I have a 91 camaro with the goodwrench 350 truck replacement engine, vortec heads, mild cam, 700 holley dp carb with the hanger18 mod, and a single turbo setup. Finally got the car started and running last week, and since all the dyno tuning shops here are booked for the next month to two, i wanted to see if i can tune myself to reduce the dyno tuning cost and to get this on the road. I have the msd 6AL-2 programmable box with my setup and my hei type distributor is locked out. Cant figure out why my RPM gauge isnt working so im not sure what the rpm is at right now and i believe my base timing is 8 BTDC with around 5 psi of fuel pressure. It says right now my A/F ratio is at high 10's to mid 11's on idle with the hat removed. I have 67 main jets, .078 PVCR's, 91 secondary jets in there right now. Since my setup and Vortec350s10 (Ryan) have very similar setups, i went with what hes at now and doing good with. Right now i have two wastegates running 7.3 psi springs so im guessing it will see 4 to 5 psi at the hat. I am new to turbo engines and to timing/tuning, but i can follow directions when given seeing how i got the car started with Project89's help and guiding. Any and all help will be appreciated, i will get pictures up in the next few days

 

the msd box should have a tach output i belive u need to hook the factory tach wire, usually white wire to this location on the box, if the box dosent have that hook it to the negative terminal on the coil

 

Yes i have that hooked up. I guess i will need to check to make sure its the right wire. Its weird as well that my tranny temp gauge goes out of wack when the engine has ran for about 5 minutes. The needle flys all over the place. Any special port on the tranny your supposed to hook the sensor to?

 

look on the cap were the coil is there should be 3/4 terminals one of them will be labeled tach try hooking the wire there

trans temp should be in the trans pan

 

I once had the wire connected to the cap and had a coil melting problem. I called summit and they said the tach wire needs to be hooked up to the box. If i put a text light to the tach wire should it light up at all? Im afraid the the coil may melt again. I am not the one that installed the gauge so i havent really looked into where the wires go. The trans temp sensor needs to be on the pan its self? Which i need to drill and weld a bung? I have the sensor now somewhere on the top, wondering what the heck its reading

 

yes temp sensor should be in the pan ,
as far as hooking the tach wire to the tach terminal that should deff not make the coil melt .only way i see that happening is if the tach wire is shorted to ground somewere along the wire

i would get an aftermarket tach and hook it up anyways as the stockers arent known for there acuracy

 

Well i guess once i have the car running properly ill get a bung welded in there. As for the tach, its an aftermarket gauge along with 11 others. I just need to make sure i have the right wires going to the right place. Besides the tach and tranny gauge, you have any ideas on how to get this thing running farily decent? To start with, what should my idle be at with an auto? What should my idle a/f ratio be at?

 

Can bump base timing up. Mid teens high teens or so. Is the msd box controlling timing on boost?
By hei locked out, does that mean you have no advance happening when rpms increase?

I am not sure what distributor you have but basically you want to see 30-36 deg timing by 3000-ish rpms all the way thru redline before boost comes in. As boost comes in generally want to pull 1 deg per psi as a starter. Msd box that has a timing retard function thats boost referenced is the key setup. Allows you full timing at part throttle but safe timing on boost.

Now all setups are different. Some combos may not want alot of timing pulled. Some may want more. My new setup i dont pull timing until 6 psi. Full 35-36 deg as boost hits til 5-6 psi and ramp down slow from there.

 

The msd box controls timing, you basically make ignition curves since its a programmable box http://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-6530 . Yes no advance is happening when RPM's increase. I never got the chance to mess with ignition curves on the computer so i dont really know how to do it yet. My distributor is just a regular type hei. So how will i know if im at 30-35 degrees? My timing tab goes to i believe 12 or 16 advance and once the indented indicators off that timing tab i have no clue what its at? Just to ask, when dropped my distributor in at 10 BTDC, i started the engine and messed with the distributor a bit to get it at 8 BTDC. My timing light has an advance **** on it. When im trying to get timing, would i put that **** at 0? or would i put it at 10? since i dropped the distributor in at 10 BTDC?

 

Anyone?

 

The **** is there to zero out the timing mark. When you zero out the timing mark, whatever setting the **** on is your advance. So for example when you set your distributor to an 8 degree base advance, with the vacuum disconnected, the timing mark will line up with the 0 of the timing tab when you set the timing gun's dial to 8 degrees. Likewise when you rev the engine and it advances to say 30, the mark will line up with 0 on the tab when the dial of the gun is set to 30. And if the timing is actually at 35 degrees advance, but the dial is set to 30, the timing mark will line up with the 5 degrees advance mark. I usually have someone hold a certain rpm while I adjust the dial on the gun. Once the mark zero's out, I know the advance for that rpm.

 

Okay, well got a few things done. I got my tach working. I have glowshift gauges and with having an HEI type coil, the gauge needed a filter. I guess now that the tech is running from the msd box, it doesnt require the filter. I took the car around the neighborhood just for a test drive and it ran okay, i have not ran any boost yet. Few things, my idle is around 800-1000, it goes up and down, mostly its in the 900's. The A/F ratio on idle is in the 10's. Running very rich, i havent messed with the carb idle mixture screws etc yet. Where should i be around on idle with the A/F ratio? Also, i have valve cover breathers on both sides, the driver side one smokes, is this normal? And as for the timing, i cant ever get a clear reading. It sorta bounces up and down, i do have a cam in it (XE262H) but im sure i still should be able to get a clear reading. What would cause this? I do have a harbor freight timing light, but it was rated pretty good for other customers. Here are a few phone pics. Ill get better shots from a camera

 

few more, its very messy at the moment. Will be repainting and repolishing everything.

 

Any updates?