Project Bulldog. (1988 Diplomat AHB)

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these? or the older boxy ones?
 
Mikes5thAve said:
What's wrong with the one it has?
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thinking more about my my civ 88 Gran Fury. whines a lot, more than usual. i will always like the wooooooo sound these cars make but on the Plymouth especially it's getting loud. worn bearings

might be nice to upgrade the civ car if the upgrade is cost effective. i know 8 3/4 been going for big money these days. civ m's have 7 1/4?

silly question. i heard the 8 1/4 and up give you better "highway gears". maybe give me a few MPG? will you in turn loose some around town MPG? is that all BS?
 
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SonOfaTomP said:
thinking more about my my civ 88 Gran Fury. whines a lot, more than usual. i will always like the wooooooo sound these cars make but on the Plymouth especially it's getting loud. worn bearings

might be nice to upgrade the civ car if the upgrade is cost effective. i know 8 3/4 been going for big money these days. civ m's have 7 1/4?

silly question. i heard the 8 1/4 and up give you better "highway gears". maybe give me a few MPG? will you in turn loose some around town MPG? is that all BS?
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The different gearing would probably get you a bit better in the city and worse on the highway but how much depends on what the new ratio is.

It seems like a lot of 89 civilian cars also had 8.25 axle and other then the early years you never saw that in them.
 
It's been a long time. work and life has been getting in the way. but the old boy is still here.

he's been running pretty good. currently i've been sorting out the wiring mess this car has. someone put a subwoofer in this car and there is no reason to have this many wires in here. holy moly.

he's blown coolant hoses on me twice. but once was my fault because i had put a heater hose on that was too long and got eaten up by the belts. still leaks oil but i've narrowed it down to the driver's side valve cover. other than that not much going on except me going back and forth to work.

i got my money back from safelite. now i'm asking myself if i trust this car to go to Northern Virginia where i found a shop that has Diplomat glass.

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SonOfaTomP said:
It's been a long time. work and life has been getting in the way. but the old boy is still here.

he's been running pretty good. currently i've been sorting out the wiring mess this car has. someone put a subwoofer in this car and there is no reason to have this many wires in here. holy moly.

he's blown coolant hoses on me twice. but once was my fault because i had put a heater hose on that was too long and got eaten up by the belts. still leaks oil but i've narrowed it down to the driver's side valve cover. other than that not much going on except me going back and forth to work.

i got my money back from safelite. now i'm asking myself if i trust this car to go to Northern Virginia where i found a shop that has Diplomat glass.

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glad you got your money back from those crooks!
 
getting low oil pressure. hovers around 25-30 most of the time. jumps up to around 50 on the highway. the valve covers were pretty loose, has stopped the constant oil leak for now.

he's had a consistent lifter tick for a long time now. hard to pin it down between the exhaust tick and lifter. probably needs new cam bearings. we'll see what 10w40 does..

this car for some reason when driving with the headlights on, the headlights on chime will come on while driving. what's he trying to tell me?


for now i don't take him far. to work and back
 
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Door switch/cable broken, follow the schematic of the buzzer to the door.

Oil pressure? I have 40 @ 2500rpm at one of my rides, approx 15-20@idle. Not a lot, but rule of thumb says minimum is 10psi per 1000rpm.
Was a real and good pressure gauge?
 
SonOfaTomP said:
getting low oil pressure. hovers around 25-30 most of the time. jumps up to around 50 on the highway. the valve covers were pretty loose, has stopped the constant oil leak for now.

he's had a consistent lifter tick for a long time now. hard to pin it down between the exhaust tick and lifter. probably needs new cam bearings. we'll see what 10w40 does..

this car for some reason when driving with the headlights on, the headlights on chime will come on while driving. what's he trying to tell me?


for now i don't take him far. to work and back
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anything over 5 psi at idle is great on an old engine

If you run it with the valve covers off, you'll make a huge oily mess but you probably can narrow down if a lifter is truly bad that way.

You'd have to be a magician to do cam bearings while the engine is still in the car. Yeah, I'm sure people have done it. But why would you think it even needs them anyway? They're probably ok as is and will only flake apart if you try and change the camshaft
 
AMC Diplomat said:
But why would you think it even needs them anyway? They're probably ok as is and will only flake apart if you try and change the camshaft
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just guessing on why i have the oil pressure issues. i read they can go bad when a car sits a long time, and cause oil pressure issues. i know it'd require a whole engine teardown, but that might just be what this car needs. he's sat since 2011.


sitting at a stop lights i see the oil gauge dip to around 20 and the car has a slight shake. and only recently have i got the old boy to stop pissing everywhe
69- said:
Door switch/cable broken, follow the schematic of the buzzer to the door.

Oil pressure? I have 40 @ 2500rpm at one of my rides, approx 15-20@idle. Not a lot, but rule of thumb says minimum is 10psi per 1000rpm.
Was a real and good pressure gauge?
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factory police oil gauge with a semi new sending unit. aka: i took it out of a junkyard A38. original sender exploded.
 
one more thing. anyone know where to get the air inlet hose for the 4 bbl air cleaner? mine disintegrated.
i seen numerous online that have these put together with duct tape, i feel lime Summit had these but i can't find it anymore
one end is square, other circular

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at 20 psi i don't think you have an oil pressure problem. shaking at idle would make me think vacuum leak or carb, not oil pressure
 
I wouldn't be concerned with 20 psi at idle. Many years ago I had a '76 Ford Elite 351W that had 0 psi at idle, and 5 psi on the highway per factory gauge, verified with a mechanical test gauge. Ran like a Swiss watch, never so much as a tick. I put 40K on it, and am sure it went many more after selling it. My point is, oil volume is more important than pressure. There's a big difference between 0 psi with oil flowing and 0 psi with no oil flow.
 
20 isn't low oil pressure thats healthy. Even a bit under 10 is still OK. If the light comes on then you have something to worry about.

Vacuum leak, low idle, carb adjustment or other issue, ignition, fouled plugs bad wires.. that's the sort of thing that causes rough idle.
 
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