1992 GMC Typhoon

Looks like the paint might come back with a good cut and buff....unless the clear is just gone.

Most of it is single stage but the roof, rear hatch, and the drivers door have some parts where they were resprayed with clear. Plan is to buff it out for now but i'm hoping to have it repainted next year. 

Just be carefull buffing it. I started to buff mine and it opened up a whole can of worms.

I too have always wanted one of these.... 

Well it took most of the weekend but I got the rear frame blasted, painted, and undercoated. Blasted pics were taken after I ran out of media on day one. Didn't take any more after everything was gone over again. 

The tank straps I ordered ended up being the one above the tank which is fine since the old ones broke while I was removing them. Ordered the bottom ones which should arrive by the weekend. New tank has been painted with the new pump and sender installed so that's ready to go. 

This will be one of my favorite builds on here. That is all.

Following!

Somehow in my mind Syclones and Typhoons only came in black similar to Grand Nationals. Learn something new every day and sometimes it doesn't even hurt.

Looking forward to more on this one.

New tank straps are taking their sweet time to arrive so I finished installing the fuel lines and bolted the tank in with one old strap for now. Cycled the key a few times to build pressure and checked for leaks. Everything looked good so I cranked it over and it fired right up, ran for 15 seconds, then died.  It would then crank but not fire back up or even sputter. Turns out the fuel pump fuse blew so I swamped in a 15a in place of the 10a just so I could continue testing. It started back up but was running extremely rich. Checked pressure and it was 90 psi! Walbro 255 at 90 psi draws about 14 amps so that explains the blown fuse.

To rule out a pinched line or anything else I did I disconnected the return line under the typhoon by the transfer case and no gas came out. I then blew into the hose and could hear bubbles in the tank so that all checked out. Tried cycling the key a few times with the return line open and still didn't see any fuel. Alright well I guess that means the regulator is stuck shut. I happened to buy a stock replacement incase something dumb like this happened so I swapped that out. That only took an hour or so in the dark since its in a sucky spot with allen head screws. Finally when I fired it back up I had 38 psi and it revved great. New problem is when I turn it off pressure drops right back to zero. Blah, I must have torn the regulator o-ring while installing it in the dark.  At least I'm getting closer.

While I'm waiting on the tank straps to show up I found some front Bilstein shocks from Amazon Warehouse deals for $35 each and ordered those. They didn't have any deals on the rears so I shopped around for a set of those and ordered them too. 

I love this project. 

That is all. Please continue.

This is a great build. I have wanted one of these since they came out.

Fuel tank straps finally arrived and they are the wrong ones. Tried to install them and they are way too short. Vendors must keep listing the top ones as the bottom. Decided to give up on trying to get new ones and sandblasted my old crusty ones. 

I gave the straps a few coats of paint and while I was waiting for that to dry I replaced the o-ring on the fuel pressure regulator. That was way easier to do during the day and pressure holds solid when the truck is off now. With the fuel pressure issues finally sorted out I got the straps installed and was finally able to take the truck on a test drive. I let it warm up in my driveway and checked for leaks again and all was good. Backed it out of the driveway and immediately floored it. Hesitation and bog were gone and the truck pulled strong. There is some turbo lag but one boost builds to goes pretty quick. I found my self laughing and wondering who thought this was a good idea. Its a rattly, soft GMC jimmy with poor brakes and a turbo. It's not fast by today's standards since it might edge out a V6 Camry but it's exciting in a "i could see myself dying in this" kind of way. The front suspension definitely needs some work and the 1-2 shift is like being punched in the face.  So far I like it. 

Since there were still no leaks or any other bad news after the test drive, I stopped for gas then drove it down to Tony's house to help him with his Trans AM.  Ended up putting 40+ miles on it. I even took it to work today.

I still need to get a state inspection sticker on it so I'll have to work on buttoning up some interior I pulled apart and fix the front turn signal lens. After that the next thing I'm doing is brakes. Already started ordering parts to swap on 98+ 4WD Blazer rear discs. For some reason, you can get GM brackets fairly cheap from RockAuto. 

Random disc brake info I'll put here before I forget.

98+ Camaro: 

Front caliper 45mm dual piston aluminum, 302mm rotor

Rear caliper 45mm single piston aluminum, 305mm" rotor

98+ S10/Blazer:

Front caliper 46mm dual piston cast, 274mm rotor

Rear caliper 48mm single piston aluminum, 295mm rotor

akylekoz said:

How rare is a green one...should I inquire?

I checked this out today.  It is very solid, body wise and mechanically.  Stock drivetrain with a rebuilt turbo and transmission the latter getting a shift kit.  92k miles, interior could stand to be cleaned but was not nasty and all there, only down fall is a non stock stereo.  The owner's wife had a child recently so he just doesn't have time for it.

Asking $5000, and not currently trying to sell it.  He knows about the availability of repop versions of the unobtainium fender flares.

So it all looks good but needs a drivers side front flare, passenger side rear and a tailgate.  Oh it's a 1993.  I'm more of a mechanical project guy, this is a body guy project that in all honesty does not seem like a bad deal.

Do IT!!! the cheapest I've seen one of these is in a bone yard in brooklyn NY with a cracked windshield from a branch that also dented the cab for the princely sum of $6500... 

I am not in a position to make a purchase, I can however enable.  The just had a kid part tells me $4500 cash in about six weeks when the snow is about to fly.

Just let me know how I can help.   If there is any interest he was more than willing to fire it up and show me what how it drives.

My feeling about it is that it will never be a top value survivor with the non original paint but it would be a hell of a truck for the money and will be hard to lose money on.

or buy it and de-clad it then sell all the cladding, you'd probably make a good chunk of money back and still end up with a typhoon that's sleeper-ish.

In reply to edizzle89 :

I kind of like that idea.  Is there a Tiefoon forum that I can piss off somewhere.  What to sell, wheels, ground effects, seats ( front and back), any other valuable specific parts that do not make it go?

Then what hit it with a lowering stick, or put some all terrain tires on it and call it a winter beater?

P.S. this is not a thread jack and completely pertinent to the OP.

the way my brain works:

buy that green one,

sell all cosmetic Ty parts

mount up steelies and all-terrains

all the boost

farmtruck jr

akylekoz said:

In reply to edizzle89 :

I kind of like that idea.  Is there a Tiefoon forum that I can piss off somewhere.  What to sell, wheels, ground effects, seats ( front and back), any other valuable specific parts that do not make it go?

Then what hit it with a lowering stick, or put some all terrain tires on it and call it a winter beater?

P.S. this is not a thread jack and completely pertinent to the OP.

 

Tons of good SYTY forums and Faceplace pages to sell cladding. 

Love the Typhoons so much more than the Syclones for some reason. Had a picture of the Banks Syclone that was at Bonneville on my wall as a kid.

Fast forward to 10 years later in PCB, FL I got my ass handed to me in my 350 whp s14  by a white/grey two tone Typhoon with a lawn mower sticking out of the bed.

Jealous! Keep it up.

In reply to akylekoz :

Sell the cladding (i call dibs on a few pieces), lift it, install bolt on flares, and run some larger all terrains. 

I was poking around under the hood and noticed someone spliced into the air to water intercooler pump relay wiring. It's a common mod to to make the pump run all the time instead of only when it gets over 200 degrees or whatever temp the computer kicks it on at. The spliced wire ran inside under the dash, wrapped around a bunch of stuff then ended in a coil of wire in behind the glove box not hooked up to anything. Pulled all that out and tried grounding the relay to see if the pump worked but nothing happened. Found the pump fuse and it was blown. Swapped in a new one but that didn't help but at least it didn't blow. I'm guessing the pump it dead so I ordered one from a Ford Lighting / CTSV which should be a upgrade. 

While I was under the dash I pulled the computer down since the previous owner said it they installed a remanufactured computer. Computer was indeed replaced at it had the stock chip in it but while I was under there I noticed there was a wire missing to the VSS. Must have pulled out of the connector when the computer was swapped. I struggled to remove the damaged pin for 30 minutes so instead I removed all the other pins so I could work on the connector out in the open. Finally got the old one out so now I need to find a new one or try to reuse it.

Since i'm waiting on parts I pulled down the heat exchanger and pump. This hangs down some under the truck and looks like the bracket hit a curb or something. I'll have to bend it back, blast, weld, then paint it. The heat exchanger has a dent but is holding coolant so that's good. 

As for the sloppy front end I found the pitman arm is junk. Ordered a new one but not sure what else I'll find while i'm in there. 

Went to replace the pitman arm and realized the steering box needs to come out in order to remove it. Also I can't get it to separate from the center link right now till I get a bigger hammer. Decided to put that project off till this coming weekend which also allowed me more time to over complicate it and order more parts. I figured since the box needs to come out anyway I might as well upgrade it to a fast ratio ZQ8 one. Junkyard near me wanted $75 if I could find one in the yard so I ordered a reman for $102. I'm also trying to find a cheap Jeep XJ steering shaft to replace the sloppy stock one. 

Another small project I did was relocate the computer to the glove box. There is a piece in the back of the glove box that unbolts and the wires have enough slack to be rerouted. This allows easier access to the chip for whatever tuning I plan on doing. I also ordered an LC2 wideband. 

I also started picking at the heat exchanger bracket. I bent it back into shape the best I could then sand blasted it. Its welded back up and painted but didn't take a picture of it yet. Still need to mount the new intercooler pump and solder on a new connector. 

One of my favorite mods! 

Removing the leaking oil cooler lines wasn't too bad and a flex head ratcheting wrench made things easier. I didn't have to mess with the dropping the diff or going though the wheel well. The annoying part was the new lines were clocked slightly off and I had remove and install the line a few times to tweak it till it finally lined up. Oil cooler lines were easier but I still had to rebend the new ones too. 

As for the pitman arm, that fought me for a while too. Bigger hammer didn't help and I couldn't get a good hit on it from underneath. I'm not proud of this but decided to take a sawzall to it and cut it in half then remove the center link and box. Still waiting on the new steering box to arrive.