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Another Reatta sighting. I was in Oshkosh tonight having supper with my sister and Brother in Law. When I was driving out of the parking lot I had to wait for a car to turn to the lot I was in. He was eyeballing me all the way in while I kept thinking "Hurry up dummy so I can get out on the road and get home". So he gets in and I quickly pull out only to have the car coming down the road heading the same way I am be a white Reatta. He wave as he went by, I flashed my lights at him in acknowledgement. Never saw the car before but it does have one burned out bulb in the taillight. And here I thought I was the only guy driving a Reatta in Wisconsin winters...

Small item today about what I had mentioned previously about an oil pan. The one from the supercharged engine was damaged so there was no chance to reuse it on the new build. My research using Rock Auto to find part numbers was a mixed bag. I used a 1990 as my search year since that is the car it is being installed in. This gave me a suggested Dorman part number but was lacking detail on a view of the pan regarding the oil level sensor. I checked with my local Advance Auto parts and the pan was available to order for the same price. I was sort of hedging my bet a little. As it turned out, the pan came in without the sensor opening. We looked at alternatives on their computer and pans that didn't have quite the right shape showed up as well, so I had them hold the pan while I investigated. I dug out the pan from the s/c engine and it had the shape of some of the different pans on the FLAPS computer. I plopped it on the block that is being assembled and it looked like that style would fit with no issue. Going around the bolt pattern it all looked good until I got to the rear two bolts by the transmission. The spacing of the bolt holes was different by 1/2". I do not know why or if that is done on purpose, but I am pretty sure it is because the L27 engine, the first true Series 1 3800, has a one piece crankshaft rear oil seal. That also caused me to look further since I saw small differences in the depth of the pan listed in the catalogs. Hmmm. At a glance, it doesn't jump out, but the S/C pan is one inch deeper than the LN3, even though the capacity is listed as 4.8qts, same as the LN3. I am sure the different shape is the reason for the similar capacity even though deeper. That would have been bad. The oil pickup should be 1/4"-3/8" off the floor of the pan. In 1990 there were potentially three different 3.8 liter Buick V6's in production, and were used in different car lines. I think this is what has confused the catalog listings that don't differentiate the various car lines even though it is part of the sorting process?? In any case, if I enter 1989 as the model year, the available suggestions changes to only two, and neither are a Dorman. I saw the Spectra listed on Rock Auto, which clearly stated it had the sensor hole, and I back checked with Advance, which also showed the Spectra pan. The difference was Advance's pricing was over $30 more than Rock Auto, which was a surprise since the Dorman pan was the exact same price. I figured I would just return the Dorman pan and buy from Rock Auto but I was surprised when the Advance Auto manager reduced the price to match what I had already paid when I explained the situation, a pleasant surprise.

Would a sea be good enough? We have one of those about 25 miles from here. You wouldn't have to worry about a Nor'easter on this sea. It's got a roof over it. 🙂

The Lost Lake - I didn't know it existed. Truly an "American Wonder" as stated in the video - thanks for sharing.

I love these threads you do @2seater. Very interesting. This is what ROJ is about.

The 3800 is such a generic type of engine I'm surprised they made more than one pan.

The funny and coincident thing about this story is it sounds like an echo of almost the same words Daves89 and I had yesterday at lunch. We both felt the same way. The first drive out of storage just makes us smile. Similar words used to describe other cars we have had, but something is just "right" about a late 80's GM fwd V6 automobile dressed in a fancy frock as the Brits would say. It makes little sense and yet the feeling does exist.

My Reatta had been sitting in the same spot for quite a while so yesterday I got my Reatta out and drove it around a little. Just enough to limber it up and to keep the tires from getting flat spots on them from sitting in the same spot too long. I closed the battery cut-off switch, waited for the brakes to build pressure, and it fired right up. I let it idle for a few minutes and headed down the road a couple of miles. It always brings a smile to my face when I drive it after not being in it for a while. It reminds me why I continue to keep it after owning it for 15 years. In the past I rarely kept a weekend car (toy) for more than 4 or 5 years before getting rid of it and moving on to something else. I've owned a lot of British and Italian sports cars but I always got bored with them. My Reatta has been the exception. Not only do I enjoy driving my Reatta, I enjoy discussing my Reatta with all the nice people I have met online in the Reatta community. You guys are the best!

So non reatta related car story to share here. My brother in law owns a 2001 Honda accord and for some reason it blew out a spark plug a couple weeks back. He took it to a shop and they did a thread insert and sent him on his way about 10 days later he started getting engine codes for misfires. So he brought it for me to look at. At first glance I noticed the ignition coild for the plug that the shop had repaired was not sitting all the way in the tube and was a quater of an inch off the mating surface of the valve cover. The coil mounting screw was screwed in just like that (meaning the shop left it that way). I tried to figure out why it would not go in all the way. Decided to pull that plug out and inspect and it came out mangled thread insert and all (picture). Even left one of the leading threads in the cylinder head. Needless to say I was like ****! We are up a creek now. Bit the bullet and decided there was nothing for it but to replace the head. Pulled a junkyard head that seemed in decent shape other than some oil sludging in spots. It was real unfortunate because the original head that got messed up was as clean as could be. Whoever owned the car before him took really good care of it. See the pictures for comparison. Original Head with 150k miles: Junkyard head (mileage unknown): But honestly other than it seemed that this new head probably saw cheap and less frequent oil changes, everything seemed ok with it. Cam surfaces were clean with no real signs of wear. Rocker arm to valve clearance only needed very slight adjustment. Got it back together this past weekend. Took me 22 hours but I move slow when working on something new. That and in my haste to remove the junkyard head, i destroyed the wire for the coolant temp sensor, which is tucked behind the timing sprocket, and did not realize until after I got the timing belt and timing cover all back on. But it's running good now. Had a high idle problem that boiled down to the cruise control cable getting out of adjustment during removal and reinstallation to the throttle body. Anyway that is my weekend car story

The reason I asked about the high stop light is because it is a simple circuit that bypasses the turn signal control module to turn them on and they use a different ground point. All the other power to the brake lights branches off that circuit. Since the high stop light is not working it seems to me like the fuse that powers them, or the associate wiring is bad. I believe it should be fuse #6. I would test both for 12 volts coming to that fuse and coming out of it to be sure the brake lights are getting power. Next I would inspect the brake light switch to make sure power is getting through it when you press the brake pedal. If you get the high stop lights working the other lights will probably work to. The schematic below is for the '89 model but I think it is the same as the '88.

I agree, it came as a surprise to me as well. It was used in some rwd cars, Camaro?, but that wasn't the circa 1990 era unless I am way off base. If I can add and edit a photo in from my phone I will show you what I mean. The last of the Series 1 engines was the L67 of 1995, and this one came out of a Riviera. I have no idea why the front part of the pan is raised up where the LN3 is pretty much square. The exhaust crossover and things like that wrap around the back and over the bellhousing area, same as ours? I know it is a lousy photo but I was concentrating on the level sender at the time, which is a different type than ours.