Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Calendar
Go Back   NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds > Tech Forums > Engine / Power / Tuning

Notices


Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 06-27-2023, 08:47 PM   #576
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
I saw that grey car. He was in building T along with another 9 second red 4th gen and JT who has the 4th gen Big Red pro-street car. I chatted with your buddy for a bit on Thursday night then, before the pizza dinner. Yup.

Actually, I got setup with the feature cars just by chance. Back in August last year i was at the Hackettstwon Cops-n-Rodders show and all of a sudden Chris (L695Speed) calls me and says come back over to your car, someone wants to talk to ya. So I walk back over and Chris introduces me to Mike (IROC-Mike) who asks if I want to be involved in the newly formed 3rd gen nationals event coming in 2023. There was a real good uptick of 3rd gen participants in the Carlisle event last year, plus the big 40 car display last year, that they wanted to do another one and he wanted me to be in it. So I told him, 95% yes pending on how life/the car was as summer 2023 got closer. If it wasn't for Mike seeing the car in Hackettstown and then finding Chris, and Chris calling me... it probably wouldn't have happened that way; therefore thanks goes to both of them!
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified


Last edited by IROCZman15; 06-27-2023 at 08:51 PM.
IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2023, 06:13 PM   #577
LTb1ow
Mongo the Meet Coordinator
 
LTb1ow's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16,900
iTrader: (8)
Looking good Dave
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by KirkEvil View Post
repo bigals turd gen and part it out to a loving home
LTb1ow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2023, 07:56 AM   #578
wretched73
 
wretched73's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Jackson, NJ
Posts: 1,725
iTrader: (2)
Race wars will happen and Dave will whoop on everyone.

I can't wait.
__________________
1983 camaro- Scrap
1988 camaro- Also scrap
'05 Silverado- You guessed it, scrap
1988 TRX 250R- Ported w/ high compression on 110 octane- Out 60' your LT1

Jersey Shore Street Car Takeover (JSSCT) Founder

Quote:
Originally Posted by LS1ow View Post
and once i get PHB, what do i ajust it too?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jersey Mike View Post
Seven.
wretched73 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2023, 11:31 AM   #579
townsend
 
townsend's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: harmony, nj (phillipsburg)
Posts: 519
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by wretched73 View Post
Race wars will happen and Dave will whoop on everyone.

I can't wait.
mmmmmmm id love to race that third gen
__________________
1994 Firebird Formula - Injuneer's car - NEW PB 9.90 @131

2021 Charger Scat

Wrench/driver 94 Camaro Ellwein 385/D1SC/CPT 4l60e/9" slow pile
townsend is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2023, 07:57 PM   #580
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
Oh, you would smoke me.
I will put the dashcam in 4k HD recording so we can count how many bus-lengths you beat me by!
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified

IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2023, 09:27 PM   #581
Blackbirdws6
Lord of the rings / 10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
Blackbirdws6's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Millstone Township, NJ
Posts: 6,361
iTrader: (3)
Up the jets and put it on the bumper
__________________

97 T/A Ram Air Convt
Forever dyno queen / 777rwhp 662 rwtq @ 17lbs / 10.2 @ 140

'24 Corvette Z06
17 Sierra 2500HD Dmax
81 Turbo TA
Blackbirdws6 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2023, 10:20 PM   #582
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
I definitely would be down for that. I think I might also try some weight in the trunk and also using the Konis again

I’ll bring both bottles of nitrous and jets

and send it to the moon
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified


Last edited by IROCZman15; 07-13-2023 at 09:41 PM.
IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-13-2023, 12:26 PM   #583
townsend
 
townsend's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: harmony, nj (phillipsburg)
Posts: 519
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by IROCZman15 View Post
I definitely would be down for that. I think I might also try some weight in the trunk and also using the Konis again

I’ll bring both bottles of nitrous and jets
im back on the 150 jets, that 9.90/200 pass had too much timing and had a 7 heat range vs what should be an 8 and smoked #7 plug (got luuuucky).

so im back on my mid 10's jets, itd just be fun runs. you got a bit more cubes than me (381 vs 406) too
__________________
1994 Firebird Formula - Injuneer's car - NEW PB 9.90 @131

2021 Charger Scat

Wrench/driver 94 Camaro Ellwein 385/D1SC/CPT 4l60e/9" slow pile

Last edited by townsend; 07-13-2023 at 12:29 PM.
townsend is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-13-2023, 06:48 PM   #584
LTb1ow
Mongo the Meet Coordinator
 
LTb1ow's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16,900
iTrader: (8)
In this thread, nitrous bros share nitrous problems
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by KirkEvil View Post
repo bigals turd gen and part it out to a loving home
LTb1ow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-14-2023, 09:41 AM   #585
townsend
 
townsend's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: harmony, nj (phillipsburg)
Posts: 519
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by LTb1ow View Post
In this thread, nitrous bros share nitrous problems
__________________
1994 Firebird Formula - Injuneer's car - NEW PB 9.90 @131

2021 Charger Scat

Wrench/driver 94 Camaro Ellwein 385/D1SC/CPT 4l60e/9" slow pile
townsend is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-14-2023, 09:07 PM   #586
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
Quote:
Originally Posted by LTb1ow View Post
In this thread, nitrous bros share nitrous problems

!!! yes indeed.
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified

IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2023, 08:07 AM   #587
townsend
 
townsend's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: harmony, nj (phillipsburg)
Posts: 519
iTrader: (0)
uhm late post, island cars and covfefe this am
__________________
1994 Firebird Formula - Injuneer's car - NEW PB 9.90 @131

2021 Charger Scat

Wrench/driver 94 Camaro Ellwein 385/D1SC/CPT 4l60e/9" slow pile
townsend is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2023, 12:46 PM   #588
townsend
 
townsend's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: harmony, nj (phillipsburg)
Posts: 519
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by IROCZman15 View Post
!!! yes indeed.
including the weight?? i just weighed mine, 3720 with me and a tank of fuel/1 full nitrous bottle
__________________
1994 Firebird Formula - Injuneer's car - NEW PB 9.90 @131

2021 Charger Scat

Wrench/driver 94 Camaro Ellwein 385/D1SC/CPT 4l60e/9" slow pile
townsend is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-18-2023, 08:35 PM   #589
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
yea, mines heavy. I forget the exact weight at the moment, but a few pages back i probably took photos of it on the scale byt he nearby quarry. I want to saw 3420 with out me in it and 3620 or so with me and full tank(S).



After Carlisle, the car sat for almost 2 weeks due to life getting busy. Then I recently got under it, for a few things. Had noticed a clunk sometimes under cornering and found that the hole in my panhard bar relocation bracket had opened up (or maybe I drilled it bigger years ago and forgot), anyways, the bolt was moving around so I welded the hole closed and drilled a new one. This is the hole for that special 'stepped down" panhard bar bolt, so you cant use any grade8 fastener off the shelf. Spohn sells them. I also cleaned up all the oil and tried to find the source of the leak. Didn't, but still working on it. Engine oil slings around inside the bellhousing area from somewhere on the back of the block. checked everything I could back there.* Did resolve a squeezed-closed rubber fitting on my "pcv" line which I am CERTAIN was a culprit in the oil blowby and oil leak on the way to carlisle. Ordered some oil dye and blacklight.


Was planning on investigating it at the UMI autocross event this upcoming weekend. Got the car cleaned up, fueled up, packed, aired-up etc this past weekend despite some uncertainty in being able to attend. To make a long story short, my wife has got to go to PA to visit with her family after her father fell some weeks ago and recently had emergency surgery on his brain and bleeding, seizures, etc. She's gotta go out there for sure, so I am going to have to step-out of the UMI autocross event this weekend and stay home in NJ to be with the 1 year old. Having done the UMI event before makes it more of a bummer because this is really a great multi-day event in so many ways. Hopefully UMI can get someone from the wait-list to jump in last minute.

But the car feels good and hopefully that oil leak can be lessened by the pcv hose setup now; will road test it one night; after unloading everything from it !

__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified


Last edited by IROCZman15; 07-18-2023 at 09:41 PM.
IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-19-2023, 11:09 PM   #590
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
Another Chapter in the roller coaster ride here! Beware of a long post ahead
(I guess its not really a "dyno-fail", its more of a "pre-dyno failure")!!



With hopes of a few dragstrip days this upcoming fall I wanted to do everything I could to try to get the car dialed in as best as possible, especially the nitrous. For years, I wanted to put it on a dyno and see what could be gained from live-tuning it instead of datalogs and seat-of-the-pants observations. Scheduled an appointment a few weeks ahead of time to give me some time to prepare and street drive the car. Flashing back...The car had acted great after sorting out the ignition and datalogging issues from May/June (see post #565 on the previous page for a recap) and it drove freakin perfect both to-and-from Carlisle even in bad rainy weather. I also took the car out this past Tuesday and put an hour of driving on it, including 4 brief nitrous hits on a local highway. I wanted to check that all the systems were turning on and simply run the car through it's paces while logging and later looking at the tune. Came home from Tuesdays drive ready to freakin hit the roller for sure. Did a nut and bolt check, checked critical areas, belts, wiring, fluids, and so forth. Everything was great.

Friday morning, after packing some remaining gear in the car I let it warm up and started to drive over to Blue Sky Performance and Restoration who's new shop is in Andover, only 15 minutes away. However, not even before I got out of my neighborhood, I felt the car stutter, backfire and saw the tach needles jump intermittently. I instantly knew that the ignition problem from May had returned. Freakin devastated. I decided to see if it would clear up if I drove gently and it didn't, but I was hawk-eyeing everything the whole time. There were times that the engine would not have an "event" for almost a minute or more, and sometimes where it would pop and buck within a few seconds of eachtoher. Nothing was making sense, but before you know it I was at Blue Sky. I spoke with Jeff, one hell of an awesome guy, and also one of the owners. I told him the car was actualyl ready to go until the suprise issue this morning and it was unlikely we would make any power pulls. He said he wouldnt mind using some of the time I reserved to investigate what might be going on. So, he pulled the car inside and while he was driving it though the shop and loading it onto the machine, it did NOT pop or bang one single time in the course of several minutes. Hmm, maybe it was a fluke, but I was real skeptical. We go on strapping the car down knowing this was now most likely going to be a troubleshooting session. We go over all my GCF settings in each page of the Holley software and then get the roller spinning under a very light load. It is a DynoCom dyno unit and I was able to learn about it a bit from him, but during this first roll of the wheels, he did not have any load applied to the rollers. Engine ran smooth just coasting from 1st to 2nd and into3rd. Ok cool; maybe we are in luck!





We then agree to run the car gently with the brake applied to the dyno rollers and within just the first few seconds I heard it backfire and begin to act stupid. Since we had a live-datalog running directly from the holley to this laptop via the can-bus, he let the engine run a little bit. We also had the live-timing cursor active to possibly see if any cells in any of the tune parameters are hitting erroneously. Shut the car down after about a minute of low-mid rpm throttle filled with plenty of pops and backfires. See the datalog (screenshot of datalog). I start checking wires, specifically at the area where I had found the slice in the insulation back in May. I peel the loom off and the wire repair is still intact, no issues there. What I do notice, is that the rubberized/plastic grommet that these 3 wires pass through while entering the bottom of the distributor housing, well that "grommet" has now come out and is free-floating with the wire loom. Eh, whatever, its just a grommet right? We all have a plentiful amount of grommets in our vehicles and sometimes they slip out of place right; sometimes they have no negative effects ever, and probably sometimes we never notice they are compromised. Anyways, I move on and we check a bunch of other things. After checking a bunch of pins with a meter, using a timing light we go to crank the car again. Now it will crank, but has no spark! and narrowing our findings to the Hyperspark distributor, I partially lift up the distributor cap to just simply check that the wheel of the hall-effect sensor is turning and it is. I was out of ideas and I was not wanting to waste any more of their time, so we agree to reschedule because I am hopeful to figure out the issue and resolve it by then. We get the car unstrapped and pushed outside where I had called a local tow truck drive to scoop me up. Damn, that sucked; the very last time this car was on a tow truck was back in 2017 when I roasted the old transmission to death while driving up to the Chatterbox a few weeks after competing in that Optima Batteries USCA shootout at the track in Millville. So, having the car towed is certainly a bad moment, but thankfully it is a rare one.






One the car is unloaded back at my house I had some other important stuff to tend to and was finally able to revisit the issue later on. Did some research first and found a post on the Holley forums from just a few weeks ago that intrigues me. link: https://forums.holley.com/forum/holl...-failure-parts
Also in that post is a link to a youtube video with another guy with the same problem. I then head on out to the garage, turn on the go-pro and take the cap/wires off of the distributor. THE SENSOR IS COMPLETLY LOOSE AND FREE TO SWING AROUND A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT which right then and there pinpoints my problem. These Holley Hyperspark distributors might look flashy and cool but the parts in it are apparently plastic garbage. WTF. I have had this hyperspark for less than 3 years and only about 4,000 miles but the internals are loose! Wow, I was pist; I am still pist. If you examine how the hall-effect wheel and sensor is setup on these units, it looks like one side of the black plastic sensor is mounted with a dowel or pin and the other side is kept in place... by... the...freakin...stuipd...plastic...grommet....that ....the ...freakin...wires...pass..through!!!!! With my grommet now sheared off completely and lazily serving no purpose whatseover, the sensor was free to slop around inside the housing. I'm surprised I only had some short pops and blips with the timing situation; how did it even manage to stay running! Shut the garage down for the night and type up some posts on the other holley threads to find out how these other unlucky hyperspark victims handled it. Some with glue, some with this replacement (crap plastic again) sensor, but I would have to cut the wire connections and splice them onto my existing pigtail etc. Ugh. It was too late to call Holley so I called them first thing this morning. They used to have saturday hours, but now, of course, no help for car guys on weekends anymore; thanks Holley. I then call Jegs, where I bought the Hyperspark distributor, coil, and CD box from and I installed them on 9/16/2020. Expected to get nowhere, and thats how it went! They only cover 90-days for any warranty on this Holley ignition junk. Ha, also, a big kick in the nuts this morning was after calling the Holley phone line and having the robot tell me they are closed today, I get an email from Holley boasting about their current 20% off sale, couldn't help but laugh. Ain't no way they are going to help you on a Saturday, but be sure they want you to keep shopping instead!


So, now I wait until Monday after I get off of work to place a fiery call to Holley. They will probably push me off and I'll be stuck figuring it out and eating the bill for either a new distributor entirely or I'll do what I really don't want to do, and get out the bubble gum and duct-tape to try to do a hack-fix for the remainder of the year. I'd like to find a way to simply maybe finish this calendar year with the holley hyperspark stuff so I am not going to want to start researching or discussing any other non-Holley EFGI systems just yet.
*Let's please hold off on that entire topic for a moment.


I have some videos of the car on the rollers, and you can hear it act great during that timeperiod when there was no load on the dyno-brake, and also another video of how it popped and spit when load was applied just minutes later. I will upload them as I get time. However, here is a link to one of the youtube videos I filmed last night when I uncovered the sensor floating around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxV6YrfnZio


also a link to another holley hyperspark failure:
https://forums.holley.com/forum/holl...rk-distributor



I have a screenshot of the datalog from when load was applied on the second roll when the problem came back and ended our session:
- If someone smarter than me has anything to add, please feel free. The tricky thing that I THINK is happening, is even through the dark-red line isn't showing many of the "event" it because the computer is still trying to hold timing at my pre-set timing map right? But since that sensor inside the distributor is chattering around, even thought the timing is probably accurately being commanded, its not arriving where it needs to at a precise time.. therefore, you can see the actual AFR suffer (light green line acorss the middle of the graph) which on a properly running setup SHOULD be really a really tight match with the blue line near it (which is my Target AFR). am I missing something?


A lingering questions is why does the issue not happen at idle and low loads, but under moderate load (and back on May 28 at the dragstrip)it comes about? If you look at the photos from my post in May you can see the grommet in its place, but the likelihood that it was just hanging out as a wire grommet and had already separated from the hall-effect plastic sensor is pretty high. When I was repairing the wiring odds are i nudged it back up into a place where it was snug enough to the sensor again and therefore held it in place for all of June and all of July. Then, this past Tuesday when I did my nut/bolt/fluids/underhood check, I certainly DO remember giving a physical exam of this exact wire loom, because the problems I had troubleshoot with it were fresh in my brain. At that moment, it seems likely that the broken piece of grommet/sensor separated again and just waited to "let me know" about it Friday morning. C'mon!



So, in reality, there is a silver lining in all of this I suppose. I am thankful that the issue happened during my drive to the shop instead of being unknown until perhaps 6000 rpms on the dyno with the nitrous flowing. That certainly would have been catastrophic. I hope Holley has the decency to address my situation in a manner that I even want to continue ever buying any of the cheap crap that keeps almost sending this car to an early grave. Jokingly, today I told myself that I will probably have to save up for a gravesite headstone for this car which will have some kind of inscription like "Here lies a 1987 Camaro - killed by cheap defective Holley parts".


I'll get it sorted out, but I had to add this update on here while waiting for my "chat' with Holley on Monday.
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified


Last edited by IROCZman15; 08-19-2023 at 11:12 PM.
IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2023, 06:47 PM   #591
townsend
 
townsend's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: harmony, nj (phillipsburg)
Posts: 519
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by IROCZman15 View Post
Another Chapter in the roller coaster ride here! Beware of a long post ahead
(I guess its not really a "dyno-fail", its more of a "pre-dyno failure")!!



With hopes of a few dragstrip days this upcoming fall I wanted to do everything I could to try to get the car dialed in as best as possible, especially the nitrous. For years, I wanted to put it on a dyno and see what could be gained from live-tuning it instead of datalogs and seat-of-the-pants observations. Scheduled an appointment a few weeks ahead of time to give me some time to prepare and street drive the car. Flashing back...The car had acted great after sorting out the ignition and datalogging issues from May/June (see post #565 on the previous page for a recap) and it drove freakin perfect both to-and-from Carlisle even in bad rainy weather. I also took the car out this past Tuesday and put an hour of driving on it, including 4 brief nitrous hits on a local highway. I wanted to check that all the systems were turning on and simply run the car through it's paces while logging and later looking at the tune. Came home from Tuesdays drive ready to freakin hit the roller for sure. Did a nut and bolt check, checked critical areas, belts, wiring, fluids, and so forth. Everything was great.

Friday morning, after packing some remaining gear in the car I let it warm up and started to drive over to Blue Sky Performance and Restoration who's new shop is in Andover, only 15 minutes away. However, not even before I got out of my neighborhood, I felt the car stutter, backfire and saw the tach needles jump intermittently. I instantly knew that the ignition problem from May had returned. Freakin devastated. I decided to see if it would clear up if I drove gently and it didn't, but I was hawk-eyeing everything the whole time. There were times that the engine would not have an "event" for almost a minute or more, and sometimes where it would pop and buck within a few seconds of eachtoher. Nothing was making sense, but before you know it I was at Blue Sky. I spoke with Jeff, one hell of an awesome guy, and also one of the owners. I told him the car was actualyl ready to go until the suprise issue this morning and it was unlikely we would make any power pulls. He said he wouldnt mind using some of the time I reserved to investigate what might be going on. So, he pulled the car inside and while he was driving it though the shop and loading it onto the machine, it did NOT pop or bang one single time in the course of several minutes. Hmm, maybe it was a fluke, but I was real skeptical. We go on strapping the car down knowing this was now most likely going to be a troubleshooting session. We go over all my GCF settings in each page of the Holley software and then get the roller spinning under a very light load. It is a DynoCom dyno unit and I was able to learn about it a bit from him, but during this first roll of the wheels, he did not have any load applied to the rollers. Engine ran smooth just coasting from 1st to 2nd and into3rd. Ok cool; maybe we are in luck!





We then agree to run the car gently with the brake applied to the dyno rollers and within just the first few seconds I heard it backfire and begin to act stupid. Since we had a live-datalog running directly from the holley to this laptop via the can-bus, he let the engine run a little bit. We also had the live-timing cursor active to possibly see if any cells in any of the tune parameters are hitting erroneously. Shut the car down after about a minute of low-mid rpm throttle filled with plenty of pops and backfires. See the datalog (screenshot of datalog). I start checking wires, specifically at the area where I had found the slice in the insulation back in May. I peel the loom off and the wire repair is still intact, no issues there. What I do notice, is that the rubberized/plastic grommet that these 3 wires pass through while entering the bottom of the distributor housing, well that "grommet" has now come out and is free-floating with the wire loom. Eh, whatever, its just a grommet right? We all have a plentiful amount of grommets in our vehicles and sometimes they slip out of place right; sometimes they have no negative effects ever, and probably sometimes we never notice they are compromised. Anyways, I move on and we check a bunch of other things. After checking a bunch of pins with a meter, using a timing light we go to crank the car again. Now it will crank, but has no spark! and narrowing our findings to the Hyperspark distributor, I partially lift up the distributor cap to just simply check that the wheel of the hall-effect sensor is turning and it is. I was out of ideas and I was not wanting to waste any more of their time, so we agree to reschedule because I am hopeful to figure out the issue and resolve it by then. We get the car unstrapped and pushed outside where I had called a local tow truck drive to scoop me up. Damn, that sucked; the very last time this car was on a tow truck was back in 2017 when I roasted the old transmission to death while driving up to the Chatterbox a few weeks after competing in that Optima Batteries USCA shootout at the track in Millville. So, having the car towed is certainly a bad moment, but thankfully it is a rare one.






One the car is unloaded back at my house I had some other important stuff to tend to and was finally able to revisit the issue later on. Did some research first and found a post on the Holley forums from just a few weeks ago that intrigues me. link: https://forums.holley.com/forum/holl...-failure-parts
Also in that post is a link to a youtube video with another guy with the same problem. I then head on out to the garage, turn on the go-pro and take the cap/wires off of the distributor. THE SENSOR IS COMPLETLY LOOSE AND FREE TO SWING AROUND A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT which right then and there pinpoints my problem. These Holley Hyperspark distributors might look flashy and cool but the parts in it are apparently plastic garbage. WTF. I have had this hyperspark for less than 3 years and only about 4,000 miles but the internals are loose! Wow, I was pist; I am still pist. If you examine how the hall-effect wheel and sensor is setup on these units, it looks like one side of the black plastic sensor is mounted with a dowel or pin and the other side is kept in place... by... the...freakin...stuipd...plastic...grommet....that ....the ...freakin...wires...pass..through!!!!! With my grommet now sheared off completely and lazily serving no purpose whatseover, the sensor was free to slop around inside the housing. I'm surprised I only had some short pops and blips with the timing situation; how did it even manage to stay running! Shut the garage down for the night and type up some posts on the other holley threads to find out how these other unlucky hyperspark victims handled it. Some with glue, some with this replacement (crap plastic again) sensor, but I would have to cut the wire connections and splice them onto my existing pigtail etc. Ugh. It was too late to call Holley so I called them first thing this morning. They used to have saturday hours, but now, of course, no help for car guys on weekends anymore; thanks Holley. I then call Jegs, where I bought the Hyperspark distributor, coil, and CD box from and I installed them on 9/16/2020. Expected to get nowhere, and thats how it went! They only cover 90-days for any warranty on this Holley ignition junk. Ha, also, a big kick in the nuts this morning was after calling the Holley phone line and having the robot tell me they are closed today, I get an email from Holley boasting about their current 20% off sale, couldn't help but laugh. Ain't no way they are going to help you on a Saturday, but be sure they want you to keep shopping instead!


So, now I wait until Monday after I get off of work to place a fiery call to Holley. They will probably push me off and I'll be stuck figuring it out and eating the bill for either a new distributor entirely or I'll do what I really don't want to do, and get out the bubble gum and duct-tape to try to do a hack-fix for the remainder of the year. I'd like to find a way to simply maybe finish this calendar year with the holley hyperspark stuff so I am not going to want to start researching or discussing any other non-Holley EFGI systems just yet.
*Let's please hold off on that entire topic for a moment.


I have some videos of the car on the rollers, and you can hear it act great during that timeperiod when there was no load on the dyno-brake, and also another video of how it popped and spit when load was applied just minutes later. I will upload them as I get time. However, here is a link to one of the youtube videos I filmed last night when I uncovered the sensor floating around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxV6YrfnZio


also a link to another holley hyperspark failure:
https://forums.holley.com/forum/holl...rk-distributor



I have a screenshot of the datalog from when load was applied on the second roll when the problem came back and ended our session:
- If someone smarter than me has anything to add, please feel free. The tricky thing that I THINK is happening, is even through the dark-red line isn't showing many of the "event" it because the computer is still trying to hold timing at my pre-set timing map right? But since that sensor inside the distributor is chattering around, even thought the timing is probably accurately being commanded, its not arriving where it needs to at a precise time.. therefore, you can see the actual AFR suffer (light green line acorss the middle of the graph) which on a properly running setup SHOULD be really a really tight match with the blue line near it (which is my Target AFR). am I missing something?


A lingering questions is why does the issue not happen at idle and low loads, but under moderate load (and back on May 28 at the dragstrip)it comes about? If you look at the photos from my post in May you can see the grommet in its place, but the likelihood that it was just hanging out as a wire grommet and had already separated from the hall-effect plastic sensor is pretty high. When I was repairing the wiring odds are i nudged it back up into a place where it was snug enough to the sensor again and therefore held it in place for all of June and all of July. Then, this past Tuesday when I did my nut/bolt/fluids/underhood check, I certainly DO remember giving a physical exam of this exact wire loom, because the problems I had troubleshoot with it were fresh in my brain. At that moment, it seems likely that the broken piece of grommet/sensor separated again and just waited to "let me know" about it Friday morning. C'mon!



So, in reality, there is a silver lining in all of this I suppose. I am thankful that the issue happened during my drive to the shop instead of being unknown until perhaps 6000 rpms on the dyno with the nitrous flowing. That certainly would have been catastrophic. I hope Holley has the decency to address my situation in a manner that I even want to continue ever buying any of the cheap crap that keeps almost sending this car to an early grave. Jokingly, today I told myself that I will probably have to save up for a gravesite headstone for this car which will have some kind of inscription like "Here lies a 1987 Camaro - killed by cheap defective Holley parts".


I'll get it sorted out, but I had to add this update on here while waiting for my "chat' with Holley on Monday.
damn man, but atleast you know what it is!

i put a show on at island the last 2 times ive gone, a friday night about 6 weeks back and TODAY. both times, 3rd pass car will randomly die in the lanes, restart all will seem fine, then go to make the hit and have a nitrous backfire. last time i went 10.46 off the trailer, had a crap 2nd pass playing with the gear vendors, then blew the maf/ram air box out on the leave. same thing today. 10.66 second pass (hot track spun thru first) final pass idling fine then died waiting to do burnout, restarted and revved fine and did the burnout fine, so said ok vapor locked lines/rail maybe? then same thing again go to leave and pop back thru the intake. i threw the parts cannon at it last time, so im aggravated.

hope you get her fixed soon so we can run!
__________________
1994 Firebird Formula - Injuneer's car - NEW PB 9.90 @131

2021 Charger Scat

Wrench/driver 94 Camaro Ellwein 385/D1SC/CPT 4l60e/9" slow pile
townsend is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2023, 08:05 PM   #592
wretched73
 
wretched73's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Jackson, NJ
Posts: 1,725
iTrader: (2)
That's some tough sledding Dave.

It sounds like the sensor just has to be secured better? I'd fix the one you have better than Holley did and send it. Hot rodding is all about making this work better or ****ing with them until they work worse.
__________________
1983 camaro- Scrap
1988 camaro- Also scrap
'05 Silverado- You guessed it, scrap
1988 TRX 250R- Ported w/ high compression on 110 octane- Out 60' your LT1

Jersey Shore Street Car Takeover (JSSCT) Founder

Quote:
Originally Posted by LS1ow View Post
and once i get PHB, what do i ajust it too?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jersey Mike View Post
Seven.
wretched73 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-22-2023, 09:54 PM   #593
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
townsend: damn, yea man, diagnosing it at the track sometimes does run its course on ya, but dude I am glad you have been going there. It's going to be a few weeks still before I hit the track, but lets definitely get a few rips on the track in this year.
- keep in mind, I am looking to see if people are interested in a track rental in early/mid October at island. I'll certainly be running the car. Thread about this coming on the Events sub-forum

wretched: yea man, that was my first thought, and If we had discovered it at blue sky, I think we would have actually probably just glued that sucker up and at least ran the car moderately to check that nothing else suffered during the course of all this. Found it too late in the day but knew I had possibilities.

Called Holley Monday, talked through tech support and got to the supervisor. He was same exact guy (named Ray) that I talked to 3 years ago (Sept 2020) when my MSD box failed and then we went through getting this whole damn hyperspark system. He understood why I was so torqued up about everything and sent me a free direct replacement. I'm glad to have had an overall good experience with Holley support this particular time. Got the email that it shipped out today so it will be here tomorrow. I'll disassemble it and mount that sensor in place for eternity first though.
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified

IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2023, 07:25 AM   #594
sweetbmxrider
Meet Coordinator
 
sweetbmxrider's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: brick/pt. pleasant beach
Posts: 19,342
iTrader: (12)
Quote:
Originally Posted by wretched73 View Post
That's some tough sledding Dave.

It sounds like the sensor just has to be secured better? I'd fix the one you have better than Holley did and send it. Hot rodding is all about making this work better or ****ing with them until they work worse.
I agree. Use this original to improve the design with a secure mount to the body of the dizzy.
__________________
sweetbmxrider is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2023, 07:26 AM   #595
LTb1ow
Mongo the Meet Coordinator
 
LTb1ow's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16,900
iTrader: (8)
Glad to hear holley is taking care of it
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by KirkEvil View Post
repo bigals turd gen and part it out to a loving home
LTb1ow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2023, 09:26 AM   #596
wretched73
 
wretched73's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Jackson, NJ
Posts: 1,725
iTrader: (2)
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider View Post
I agree. Use this original to improve the design with a secure mount to the body of the dizzy.


Looks like this is it. Bet you could drill a hole either in front and behind the sensor, then use a small piece of bent metal as a strap to keep it in place. Or drill a hole to the left of the senor and again use a smaller piece of metal glued to the backside of the sensor.

And like Adam says, improve on the original.
__________________
1983 camaro- Scrap
1988 camaro- Also scrap
'05 Silverado- You guessed it, scrap
1988 TRX 250R- Ported w/ high compression on 110 octane- Out 60' your LT1

Jersey Shore Street Car Takeover (JSSCT) Founder

Quote:
Originally Posted by LS1ow View Post
and once i get PHB, what do i ajust it too?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jersey Mike View Post
Seven.
wretched73 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2023, 09:44 AM   #597
townsend
 
townsend's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: harmony, nj (phillipsburg)
Posts: 519
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by IROCZman15 View Post
townsend: damn, yea man, diagnosing it at the track sometimes does run its course on ya, but dude I am glad you have been going there. It's going to be a few weeks still before I hit the track, but lets definitely get a few rips on the track in this year.
- keep in mind, I am looking to see if people are interested in a track rental in early/mid October at island. I'll certainly be running the car. Thread about this coming on the Events sub-forum

wretched: yea man, that was my first thought, and If we had discovered it at blue sky, I think we would have actually probably just glued that sucker up and at least ran the car moderately to check that nothing else suffered during the course of all this. Found it too late in the day but knew I had possibilities.

Called Holley Monday, talked through tech support and got to the supervisor. He was same exact guy (named Ray) that I talked to 3 years ago (Sept 2020) when my MSD box failed and then we went through getting this whole damn hyperspark system. He understood why I was so torqued up about everything and sent me a free direct replacement. I'm glad to have had an overall good experience with Holley support this particular time. Got the email that it shipped out today so it will be here tomorrow. I'll disassemble it and mount that sensor in place for eternity first though.
keep me in the loop about the rental. we will bring atleast 1 car or both. thanks man
__________________
1994 Firebird Formula - Injuneer's car - NEW PB 9.90 @131

2021 Charger Scat

Wrench/driver 94 Camaro Ellwein 385/D1SC/CPT 4l60e/9" slow pile
townsend is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2023, 10:03 PM   #598
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
Yup, got the new distributor today. Going to take the old one out, disassemble it and see what creatively I can come up with to set it in place for good. Some good ideas here already, cool thanks!

yes indeed, I started a new thread about it and I am starting to gauge interest from some of my various car buddies too. Any discussion is welcome and here is the thread:
http://www.njfboa.org/forums/showthr...083#post958083
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified

IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-24-2023, 09:48 PM   #599
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
IROCZman15's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,120
iTrader: (8)
Removed the old unit today and checked it over. As expected, sensor slapping around all under the wheel. Also the sensor had so much slop in it, that it carved a pretty deep groove in the metal wheel too and sprayed all that rusty dust all over inside there. It must have been chaos inside that distributor cap for who knows how long. Whew!

Filmed it on a video; Felt like info I could pass along on youtube and the Holley forums.
but its a long video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCrGEwA6U9o










Took apart the brand new one from Holley and used a clear high-strength epoxy on anywhere I could identify as a mating surface. Also glued the wire grommet in place too. Will get it installed tomorrow and get all the timing set. Going to do a spark plug change too. Possibly heading to Flemington car show on Saturday, I haven't been there in 4or5 years so I don't know what to expect.







__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified


Last edited by IROCZman15; 08-24-2023 at 09:58 PM.
IROCZman15 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2023, 09:14 AM   #600
Blackbirdws6
Lord of the rings / 10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
Blackbirdws6's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Millstone Township, NJ
Posts: 6,361
iTrader: (3)
Hope that solves your issue. You planning to "fix" and keep the old unit as a spare or its shot from all the rubbing?
__________________

97 T/A Ram Air Convt
Forever dyno queen / 777rwhp 662 rwtq @ 17lbs / 10.2 @ 140

'24 Corvette Z06
17 Sierra 2500HD Dmax
81 Turbo TA
Blackbirdws6 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

  NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds > Tech Forums > Engine / Power / Tuning


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

» Sponsor List














All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:22 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.