I recently did a thorough examination of the vacuum/emission system on my 1990 240. I discovered that my vapor canister was bad. I soon discovered that a vapor canister for a 240 wasn't easy to find. Yeah, the dealership could get me one, but they wanted over $300 for one. ARGH! I figured that there had to be a vapor canister out there that could either be a match or a close match to the one found on my 1990 240. I started to search for vapor canisters on cars of the same year. I quickly found that a 1990 Corvette has the exact same vapor canister that the 240 does. The price? Ranges from $75 to $100. Not bad.

So I wanted to give everyone a heads up. I think I've seen some posts here and there on the board about vapor canisters, but it seems to be an elusive new part for most.

The exact information on the part to get is:
ACDelco
Part # 215-155 <------ (This is the really important part when searching for one of these bad boys)
GM#17113150

I hope this can help some folks out there. Just want to do my part to add to the information on the board.

Cheers!

Isn't there a replaceable filter in there?

In the original there was a fiberglass "filter" that prevented road junk getting up into canister, but I'm not sure if its replaceable. I suppose one could makeshift some kind of replacement but I haven't seen any replacement filters.

Just how does one know when their cannister fails. The one on my '86 is 443K miles "old".
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'86 sedan with 443,000 miles on the original engine and automatic transmission

I found that if the top connection of the purge valve doesn't hold a vacuum (by sucking on it or using a vacuum handpump) then the vapor canister is bad. Or at least the purge valve is bad. Unfortunately you can't just replace the purge valve on the canister.

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about......now I get to check out something on my brick this weekend. Again, my wife will want to know why I'm back under the car again.

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'86 sedan with 443,000 miles on the original engine and automatic transmission

I think that, if your hoses are good, you don't have to crawl under the car to test it (as he stated).

If you have a hand pump with a gauge (e.g., MityVac), pull the hose (that goes to the cannister) off the throttle body and put the MityVac on it. That should be enough to test whether it can hold the vacuum.

Spot on Ken C. ;o)