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JPaul's Alpha build

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
So after a whirlwind of activity to make it happen, within 4 days of whishing I had an Alpha, especially since I am going to start towing a trailer with my family loaded in the H3, I ended up with SuperBuick's 2008 Alpha H3. Here it is in Duvall, Washington after stopping for gas on the start of the trip home:

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And here it is after over 800 miles in two days back home:

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First things will be giving it a good once over, replacing the passenger axle with one of the spares SuperBuick gave me (the inner CV boot decided to spring a leak apparently, but it made it home jsut fine. I didn't even notice it until I was looking everything over again after getting home), and then begin the process of swapping add-ons from my old H3 to the Alpha (such as the roof rack, dash cams, etc).
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
be sure and check the oil. the oil change schedule was every 5,000 miles - so when the odometer hit 5 or 0 it was changed.

I was checking it along the way. Didn't seem like it was burning much. The odometer was just under 157,000 at some point during the trip, so it's about halfway to needing another change if you do it on the 0/5k odometer mark. When were the other fluids changed out? Any idea?
 

SuperBuickGuy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,403
Location
Woodinville, WA
transmission fluid was about 100 miles ago. Radiator was replaced a few months ago, fluid changed then. Transfer case was rebuilt in Sept - so new fluid. Front differential was at the same time as t-case. Rear, dunno... maybe a couple years ago.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Sweet, that saves me some work and money. Went to the DMV this morning to start the registration and title process. $886 for registration and sales tax... :gaah:
 

scoreh3

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,024
Location
SoCal
Good thing you don’t live in Ca. the tax would have been more. As if the DMV doesn’t rape us enough, everyone’s registration is going up $100.00plus this year.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
I was able to swap the axle out tonight. Took me longer than I wanted of course. Not sure why I forgot about all the bits I needed to unbolt in order to be able to swap the axle, but there you go.

Seems the tear was a small one in the valley of one of the bellows. After wiping away most of the grease, it looks like that might have been there for a while, but 80 mph for several hours helped the grease find a new home outside of the boot.

I noticed the driver side has a small leak as well on the outer boot, but that one was barely wetting the boot, so I'll probably just find where the hole is and see if some adhesive sealant will take care of it. I'd rather not go to the trouble of pulling that side apart as well just yet.


Took it for a spin afterwards and everything seemed fine, so im going to take it to work tomorrow and see if I can get it to pass emissions. My only concern is if they are going to be sticklers about there only being one cat on each side instead if two. I'm really hoping that they'll just check to make sure there are cats and that it is passing the emission levels it needs to hit and that there are no codes.

I have to say, the brakes on this thing are awesome! I'm starting to really wonder if there is a problem with my brake booster on my old H3, I've noticed it will lose pressure and holding power when at a stoplight, and after driving the Alpha it definitely doesnt have a lot of braking power. Almost seems like there is a leak in the booster or something that is preventing it from keeping pressure up.

I also love how effortless the Alpha accelerates, even with the 35's. I'm pretty well pleased with it. It's going to be a really fun rig.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Acer4LO

Well-Known Member
Messages
750
Location
Illinois
Lol sales tax for me here is like $40 for my '08 alpha... I seriously don't understand it. The gooberment already got their money.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
I know, it's ironic because the legislature here refuses to increase taxes in order to pay for necessary things, and one of them is even going so far as to say the voters themselves don't know what they are talking about and has a bill in place to nullify a voter driven tax increase to fund education more and permanently, because you know, he knows better than hundreds of thousands of voters...
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Took the Alpha to get the emissions done this morning. Not only was it super quick to get done, but it passed as well!! I'm glad they didn't care about the missing set of second cats, that would have sucked to get them added back on.
 

SuperBuickGuy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,403
Location
Woodinville, WA
I'm beyond thrilled - after the hell it took to get it to pass before, I was afraid there could be issues.

The bit that sucks (and why the emission certificate is in the glove box) is they are $450 each (you need 2) plus you have to drop the cross member to install them....
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Yeah, I was extremely relieved to have it pass. Plus the refinanced loan was approved so that I can cover the sales tax and pay down a bit on my other H3 if I need to in order to be able to sell it. If I can sell my old one for what I owe on it then all the better, the extra money can go towards upgrades.
 

SuperBuickGuy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,403
Location
Woodinville, WA
Nice, Buick hasn't forgiven me yet for selling it but I think he almost likes the new truck.... almost, Mastiffs are renown for their need for stability in environment....
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
So today I noticed that when I was sitting at a light on my drive in to work (max speed of 40 Mph) the temperature would climb up to about 206 degrees, but once I got moving again it would cool back down to about 197 degrees or so. Ambient temperature was only 33F and the transmission only got up to about 127F. When I was driving it home this last weekend from Seattle I never noticed any issues, and I didn't notice any issues yesterday either, though maybe I wasn't paying it enough attention. I'm also not sure if this is normal behavior with the V8's, but considering how cold out it is while it's doing this, I'm inclined to say it's not normal.

I have a feeling the fan clutch might be starting to go out, since it seems to be a simple matter of moving enough air through the radiator to keep it cool at low speeds or standstill. I need to double check for any air bubbles as well, just in case there were some that came out during the drive home. I can't imagine it's anything else really, unless there just isn't enough coolant flow, but that makes no sense at all.

I checked the fan after stopping at the DMV and while I couldn't stop the fan with the engine idling, after I stopped the engine it was easy enough to turn, though it didn't spin freely either.
 
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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Ok, I'll keep an eye on it then. I looked in your build thread to see if you mentioned replacing the fan clutch but didn't see that. I knew the pump and radiator had been replaced though.

Aside from my red H3 it's been forever since I've had a vehicle with a mechanical fan, they've all been electric as far back as I can remember, so knowing what's normal and what isn't is a bit harder for me on this particular topic.

I'm just being paranoid probably. New used vehicle that's the same as my old one, but different, so it's hard to decide if something is the new normal or not. Except for the power and braking. I'm down with those new normals! :giggle:
 
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SuperBuickGuy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,403
Location
Woodinville, WA
It's got 157,000 on it, and it's new to you. Personally I prefer mechanical fans because they move so much more air then electric. The only time it got even near warm (and didn't overheat then)



at 8000 feet and all we did was climb and wait - with the a/c on.
 

alrock

El Diablo
Staff member
Messages
10,442
Location
Scottsdale
I agree with SBG - moving up those few degrees at a stop isn't a big deal especially since you confirmed the fan is locked in. When you're in Moab, you can check out how Reloader added the OEM electric fans to his Alpha. It ain't cheap, but it's cool. Pun intended.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Yeah, I learned a ton about the 3.7 but I haven't dug into the 5.3's a whole lot other than bits and pieces I've glanced at over the years. I'm going to have to start paying closer attention to those threads now.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
So today was pretty nice out, so I think to myself that I'll go clean up the interior of the Alpha some more (I spent an hour or so vacuuming on Wednesday already). You know, unbolt the front seats and lay them back so that I can get under them better, wipe down the interior panels, etc.

Well, one thing led to another and....

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I was originally planning to wait until spring or summer to pull the carpet and give it a good cleaning, but I got a little overzealous. Ah well, now it's going to get a nice good cleaning as well as give me the opportunity to get some wiring done easily. I'm wondering if I should just wire up a heavy gauge supply line to the rear and put a fuse block in the back to be able to hook accessories to, like my fridge and an inverter and other things like that. Though if I'm doing that much power draw then I may want to run a heavy gauge cable underneath and feed it up through the rear pillar like I did with my backup camera wiring.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
It's just as well, the sunroof drains are clogged again it would appear. We had some rain the other day and the passenger side is soaked, while the driver side is not as soaked. So it will give the carpet a chance to dry out and me a chance to get in there and clean out the drains. It's also a lot easier to vacuum the carpet when it's completely removed from the vehicle.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Well, since I had the carpet out I decided to give it a really good cleaning. Vacuumed it really well, sprayed it down with vinegar and let that sit overnight, then some 409 disinfectant cleaner and let that sit for a few hours while I took a nap, then took it outside and hosed it down to really rinse it out, let it drain for awhile on the porch railing, and then used my Rainbow vacuum to suck as much of the water out that I could. It's now sitting on top of my wife's summer tires to finish draining out as much water as possible along with a carpet dryer fan my bishop lent me. Probably still going to take a few days to fully dry out

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I still need to take a look at the sunroof drains, decide what I'm going to do for wiring, and clean up the trim panels I pulled out. I figure after ten years it could use a good cleaning anyway. It's nice having the red H3 still because it allows me to be crazy like this with the amount of work I'm putting into it (at least my wife probably thinks I'm crazy). I wish I could have done this with my red H3 really, but since I needed it for my daily commute I couldn't really tear it all apart. Heck since I have it all apart I should see what other modifications/tweaks I can make while it's like this. I'd rather have it torn apart once and be done, though honestly it really isn't all that much work to take it apart. The hardest part was getting the rear seat backs out, they are deceptively heavy and didn't like coming up off the studs.
 
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