Megasquirt? Factory injection setup is insufficient? Is megasquirt just the computer, or is it injectors, manifold and everything?

Secret street? Uhh, not what I had in mind, but yea... I'm not sure they'd let me on the track yet, I still have to bolt down my battery with a 3/8" bolt and whatnot.

I don't think any of us here have any experience with a cage, except Stephen, I think he's got a 10 point or so in his 9 second alcohol camaro. You'd see his car at the track if you've been there much (I've never been yet.)

 

No, the factory injection system uses a mass airflow sensor for one thing. The injectors and such are very well suited to make 155 hp and no more.

The megasquirt will basically just replace the stock ecu. It uses your existing manifold and injectors and stuff, you just have to wire the stock ecu harness to the MS harness. I will, however, replace the stock injectors with ~40 lb/hr ones. Stock fuel pump goes too.

It's great because I can do anything with it. Control boost electronically, launch control, even traction control.

 

See sig, I finally got a video, when the car is running. I couldn't get the line lock to hold it in place this time. Guess I didn't get enough pressure in the line.

 

Update, Jay? Wiped any more cams lately?

 

haha, not yet, working on it though.
I got a 1992 Delta 88 as a winter beater. I've got MANY upgrades planned in the near future:

-home made rod end/poly LCA's (want some boxed poly LCA's?)
-home made rod end adjustable TA
-weld on LCARB's

And then the fun stuff;
A ginormo cam. Solid flat tappet, 240/240@.050", 108LSA. I also bought 1.6 roller tip rockers in a self aligning style. (need a compxe268H with 1000km on it? )

A better clutch, probably centerforce DF, along with my new hydraulic throwout bearing.

And finally, 4.10 gears with a detroit true-trac.

And maybe, just maybe, i'll finish up my sub box this year...

How's your brothers TA?!?!

 

I'm going back to the JY to find some 3.73 and 4.10 gears, hopefully this weekend...
I just got off the phone with summit, $915 later.... Boy, that makes it hard to swallow for a while here...
I got my detroit true-trac, along with an oil pan, bearings, rear gear install kit, and a wideband kit from summit.

 

Cool, what wideband are you going with?

Hmm.. I was thinking (bask in the day) of getting a comp 262.. the 268 just has some more duration, right? That's mighty tempting, but I think there's some other work the TA needs right now. Apparently the bumper got messed up.

It either needs to be shot, or given some good attention in the next little while.

Oh, and I finally got the turbo 240 running. Took it to a meet today. Since I'm on a rough tune it is real hard to stop myself from just mashing it and seeing what happens. I guess I'm too afraid that what I will see happening, is bits of motor everywhere. Took it to a 240 meet today and everyone seemed pretty impressed. They liked the fact that I can plug a laptop into my car. They told me I need something to come up on the screen saying "danger to manifold".

edit: What the hell happened around here? All of a sudden I am seeing lots of threads about non-thirdgens, and they aren't getting locked?

 

I was going to get the LC-1, but i'm getting summit house brand instead. Comes with a 2 1/16" gauge too. I'm probably going to just use it temporarily to tune it, then set it in the garage. I don't want to mount the gauge permanently. If I did i'd use put a vacuum gauge, and put them both in A-pillar pods, but I don't want my car to look like it's out of fast and the furious either. It was $240 for the kit from summit.

Yea, the xe268 is 224/230. You saw my car with it in there didn't you? It's a lot tamer than I thought it would be. Great power, but I want to rev it higher.

haha, danger to manifold, that sounds familiar eh? :groan:. Have you given the 240 a good run for the money yet? Is it quite noticeable? Guesstimated HP now?

ouch, little brother run the car into something?!? Well hopefully it's fixable, it's about time that car got some performance modifications!

 

Yeah, I didn't want a-pillar gauges either, so I made this:

I find that having the wideband gauge makes for some good peace of mind. $240 is a pretty good deal, too.

I think I saw your car with it, but I think that might also have been when a few lobes had already been wiped. And it still had pull to it.

I haven't gone WOT on the 240 yet.. I am sorely tempted to floor it and see what happens, but my tuning requires that I start in the low range and slowly work my way up. So far I've hit 8 PSI at 51% throttle and 3800 RPM. Assuming I can tune it well, I should be in the 220-250 hp range, which equals mid-high 13s, according to the guys on the 240 forum. I went to a 240 club meet yesterday and everyone thought it was so cool that I could tune the ECU with a laptop. haha.

Yeah, someone was gonna hit the trans am from behind or something, and he jumped out of the way and bumped a pole? In any case, the tear that was there from when I crashed it opened up again. No real damage though.

 

Yea, I was going to get the kit off moates for $200, but I didn't want to put in a separate order, etc etc. So now I get a gauge too, and it's $240. We shall see how it works, mid throttle and primaries is what I mostly need it for.

oh, I wiped lobes off the lunati 268, that was a... well, probably a good cam, it ran kinda crappy due to the lobes... Boy the xe268h runs circles around that now. I miss driving it already, and it's only been parked 2 weeks or so

Hmm, 230ish HP isn't bad from such a teeny engine, you must get amazing mileage. But you'll never pull the front tires off the ground in an import
I plan to, with the new suspension, cam.... oh, and about a 250HP shot... cough.
What's your wastegate set at? Or, what max boost do you think it'll receive/handle?

I thought tuning FI was usually done with a laptop in the car..? Isn't that the "norm" in the FI (err, "tuner") world?

Hmm, think he can find a new bumper in the yards? Or is that one fixable? Is it being driven now?

Was the rear suspension ever fixed up? Or just leave it?

 

I guess 230 on a 2.4l is something like getting 460 from a 305? lol. It's 'at 7 psi' now, but I saw it hit 8 or 9 the other day. The internals are good to 350 whp, and people have made 700 on the stock block. It sucks that you can't find things like windage trays for these motors though..

Uh, you might want to be careful about using the nitrous off the line. Isn't that how you blow it up?

I dont know. Most people dont use a laptop while driving. Lots of people just cheap out and get a safc, which is this little computer that reads your MAF and TPS signals, and alters the signal to the ecu. It's really considered a bandaid solution. None of that crap for me though.

The car is being driven, it's one of those things you can't even see if you are a block away.. Dunno about finding an 85-90 T/A bumper in the yards though.. Unless pick n' pull has really stepped it up. :P There's an all fbody junkyard here in Vancouver though, so maybe I'll have to hit them up. As for the suspension, it was the front, and I don't know. lol. I think I'll start looking for a Formy or an IROC in a year or so.

 

Anybody want a set of stock rear LCA's that have been boxed, painted black, and have poly bushings installed? Poly bushings are $60, and I paid $20 to have them pressed in... Did that last year.
Like $20 or something?

I'm doing up some rod end LCA's this winter.

 

That's what 2 grand worth in turbo parts gets you when your v8 is missing 4 cylinders.


..and bolted into a nissan.


But screw it, I'm happy. for now.

 

166RWHP at 5600RPM? And 169ftlbs of torque? Huh, that doesn't seem like a lot... I mean, I know the car is light, and that's about 220HP or so, but still... Is it fast? Is that what you were expecting on the graph?
Needs a V8. Oh man, a 350 in THAT car would ROCK the kazbah!

 

Well, I was hoping for 200. But I'm told that mustang dynos read quite low compared to others, and it probably would be pretty close to 200 on a dynojet or something. Gotta be happy about 160 ft-lbs at 3200 rpm though... For an import.

I need a front mount intercooler badly. We had to pull a LOT of timing because it was knocking. And that was with a stock turbo outlet/downpipe/clogged cat, so once I put in these shiny aftermarket ones that I just bought, that should help increase it a fair bit. Then the next step is to pony up for a slightly larger turbo.

Yeah, if I won a small lottery or something, it'd see an ls1 for sure. Who knows, it still might one day, once I'm on an engineer's salary.


Tucked yours in for the winter yet?

 

Oh yea, a month or two ago. I couldn't keep up with the oil leaking... I'm driving a stellar Delta88 now. I've got $1200 worth of parts coming from my brother in Alaska in november. It's going to be cammed up and maybe nitrous as well.

 

mmm, sounds fun. You could probably kick up quite the rooster tail of snow with that thing.

uhh, so looking at my datalogs, the dyno tech screwed up. the TPS was only reading 93% on all of my runs. I think he pushed the floor mat under the pedal by mistake. I noticed it was pushed forward when I got in to drive away, but at the time I didn't think anything of it. Then when looking at my logs.. yeah. So I'll get rid of my tiny stock downpipe and old cat, replace them with the new parts here, go back and hopefully that'll put me into the 200s.

 

Hey Guys, I've been on this forum for a while, but never checked out the Canadian section, then I saw this thread.
Are there any Calgary car clubs at all anymore?
I have a '90 GTA 5L 5speed. (black on black) all stock.

 

Not really, at least not active.

I may have seen your car a few weeks ago....
Doing any work on it? Anything planned for the winter?

 

Too bad about the car clubs, Kind of nice if we could all have one big meet before the snows on the ground for good.
What do I have planned for it? pretty much everything, as it needs everything to be a nice car again. Including a new engine, as the 305 in there right now blows a little blue at intersections and so on. But asides from that full suspension upgrades, I'd like to get pretty much everything suspension oriented for this car, through ws6store.com or whoever. I need the crossmembers, and just... everything. I really want the car to perform on the track, already it handles like a dream, but if I could keep up (to at least SOME degree) with the sportbikes (laptimes) on the track, I'd be pretty damn happy.
but yeah, I'm looking for a crate engine, probably through this online company, being these guys. http://www.speedomotive.com/ps-473-6...er-engine.aspx
^525 hp for $8k is a damn good deal, especially with the two year unlimited mile warrenty.

All that and a new Rad and heater core, as acidic rad fluid over a three year storage term made short work of both.
But both cost money, so I'll know soon enough just whats in the budget.

 

Yowza, you've got deep pockets for this winter eh?

aww, crate motor? Weak. You may as well just buy a new car, there's no excitement in buying a crate motor, you can barely call it yours.

Good call on suspension, what parts do you figure?

 

I can see what your saying about the crate engine, but if you know were to know as little about engines & their technical aspect as I do, you'd know why I dont want to **** around with such an intergral part of the car. I just want something extremely reliable, that performs. Frankly, at my level of knowledge, that equates to a pre-built engine, and nothing else. I'd build my own, if I knew what I was doing, but that is far from the truth, so my options are limited. My suspension options are whatever I can get for $4k. which is hopefully a lot.
That and the new high-capacity Rad to accomidate the new engine. I dont have a whack load of funds, but I want to get this old (neglected car) the work that it needs to shine like new.

 

Yea, when I joined this site I didn't know much about engines either, but after building one, now i've kinda got it down.
The thing is, if you just cop out and buy a crate engine you'll never learn. So when something inevitably goes wrong, or you want/need to tweak the carb/timing/etc you'll be stuck.
Not many mechanics around that are well versed in high perf carbed engines, or else they'll charge you crazy high $$$.

You should be able to get *everything* on the suspension for $4k. I only dropped $1k for everything, but it was just replacing stuff, not high end parts.

 

Go to www.calgaryfirebirdclub.com and hit the message board link in the top right corner.
Monthly meetings and we go to every show n shine possible...so yes, we are an active club.

 

I'll be damned, I forgot about that place. It spans all gens though, but still cool.

 

Not a terribly active forum iirc...

Hey Jay do you have any old Qjets layin' around by any change?

 

None that are complete. Some parts, and some torn up cores. The 'bird acting up in the cold now?

 

Yeah. It's also getting pretty bad mileage despite having stock jets and rods (well it has DR secondaries but whatever). I've messed around with it about as much as I can stand to. Now I want to either find one in good shape or get my hands on a core that I can rebuild again.

 

Hmm, I don't think anythings wrong with that core that you've got.
Might need a rebuild with a new fuel filter, re-check float level, and lean stop on the primaries. It might be going into enrichment too early.

You could always tear one off a caprice or something, bolt it on and try it as is.

You're sure the choke is coming off fully eh? Not hanging up or nothing? Are you in Calgary now or Vancouver?

 

Is there any Active clubs for Camaros in Cal anymore or what?

 

I'm in Vancouver. Yeah I've been thinking of grabbing a junkyard one and just trying it.. The choke is coming off fully, that's for sure. But when the engine is stone cold it doesn't come on fully, I don't think. My parents didnt want me to touch it though, since they took it to a 'shop' where a 'mechanic' 'adjusted' it. :S

It's not like the thing has too many miles on it since the last time it was rebuilt though. The only thing I can really think of is maybe the power piston spring is too strong.

Er, lean stop? Refresh my memory?



Maybe Gen-3? Check the first post in this thread.

 

If it isn't coming on fully you can try a new choke thermostat, Napa stocks those for ~$30.
I'm notoriously untrustworthy of "mechanics". Unless they have grey hair they probably don't know squat about carbs.

You didn't replace the power piston spring did you? If it's stock it should be fine, but that's another thing you'd get from a "new" JY core.

The lean stop is the "screw" that you had tightened in all the way before. I forget if we set it to spec or just screwed it out some. If it's not letting the piston go down to full lean, then it's not letting the rods get far enough into the jets most of the time.

Is your brother keen on rebuilding a q-jet?

 

Well apparently they had a new choke thermostat put in, and I verified that when I had a look. It's like its temperature range is too narrow or something.

I used whatever power piston spring was in there before I got it, and mind you I got that carb from a buick in the JY so I have no idea how it ran before I touched it.

Ok, I remember that screw now. I think you just gave it a rough estimate. I suppose that makes sense that it could be that though. Maybe next time I'm home I'll try giving it a half turn in or so.

Uh, I don't think he'd be willing to try rebuilding it. I kind of suspect that I am the only one that ever even pops that hood, lol. Well, other than this mechanic, that is. in any case I'm seriously considering grabbing myself a core from somewhere in Vancouver and rebuilding it myself in my spare time. Put it on at christmas or something.


I miss my T/A.


Oh yeah: PERFECT CAMARO DASHPAD FOR SALE $100CDN, PICS ON REQUEST


hehehe.

 

Well if you've got a caliper with a depth measurement you can set the lean stop. I think I may have done that though, so I guess a turn or so can't hurt. I imagine it's more how it's being driven though.....

Nah, an LG4 is an LG4 is an LG4. The buick probably had the same power piston as a stock q-jet would have (or even leaner).

You gotta teach that brother of yours some wrench turnin'! Just remember that you'll have to do some tweaking at christmas time then, and swap over the newer choke thermostat, etc. You may pick up a core with different air bleeds and whatnot too.
Wait, don't you have a wideband setup? You could swap that onto the TA for a bit and tune the jets and rods.

tsk tsk, hawking your wares in the Calgary thread!

 

I'm assuming it's in Calgary, not Vancouver?

 

Well the thing I was thinking was that maybe the spring I got in my JY carb was non-stock. Afterall the thing did have a rebuild tag on it, so who knows what was changed. But yeah I do suspect some of it is just the way it's being driven. Nonetheless I'd like to try to get it working as best I can.

Oh and screw you, I'm not taking my wideband out of my car, haha. That thing is in there GOOD. Way too complex to bother removing it.



Aye.

My parents want me to get it out of their house.

 

You'd be rich if the spring was too strong, not too weak.

I'd take the dash pad, but I don't know when I'd be in Calgary next.

 

Oh did I say weak? I meant strong. I suppose I could test it if I could get a second one and stick the first in a modified body like Jay did..


I could probably convince my parents to ship that dash pad to you. Either by mail or geryhound or something, split the difference. otherwise, my mom is flying down here on a business trip at the end of november, she could probably bring it with her.

 

You can stretch and/or trim the spring to make it behave the way you want, although you'd probably want to make sure that it's the source of your problem first.

A dash pad might be kind of unwieldy to take on a plane.

 

Oh, yeah, I'd test it first and if I found that it was indeed too strong, I'd trim it a bit.

As for the dashpad, I was thinking large cardboard box + fragile cargo sticker. Just a though.

 

My mom is coming from Enderby to Calgary in two weeks. She could bring a dashpad down to the Okanagan area for free if you wanted. I suppose all the free advice is worth it

Making the spring shorter should make it stronger, it just starts lower. Trimming it shorter than shimming it up to the same height would make it stronger. But yea, you can use my "power piston spring testing apparatus" if you want.

 

That'd be cool, it's only about 20 minutes away.

 

Works for me.

 

Get your little brother to bring it by my house sometime, or bring it to me at work (might be closer, I work in the SE industrial area. 50th and 52nd SE basically.)

Chris I can give you directions to where my mom lives in Enderbush later then.

 

Just an address would probably be fine. How hard could it be to find a place in a town that only has one traffic light?

 

Yea, that's what I meant. I think it's #19 regency. It's a set of condos by the river. It's the 2nd last one on the right, you drive through a gate type of thing (always open). I forget what turn you take off main street to get there though.
hahaha, yea, Enderby is so hurtin'. Retirement is all it's good for.

 

Alright, I'll get my parents to pull it and dust it off, and wrap it in bubblewrap or something. As for getting it to you Jay, I'll tell Evan to drop it off after work or something.


haha, Western Canada TGO Club Shipping!

 

Ok, it should be at my moms house now. Let me know when it's picked up Chris, so I know everything went smoothly.

 

Heh, I was just wondering about that. Your mom rocks.


Oh, and as long as things go more or less according to plan, I will be moving back to Calgary in no more than 2 years from now.

 

Hey, anyone got a vented T/A or powerbuldge hood for sale? PM me.. (for fastest response)