well i still havent found where the battery drain is, but im looking. i checked the alternator and all of the fuses underneath the dash, no luck. anyway this is my first car (lol) and i just want to know if anybody can help me out with some general tuneup, like good things to replace, or clean, or check on. thanks

[gr8tylor]

I would change your oil, spark plugs & wires, transmission fluid and filter, air filter, pcv valve, coolant, fuel filter, fuel injector cleaning and clean your throttle body out. an engine flush is good to do before you change your oil and afterwards substitute 1 qt. of your oil with a slick 50 engine treatment. if you don't have the maintence records from the original owner do all of this, but if so just do what is necessary.

[buickmastermind]

Engine TREATMENT stuff=nasty.
Rislone engine cleaner=not nasty.

I would suggest changing the air filter only if it is dirty, or if you know it's like 10 years old. Changing the fuel filter won't hurt it, either. Put about a gallon or so of kerosene in the gas tank to clean the fuel lines and injectors. Change the oil EVERY 3000 miles, and for the first couple substituting one quart of rislone to clean the carbon coating and other crap out of the motor oil passages. Check to make sure that the tranny fluid isn't off colored, and that it doesn't smell burnt. Change it and the filter if it is off colored. If it smells, the most you can do is put some Lucas transmission treatment in. You can change the igntion wires, but the spark plugs should be just fine if it isn't missing on any of the cylinders.

As for the battery drain, try disconnecting the altenator wiring, and see if the problem goes away. If not, disconnect the distributor wiring, and see if it goes away. Also, put a test light betweent the neg battery terminal (while connected to car) and the car body. If you get a light, there is a short somewhere.

[redly1]

buickmastermind, elaborate on the comment...
"Engine TREATMENT stuff=nasty"

personal experience, please

[buickmastermind]

Well, I had ~200,000 miles on my car, and war having a performance issue (that I later found to be the timing chain), so I tried some. I thought it was working fine...until I noticed the bubbling. It was causing the oil to bubble something nasty, even though it still seemed to be...oil. Anyway, long story short, about 15 miles after I put it in, it spun 3 rod bearings, and the others weren't far off. I blame the treatment. I had to rebuild it, and used the above mentioned cleaner to clean the crap out of the system. After three oil changes with the cleaner, I pulled the oil pan off to make sure there wasn't any crap left, and the inside of the motor was shiny new.