It's been a long time since I've been on but I should be back a while. I enlisted, went through all my training, and got stationed in Wyoming and put off my motor swap for over 3 years, but I finally got around to it and got the engine "running" today, although extremely poorly.

My current setup:

Manual transmission (T5)

-350 block (880) with vortec heads (12558062) - came from a 1999 suburban
-Edelbrock performer vortec carb intake manifold
-Stock 305 TBI with ultimate mods done
-350 injectors (#61 I believe)
-Fuel pressure set to 25lbs (with the vortec style fuel pump apparently rated for 450hp)
-Hooker 2055 shorty headers and y-pipe
-Elgin 1136 Cam ( 210/215 @ .050, .462/.470" lift and cut on a 110* LSA advanced to a 106* ICL)
-RBob's dynamic EBL computer

A while back, people helped me with the tune for the elgin 1136 cam in the 305 and I got the motor running pretty well. However, I'm at a loss on what I need to do for this motor now. I'm not very well educated on tuning at all, so I don't know the best places to start, and what to even look at when tuning. I used tunerpro before, but honestly people here helped me with the tables and the VE learn feature of the Dynamic EBL was extraordinarily helpful.

I got the motor up and running, but it backfires with higher throttle, takes a long time to throttle up, and has almost NO power. I was able to drive up and down the street, but it struggles having enough power to even get moving in first gear without stalling out. Flooring the pedal barely does anything as well. I set the valve lash with the motor out of the car cold following procedures I found online. I'm not sure if this is recommended, or if I should try and set them with the motor in now, potentially I set the valves too tight?


Does anyone have a similar setup where I can use their tune as a base tune, or know what I should be attempting to look at first? I took some spark advance tables that were provided (with the EBL) for 5.7 vortec heads, but the car still needs a lot more tuning to even get it driveable. With the condition of the tune, the car isn't driveable enough to use the VE learn feature.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

I tried messing around with the main spark table, advancing things a bit but it didn't seem to help.

I'm beginning to suspect that I tightened the rocker arms too tight, so I'm going to try and re-set my valve lash tomorrow with the engine running. I have the motor running at least well enough to idle mostly.

 

I think I had my base timing WAY to far retarded. I thought it was set at 0, but when I double checked, that was not the case.

I advanced it to 10* at set the tune to that and was able to drive around pretty well. However, I forgot to plug the ESC module back in when I tried datalogging/VE learning so I'm not sure if I should just forget all that stuff and start back with the base tune I had this morning (after I set the timing right and the car drove fine.)

At least it's driveabel now!