Wish me luck everyone - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

Fastbird · 09-23-2005, 12:58 PM

I'm going to be firing my black car (again) this evening. I got my manifold and heads back from Golen Engines in July, and finally got around to putting everything back together.

One really noteworthy thing happened when I was doing the reassembly. My intake manifold sat right down and I hand started all of the bolts all the way down. EVERYTHING lined up finally. Hopefully, just hopefully, the seal between the manifold and heads is good finally and I'll have a runnable vehicle.

For those that don't know, I've been fighting a 2 year long battle of a low vacuum and terrible stumbling motor that was running like trash, on a original shortblock and a new 355.

SteveR · 09-23-2005, 01:19 PM

Good luck man! Let me know how it goes!

Fastbird · 09-23-2005, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR

Good luck man! Let me know how it goes! Â*

Yeah, if it works out, I'm immediately sending a email to your work address!

SteveR · 09-23-2005, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fastbird

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR

Good luck man! Let me know how it goes! Â*

Yeah, if it works out, I'm immediately sending a email to your work address!

and that will immediately be followed by me begging for a ride

Fastbird · 09-23-2005, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fastbird

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR

Good luck man! Let me know how it goes! Â*

Yeah, if it works out, I'm immediately sending a email to your work address!

and that will immediately be followed by me begging for a ride Â*

lol, I'm taking one first! Actually, there's going to be no beating on it until we've done some serious tuning on it. And it won't be seeing the track until it's had some dyno tuning done too. And when it does hit the track, I plan on destroying the rear on probably the first pass (street twin and E.T. streets 26x10.5x15 might play part of that).

Squirrel · 09-23-2005, 02:38 PM

ill be hittin atco a couple weeks from now...get that **** done quick :P

Tru2Chevy · 09-23-2005, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirrel

ill be hittin atco a couple weeks from now...get Â*that **** done quick :P

You should be hitting atco every week now

Good Luck man, can't wait to see/hear this thing finally running.

- Justin

Squirrel · 09-23-2005, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirrel

ill be hittin atco a couple weeks from now...get Â*that **** done quick :P

You should be hitting atco every week now Â*

- Justin

its too embarassing to drive right now lol....

somebody: "whys it idling at 2 grand?"
me: "o......its a monster cam"

unstable bob gable · 09-23-2005, 06:52 PM

Good luck from a fellow USAF alumni! 8)

NJSPEEDER · 09-23-2005, 07:46 PM

good luck!!!
don't worry about a dyno tune, they are over rated. get a street tune with some WOT shots and then polish the tune up at the track.

later
tim

Fastbird · 09-23-2005, 09:49 PM

Ok, here's the run down on how it went:

Before this last fix: Car would run rough, O2's constantly in the 650-950 range (really rich), extremely fouled plugs in an instant, puffing black smoke, 500+ rpm surging at idle, extremely low vacuum (around 4-5 in/hg), fuel trims in TTS Datamaster showing 100% rich (LTerms @ 108 and STerms @ 1).

I fired the car today, and amazingly, it IMMEDIATELY fired up. Goal #1 complete, get car to run. Quickly settled into a decent idle and felt great. then started to degrade. Cut if off and switched to a more recent tune. Fired again and same thing. Opened up datamaster and started logging. Car was showing 100% RICH (LTerms @ 160, STerms @ 255)!!!

That's new. Car was puffing black smoke still, stumbling badly still, running rough still, surging about 300 RPM this time.

So I sat back and mulled it over for a while, and suddenly like a bolt of lightning it hit me. I've got a mid 230 low 240 duration, mid 500's lift, EXTREMELY tight LSA cam. My money says it's simply.........

Reversion. Makes perfect sense. Car was running like it was pig rich, but was reflecting full lean.

Thoughts?? (Fasterthanyou especially)

NJSPEEDER · 09-23-2005, 09:53 PM

sounds like you hit it right on the head. high overlap cams can act weird before tuning.
congrats on getting her fired again.
now start getting it tuned in and all the bugs worked out. you are only 4 weeks from grudge day

later
tim

Fastbird · 09-23-2005, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unstable bob gable

Good luck from a fellow USAF alumni! 8)

Bob I didn't know you were prior?? What did you do?? Lemme guess......Mechanic??

unstable bob gable · 09-23-2005, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fastbird

Quote:

Originally Posted by unstable bob gable

Good luck from a fellow USAF alumni! Â*8)

Bob I didn't know you were prior?? Â*What did you do?? Â*Lemme guess......Mechanic?? Â*

Yep, AGE Tech. 1983-87. Home based outa Langley, 94th TAC Fighter Wing. 8)

Fastbird · 09-23-2005, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unstable bob gable

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fastbird

Quote:

Originally Posted by unstable bob gable

Good luck from a fellow USAF alumni! 8)

Bob I didn't know you were prior?? What did you do?? Lemme guess......Mechanic??

Yep, AGE Tech. 1983-87. Home based outa Langley, 94th TAC Fighter Wing. 8)

Nice! I like doing touch and go's at Langley. Lots to see. Pretty nice base too, at least the last time I was there (last year).

matt98ls1 · 09-23-2005, 11:10 PM

Good luck with it Sean

unstable bob gable · 09-24-2005, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fastbird

Nice! Â*I like doing touch and go's at Langley. Â*Lots to see. Â*Pretty nice base too, at least the last time I was there (last year).

I enjoyed Langley alot. It was close enuff to Jersey that I could come home on a regular basis, and it was far enuff away from Jersey that I felt I was outa Jersey. lol Lots of stuff to do...Va Beach was a jammin' cruise spot back then. The base also had good food and nice barracks. But I pretty much enjoyed every where I went, even the 2x I was at Chanute AFB in ILL. I sometimes regret getting out, but I had orders to Belgium that got canceled towards the end of my tour, so I said F' it to staying in and being stateside any longer.

Squirrel · 09-24-2005, 07:16 PM

where ya throwing it on the dyno at?...if its somewhere round here ill def. take a ride to watch 8)

Fastbird · 09-24-2005, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirrel

where ya throwing it on the dyno at?...if its somewhere round here ill def. take a ride to watch 8)

Probably nowhere. It's still running like trash. I had to lean the VE tables out all the way down to the 25-35 range at idle, and that's just unsettling to me because with a cam the size of mine I'd SWEAR that the car would want more fuel. Not to mention that my vacuum is only between 6-10 in/hg at a 1000 RPM idle. It's just burning extremely rich and I've got no clue as to why. The car feels sluggish when revving it even.

So now I'm skeptical as to if I've got the seal leaking between the manifold and heads again, even though Chad @ Golen Engine Service told me that I should have an outstanding seal there now. My plugs are all black as the night, but they're not saturated with oil or anything else, just carbon.

I really need some help with this. This is starting to become more burden than it's worth, and I'm about sick of it. And I've checked EVERYTHING, down to the timing gear alignment even.

Koll · 09-24-2005, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unstable bob gable

Yep, AGE Tech. 1983-87. Home based outa Langley, 94th TIE Fighter 8)

Fixed for sounding cooler.

Fastbird · 09-24-2005, 07:53 PM

Well on a semi-positive note, I just started it in the garage with my spotlight outside on (shows smoke REALLY well). No smoke at idle, and only smoked on a hard rev (VE tables are still WAY up high there).

I'm getting a LOT of piston slap on a cold start too. Damn forged pistons.

Fastbird · 09-25-2005, 12:22 PM

For those that are interested, my VE table is below. The blue is me and where the car idles Ok.

*edit* I got asked to pull the pic

Just plain silly isn't it?

Fastbird · 09-25-2005, 01:43 PM

Found out why it's acting funny. Same thing, again.

http://community.webshots.com/album/460272038haJSmQ

The crazy part is that the heads and manifold were mocked up on a block and VERIFIED to be getting a good seal. So why in the heck are they continuing to lose seal and allow oil/vapors in to the intake runners????

The runners and inside of the manifold as well as the throttlebody gasket even were all just soaked and saturated with oil.

NJSPEEDER · 09-25-2005, 02:02 PM

have you tried different gaskets or maybe putting a thin spread of permatex on the gaskets?
i can't recall ever hearing of this happening without something being miss machined.

later
tim

Fastbird · 09-25-2005, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJSPEEDER

have you tried different gaskets or maybe putting a thin spread of permatex on the gaskets?
i can't recall ever hearing of this happening without something being miss machined.

later
tim

I'm starting to think something was mis-machined. I haven't tried different gaskets, but now my next course of action is going to be to double stack a set of Fel-Pro 1284's. Hopefully that will help out if not fix the problem.