Tim_C.

Yeah, glad it didn't set anything else on fire.

You can tighten up the cold adjustment to .008 exhaust, and .006 intake. It will run better and not cause any issues.

You can pull the cam gear out too, or wedge a block down where the shelf goes, between the chain to keep it from falling in after removing the gear. As long as you put the head back on with the cam in the same place, it really doesn't matter if the chain slips off of the crank gear and then doesn't go back on exactly the same. You can always pull the chain back on the crank gear. You will need to push the tensioner plunger back in before you can get the cam gear back on.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it was pryed like that. More stuff as I remember more things about it: Flat body steering couplers are usually in great shape. Steering gear boxes too. It was a manual trans. Engines in flatbodies are normally better too. (condition wise) Probably a good exhaust manifold. I did see a US 3/8" bolt on the front exhaust manifold stud location. All 4 struts, and complete rear end are still on it. Drive shaft is probably still there. Half shafts there. gas tank and fuel pump still there, but I wonder how bad the tank looks after it had to be sitting for a while. I'd say 2 to 3 years minimum, but again, it looks like 10 years under a tree. No header panel. Oh, it did have what looked to be a good radiator with clutch fan and shroud for anyone wanting to swap, this one has all of the parts. They were still in place. Starter, alternator, both still on it.

It was the one at 5800 Rutledge Pike 865-523-8000

I finished my field service job at Y-12 early, so I went to the salvage yard. I could feel there was a StarQuest there. I just knew there would be for some reason, no kidding. So I walked the GM rows looking for little stuff for our '97 Buick. Then I walked the 'Chrysler' section because there is always a Mitsubishi of some kind in there, and there was. It was a '87 Colt, but carbureted. Nothing I needed, but a lot of the electrical connectors are the same, so it's always good to look. I finally started on the imports, and got to the last section in the far left corner. I was intrigued by some Mercedes 'K O M P R E S S O R' C-Class, and then kept searching, thinking I may have been wrong, and for some reason, I turned around, knowing it would be there, and it was! LoL! The saddest StarQuest I ever saw. A Black w/tan/brown interior, May of 1985 Flasider, 4 lug non-IC car. It had to have been parked under a tree for over 10 years. I mean thick bird dookie, and even large chunks of moss all over the car. I took a picture with my phone, but it is so FUGLY that I don't want to post it. Someone had already cut the driver's door mounted seat belt. The entire drivetrain is still in it, except the rocker assembly is gone from the head. LoL! Don't know who thought they could take those and put them on another head. The headlight switch was gone, and the gauge cluster, but the hacked it out so bad that I doubt they could mount it in anything. I took the window regulators, fuse link box, and some small stuff. The turbo is still on it, but she's pretty loose at the shaft. I didn't crawl under to see if there wasn't any holes in the oil pan or block, but I'd think the short block is in good to rebuildable shape. No throttle body. Someone had already pulled the TB with injectors and TPS, etc.. Trans is still in it. Starion Tail Lights are perfect, or so it seemed through the bird dook. Has a 'TURBO' (On Glass) Rear Hatch with the 'STARION' Decal. Seats actually looked good. The front spoiler is in good condition. The driver's side piece is broke, and the center section has a crack but easily repairable. Right section cracked but repairable too. The bumper cover and spoiler are already off and inside of the car. It has 3 great looking '83 style 14" wheels, and the '83 style B-Pillar trims that came stock on some '85's. Robert told me before they came on some '85's, but I'd never seen one 'til now. Well, one was hashed due to someone trying to pry it off. Some moron got to this car first. The license plate bracket is rusted but in good shape. Just needs a bead blast and paint. It is inside of the car. The hood was gone, but there is an umbrella over the engine. I put it back on when I was done. LoL! It is very rusted, with no body panels worth saving except for maybe the rear hatch if you can clean the dookie! Good headlights, buckets, & motors. Key is in ignition and all locks are still on it! Tan 'Mitusbishi' floor mats in decent shape. Battery tray is there, but no hold-down.

What you can do is block one of the non-metered port holes in the MAF. Use a stock air filter too. See if that helps it or makes it worse. If it helps (leans it out some), then the MAF signal is not being interpreted correctly somehow. Directly related to MAF signal, but not a bad MAF. You can just run it like that with the port blocked. If it leans it too much, then you can drill a hole in the plug to open it back up some. I have one car that I run like that. Plugging the port smoothed it out and made a huge world of difference to run very smoothly with plenty of power. Any and all MAFs were running rich on it without the port plugged. If it makes it worse and richer, then most likely the real problem is elsewhere, with something telling the computer to spray more injector. You can try putting a stock O2 sensor, or a standard 3-wire one in it too. Just to see what that does. These cars idle rich normally too, so a little rich is okay. Unplugging an injector shouldn't kill it, especially if it idles rich. You'd think the one injector would still keep it up.

Yeah, it is very interesting to see and hear how differently people view the same thing. I was starting to feel embarrassed too, but I love driving it. Flatties have a different unique feel that makes me want to drive them sometimes more than my wide body cars. And I get just as many compliments on them, no matter how bad of condition they are in on the outside.

It all stems from the needs of the male ego. Normally the guys with money to buy sporty cars, also have an ego the size of Texas. The car makers figured out a long time ago, that feeding that ego sells cars. So as stupid as it sounds, piping in bogus engine noises appease the desires of the targeted market. So like sheep to the slaughter, they come running! LoL! Viper owners are the worst that we've found when hanging around drag strips for 30+ years. Any car that is expensive and sporty has a high percentage of owners who have that, "I know everything" attitude. As if their money bought more knowledge than the next guy. What they have is more toys to play with, which does have some learning advantage if you focus in that direction, but it seems few in that realm do. They learn how to destroy rather than how to be a good steward of their cars and make them last. How's that for an opinion!

If I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me and complemented my StarQuests, I could build another one! LoL! My wife told me the other day how bad my '85 Conquest flatty looks. It is an eyesore to most people, with sun faded maroon paint, and a hashed front spoiler. In my eyes, it isn't that bad, but I need to paint it. I have an excellent condition same year spoiler to put on too. Anyway, I drove it to put in my 3rd tank of gas since rebuilding the engine and getting it back on the road. I was pumping gas, and a younger guy around 25 years old comes up and says, "Wow, I didn't realize the Conquest was made by Plymouth too!" (the '85 has the 'Conquest Imported by Plymouth' emblem on the back of the rear hatch). He went on to say how cool the car was, and how nice the style is, etc... I wondered if he was serious because the car does look terrible with the tops of the rear seats and side bolsters completely hashed (hot/dry summers here in Colorado), and it has the '85 only cow-bell wheels, etc.. Again, I don't think it is so bad, but friends of mine, and my wife say I need to do something about it. LoL! Okay, then I went in the grocery store to get a few things, and came back out where another guy walked up and told me how cool the car was and how he loved the Conquests, etc... I mentioned the CBRII movie, and he told me the month and year that he saw it when it first came out. July of 1984. his memory was vivid of the day he first saw that movie. He is 51 years old now, and told me that he took his 11 yr old nephew to the movie. As bad as the movie is, it seems everyone remembers it. I just thought it was encouraging that 2 people stopped me to tell me how cool my car was the day after my wife told me how bad it looks, etc.. Of course she wants me to sell it, and that was the first thing she said when I told her about these two guys.

Yes,I agree! Those are the only ones left, the ones the parts houses misplaced! One injector will drive fine up to 3000 RPM. Above that, or in boost, and it requires the second injector to act right. Unless your really, really feather the throttle, you can keep revving and actually drive the car. If that is the case, then there is only one injector making good connection to the harness, or one of the injectors needs cleaned like ucw58 said.

yeah, I would dive back into it. you can stab the '83 motor in it until you get it rebuilt right. Then there is no big hurry and you can at least drive it. However, if you plan to sell it, get out now because you will just put more in it and won't be able to get it back out. That's why even well built cars get parted out on here instead of sold outright. Not even those will get the investment back. That's what stops me from going all out with the cars I have. Just more money lost if I ever want to sell it, so I have only gone wild with the one.

What is the FP at the TB? It can't be much over 45 without it going very rich at idle. Should be 37 - 39PSI or so. The new regulator may be allowing too much FP.

An increase in rear gear ratio relieves some stress on everything in front of it, trans, engine, clutch, etc.. It only adds stress to everything after it such as the axles, wheels, etc.. So I'd have to agree that maybe something came loose after the 4.22's were installed. My diff specialist was very adamant about red loctiting EVERYTHING when he installed my 3.90's. He said it is very common for stuff to want to come loose after installing.

Well, my '85 has been sitting for about 6 years now. I couldn't believe the last registration I put on it was in 2008! It had low compression on one cylinder. It would run and I was starting every once in a while before I tore it apart about 3 years ago. I had hypereutectic pistons in it, stock 7:1 ratio. I boosted up a short hill one time at about 9PSI non-IC, and the spark plug would not come out. So I removed the pistons with the engine still in the car. LoL! I normally pull it all, but I had no place to put it this time. I put forged Wiseco true 8:1 pistons in it, with the super light pins from Dad. Hastings rings. Had to hone it out by hand to increase the size a little for the forged pistons. I replaced the cam with a hi-torque/low RPM new grind I had laying around. The grind had been tested, but no one was interested, so I thought I would put it in my 85 Auto car that needs a little low end torque anyway. So far so good. I have about 300 miles on it. The fuel hose leaked at the crimp near the TB, so I dug out a salvage yard one I had and it is working well. Had a pinhole in the radiator that I was going to pull and have fixed, but it sealed itself. I'll still pull it, but I'll drive it a little more just locally so I can see if everything else is going to hold together reliably first. No reason to doubt anything, but I hate to invest a bunch more if I made a build mistake, etc.. It was the dirtiest build I've ever done, but the pan was clean, and little to no metal in oil. Oil is super clean now, so I'm pretty sure everything is fine. The car has 94K miles on the rest of the parts, so I thought it was worth saving. It is an ugly eyesore with sun baked paint, cracked up front spoiler, etc.. But the body is straight and rust free. It runs very well for what it is. I still need to tune it up a little with a TPS/ISC reset. I did replace the vac hoses with a silicon set I got free in the Mesquite raffle a few years ago. Thanks SOTTY! All in all, I have about $550 in pistons, rings and bearings, and I used gaskets I've had laying around, so not much invested there. It cost $174 to re-register it. I'm running ethanol free premium gas in it. I needed to drain the old gas out, but there was still some smell, so I'll run a few tanks from the only pump in town that has ethanol free. I'm just stoked to be driving this thing again. It had 74K on it when I bought it and rebuilt the engine in it. The OEM build was toast with a cracked head, and water damaged cylinders.

Yes, I agree. The engine control system is pretty much interchangeable between '84 - '85 non-IC. They are the most alike of any 2 years.

LoL! Nice Pic. I can't believe he has shoes on!

I think 200 is doable, but maybe not with the stock gear set. That's over 8K RPM unless you put some mighty tall tires on it. I've held my G54B at 138 on the speedo with 255/50 Z tires on it. That's closer to 155. That was off boost at about 5/8 pedal. Plenty more to go and power to get me there, but the dashes were flipping by too fast for me. Very smooth with stock 120K mile springs and struts. Mine loved to cruise with very little throttle at 105. Now I have the 3.90's in it, so my top speed is considerably less, but it is much more fun getting there!

Yes, it is sad to see him go. He actually sat in the car that I own.

Actually, no, it isn't 'safe' to use Teflon tape on compression fittings, and it will most likely leak and especially if the tape disintegrates. Compression fittings are a straight thread and require the threads to simply pull the compression tighter to seal the fitting. The tape is preventing a good seal due to the threads will not draw the compression down as far as without tape. GET IT OUT OF THERE! Especially your brake line fittings. Pipe thread (tapered)uses the threads to seal the fitting, so you must use some type of sealer on them. There is a really good teflon dope that seals very well too and has a higher temperature rating.

Put a dead battery in it, jump start it, and see what amp fuse will hold then. What you are testing is how big a fuse is needed, but it depends on the amount the alternator is charging / load. Increase the load with headlights, heater, electric fans, stereo, wipers, etc... and more is demanded on the fuse. A dead (zero volts, but will accept a charge) battery, simulates worst case scenario and greatest load that wire will ever see with the present alternator. It will try to charge basically full fielded at 65-75 amps or so.

Yes, glad it was easy. And normally, they are a connection problem. Bad ground connection on the battery ground to car frame, and in this case, engine block (could have caused it too, but turns out cleaning only starter bolts fixed it). voltage drop along the positive cable from bat to starter. This is very common due to corrosion, loose connections, weak connections. The little spacer inside of the battery terminal connector on the harness is many times lost over the years, and without that, the connection isn't nearly as good and the cable end gets very weak and nearly broken off from someone over tightening when trying to make up for the lost spacer. I've seen many a corroded signal wire to the solenoid too. Starter solenoid contact pads wear over time too, depending on what type of starter is on it. Ours came with both types, conventional and gear reduction. Gear reductions are stronger and last a lot longer, but when the contacts wear too far, they just give up. That is what also comes back to life temporarily by tapping with a hammer.

Yes but last I knew, 'swapping' windshields wasn't so 'easy'!

It may be easy enough to just go to your local 'Pick-N-Pull', etc... and find the pigtail you need and clip it from the harness. Many vehicles use the same connectors.

Some possibilities come to mind: 1) Weak or damaged positioning springs. I would be very leary about running SST spacers against the aluminum rocker. You may need a bronze bushing on the end of the spacer to properly wear. However, from your verbiage, you seem to know more about metals than I do. My point here stems from an old school thinking that rigid spacers instead of soft springs may cause wear especially if they aren't very well calculated for length, etc... The springs should have enough tension to hold the rockers from slipping off under normal conditions. That's another reason I would not jump to spacers so fast. They should have enough tension to 'spring' (verb) the rocker assembly apart enough that you need the bolts in place in order for the bolt holes to stay lined up. 2) Bad valve guides allowing the valve to wobble at the top and allowing the lifter to slip off of it. Once it slips off, there is no going back. 3) Combination of things including the lifter got stuck, thus not providing the proper lash adjustment. A small mis-alignment problem is now magnified and can allow the lifter to slip off of the valve when it encounters the valve top again after lifting away from it. 4) Worn rocker internal pivot hole diameter. The shafts are normally fine, but the aluminum rockers can be worn considerably. Again, this would allow the rocker to wobble on the valve end and or always run slightly crooked. This condition may not be so easily observed when engine is not running. You need to wiggle the rocker on the valve end to see if it allows much movement. Also, rockers get easily damaged when the untrained person tries to remove them from the shaft without properly cleaning the old varnished oil deposits from the shaft before trying to slide the rockers over it. They can also catch at the end of the shaft and a nasty gouge can occur if extra care isn't taken when pulling them off of the end. They **** awkwardly and very easily gouge the internal diameter of the rocker.