My '94 Caprice "Kira"

[GM_Guy]

Just venturing into the dark side, that sucks big time. That first shop liscenced? Your fleet shop properly document what they found? A call to whoever the liscencing entity is to file a complaint about incompetance, and whoever does consumer protection about a rip-off shop (provided it was properly documented by your fleet shop).

[Arquemann]

Yeah that sucks alot. I have a couple experiences with shops that manage to get everything wrong aswell. Not to this extent but the worst being to the tune of around 1800€ for basically nothing. Obviously I won't be using their services again. One on my boycott list is the local Volvo dealership & service center, so it's not just not just small shops that bullshit you from your money.

My current situation is great, one of my friends is a senior mechanic at a cheap-ish local shop, and I know the owner of the place. Cheap prices and knowing I won't be bullshitted is great, I also appreciate the mechanic friend being dead honest with me every time, were it good or bad.

Shame your plans for Kira aren't due for quite some time, I just now happen to have a very similar car

[DerekTheGreat]

^^^
This. Sorry about your experience. I guess I'm starting to realize why people are assholes to shop owners, seems the nicer and more understanding you are also means you're more likely to get taken advantage of & pimped for money.

[Mainemantom]

Consider taking the bad garage owner to small claims court. If you win, you will get a judgement. You may never get any money. I would put a lien on anything valuable the garage owner had. They have to pay you off before they can sell whatever has a lien. Make life difficult.
Do you have a bureau of automotive repair in your State ? If so pursue that option as well. I would think it is not the first time the garage has done shady work. Who knows, you might get some money back.
Good luck and sorry about your experiences.

[87gtVIC]

That blows. Just one more reason why I do as much work myself as possible. People just don't give a crap.

[Hearsesrock427]

I should probably update this. As of 5/8/2022, Kira is out of service and parked safely indoors. Bunch of shit hit the fan. Most of it was not my fault. Apparently the guy in the city that I entrusted to do the major service elected to botch swaths of it and outright ignore other parts. It all began from when I picked the car back up. Felt like the transmission was slipping, but the dipstick had plenty of clear dark red fluid, right in the hashmarked area like it's supposed to. Already a red flag. Imagine my surprise when there's also fresh puddles under where the car was sitting. I immediately walk back in and demand an explanation. For context, I dealt almost exclusively with the owner operator. About half the time when we'd touch base on Kira, he was disorganized or agitated; it was obvious he lost interest in the work at times, even though I was being forthright in my dealings. Even when we found more work that had to be done, I always paid. IN FULL.

There were other times he seemed fine about things, but one detail I'll never forget stands out to me as a smoking gun: He claimed he had a lot of difficulty replacing oil pickup tube, oil pump, water pump, timing chain. Basically everything in and around the timing cover. The brakes, front and rear, were also give the all clear. Remember this.

Admittedly the difficulties encountered weren't entirely unexpected, and some of it was due to getting sent the wrong parts from distributors, which was an error on both our ends. I held up my end of the bargain, exchanging and reordering parts that he deemed incorrect. In spite of everything, owner operator gave me the all the clear to pick the car up. Said compression and oil pressure tests were excellent, and that there were no leaks. The only thing that stopped me from making a huge, huge, fuss about the first thing he lied about was the fact that according to the gauge on the dash, Kira had solid oil pressure- just like before. The gauge read the same way it always did for me. And we know that SBCs need oil pressure. So I erroneously thought this was just a matter of a couple things he missed or rushed through. I quickly called up my friend Sean who I consult with for fleet stuff, and he walked me through we tracing these small leaks. I deduced that there was leaking from the fittings where the hard lines connected to the auxiliary coolers, at the radiator. These were all supposedly replaced as part of the major service. I opted to get Kira out from this now untrustworthy establishment, B's Garage at 1053 Clifford Avenue in the city, and head for Ontario, NY. The next, best, hope to get this car back to fighting fit.

It almost didn't happen. Remember what I said about the car feeling like the transmission was slipping? It was actually a sticking driver's side front caliper. I would later learn was not replaced in spite of my orders to thoroughly go through the brakes. I learned this after THE FUCKING BRAKES CAUGHT FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was during this time I also learned that the master cylinder, which was not fully buttoned up (rubber seal wasn't even the right size to properly seal and attach), to the point where brake fluid spilled out when going over bumps, or under moderate braking. He also pinched off the rear brake lines instead of replacing them as per the work order. Hmm no wonder why the brakes were increasingly spongy and didn't bite evenly during most applications of the pedal. I dumped several big bottles of water onto the wheel, as close to the flames as I safely could, which helped begin to cool things off. Good thing I filled 4 big bottles that day.

Suffice to say I was beyond furious. I went through the events in my mind briefly, piecing together a coherent chain of events. It was obvious I had been fucked. Hard. Here we are with Kira, on the side of NY-104, due eastbound. The major service was way over budget and way behind schedule. It was also completely botched. I lost it. I began thundering expletives whilst contemplating the pointlessness of the entire Kira venture. I chucked the keys as hard as I could into the pavement. Bellowed something to the effect of "FUCK YOU! COME TAKE HER! SHE'S ALL YOURS!" before I regained a semblance of sanity back. I took a deep breath, walked away from the now smoldering (as opposed to properly ablaze) driver's side front wheel. I found a spot on the concrete and just sat. Was there for several minutes. It was a cool day, no doubt aided by the fact the sun had begun to set. But I still felt hot inside. I waited until that feeling subsided some before even beginning to reassess, adjust, and move on. I hadn't gotten that angry in years, at anything or anyone. It's not healthy to lose one's shit like that. In this case it's at least semi justified because both my fleet and my life was in peril. What wasn't right was how I directed pieces of it. Looking back, I feel bad for getting as upset as I did at Kira in the heat of the moment. This wasn't her fault, not one iota. The issue was my entrusting a lot of important work to someone who was by all accounts, a gigantic piece of shit. (This was later confirmed when I confronted him about the entire brakes catching ablaze debacle when I was in the area later that month. I'll happily post the audio if you'd like).

Couple minutes later I finally regained something resembling sanity. The partner who I had driving out with me was way ahead of me when I walked over to her dejectedly and said "what now?" She described the process we'd use to free up the sticking caliper. After verifying the metal was no longer smoldering and not hot to the touch, I calmly walked over to the keys, picked them up, and started up Kira. Checked the reservoir to make sure there was at least some brake fluid left, which there was. Closed the hood, got back in, and reversed to about ~20 MPH. I then slammed on the brakes. Repeated the process a few times until the driver's side front caliper stopped sticking. Good enough. I limped the freshly crippled Kira to a place in Ontario that handles most of my fleet operational readiness needs. Suffice to say, they found a lot of things that weren't done when cross referenced with the work order from B's Garage. By this point, I just wanted Kira good enough to finish the winter season. I said fix all the obviously wrong stuff, like the brakes and cooler lines. The more in-depth stuff like the timing cover and such will have to wait until the spring. This would be my biggest mistake in retrospect. Things were fine for a few months with Kira. She was slotting in nicely as fast, comfy winter beater! Smooth sailing.

Ha! Nope. Remember what I said about the place in the city having problems with oil pickup and oil pump? I kept the oil topped off, because I had a slow oil leak from the timing cover. Oil pressure gauge on the dash always read in the high range, like it should. Imagine my shock when out of the the fucking blue, Kira develops hard, heavy rod knock when driving back from visiting a partner in the Corning area late Sunday night. Not piston slap. Rod. Knock. I couldn't believe my ears. I had good oil pressure the entire time; the gauge never read below the high side of normal when cold, and never below the high end of high when warm. Even after the rod knock got really, really bad. I was especially pissed, but not at Kira. Of course when it rains it pours because not long after, she developed a slow transmission fluid leak around the shift shaft seal- an area the B's Garage also supposedly fixed. This would've been the first week of May 2022. Just one thing after another with this poor car. I was already leaning toward mothballing this problem child and the transmission fluid leak was the final straw. I limped her to my main fleet storage guy's place on May 8th and backed her in. Paid for 3 years worth and left.

I'm so sorry Kira. I'm sorry for not taking you out of service properly, and gotten you the help you desperately needed when I had the chance. I didn't realize the extant of how bad of a shape you were in mechanically, even after seeing it laid bare in front of me. I should've asked about paying back the place in Ontario over time instead of just narrowing the scope of work in the name of expediency and in the name of ensuring work is always paid in full when complete. I was taught during my formative years to never string along service providers- always pay in full. If you can't, then don't schedule so much work. Come back to it later when you can afford to wrap it up. The intention underlying this is good; you should always pay for good work in a timely manner. But in this case, it fucked me. What Kira really needed was a complete redo of her major service. I didn't even ask the place in Ontario about going all the way with the remedial work, and having me pay back the rest steadily as I went along. Would've only been for 3-4 months at most! But no, I just simplified plans and hoped for the best. This is why you can't be stubborn and dig your heels in for the sake of doing so after things go wrong in a project. Yes, your precious project manager ego is bruised because a service provider fucked you badly. Your car caught fire. You could've died. But none of that has any bearing on what the project needs going forward. Now Kira gets to sit for 3+ years. I didn't vet B's garage sufficiently before entrusting them with such an important assignment. They fucked up majorly, and I didn't take enough steps to contain the fallout stemming from said major fuckups. I learned a lot from this whole experience. I hope you did too.

Suffice to say Kira's time will come eventually. The high performance targets remain. They will be reached, if not exceeded down the road. It's just way too expensive of an undertaking to get into now. But the LS3, 6L80E/6L90E. 285/50/R17s, the whole nine yards? It's in the plans. And I always follow through with these cars. You'll know when Kira' journey to greatness begins. Tentatively planning for Winter of 2025.

[Hearsesrock427]

Some progress was made here. Major service took a while, partially due to being sent incompatible or even completely wrong parts more often than not. For example, the Tuff Stuff water pump I ordered won't work with stock timing cover- you need to convert to an electric water pump and such to run it. This went on for weeks at a time, constantly. Order, check, return, re-order. Didn't put many miles on her over the winter, but it wasn't a super harsh winter either so that helps. Motor runs fantastic and ice cold, even on the hotter days like we had on Monday. The 4L60E however, was not happy. It had been acting funny after putting some more miles on her. Began as a slow leak around the shift shaft seal (would also explain the sloppy shift linkage). Then it escalated to major slipping, and leaking lots. It got to the point where I could barely drive back home 3 miles from a landscaping job. There's easily 6 quarts of transmission fluid on the garage floor now. Onto the tow truck she goes, to get power window maintenance and other stuff, as well as the 4L60E rebuild not long after.

This whole thing threw me for a loop because transmission has had regular fluid and filter changes its whole life; the fluid was only slightly discolored when it was done as part of the major service earlier. But the pump and other assorted hardware has never been gone through, and everything I've read about stock 700R4 based transmissions says they are fragile, especially at 200,000+ miles and even moreso when driven hard. I wasn't going balls to the wall like I typically do with Ebyt, but I definitely wasn't gentle with Kira after the major service. Did some donuts, had her up to 90+ a few times, did some tunnel runs, etc. All of this nuked the original pump, seeing as how Kira wouldn't move when put into forward OR reverse earlier- and it's not temperature dependent. Fluid that's leaked out has been dark, clear, red like it should be so we know it's not mixing with coolant or engine oil. Every empire has growing pains and mine is no different; part of me knew Kira wasn't ready for 6,000+ hard miles less than one year into my tenure with her. We'll get there! This doesn't affect the rest of the fleet thankfully; I planned ahead for shit like this by getting a better job! I'll be in touch as operation bubble bath proceeds.

[Hearsesrock427]

@Mainemontom: Ah I see. There are still plenty of bubbles being bought and sold. Not sure what your storage and finance situation is but you could get a nice one for ~$3000. Shit there was a sharp white '95 9C1 in the Buffalo area for $1200 a few years back. Needed some work but it wasn't a disaster either. They can be built to be as reliable as a panther in theory- it's just a matter of paying for it and being okay with underwhelming interior materials/fit & finish.

@79lincolnlover: From what I've seen listed on RockAuto and what I've gleaned from threads, most stock replacement type wear items cost about the same. Full set of platinum plugs (which you'd want to run on these for longevity's sake alone) is ~$35 and ~$70 for ultra long lasting iridium plugs. $50 for spark plugs wires. Melling double roller timing chain is $90 on Summit Racing. Some things cost more to upgrade- a lot more depending on the part in question. Elected to go with an aftermarket indestructible Optispark over a mere stock replacement- that's a $400 part. Went with an even more severe duty Tuff Stuff water pump which was ~$230 on Summit Racing.

Major upgrades can get very expensive. Sonnax upgraded internals for a 4L60E are ~$1600, which should be plenty for a warmed over 383 LT1 stroker that Kira will eventually get. The highest WHP/WTQ rated setup is closer to $2500 from what I recall. There are suspension upgrade kits that easily go for $2000, even more if you go with coilovers. Aside from Impala SS wheels, there aren't many ways to run wider wheels with more than 15 inches diameter cheaply for these cars. I blame the goofy backspacing, offset, and bolt pattern plus the short production run.

[79lincolnlover]

Are parts for this Chevy cheaper in price, compared to Ford Panthers?

[Mainemantom]

@MaineManTom: Believe it! Add rear floors to the list- those fail the finger test in several spots. Guessing that happens from cowl leaks or rocker panel rust? Because it's inside-out rust. Figure she'll need about as much rust repair as Eva will at this point. In spite of being 9 years newer. Still can't get over that, haha. I plan on adding some 9C1/1A2 beasts to the fleet at some point; Kira will not be alone in bubble land. Nice part about the police package is you don't have to worry about PassKey failures from ignition tumbler damage; extra sets of keys are super cheap to procure too. You get a slightly better cooling system and possible bucket seats too. Why'd you sell your old '96?

@DerekTheGreat: Lack of a vent tube will do it. But it's also sealing- part of the reason I went with a high end aftermarket opti is its proper assembly so there's zero chance of intrusion from the outside. Proper bench tested for voltage and such too. No parts bin cobbling like we can see from knockoffs or parts store specials. LO5 car will be cheaper to run long term and more tolerant of neglect but limitations of the TBI computer and its intake plenum design means you'll hit a ceiling for turning up the wick. Had a link saved somewhere that detailed this. But regardless of whichever one you choose you will be spending money correcting things not done to the highest standard from the factory. Especially the door panels and power window hardware.

Two tire fire master race! What did you do to get everything to be happy with MAF based TPI? I know there's a fairly large scene for going fast with those, and they tend to run forever if taken care of.

As of Tuesday, Kira is down for the major 10 year/100,000 mile service and tons of other stuff. Good time to upgrade to an extra severe duty water pump, a double roller timing chain, and an improved Opti from Optispark Solutions. On pace to be battle ready come snowfall. Going to have to move body work priorities a little bit- there's some rust peeking out from behind the windshield seal. It's definitely original to the car and I can't risk the roof rotting on me. Other areas will get done time permitting!

Why did I sell the 96 ? If you are referring to Caprices, those were some of the cars we had at work during those years. I remember them well. I still have my 96 CVPI. The 90-91 and 96 CVs were my favorite CVs Many good memories with them. The other work memories can vanish into the abyss.

[Hearsesrock427]

@MaineManTom: Believe it! Add rear floors to the list- those fail the finger test in several spots. Guessing that happens from cowl leaks or rocker panel rust? Because it's inside-out rust. Figure she'll need about as much rust repair as Eva will at this point. In spite of being 9 years newer. Still can't get over that, haha. I plan on adding some 9C1/1A2 beasts to the fleet at some point; Kira will not be alone in bubble land. Nice part about the police package is you don't have to worry about PassKey failures from ignition tumbler damage; extra sets of keys are super cheap to procure too. You get a slightly better cooling system and possible bucket seats too. Why'd you sell your old '96?

@DerekTheGreat: Lack of a vent tube will do it. But it's also sealing- part of the reason I went with a high end aftermarket opti is its proper assembly so there's zero chance of intrusion from the outside. Proper bench tested for voltage and such too. No parts bin cobbling like we can see from knockoffs or parts store specials. LO5 car will be cheaper to run long term and more tolerant of neglect but limitations of the TBI computer and its intake plenum design means you'll hit a ceiling for turning up the wick. Had a link saved somewhere that detailed this. But regardless of whichever one you choose you will be spending money correcting things not done to the highest standard from the factory. Especially the door panels and power window hardware.

Two tire fire master race! What did you do to get everything to be happy with MAF based TPI? I know there's a fairly large scene for going fast with those, and they tend to run forever if taken care of.

As of Tuesday, Kira is down for the major 10 year/100,000 mile service and tons of other stuff. Good time to upgrade to an extra severe duty water pump, a double roller timing chain, and an improved Opti from Optispark Solutions. On pace to be battle ready come snowfall. Going to have to move body work priorities a little bit- there's some rust peeking out from behind the windshield seal. It's definitely original to the car and I can't risk the roof rotting on me. Other areas will get done time permitting!

[DerekTheGreat]

Make mine the '95 or '96 LT1. Heard the earlier years are worse for opti[onal] spark failure. Although I wouldn't mind a '93 Cadillac with the 350 TBI plant in it. That's 215hp at least, so a good 55 more than I'm used to. That and they're easy to work on & parts are plentiful.

Less weight or not, again, my dad beat the piss out of that car while he owned it. I'm sure the added weight doesn't help the heat generation aspect but he romped on the thing and I for the most part just drive it. Although given that I've put trick flow cylinder heads, eklebrock performer tbi intake and some other crap I forgot about on it as well as a 3.23 posi rear, I kind of romp on it now too. I love hearing two tires sound off as they break loose on black top. That combined with how it just shoots away when it downshifts after you mash it, fun.

[Mainemantom]

Wow you have your hands full (of rust) with that car. If you could find a police package caprice that was in semi rust free shape, that would be a good parts car or vice versa. We had the 96 Caprice for a couple of years. Fast car, nice and comfortable but always breaking. Very high maintenance vehicle. They were faster than the CV but the CV was a much more durable car. So sad yours has so much rust behind the trim.

[Hearsesrock427]

@DerekTheGreat: Nope. The earliest iteration of second generation SBC was in '92 for Corvettes, F bodies in '93, B/D bodies in '94. 5.7 LT1 is the one you want, though you could have a 4.3 in the passenger cars if you wanted to be a future hipster in SBC land. Regarding the 700R4, remember that your Firebird is at least 500 pounds lighter than a typical bubble Caprice, so even with a less powerful 305 based gen 1 SBC (think you said the Firebird has a 305?) you've got decent power to weight ratio, comparatively speaking. Beyond that, you probably have a decently aggressive final drive which means you don't need to use as much throttle for most driving. From what I recall the only way to get a final drive numerically higher than 2.93 in '94+ B bodies was to get a 9C1, a 1A2 or MAYBE an Impala. All things equal a well maintained transmission will perform better than a unit that hasn't but I suspect most will run into issues eventually when driven hard.

My driving habits in the spring and summer in particular mean everything is on the severe duty maintenance schedule and systems that aren't designed to withstand abuse will be overbuilt. I guarantee you neither the AOD nor the 700R4 in stock guise were designed to be flogged for 100+ miles in one sitting. Take a typical night out on the winding roads. There's a lot of engine braking, especially coming down a grade. WOT shifting too, especially when exiting an increasing radius corner. Obviously not every twisty road permits that sort of exit strategy. But I want to get up to the safest established/benchmarked speed for the next corner as quickly as possible. The whole experience should be smooth at all speeds- whether it's your first time ever through a section or if you're hitting corners at twice the speed limit. There should be no "jerky" or "sudden" applications of controls. That's not to say I don't apply a lot of steering, brake, or throttle- quite the opposite. But it should always be smooth. The smoother you are, the easier it is to correct.

@kishy: Indeed. Helps that Kira isn't my first rodeo with rust and water traps and the like. If I had taken on a car like Kira or Eva instead of Ebyt in 2014 when I first really got into this, I probably would've gotten frustrated and made even more mistakes than I did with Ebyt's build. What's nice about this build is that all '91-'96 Caprice sedans will have rust in at least some of the areas that Kira does. (If I'm really unlucky they'll have rust in unfamiliar areas but that's a bridge to cross if, and when, we get there). She's the first foray, the test bed, the backup daily. There will be additional members to the fleet, but that's at least two years out. But when the time comes to expand the fleet once more it's going to be easy and hard at the same time. The hard part is paying for it and choosing which example(s) to get in what order; the easy part is knowing that it's the right thing to do.

[kishy]

Free cars are the best cars, even though a free car can be costly in time, as I know all too well.

Trim is the devil when it comes to winter-driven cars, or even a 3-season car parked outside.