Voltaic

As the title implies, I'm going to be replacing the toque converter in my 1988 Reatta. I've got the shudder in TCC lockup, random burts of speed, lag, difficulty up shifting, and stalling at a stop, I think it's time after spending the last year making sure the engine isn't the issue. My questions are how difficult will this be, what parts/seals do I need to purchase other than a new converter, and how much downtime should I expect. I would greatly appreciate the help on this one, I've done a lot of engine and suspension work, but I've never come close to touching a transmission.

Gotcha, so maybe this may have been some weird incident. From what I do remember of all the components from old to new, the old damper quite literally fell apart once it had tension off the chain, and the timing set itself had heat scoring on the chain, so perhaps it had some heat issues in the past. The last owner had let their son use it to get to and from college, so I can only make inferences what happened during that time. Past that I do know it was a garage queen. In reguards to the exhaust, I do have a moderately strong, rich exhaust smell in the bay and a wee bit in the cabin, along with an occasional pop around the crossover when pressing the throttle. I'll keep the advice/instructions in mind for a weekend afternoon.

I apologize for dropping things, work kicked up and then the holiday happened. The car is doing fine on fluids now, no burn on coolant or oil anymore, and again no contamination. I'd used Bar Seal's High Mileage Engine Repair. It seemed to clear things up within a day of using it. I'm wondering if the piston rings are starting to go. As far as I'm aware, the bottom end is entirely original. On a side note, I believe I've developed an exhaust leak on the crossover pipe, how much of a paint is that to deal with?

Whew lord, sorry about that mess of text, I wasn't watching how I was typing and was quite tired from work. I try to post after work and I never seem to get my point across. It was internal as far as I can tell, there wasn't any sign of an external leak. No puddle underneath and no dripping down the side of the engine that I could see. Lifter tick was there from low oil, but left once I'd added things. I pulled all of the plugs to check and there wasn't oil on any of them, and no oil along the valve cover surfaces. I then checked both radiator fluid and oil to see if one had leaked to the other in case of a gasket leak, and both were solid colors, not milky or anything. I was tired, added the stop leak and more oil, and within I want to say 15 miles everything seemed to be righted. No more oil loss and performance restored. I'm more framiliar with the 3800 Series II, so I'm not quite sure were this oil may have gone to get burned off. I'd just like to have an idea when I do have the time in the future to sit down with this thing, a Haynes Manual, and a rebuild kit. Edit: I can't quite recall the stop leak product specifics, but I'll be at the same store today to pick up some bobs and bits and will get that info here to help paint a better picture.

It seems like one thing after another with this engine. I recently replaced the cam magnet proper, as well as the timing set shortly after since I was now confident in how to quickly and properly replace everything in that area. It felt great to have power and mileage back, but I didn't have that for long. At some point in the past two weeks, I developed some sort of my nternal oil leak, as I'd gone through two quarts in that time period, and my mileage and power tanked once again. I pulled plugs to see if it was valve covers, they were clean, checked my lines and they were secure. Fluids weren't contaminated, so I was beginning to worry about the bottom end. I don't really have the cash or time at the moment to break down the engine, as it's currently my daily, so I opted to go for a crankcase stop leak... and it worked, spectacularly even. Mileage back in the twenties and power restored. What do the minds here on the forum think of this? Mileage now at 145k(mostly highway at this point) did a tuneup after timing set replacement, haven't done a compression test yet, and I've been staying within 5 of speed limits.

I would like to make an update on this now that life has sesttled and I was able to sit down and pull the timing cover myself. I was suprised at the simplicity of the job, if a bit time consuming because I did everything in the engine bay. E041 is finally exocised from my vehicle, and there is no discoloration of coolant or engine oil. I guess when I did Padgett's fix, I just didn't have it at the right depth to create the hal effect, but my dear Reatta(I'm starting to settle on Lilith for a name because of the black and maroon coloring) is back to normal now

So, update now that I've gone through the motions of waiting for a part, replacing it, and not working, 41 is still staring at me defiantly. Crankshaft was pretty solid when I went to test the play on it, so that seems to be a relief. I'm going to look over everything one more time, this time much longer and thoroughly in the daylight tomorrow since it's past my bed time right now. I'm a bit frazzled by what should be by all means a relatively easy fix, I normally don't have nearly the same ammount of trouble with my 96 Park Avenue. If I can't identify what the issue is by the coming weekend, I'm going to send it off to a shop, or even a dealership if need be.

Got a break at work to run over the harness and test the pigtail to the sensor. Everything seems peachy, the pigtail comes back 11.3 and the harness to the module and sensor are in fair shape, no melting or pinched wires to speak of. I'm going to run back to AutoZone when I get of work in the morning and see if I can swap the cam sensor to see if they just gave me a bad sensor. I'll test the movement when I get home as well, but I remember that the crank was fairly stiff moving it when I was lining the cam up for replacing the magnet.

2seater: E41 is current, I reset Everytime I made a change, and I did indeed change the ignition module. It was... less than okay, I was surprised it was still working with it falling apart after I got it off. I'll check the harness there to see if anything's wrong with it. My 88's sitting at 144k. Dave: I'll check that portion of the harness too.

The vehicle is my beloved 1988 Buick Reatta that I obtained about 5 months ago. I've recently become haunted by an e41 cam sensor error. I inspected the cam through where the sensor sits, and indeed the magnet was toast, or at least what was left of the magnet housing. I followed the Pagette fix after looking around here and Reatta Owner Journal, and still came up with e41. Fearing I didn't seat it far enough or let the JB cure long enough, I inspected again, but it was fine. The top of the magnet housing wasn't marred and didn't even budge when I tried to gently wiggle it. So, I changed the sensor itself, still the same e41 after a couple days of driving around town. For curiousity's sake, I replaced the ICM with a new one just in case there was some weird tom foolery in the ecm, but it changed nothing for the error, but at least smoothed out a rough idle I'd had when I first got it. I'm at a point where I'm thinking along the lines of a harness issue or maybe the timing chain has become loose, but wanted other people's opinions on what the issue could be before I delve further into buying things. I don't have a maintenance history from the previous owner, but it was garage kept and it shows. I've done a full tuneup on it, and I genuinely want to care for this 80's gem

Gotcha, I'll do that. I'm still relatively new to the resources around this car, so thanks for the tip.

The vehicle is my beloved 1988 Buick Reatta that I obtained about 5 months ago. I've recently become haunted by an e41 cam sensor error. I inspected the cam through where the sensor sits, and indeed the magnet was toast, or at least what was left of the magnet housing. I followed the Pagette fix after looking around here and Rattan Owner Journal, and still came up with e41. Fearing I didn't seat it far enough or let the JB cure long enough, I inspected again, but it was fine. The top of the magnet housing wasn't marred and didn't even budge when I tried to gently wiggle it. So, I changed the sensor itself, still the same e41 after a couple days of driving around town. For curiousity's sake, I replaced the ICM with a new one just in case there was some weird tom foolery in the ecm, but it changed nothing for the error, but at least smoothed out a rough idle I'd had when I first got it. I'm at a point where I'm thinking along the lines of a harness issue or maybe the timing chain has become loose, but wanted other people's opinions on what the issue could be before I delve further into buying things. I don't have a maintenance history from the previous owner, but it was garage kept and it shows. I've done a full tuneup on it, and I genuinely want to care for this 80's gem.