CTiROC

As the title says I built a 383 out of my stock l98 that was in my 87 Camaro. It is far from stock I have changed just about everything which is making this more difficult for me so I really could use some help. The car is all back together it has a holley stealth ram intake so it is still fuel injected and I replaced the original distributor and cool with a new aftermarket coil, distributor and ignition box. As of right now the only two sensors I know that are not plugged in are the oxygen sensor(open headers atm) and the oil pressure switch that controls the gauge on the cluster. Everything else that I think is necessary is plugged in(everything besides old ac, air pump, egr, charcoal canister.) so the story is I can't get this thing to fire up. Not even one hiccup of combustion it just sounds like dead weight. I had to fix a lot of the wiring and rewire some stuff myself to fit the new aftermarket plugs and new locations for sensors needed wires extended so maybe I didn't wire one of those right I just don't know exactly what sensors would completely stop the car from starting. To start I built the motor in March and dropped it in the car around may. I did everything by the books lining up the timing chain marks and staggering the piston rings etc. I think the motor should have good compression by my calculations should be a little under 10.5 to 1. The fuel rails have gas flowing through them I see the lines tense up when I prime the fuel pump and the shraeder(sorry don't know how to spell that) valve on the fuel rail squirts out fuel when you press the nipple in. I unfortunately don't have a mechanical gauge to put on the valve yet to see exact pressure I'm waiting for it to come in the mail. But it seems like I have enough pressure in the lines for the car to atleast fire over or try to. Lastly, I have spark going to the plugs. I checked several plugs and they all had spark when I cranked the motor over. The rpm gauge is also fluttering when I'm cranking the motor which shows me the distributor is reading the rpms and signaling the tach so I atleast wired that correctly. My thoughts are that the car is not in time but I thought I did everything correctly. I bumped the motor over while holding my finger over number one spark plug hole and waited to feel the pressure blow off my finger. Then I stuck a rod through the hole to feel for the piston which was at the top( or atleast that's what I assumed). The harmonic balancer and timing marks lined up to just about 0 so I figured I was close enough to TDC on compression stroke. I then stabbed the distributor in and put the cap on with the rotor facing the number one spark plug on the cap and ran the rest of the spark plugs along the cap in the right firing order. When we were trying to start up the car we were spinning the distributor back and forth to try and advance or retard the timing enough to find a point where to motor would try and Fire but got nothing. Is there anything in this ridiculously long paragraph that I just wrote that you guys can see I am missing? I feel like it is obvious to someone else and I'm blinded by it, or atleast I hope that's what it is. Please guys help me find out what I'm forgetting this is bugging me I can figure it out and I really want to drive my car it's been off the road for almost 9 months now. Thanks ahead of time

red rock

iTrader: (2)

Well, are you sure your injector are spraying. Are your plugs wet from cranking? I would also double check your firing order on your plug wires. You may want to check your compression on your cylinders, maybe you tightened your valves down too much.

CTiROC

Thanks for the response. I checked the spark plugs at first to make sure there was spark I did not check them again after that to see if they were wet. I don't think my valves are too tight I only adjusted them 3/4 a turn past zero lash. And firing order definitely is right I triple checked. Is there anything in the computer that would stop the injectors from spraying fuel if I do not have it hooked up properly?

red rock

iTrader: (2)

You should set the valves to 1/2 turn from 0 lash. Is your oil pressure up when cranking? What has been done as far as programming your computer. What cam profile did you get.

CTiROC

Everything is stock on the computer right now I was hoping to get the car running atleast and datalog it so I could have a chip burnt for it. Cam is a 110 lsa 231/239 @.050 duration .535/.550 lift from lunatti. That's what they recommended for my build. And I cannot see my oil pressure because I have to get an adapter to screw in my oil pressure switch into the back of the block because it is currently hitting the intake manifold and unable to screw down

CatmanFS

Oil pressure switch will kill the fuel pump. You can wire around it and risk it or get it put back on.

red rock

iTrader: (2)

You could have had a chip built while you were building the motor, (you still can). I would reset your valves to 1/2 turn and get the oil sending unit back in place. If the injectors are not spraying, you need to trouble shoot as to why.

CTiROC

So do you guys think since the oil pressure switch is not plugged in and working the ecu is preventing the fuel injectors to feed the motor and that could be why it's not wanting to start? I do have some pressure in the fuel rails idk if the fuel that is in there is from when the fuel pump primes and maybe it stops running fuel after it reads the oil pressure switch is disconnected

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Sit down, calm down, take a deep breath, gain control of your mind, put all the "maybe it's this maybe it's that" aside. Use logic, reason, common sense, and your powers of observation instead of panic and hysteria. Forget about oil pressure switch, chip, pump, and all the rest of that crap. Concentrate on THE ENGINE.

An engine needs 3 things to run: compression; air/fuel mixture in reasonable proportions; and spark at more or less the right point in the engine cycle. That's IT. The EEEEEEEEEEEEZIEST trouble to troubleshoot is therefore, a no-start. I'll take a "no start" ANY DAY over a "runs like crap" as far as being eeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzy to fix. All ya gotta do, is figure out which one(s) of the Big Magic Three is/are missing, and restore it/them. Then once you get it to RUN, at least you know that it RUNS, and you can go back and work on some of that other floobie dust stuff, secure in the knowledge that the engine RUNS.

Compression is pretty eeeeeeeeezy. It's usually there unless you made a major malfunction in assembly. Past that, the only thing that will keep you from having it, is valves hanging open. So that's the first thing we're going to rule out.

Loosen all your rockers 2 full turns from wherever they are. Don't "set them to" anything. Don't tighten them again until AFTER the engine runs.

That only leaves 2 out of the Big Magic Three. One of them is so eeeeeeeeeezy to substitute for, it's almost childish. Butt first, let's make sure we don't overlook the 3rd one; so, chang ethe spark plugs. Put in new ones. Not, put in the ones you took out of your old motor; not, "assume" the ones you have are good; not, "look at" them; not, clean/spray/wash/whatever them. PUT IN NEW ONES. No ifs ands or butts, NEW ONES. Now you're ready to move on.

Using the thumb in the #1 plug hole, BUMP (not "crank") the engine until you feel compression. BUMP it over until the timing marks are showing around 15 - 18° BTDC: should only take acoupla more bumps. Look at the distributor: set it to where the teeth of the star wheel line up, and the rotor is pointing to the #1 plug wire. Make sure the plug wires are in the right order around the cap. Tighten the dist until it's hard to move, but you can still move it if you try hard enough. Now you've got your spark set to occur at more or less the right time.

Spray starting fluid, or pour gasoline, into the intake. If you've still got the TPI on there, might work best to take an old detergent squirt bottle or something, and shoot it up in there.

Try to start the engine. It should at least OFFER to run; maybe just hit one lick or something. Does it? OK, pour a bit more fuel into the intake. Keep trying until it cranks up and runs at least until all the fuel you poured in has been consumed.

OK, now you know that mechanically and electrically, the engine is capable of running. Once you get to that point, come back and we'll go to work on figuring out what else was done wrong, setting the rockers right, tuning it, etc.

red rock

iTrader: (2)

Or you could take Sofakingdom's advice. Which, I would. Lol Here by the way are some flow charts for future reference. http://chevythunder.com/Flow%20chart...0Chart%20Pages

CTiROC

Thank you sofa, I will do all these steps within the next few days and be back to you with a report

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

One other small detail ;

When asking for help on a chat forum such as this , if you fill out your profile to include your location , you may just find that a fellow poster is a neighbor and could possibly help you out . For all we know you could be two streets over and a quick look could be all it takes to identify the problem .


PS ,Yes , I know , my own location isn't filled out , but then I'm all set with all the help I could ever need .

CTiROC

Okay guys sorry it took me so long to get back on here. I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out a couple days ago so I couldn't work on the car. I had a friend of mine who is very knowledgable about cars come over to help me and we realized the distributor I had replaced my stock one with was likely only for carb engines. I put the stock distributor back in and redid timing. My problem now is that I am not getting spark and not getting fuel into the engine. The stock distributor has the 4 pin connector and 2 pin connector. The 4 pin I have plugged back in and is all set but the 2 pin I am lost with. I also have an external coil and a procomp electronics ignition box(I know I should have went with msd but I was cheap). The ignition box was sending spark to the engine before but I was not getting fuel to the motor so I thought it had something to do with that 4 pin and 2 pin connectors just laying in the engine bay disconnected. Now my problem is I don't know how to wire the ignition box back to the stock distributor and like I said I have no spark and no fuel. What could be my problem? I had spark before with the new distributor I put in that didn't have the 4 pin connector to it only a 2 pin female connector to hook into the ignition box. Is there something in the car that needs to be connected in order to send fuel through the injectors?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Get rid of it ALL. Every piece. Put the original coil back on and hook it up just like factory. Put the factory wiring back just like it came from the factory. Restore all factory parts. (as long as they're not broken... if they are, get new ones EXACTLY LIKE THEM) Remove EVERYTHING that's not factory.

ONE VARIABLE AT A TIME. Can't realistically troubleshoot a car if there's like 573.6 things potentially wrong with it.

CTiROC

Alright I will try that. Hopefully I still have all my original parts. If I disconnect the ignition box and new coil do I just need the old ignition coil and old distributor for the car to run or is there another component I am forgetting about?

red rock

iTrader: (2)

I wouldn't be changing things in the middle of trying to get it running either. you can always "upgrade" later. You need the 2 pin wire from the external coil to the distributor.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Yup, all you need is the factory dist and coil. Plus of course the factory wiring.

Did we mention "factory" enough times?

Take off all that other stuff that you have no idea whether it works or how to hook it up, and go back to something you know and don't have to worry about any of that. Like everything else, concentrate on making THE ENGINE RUN, not a bunch of bells and whistles.

Hopefully nothing else has got damaged in the meantime by all that unnecessary stuff being hooked up wrong or whatever.

Compression, air/fuel, spark... get em all going.

Maybe LATER, revisit the fancy schmancy ignition stuff you don't need and is just bling and a waste of money. But for now, just get it working. Then you can go back and change ONE THING AT A TIME, and keep yourself from taking a left turn down a dirt road into the weeds and plunging into the lake. (basically, where you are right now)

CTiROC

Update. I took your guys awesome advice and got rid of all the new ignition system and put in the stock distributor and stock coil. I couldn't find a place to mount the coil with my new hsr intake but I think I can put something together eventually. So after trying to start the car for a few minutes I got a couple burps and then finally she kicked over and ran fr a few seconds. I backed off the timing a little bit with the distributor and it started up a lot easier but would not stay running. The engine started backfiring a little bit so I advanced the timing back up some and it felt better. My throttle seems to be sticking so everytime I gave it gas it would start to sound better and healthy but would rev up too high and Id have to kill the engine. I couldn't get the car to idle and I'm thinking it's probably because it's not tuned and I am running a 110 lsa cam. I'm not going to try starting it very much more until I connect the rest of the exhaust because it was extremely loud and was spitting some fire from the headers. Can you guys think of anything else I should do to help it idle? And ideas to fix the throttle sticking? Maybe add a spring from the throttle body to the bracket maybe?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Yup, definitely hook up the exhaust.

You should go visit a vehicle assy plant sometime. It's REALLY COOL... you get to see how they actually build new cars. I recommend the GM plant in Bowling Green KY; not because it's an especially stellar example of modern industrial engineering, but rather, if yer gonna watch cars get built, might as well be Vettes, eh?? (yes, they give full tours of the plant, DAILY; gotta get there early though, like 8:30 or so, they only run the tour once a day) One of the most interesting things is, the cars kinda roll down the production line; they put a naked body on the line (of a car, you perv) and start bolting stuff to it; seats, brakes, carpet, doors, glass, exhaust, wheels, engine, deck lid, trans, hood, radio, A/C.... one piece at a time. Then at the very end of the line, there's ONE guy (or girl as the case may be) reaches in the window, turns the key, and it cranks up. RIGHT UP. At least, about 99% of em do; once in awhile one doesn't. They push it off to the side before the next one rolling off the end of the line hits it, and the Rework dept comes out and hauls it off and deals with it.

The moral of the story is, if you put it together RIGHT, it fires RIGHT UP. Now granted I've probably built more motors than most folks here; but after about the 20th or 30th, it got to the point where I would literally swap in a motor, hook up EVERY hose wire tube gewgaw you name it, fill all the fluids, hook up the exhaust, pour acoupla squirts of gasoline into the intake, put on the air cleaner, and CLOSE THE HOOD; and reach in the window and turn the key. And they would start up, EVERY TIME. Then I'd open the hood back up and check for leaks etc., and within 30 seconds of 1st fire-up, be ready to back it down the driveway and head around the block.

I'm not bragging or putting you down or anything, only, making a point; which is, the way this should be done is, put the car COMPLETELY together with parts YOU KNOW are good, before you ever turn the key. I didn't realize you were THAT FAR from actually finishing the job. It's a typical first-timer thing: everybody gets all worried about "will it run", "will it puke its guts out", "what does it sound like", and all that, and the temptation to forget about all that other stuff and prematurely start it up takes over. Not good, especially when abuncha unknown new parts are involved. A new motor is not the time for experimenting. It's not good to cobble some kinda crap together just "to make sure it runs"; IT WILL if you put it together right, so put it together right, methodically and carefully and rigorously as if you don't intend to ever touch it again as long as you own it, and don't worry about that. Have confidence in yourself. Trust me, it's EEEEEEEEEZZZZZZY, it's just a car, people without the slightest idea how they work build literally MILLIONS of em EVERY YEAR in every country around the world. It's just not that tough. Build one like that and your hood will stay closed AHELLUVALOT more than ones that somebody half-assed.

Anyway, at this point, you now know the motor runs. OK, cross that off your list. Lay off of it for awhile. Since all that other stuff hasn't been done yet, go back and do it, whatever it might be. Exhaust, wiring, A/C, hoses, belts, fluids, air box parts, cruise, windshield washer, put the hood back on, ... EVERYTHING. Completely assemble the car. COMPLETELY. Then it'll be time for troubleshooting things like sticky throttles. Which is probably related to the HSR, but let's not speculate too much just yet, let's just get the car ALL THE WAY back together, and then return to that. Above all, don't start hacking on it and throwing useless stuff onto it that you don't really even know yet whether you really need.

CTiROC

Thank you sofa I will take your advice and put as much of the car back together and when the exhaust is all back on I will attack the problem of the sticky problem and getting it to idle. And that tour of cheverolet plant actually sounds really cool and I would love to do that but I live in ct Kentucky might be kinda far away but maybe in the future for sure. And as for the motor building thing I couldn't agree more with you I should take my time but you put the nail on the head I was worried of if I put it together right if it would turn over and start the right was or if it would leak everywhere. I wanted to try and start it to get a jump on things if something was wrong before I put it all back together. I'm 21 and this is my first ever complete motor build from the ground up so I've been really nervous about messing up. But this forum has helped me with almost everything and I'm very thankful for guys like yourself who are patient enough to reply and give advice to the younger inexperienced guys like myself

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Good luck, your pit-of-the-stomach worries are now over, so take your time and make it perfect.

red rock

iTrader: (2)

And that my friends, is how it's suppose to be. People helping each other without ripping on someone. Sometimes it's hard helping someone because of lack of information so speculation and over diagnosing can be a problem. I"m glad you got it started.

CTiROC

Update on this post. Sorry it took so long guys I've been juggling work and wisdom teeth recovery with the car. So I got a custom y pipe made by a friend of mine and got the car back this weekend. I was able to get the car to start still and rev up a little bit here in there but die and not hold an idle. I looked into the problem and realized I had not disconnected my est bypass wire after I set the initial timing. So after I did these me and my father were able to get the car running and find some sort of a sweet spot with the distributor to get it to hold a healthy idle. I let it idle for about 45-60 seconds but had to shut it off because it was pouring smoke from the engine bay looking like it was coming from the exhaust. I know that new headers that have just regular paint on them will burn off the paint and smoke, but it seemed like there was way more smoke than any video I have ever seen on YouTube of people breaking in headers. They also got super hot in those 60 seconds to the point of no touching the echaust without being burnt. I feel like that might be a little quick for them to get that hot but I don't know. I know that there is plenty of oil from my hands all over the headers and they were a cheaper Heddman brand with basic paint that easily chips off so maybe that has a lot to do with it I just don't want to run it so long smoking out the engine bay. I checked around saw no leaks anywhere and don't smell oil or antifreeze burning or any electrical wires so all I can think is the header paint. Do you guys think this is okay and it will eventually burn off and stop smoking so bad? Also I haven't set the timing with a light yet so this may be why but when I tried to give the car a little throttle when it was idling it would sound like it was bogging out and would start backfiring. I'm assuming this is because the timing isn't being advanced with the est disconnected? Let me know what you guys think. Oh and just so everyone knows my throttle body sticking open problem turned out to be the blades in the throttle body actually rubbing against the inside of the throttle body housing so I took them off found out where they rubbed and sand papered them down just enough so they didn't rub anymore

red rock

iTrader: (2)

I think you should be able to tell what the smoke smelled like, you can tell the difference between paint, oil, coolant smoke. The headers do get 600-800 degree's so 60 seconds will be hot.

CTiROC

It is definitely a white smoke and I can see it coming off of the headers I just wasn't planning on so much smoke pouring from the engine bay so fast.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Yup, headers get ASTOUNDINGLY hot. In fact at night in the dark, you can often see em glowing dimly, somewhere between red and brown at idle. They'll often glow red at full power.

Which is one of the reasons a bunch of us here recommend always having them ceramic coated... keeps some of that heat, ALOT of it in fact, out of the engine compartment.

So what you have is pretty much normal as far as that part goes.

Paint will practically ALWAYS burn off of them. So again, them smoking ALOT right at first, is normal.

Anything that makes the engine run inefficiently will make them even hotter; because the heat produced by combustion, instead of being turned into mechanical work, stays in the form of heat; some of this extra waste heat then goes out the exhaust making it SUPER hot, and some goes into the cooling system with the same effect. Timing too far retarded (usually caused by setting it by looking at some "mark" with some "light" and thinking that the right thing to do is to set it to some "spec" somebody looked up somewhere sometime on some "book" for some other engine built for some other purpose) is the main cause of this. Either a too-rich condition or a too-lean condition can also cause it, more likely too-lean; what happens is, lean mixtures burn VERY slowly (another reason to ADVANCE THE FORKING TIMING UNTIL THE ENGINE RUNS RIGHT, instead of hallucinating that the engine has read some "book" and agrees that some random "spec" is right for it) and combustion is not complete when it's supposed to be but instead continues as the gases rush out the valve and through the headers, which of course is highly inefficient.

So yeah, sounds like you're on track, and maybe need to advance the timing until the engine runs right. Develop your own "spec" later, after you get used to the unique properties of YOUR engine, which is probably not stock and therefore the stock "spec" is WRONG for it.

Backfiring is probably also the result of a lean condition. Adjust your fuel pressure 10% higher and see what happens. Might not be "right", but should point you in the right direction of WHAT THE ENGINE WANTS. Again, ignore the "spec" in the "book" and GIVE THE ENGINE WHAT IT WANTS.

CTiROC

Okay sounds good sofa! So what should me fuel pressure be around? I know it has pressure because when I push in on the shraeder valve fuel spits out, but I haven't been able to put my mechanical gauge on to check the actual pressure. What do you recommend I run for pressure?

red rock

iTrader: (2)

I would start at 45-50 with the vacuum off and plugged the regulator when running. 43.5 was stock, but you don't have that anymore.

SbFormula

Keep listening to sofa... He has me incredibly amazed and I am reading every bit of it. It should be smooth music to our ears for us passionate enthusiast self-taught backyard day dreaming mechanics. We want so much but we can achieve only so much with our poor confidence in our skills. RBob is another one of those generous contributors that would take you to the wonderful amazing crazy world of tuning. Because, my fellow enthusiasm CTiROC, this is going to be your next big challenge, having that nice 383 running with a stock ECM. Best of luck to you and remember to never give up!

CTiROC

Okay so I have a mechanical gauge that I purchased to check the fuel pressure in the rail but I can't hook it up until I get some sort of 90 degree adapter so the gauge doesn't hit the intake manifold. How else could I go about measuring the fuel pressure of the car? On another note, I was trying to get the car to a sweet spot for the timing like sofa said, I want to get the car where it wants to be. My father and I got the car started and I turned the distributor until it idled good on its own with no sputtering or pinging but when I put the timing light it said it was around 2 degrees after TDC which I thought was weird. I also have a very crappy timing light so it might have something to do with it. But the car ran until te smoke stopped for the most part from coming off the headers(smoked out my neighborhood lol) and I had to turn the car off after about ten minutes of total run time on and off because the car was overheating way too much, creeping up to the max temp on my gauge. I had a 180 degree tgermostat in the car that didn't pop because my top hose coming from the radiator to the thermostat was still cool to touch and not hot at all. I took the thermostat out, put the housing back on, filled the coolant back up to the top and started the car again. The coolant level got sucked down the radiator about 8 inches or so and I filled it up as the car ran but it did not take any more coolant and te coolant itself seemed to be barely moving through my radiator, and the car still continues to overheat withing a minute of running. My coolant system consists of the radiator, upper hose to the thermostat on top of the intake manifold, the water pump, and the lower radiator hose. I don't know why there isn't better flow going through the radiator. I also pulled the number 1 spark plug and saw it was black and wet on the tip. I'm assuming this means it is running rich. what should I do to try and fix this overheating problem now and how do you guys suggest I check the fuel pressure? Maybe they are related problems.

SbFormula

Might be hard to use a timing light if you don't enable the Electronic Spark Timing bypass. The timing mark will bounce around as the ECM is constantly adjusting the spark (advance/retard). You need to enable the EST by pass first and then adjust your initial timing. After that the ECM takes over and adjusts spark advance to what ever is programmed in. For example purpose only, if you're at 2 degrees, maybe you are in fact at -12 on initial and the ECM is giving 14 degrees advance at idle thinking it will be at 20 (6 initial + 14). ECM could bounce +/- 4.9 to keep the idle RPM on track. Remember there is an initial advance programmed into the ECM. You must adjust your initial advance to what ever is programmed into your ECM. Check your under hood sticker and you should see the initial timing data.

Also, not having that O2 sensor hooked will become problematic after 100-300 seconds as the ECM will enter close loop and go crazy. The ECM was programmed for an L98 and now you have a 383 with a holley stealth ram intake! Don't expect it to run smooth especially in open loop. Trying to adjust the timing by feel is useless at this point. Any adjustment of timing has to be done through tuning once initial timing has been set. Get the initial timing adjusted according to the hood sticker. Like sofa said, make sure everything is in place.


This is all assuming you had an OEM TPI L98 (350)


Best of luck!

CTiROC

So I should plug my spark advance bypass back in and try to find tune the timing with the distributor to whatever I need(I have heard TPI motors usually are programmed to 6 degrees BTC initial timing). Then the computer will advance the timing as the motor needs it like when I step on the throttle and such?

SbFormula

Nope! Good if you have the by pass unplugged. Set it up to 6 degrees yes and then plug the by pass back. If the engine is running rough it could be that the ECM is not capable of running it because it was programmed for an L98. You need tuning. The spark is adjusted through tuning not through distributor turning

SbFormula

Keep in mind that there are a lot of variables inside the ECM program that are now not compatible with your set up. The start up routine, the spark advance, the open loop routine etc... You need tuning

SbFormula

BTW plugging the bypass means plugging the connectors thus the EST is enable and unplugging the bypass means unplugging the connectors thus disabling the EST

SbFormula

Is your Holley stealth ram a speed density (map sensor)? Your 1987 is a mass airflow system! Man, you definitely need tuning

CTiROC

Everything is set up for mass air flow I don't have speed density sensor on the stealth ram. I have a tune coming in this week actually from Scott Hansen I told him everything I am working with he said the cam is on the bigger side for what he tunes for but he will send me a burnt chip and see how it goes. Should be here tomorrow. How can I check my fuel pressure with the mechanical gauge I bought?

SbFormula

Great if you get a tune


I have not seen the holley stealth ram but it should not be hard to figure out. If you could hook up a permanent fuel pressure gauge under the hood some how on the fuel rail or on the fuel pressure regulator that would be great. I imagine you have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator? There is probably tons of info on these forums or internet. I assume you upgraded your OEM fuel pump for a 255lph?

I used the aeromotive AFPR 13301 and hooked a fuel pressure gauge to it. That way it is way easier to adjust the fuel pressure while under the hood.

I have attached a picture as an example. You can see where I yellow circled the little gauge and the Autometer sensor for the inside gauge

Best of luck!

SbFormula

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/alte...-ram-fuel.html


Just curious. What will be your max operating RPM? GM OEM ECM's program (bin) maxes out at certain RPM. I am not sure for your 1987, but you can't really get anything specific over 6000RPM... If! Check out RBob's site for enhance ECM capability and flash. http://www.dynamicefi.com/

CTiROC

Hey guys its been a while I've been busy going back to school but i worked on the car today and am not making much progress. I'm hoping someone can help me with what is going on. I am trying to get my car timed to 6 degrees BTDC when the spark bypass wire is disconnected but according to the timing light I have(which might be part of the problem since it is cheap) it says I am around 2 degrees ATDC and when i try to advance the timing by turning the distributor the idle gets really high and aggressive and sounds like crap. So I got it to wear it sounded like it had a good idle holding at around 700 RPM and i turned off the car and unplugged the battery and plugged in the brown spark bypass wire then hooked the battery back up. When i go to start the car it fires right away and then immediatly revs up very quick heading towards 4-5k RPMs before i kill the ignition. It does this with the stock tune chip in the car and also with the tune I got done through Scott Hansen. He thinks my timing is too advanced too much and i need to play with the distributor to find a good idle with the bypass wire connected. The problem is I cant turn the distributor any farther because the sensor ports on the distributor is wedged up against my intake manifold. And the other problem to top it all off is that when i went back to idleing the car with the bypass disconneted I heard a faint knock coming from the driver side head. Im praying it is just valve noise on my roller rockers but right now i have no clue. Anyone know what the knocking noise could be and also just as important why is my car revving up so fast whenever I plug the bypass back in? Could my distributor be faulty or something? I'm at a loss any feedback would help, thanks!

CatmanFS

If your distrib plug things are hitting the intake manifold then maybe youve got the plug wires all rotated one or two places off. When i did mine those sensor plugs were facing the driver seat. I would look into that, and to eliminate valve noise just check preload on all the lifters.

CTiROC

Thank you Catman for the reply. How would I go about checking the preload on my lifters? Is that the same as adjusting valve lash?

CatmanFS

Yeah preload is dependant upon correct valve lash. I used the third method listed on shbox's site, worked great first time.

Yeah it seems like maybe the spark plug wires arent on the right spots on the distributor cap. Double check that against stock specs.

CTiROC

Okay I'll look into the preload next time I work on the car. Do you have any idea why my car is revving up so fast as soon as I plug the bypass wire back in? I have less than two seconds from when the car turns on before I have to kill the ignition since the car climbs to almost 5,000 rpms instantly. When I kill the ignition the rpm garage stays where it was too idk if that helps at all. But once I unplug the bypass I can start the car and have it idling fine at 700 rpms no problem. Is my distributor faulty or could my throttle position sensor be really messed off?

CTiROC

Been a while since I posted on this thread but I still have had no luck with this car. I found out that my IAC was completely missing from the throttle body so in assuming that is why I had the problem with the high revs on first start up. I have since purchased a new housing and IAC sensor and installed them. My problem now is that the car just does not want to start at all. Before I could get the car to run when I disconnected the bypass wire but now I cannot get the car to run at all. The best I can get is the car to sputter a bit to show a sign of life and then nothing. Crank after crank of just nothing. I'm running 46 lbs of fuel pressure and have reset the timing multiple times and I have spark I don't know why the car won't start. Only code the computer reads is 12. What should I do? What do I do next? Also could the cold start injector have anything to do with this? I disconnected the sensor and never reconected it but I'm pretty sure my tune turned off the cold start injector. Id have to double check my papers but I can't see it causing all the problems. Thanks for any future replies guys!