Hot Pursuit

1988 Pontiac LeMans

Price (1988): $5,799
Price (2009): Less than a tank of gas
Power: 74 Hp and 90 lb/ft at the crankshaft from 1.598 liters
Transmission: 3 spd Automatic
Odometer: 249,000 miles
Economy: 31 26.6 mpg city/ 40 mpg highway
Doors: 3
Max. Seating: 5
Front Legroom (in): 42.0
Back Legroom (in): 32.8
Wheelbase: 99.2 (in)
Length (in): 167.9
Height (in): 53.5
Fuel Cap: 10.1 U.S. gal

Introducing the LeMans

Looking past the exterior badging, you'll find that the LeMans is really an European Opel-designed three-door hatchback produced in Korea. The first sales started in 1986 in Canada. My LeMans is a first-year U.S. model that started life as a rental car. In my opinion, the bulk of the problems with the LeMans are the result of its design, and not its manufacture. You'll find more on that in the sections below, but looking at the base price, it's at least easy to see why the car didn't offer much in the way of options or luxury.

If you're looking for automotive perfection, the Pontiac LeMans is not for you. But, despite its many faults, the Pontiac LeMans does offer some interest. It goes a long way on a tank of gas and it has pretty good lateral grip. Combined with the meager price I paid for the car, the inexpensive insurance, and the decent handling, the Pontiac LeMans makes a good commuter car. Of course, it could be better. For a car to be entertaining, it should have a manual gearbox, decent acceleration, and good brakes. This page summarizes my struggle to improve the drive a bit.

The Gearbox

The existing 3 speed automatic transaxle and 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine yield little performance. Top gear is reached by 35 mph and acceleration is nearly absent, which can create real Pontiac excitement when merging into 70 mph freeway traffic at 35 mph. The plan is to install a 5 speed manual gearbox. While Pontiac originally offered a 5 speed manual F13 (RPO M79) transmission for the car, and I was able to locate one in a junkyard early on, the transmission was damaged (as many are) by the yard handlers. With only a small number of junk vehicles within a day's drive, I opted to try to install a D16 transmission from a 2000 Daewoo Lanos S. The D code appears to indicate an hydraulic release transmission, while the original F coded transmission was a cable operated assembly.

Transmission options
RPO	Transmission	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	Rev	Final Drive
	F10	3.55	1.96	1.3	0.89	0.71	3.31	4.18
M79	F13	3.55	2.390	1.3	0.89	0.73	3.31	4.18
L73	F16	3.55	1.95	1.28	0.89	0.71	3.33	3.94
	F16 Close Ratio	3.55	2.16	1.48	1.13	0.89	3.33	3.55
	F18w	3.58	1.87	1.23	0.92	0.74	3.33	3.55
	F18c	3.58	2.14	1.48	1.12	0.89	3.33	3.55
	F20(3.55)	3.55	2.16	1.48	1.13	0.89	3.33	3.55
	F20(3.72)	3.55	2.16	1.48	1.13	0.89	3.33	3.72
	F23	3.58	2.02	1.35	0.98	0.81	3.31	3.84
	F25	3.38	1.76	1.12	0.89	0.77	3.17	3.82
	F28	3.57	2.16	1.45	1.1	0.89	0.74	3.32	3.72
	D20	3.54	2.15	1.47	1.12	0.88	3.33	3.50

The F16/D16/F18/F20/D20/F28-FWD all use the same differential aside from the different ratios

The Engine

The Opel-designed engine is odd, with a double corked pan gasket and a puzzeling crankshaft pulley retainer.
Engine: 1.598 cc 74 hp, 90 lb/ft Inline 4 cyl
Bore X Stroke: 3.11 X 3.21
Compression Ratio: 8.6:1

Engine Options
Engine ID	Cyls	Displacement	Heads	Turbo	Compr.Ratio	Notes	Vehicles	BOE Hp Potential
C20LET	I4	2.0L	DOHC 16V	Turbo 9-13 psi	less	Turbo Cam, Turbo PCM, Low CR Pistons	(6spd 4wd F28 Gearbox)	375hp
Z20LET	I4	2.0L	DOHC 16V	Turbo	less	Turbo Cam, Turbo PCM, Low CR Pistons, EcoTec, Same Block, Different Head than C20LET	Vauxhall Astra Turbo (F23 Gearbox)
C20XE	I4	2.0L	DOHC 16V		high	NA Cam, NA PCM, High CR Pistons
C20GET	I4	2.0L	SOHC 8V	Turbo			Pontiac Sunbird GT
C20NE	I4	2.0L	SOHC 8V
C20SE	I4	2.0L	SOHC 8V
A16DMS	I4	2.0L	SOHC 8V

The LeMans features a sporty suspension that easily corners at 45 mph on freeway cloverleaf on-ramps, which becomes a necessity when one considers that it claims a measly 74 hp and 90 lb/ft at the crankshaft. It's best not to drive it during the morning commute where on-ramps are metered, since you'll find yourself deciding whether it's better to risk a ticket, or die merging into traffic at 30-35 mph. Of course, it makes a wonderful commuter car in every other respect with a 30-33 mpg city/40 mpg highway fuel economy. Update: After fixing the distributor, which basically fell apart i my hands when I pulled the cap off, the car only gets 26 mpg city, but the acceleration is much closer to the 12 seconds the specs. state. The 3 speed will be in top gear by the time you hit 25 mph, so if it becomes necessary to accelerate, you must use 2nd gear on the gear selector. The nice thing is that it will hold 2nd gear all day if that's what you ask of it. Update: It turns out that I wasn't getting the kickdowns because the fluid was low. After filling it up with Mercon III, using the right foot works about as well as using the gear selector.

Someday, this might become a LeMons car, but for now, it is nice to just drive it to work. When I bought it, it would stall occasionally while driving steady. It was never very exciting since I was always just putting along and eventually I got used to putting it in neutral and refiring it while coasting along. The fix was accidental when I decided to clean some of the grunge out of the intake tubing. It hasn't stalled once since. That's qualifies as the first time I've fixed something by cleaning it. OK, maybe cleaning the EGR valves and getting cars to pass the NOX numbers on the SMOG test counts too.

A few months after I had been driving it, it developed a miss. The fuel economy dropped to a hideous 26 mpg, so naturally I ignored it for a while. After I got tired of giving up the mpg (mpg is a sport on a car like this), I opened the hood and screwed in a spare spark plug that was resting on the exhaust manifold into a curiously empty spark plug hole. Hmm. Maybe that was the 1988 version of the modern Sports Mode button on those fancy German cars. It would have been nicer if they'd left a wrench on the manifold as well, but oh well. I didn't really notice any power increase, but the economy went back up to ~30 mpg.

One of the benefits of buying a cheap car is never having to look under it. I mean, if anything falls off, well you really didn't need it then, right? Plastic parts come off the car weekly, but nothing really necessary yet -- well unless a driver's side window crank can be considered necessary going into a 100 degree summer with no A/C. Nahhhh! But I digress. A lady at work said that my car was loud. I said "oh" in that expressionless sort of way. But you know, it got me thinking, and I did notice that people look at the car as I go by. At first I thought it was the race bred heritage, but then I recalled that the radio is always very loud when I get in the car, and then there's the impossibility of holding a phone conversation during the 16 second acceleration to highway speed. Well, I had to take a look. It has this big fist-sized hole in the muffler. In the spirit of LeMans and LeMons, we'll call this a race bred side-exit exhaust. As cool as that sounds, the car is horribly loud inside so I'm afraid something must be done. Hmm. Duct tape? Pie tin and bailing wire? It looks like I might have to buy a new muffler.

Click the photos for high res versions

The simple Green is just for scale. I wouldn't think of ruining the patina on this car.

Videos

Imported, affordable driving excitement from Pontiac
Pontiac: You build excitement!

Models

The LeMans was also offered as an SE with a 2.0L engine from the Sunbird and as an AeroCoupe with body colored side trim. I'm not sure what the other differences might be between models.

Parts Replaced

$7 Window Crank (Junkyard)
$130 Distributor, cap, rotor (Rebuilt, New, New)
$40 Spark Plug Wires (New)
$15 Valve Cover Gasket (New)
$15 Fusible Links (Read the TSB on this, the size changes)
$80 In-tank Fuel Pump
$9 Taillight Bulbs(Repaired melted, stupidly designed sockets)
$36 Front Rotors (New)
$32 Front Pads (New)

Transmission Options
Transmission	Engine	Clutch Dia	Spline Count	HP Max	Quaife TBD
D16	A16DMS	215mm	24	160 lb/ft?	QDF2B
F16	C20NE	215mm	24	160 lb/ft?	QDF2B
D20/F20	C20XE	228mm	24	200 lb/ft?	QDF2B
F28-FWD	C20LET	228mm	14	280 lb/ft?	QDF2B (FWD only, not 4x4) 2x as heavy as D16

Last update: March 20th, 2012 Please report errors