Leaderboard

What I’ve found with my ‘88 (R134 converted) is that the low pressure sensor is sending a low refrigerant signal when the temperature is a bit cooler here. I just clear the codes, turn off automatic climate and roll down the windows. When the temperature is truly warm enough for AC, the system blows ice cold with no issues or warnings. In my experience,You can drive yourself crazy chasing nonexistent leaks and adjusting pressure levels only to learn that the low pressure sensor is very sensitive to temperature related R134 pressure fluctuations.

I drove the car to my cottage today, only a trip of 50miles and mostly highway but another observation as I accumulate some time with this combination: Cold start is still a little rough. It starts fine, but seems to have a bit of trouble finding a good idle at first. It drops low and stays there a bit before recovering. Essentially, open loop needs some attention. I am using all of the items attached to the throttle body as it came on the donor engine. The TPS, MAF and IAC are all as purchased. I did clean things up and examine them before assembly, and they all work just fine in closed loop. It's possible the injectors I installed aren't quite up to par, Bosch 30# Type 3? Will get that sorted eventually. I am warming up to the way it drives and responds. There is no question that a turbocharged engine of this type will make more power but that isn't the end all and be all. It is a smooth and relaxed cruiser and in the gently rolling area I drive through, it grunts its way up small hills without apparent effort. I did disconnect the vacuum from the supercharger bypass to force all air to go through the rotors but in my limited part throttle I noted little benefit. One thing that is maybe related which I described above and that is the vacuum bypass for the s/c. It doesn't shut off air to the actual rotors in the s/c, it just opens an additional passage which routes air to below the s/c, essentially two parallel paths. I applied vacuum to the bypass cannister, and it just starts to open at 5" of vacuum and is fully open at 12". Funny how those levels are right in the range I see when driving normally; 5"Hg and accelerating the bypass is almost completely closed and 10-12" at 65mph cruise is completely open. Almost like GM planned it, imagine that. My code E026c is back, so I believe it probably has to do with the EGR which is non-existent. No other current codes. The A/C works perfectly, the cooling fans do as well. TCC, cannister purge and cruise control all work as designed. One last thing, the exhaust barks a fair amount. I do run a replacement cat but also a straight through muffler, which worked well with the turbocharger taking the edge off, but it is a bit noisy now. I don't know if it is enhanced by the modified rear manifold where cylinders #2 & #4 are mostly isolated from the front cylinders plus #6 exhaust flow. The O2 sensor is located right at the point where the flows merge to exit. Maybe the natural turbulence from the stock interference design would be quieter?

Top down is better, I just have some golf caps.

2/70 Air! 2 Windows Down, 70 Miles Per Hour!

Have you measured how much freon is in the system? A low reading is the most common thing to trip the light from my experience.

BTW Greyhound bus line found that running the headlights on during the day cut accidents...in 1964.

You can tell if the AC has been converted to 134a by looking at the fittings. If converted to 134a there should be an adapter added that looks like the one with the blue cap in the second photo below. I think that is a photo if my '88.

Interesting evaluation 2seater. As most of the "old timers" know I have always wanted a super charged setup but never did it. However with your [and Ronnie's] advice I did have an engine rebuilt with the '88 cam as well as higher compression pistons [and some porting of the exhaust manifolds which gets me to about 190 HP. No idea of the increased tq though [maybe you have input on that]. What we should do after you have your car dialed in a bit better is do a "time trial" on a large parking lot to see how we compare. If that isn't a good idea, just you driving my car to do a "seat of the pants comparison". I am glad I bought that 5000 mile '88 engine to get the cam and then did the rebuild with the 9 to 1 compression pistons, the car is way more responsive, runs on regular gas, no change to the prom and doesn't overtax the transmission. And one last thing, the gas mileage is about the same, which makes me wonder how much HP these transmissions can really take before they blow out. I think the Buick engineers might have been a bit conservative unless they really designed the car to be a touring car with no plans for higher performance.

I've driven with the fog lights on almost since the day I bought my Reatta. A safety feature I think is useful is the turn signal arrow in the side mirrors on some new cars. They get my attention when I'm beside a vehicle that has them. I like all the automatic braking and the new cruise control that paces the car in front of you, but I don't want to be forced to pay for them if I ever buy another new car. I doubt I could ever trust a car enough to let go of the steering wheel and let the car do the driving like some car companies are advertising on TV.

The one advantage the N/A setup has is the lessened concern for protecting parts. Any car driven pedal to the metal constantly, save a diesel perhaps, will have a shorter lifespan. Boost on an otherwise standard engine uses up some of the excess capacity in the system. Silly story but a true one: almost 40 years ago leaving a company meeting offsite, it had been snowing heavily and the roads were in bad shape. As it happened at the time I had a new Isuzu Trooper II, all 85 hp of it. A coworker had an original style Bronco with a V8. We ended up at a traffic signal outside of the city on a 50mph stretch, he had to feather the throttle and slip the clutch to keep from spinning uselessly where I could just hammer down and stay with him easily. It is sort of like that. If you have a vacuum/boost gauge, in an N/A setup, zero on the dial is about the most you can expect unless you can get a ram effect at some point to show a tiny bit of positive pressure. When the needle swings into positive territory is where the power lies all other things being equal. This isn't a factory s/c engine, it is a somewhat improved N/A '88 engine with boost added. I don't know how much power the supercharger eats up, but it must be some, and the turbo version has some losses as well. At a guess, I would say +20%hp and 25%tq or so. The engine is quite tight internally right now. When turned off, it stops right now, no coasting at all.

I just use some mini convex mirrors in the bottom/inside of the driver's side mirror.

Have you guys ever seen these screws rust in the dash? I've noticed that on some cars even though the cars don't have water damage. I think the humidity gets to them and rusts these out. My first guess would be trying the plyers, but you said it's too small a space to get them out. You might can try drilling into the screw with a small drill bit and then unscrewing the screw when you get a good grip in it. It's probably too small to do that either but a possibility.

Welcome to the forum! That is interesting. I've never saw that done before.

Reatta’s @ 2022 BCA Nationals; Lisle, IL.

Reatta Reunion Charlotte Autofair 2022