'79 L82, mainly stock engine.

Finally have all the vacuum, vapor, etc. hoses changed. All stock engine emission systems working properly to include A.I.R. No cat with true dual, Edelbrock manifold and unknown higher lift cam.

After quite a bit of tweaking, have RPM 900 (neutral) 750 (drive) per specs with all temperature starts per owner manual instructions. For two years my ownership it too lots of pumps and lots of cranking for an overnight cold engine.

Started and ran like new! Quiet with tops out on hilly, twisting two-lane highway averaging 55 mph--easy to listen to radio and engine while having a conversation with the passenger! Before it was much too loud cruising on the highway. Great, loud lope at idle and loud note during acceleration on par with my 300hp Seville STS. Before it was noticeably less quick than the STS.

The difference was surprising to me. More improvement to performance than everything I had done before to include plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing and carb cleaning.

Nearly all of the hoses I replaced were original. The very short vacuum hoses at the carb were stretched in place and looked fine but must have been leaky. The fuel evap lines were toast but now the system tests working. All the excellent quality Doc Rebuild hoses were shipped immediately and fit very well.

 

Isn't it amazing what a properly repairing the old can do? Too many people are to quick to replace everything versus fixng what they have.

Congrats on getting it running right!!

 

Yes!

 

Enjoyed putting 300 miles on the clock for the 2nd little road trip in two years in what felt and sounded like a new car. Punchy and citified. Loud when you want it loud and quiet when you want it quiet.

Next day no shift advance.

After the days work replacing 30+ and 30'+ of hoses, the 3" rubber hose at the transmission modulator valve had failed! Saw some other rubber hoses running along the frame when I was down there replacing it and the transmission filter/gasket in hope that the final leak will be repaired

 

You too? I got my 82 (with the TPI) to make a big difference in performance by replacing most of the lines. The vacuum leaks must have been tremendous.

The biggest difference for my 82 was adding the '85-89 electronic fuel pump

 

Now, if you would recurve the mechanical advance in the distributor, you could double that performance improvement. (...if you haven't already done so...)

 

Excellent report, Swampeast! Great to hear it's now running like a champ!

 

Great to hear how much the little things improve performance. I finished rebuilding my vapor canister, have it back in and hope to finish the new hoses tuesday along with all the vacuum hoses when my kit arrives. Then off for a wheel alignment as I rebuilt the front end over winter. Hope my smile ks as big as yours. Enjoy.

 

I've made a lot of progress in the past couple of weeks on my cars performance. In no particular order:
1) ERG valve
2) vacuum check, trace, check trace again (this was the biggie)
3) charcoal canister rebuild and get functioning
4) coolant sensor replace
5) Bump up timing
6) added a 85-89 fuel pump with higher presure

My car now runs great and pulls a steady 17/18 hg.