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3.0LeBaron
09-07-2012, 10:05 AM
i bought the car 3 years ago for the price of a 2001 Grand Prix shell

it's a loaded base model has the white leather interior, the heated rear glass in the top, power driver seat, A/C

here is how it looked when i got it

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron1.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron2.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron3.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron4.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron5.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron7.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron8.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron6.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/LeBaron11.jpg

then the trans "died" and would only go in reverse and neutral and the supply fuel line started leaking so it sat in my garage for 2 years

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/shelf-baron.jpg

this is how it looked about a month ago and i decided to start working on it bought a parts van for cheap as i thought it had a A670 but was another A604 so i will roll with it as it only had 10,000 miles on the rebuild the van it's self had 89,000

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/102_2150.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/102_2167-1.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/102_2179.jpg

cleaned around the car and checked it out last week and got it running. car is still rust free only rust form sitting was the aftermarket aluminized exhaust

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/102_2099.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/102_2096.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/102_2102.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/100_2286.jpg

was not hard getting it running again replaced the rubber fuel lines with AN fuel fittings

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/100_2268.jpg

and after 2 years it started right up


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zclQBuyhj8Q

i then removed the inoperative A/C system form the car as the compressor was seized and with the unknown shape of the condenser and evaporator did not want to mess with it

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/100_2294.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/100_2296.jpg

i also started on fuel line version 2.0 as the AN line was kinking on the supply side

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/100_2298.jpg



the long term plan is to turbo. started getting parts like .040 pistons for the Van engine and started tairing the van engine down this way i can still drive the car wile i build up the van engine. i can also convert the car to megasquirt using a stock engine as i also plan on converting the ignition system to a DIS

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/102_2195.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt161/01gpgt/100_2287.jpg

paduster
09-07-2012, 10:13 AM
i guess i aint the only one doing lebaron vert. are those stock pistons? and i did a 5 speed swap are u planning on building a auto or swapping to a 5 speed

3.0LeBaron
09-07-2012, 11:01 AM
those pistons are +1mm or .040 over with a dish for a 8.8 compression raio

trans plan is build up the van a604 i have internals from a turbo PT cruiser's 41TE and see what happens =and swap in a 3 speed when it blows. I would love a 5 speed but my knee says no to that

---------- Post added at 11:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 AM ----------

also got the trans in the car to work after swapping int he TCM fromt he van so i think the TCM just failed

paduster
09-07-2012, 11:02 AM
cast or forged is my question and a stock style replacement or after market

and nice on the tcm swap means u dont have to swap trans yet

3.0LeBaron
09-07-2012, 12:19 PM
i believe they are cast hyperucratic what ever. so stock style? no idea they where new in 1989 i bought them this year for cheap

paduster
09-07-2012, 12:34 PM
cast is stock and we have found 3 differnt style pistons some are stronger than others thats y i ask sundance6g72 he had a thread on it a while ago

3.0LeBaron
09-07-2012, 01:39 PM
ahh i see yeah i have no idea i did not even know there where different styles

paduster
09-07-2012, 01:40 PM
yea and some are stronger than others

3.0LeBaron
09-07-2012, 01:43 PM
have a link to the thread that talks about the pistons?

paduster
09-07-2012, 02:26 PM
http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/showthread.php?64903-sohc-12valve-piston-discussion&highlight=pistons

3.0LeBaron
09-07-2012, 04:36 PM
after looking at that they are the older 8.85 style with the thicker top ring land

Sundance 6g72
09-07-2012, 05:39 PM
the worry about replacement pistons is that the companys producing them only need to make them handle 141hp. We are lucky that the stock pistons can see 500+ hp and survice (maybe not long term)

im all for trying your pistons but i cant say im confident that they will like lots of horsepower.


1993 was the switch over date for the stock pistons. I know this because my factory motor had the first gen pistons while most 93s have the newer style.

the 10:1 pistons are also pretty strong if you avoid detination.

3.0LeBaron
09-08-2012, 03:46 AM
that is true and these ones where made before the switch over was even thought of. the van engine is a cheap build so longevity is not really a main concern. i will do things more correct with the stock engine i take out of the lebaron

Sundance 6g72
09-08-2012, 10:24 AM
my point is, if the current pistons are fine and the block does not need to be bored out, why bother with new pistons?

3.0LeBaron
09-08-2012, 01:56 PM
do to pitting in at least one cylinder bore of the van motor

Sundance 6g72
09-08-2012, 04:00 PM
ahh i see. I wanted to bore my origonal block. Its got some scratching where i melted piston #1. Never did it because i wanted oem pistons. might go forged some day with that block but thats expensive :P

well hopefully they hold up really well. the cool thing about v6 and v8 is that each cyl sees less horsepower than the 4cyl equivelent. I think that why our headbolts work so well, they only see half the horsepower than if they where on a 4g63.

3.0LeBaron
09-09-2012, 10:28 AM
hopefully they work too and if not oh well i paid $70 for the pistons and $300 for the van and then got $300 from scrapping it and $150 form selling some parts so i will still be a head lol

3.0LeBaron
09-28-2012, 11:02 PM
got the heads off cylinders look perfectly fine soo i have spare pistons then in case i ever need them in the future


got the parts i needed to finish the A/N lines on the fuel rail and got new o-rings installed should beable to get the car going agina soon


new problem though need to figure out how to drain the 5 gallons of crap out of the fuel tank