Brother bought a 98 Z24

[55Test]

My brother bought himself a 98 Cavalier Z24 today to replace his decrepit 93 Civic. He paid $2000, which I think is a tad too much for a car with nearly 290000 kms. The car had clutch work done to it over a year ago and then pretty much sat in the previous owner's yard the whole time. He drove it a few days ago and found the clutch was slipping in 4th and 5th under moerate to heavy throttle. The PO has been driving it for a few days, and it's seemed to work itself out of that problem. Anyway, this car is going to need a major tuneup. My brother got the car home then pulled the air filter to find it really dusty and black. He removed the plastic thing over the throttle body, and inside the throttle body was completely black with dirt. He pulled the spark plugs, and 2 of them are so terribly worn that they don't have any visible center electrode left! The other 2 have center electrodes that are worn to a point. They are NGK plugs, non-platinum type. Apparently, the oil has been changed with some type of regularity thankfully. It's gonna need a bunch of brake worn. The rotors are worn badly, same for the pads. Rear brakes appear to be worn badly as well. The body of the car is in great shape, only small, minor paint chips on the hood and a missing bowtie emblem. Suspension appears to be good, but it's going to need a strut bearing sometime in the future. I'll have to take some pics tomorrow or sometime. Anyone here have any experience with GM's TwinCam engine (AKA Quad 4)?

 

[crw]

I've just gone through the same sort of thing with a 95 Mazda Protege. Actually, the car is in great shape, but the plugs were WELL worn, the PCV was plugged, etc. Get some throttle-body cleaner (not carb cleaner) and you'll probably want to take apart all the parts between the throttle-body and the air cleaner, and clean them all. I had to clean the MAF sensor as well. I took the EGR out and cleaned that as well. The good news is after cleaning all these parts, it runs great!