Big thanks goes out to the information on this board regarding the swap, especially the thread started by Orr89RocZ, and the stealthram.com board. I was able to get all of the parts I needed before the swap, save one fitting for vacuum line.

The swap went very well. Had a few minor hiccups when it came to dis-assembly of the old setup. Several plug wires snapped etc, but nothing I hadn't figured were a possibility.

Only issues that I had come up were similar to other guys. The throttle body hit the fuel rails on the driver's side, but I was able to bend the bracket out every so slightly to clear. It needed no more than an 1/8 of an inch, so that was an easy fix. Only thing left to take care of is the throttle cable. It is ever so slightly short, leaving the throttle blades open just a little. I'm going to take care of that on Saturday. I think I can bend the bracket on the back of the gas pedal to give me the 1/16 of an inch that I need there.

Has anyone else had issues w/ actually installing the distributor cap? I got it on there, but it took some wiggling to get it back into place. It wanted to get stuck between the cowl and the intake. I came in from the side and it installed with no problems, but at first I didn't think it was going to fit. I have the 89 factory distributor and MSD cap by the way. Maybe I needed a different one? It works and runs fine w/ the current, but I'm just glad I'm not taking it in and out on a regular basis.

I'm attaching a few pics... please excuse the dirty *** engine bay and the leaves on the cowl. The car has been outside for a while, while I was in the process of moving and getting it to a friend's so I could work on it. I wanted to get the swap done first, but now its time to start cleaning it up and scrubbing the bay a little so it looks better.

I'll get some better pics this weekend when I'm addressing the other things and get started working on the tune. Hopefully it won't be too bad to tune.




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Also... The car dyno'd 261hp and I can't remember the torque number around 4k RPM a few years back with stock TPI intake and factory manifolds. It also went 13.3 to 13.4@ 102 w/ a 1.75 60 foot around that same time. Still trying to find the time slips.

I'll have the car on the dyno and at the track in the near future so I'll be sure to update everyone once it is finally dyno and track tested!

 

Tinkered with the car again today. I got a starting tune from a friend here who has a 383 MR car w/ similar heads/cam to what I have. Wrapped up a few odds and ends.

Few points of note:

• Stock Firebird hood fit PERFECTLY after trimming the center bracing. I checked it in a few different places and there is no contact on the underside of the hood. It looks the rubber intake boot might hit, but I couldn't see for sure.
• Throttle cable being short issue was addressed. I was able to bend the bracket back on the base of the gas pedal ever so slightly to provide the clearance I needed. Now the car idles at 800 rpm warm as it is supposed to!
• from 4k up... THE CAR SCREAMS!

The tune is rich to start, but it is a good place for me to get going from. I adjusted the injector constant to try and get P/T a little closer, and the MAF Table #1 to try and get idle. Idle still has a nasty gas smell, but that can be addressed the further I tune.

I did 3-4 WOT pulls, knowing it would be rich. I pulled 5% fuel from the PE x RPM table to start from the starting 383 tune. It puffs some black smoke, so still rich, but once the car hit 4000 rpm, it came unglued. The 3400 converter is perfect for the intake/cam combo in the car now. W/ the Big Mouth TPI setup, the car would just hook up and go... after a low end grunt, but the converter missed a lot of the power. Now the car stalls to 3500, then pulled to about 4k, then just blows the tires off in 1st. I only did a few 1-2 pulls and the same result each time. The power uptop compared to the TPI is unreal, and more of what I'm looking for! The 2-3 shift I did once felt awesome. Can't wait to get this thing to the track!

 

Get it to the track! What gears are in it, same 3.42's? You will have to shift it manually for the best time. I start in 1 then go to 2 at 6500, from 2-3 at 6000. It's worth a couple tenths and 1 mph over letting the tranny shift itself, but you will have to play with yours.

 

Congrats man! glad you liked the intake! Looks good too, i like how you did your plenum.

I also have a problem getting the distributor cap off the car sometimes with the plenum installed. I just take it off to get to the dizzy if i need to.

Cant wait to see the new times with that new setup. SHould really scream now

 

Working on that. I need to pick up some DR's now that my front tires are gone. I guess 6 years on the car they are expected to dry rot a little!

Yeah same 3.42s. I feel like I need to upgrade to 3.73s, but I'm going to wait a while. May see how it does this year and do that this winter. Trying to get a house here in the next 6 months.

yeah I'll have to play w/ it and see how it does. I'm going to try and get back out and play w/ the tune this weekend. I got a few things up my sleeve to try and get the rich idle taken care of. I'm hoping to have it at Beech Bend in the next 2 weeks to see how it does.
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Thanks man! Yeah I thought about the plenum thing the other day. Wish I had thought about that before I put it on the first time and still hasn't installed the dizzy! Next time!

 

What cam are you running?

 

the swap looks good man. im gona do the HSR with my 383 soon and im putting the intake together... just found out that i had the wrong front fuel crossover tube... they gave me one fromt he comander 950 in my fuel rail kit....

my question is... how much room do u have with the distributer and the fuel pressure regulator? i ditched the holley stamped peice of Cr@p and got a kirban billet one... i just want to know how i should mount it bc its alil larger than the holley one. i can see ur return line is on the opposite side of the distributer... i have mine the opposite way so the return line is on the inside... bc i cant see how ur gona tune the fuel pressure with the adjustment on the inside of the intake.

i just dont kno if i have enough room with the distributer. anyone running the kirban? where and how?

def get it to the track or dynod to see how much its gained tho

 

Yeah I put the return line on the outside of the fuel rail b/c I thought it would be easier to get the fuel lines around the distributor that way. I looked at it the opposite way, but there wasn't going to be much room w/ the return line on that side. Part of me wishes I had done it the opposite way, but once I get the fuel pressure set it is staying that way.

I'm not going to tune any w/ the AFPR really... I just wanted the AFPR so that I could make sure the pressure was up around 47-48psi at WOT. I still need to bump it up some, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I am going to get to the adjustment point. After it is set, then I am just going to set the injector constant based on the fuel pressure and tune the MAF tables.

It's at about 36 or so now w/ the vacuum, and 41 w/ the vacuum hose removed/clamped. I am going to get that fixed this weekend hopefully.
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227/233 .560"/.569" 112 LSA 109 ICL... it is a COMP XE lobe grind... I got it from a company that specialized in LT1 motor parts. They designed specs, and had COMP grind the cam for them. It's basically an in-between of the 224/230 and 230/236 cam. The duration and lift specs are perfect for the heads I have. I'm really interested to see how it performs.

 

i dont know how much room there would be if you ran the return line on the inside of the rail rather than on the outside. i'd have to check that out but i found it much easier to keep it on the outside, using the 90 degree holley fitting pointed towards the rear

 

I have mine exiting on the inside of the rail and it is a PITA to get to but I liked the adjustment outboard just in case.
Nice lift on that cam too.

 

with my adjustment screw on the inside and a long screwdriver i can still get at it. I only needed to adjust it to get the desired fuel pressure i wanted (46psi wot) and from there i made fuel adjustments via the prom

 

Thanks. The lift played a huge role in why I picked that cam. After I smoothed out the TFS heads, I had them flowed and the flow peaked at right around .550" then plateaued, so I wanted to get a little more lift than the "peak" so the dwell time at peak flow would be the greatest. That combined with the high ramp rate of the lobes made it very appealing to my setup.
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Cool. I will need to play w/ that this weekend hopefully and just get it set at about 46-48psi WOT... from there I just got to sit w/ the laptop and play w/ the tune.

 

Just a little update...

I ordered my LC-1 today, and I'm going to get a better intake track than stock in the car. I noticed even on short blasts under the hood popping the throttle, that at high RPM applications there was some deflection of the factory rubber pieces. Not much, but it would indicate to me that it is trying to collapse the intake tubing some. (Currently I have the stock intake tubing w/ the factory Firebird box cut up and K&N filter) I'm going w/ a 3" piping and conical filter to see if that helps any. I probably won't notice anything, but for the price it can't hurt...

The LC-1 will help in getting the AFRs right on WOT and p/t. It runs great at p/t now, but i'm interested to see where the a/f is really at.

Once I get some street time in the car I'll head to the track and post up some #s!!!

 

good deal man! good luck with that

 

My former HSR I milled down 5mm on top just to make a little more clearance.

I think I will do the same with my new one, just to have a little more room.

I have the same cam lobes you have, what valve springs do you have and what seat pressure have you installed them at? They are pretty aggresive lobes so I had som valve float last year, now I have bigger springs in.

/N.

 

Aww crap... you would ask that question!

I can't remember exactly what springs are on there. I got them from Total Engine Airflow when they were still in Kentucky... and he installed springs for me, but I can't remember which ones. I know they are good to .600 lift, and have a very high seat pressure, but can't remember if they are COMP are the TFS springs.