This swap is on my 85Z28. Started today and took the motor out and and am still inspecting it. So far all the problems are in the number 8 cylinder area. A lifter is bad and is concave shaped on the end and the last lobe on the cam is almost completely round as suspected originally by my mechanic friend. Also, pistons have fuel wash and rings will need replacing. Cut and injured my hands several times...lol. Jammed a pinkie into the flywheel while trying to loosen converter bolts and lowered the arm of a jack while I was still holding it and pinched inside of thumb. All in all a good day...lol. I will post a few pics but i have several:

Cam lobe...(This is bad....)

 

Lifter: I am taking pics of all this as I go along...

 

My new aluminum ported and polished heads:

 

So, my best friend was right. The cam went flat due to fuel wash. What a shame really. Will finish checking the rest of motor out tomorrow and put it all back together and install it. That means my HSR setup is now for sale. It will at least include the HSR plenum, intake and fuel rail setup, holley 58mm TB, the msd billet small cap dizzy with the seperate msd coil blaster, fuel pressure gauge, Autoprom for chip burning, wiring harness and comp (Speed density) w/custom chip that will need reburning and the custom CAI setup I had made. I will miss the fuel injection setup. It was badass....

 

If I had a car to put it in still, I'd take it off yer hands. mine's just being stripped day by day.

Why making the change if you liked the efi so much? Don't want to take the chance of it happeneing again?

Another question.. Have any idea WHY the fuel wash happened?

 

I made the change because for 16 months I couldnt figure out why my car would sputter between certain rpms. I had a chip burned for me at Exotic Muscle in tucson. Well, I finally figured out with the help of Vernw here on the boards that my fuel tables were way off and didnt match up. So the motor was dumping excess fuel and since I dont drive it much I hadnt really noticed anything except the sputtering. In the meantime I bought my own chip burning equipment from Craig moates and just as soon as I got it my car went down with a flat lobe in my cam. My mechanic determined it was due to fuel wash.

I had been trying to learn the difficult process of chip burning while waiting for the cam swap (which would be bigger than the one I had), which I figured wouldve taken me probably 3 months to retune with the bigger cam. Well, I decided I didnt want to wait. I want to drive my car. I got sick of it all. Just an unfortunate chain of events. I am happy about switching but I will miss the efi. Now I am just waiting to finish up the install of the motor.

Today we looked at the rod and main bearings and found a few main bearings were too worn (5K miles on this motor), so we replaced those. Then we hit a snag with the valve springs etc and got that taken care of. I was putting in a ported set of 492 heads but decided to go aluminum instead. I'm glad I did. New 1.6 roller rockers with a solid lifter cam etc and this baby will be in excess of 500hp. We will put it on a dyno when its done.

 

...

 

Pic of main bearing:

 

Pic of ring wash...

 

Pic of main bearing...

 

Update on swap:

Got it all together and went to break in the new solid lifter cam and ran out of gas half way thru. Then had trouble with a miss and couldnt find it and subsequently lost the new cam. Number one lobe gone. Put in another cam with dura lube lifters this time and it works fine. We put in a new MSD 8361 dizzy and found out it was bad and took it back for another. Put that one in and it was bad too. So am going with 85551 instead w/ no vacuum. At this point I am not worried about losing another 2 miles per gallon. Drove it around all day yesterday. It is fast and the cam is awesome. Got a small oil leak at the chrome timing cover. Have to take it off and replace with a steel one. I should of known this would happen. Chrome sucks!!! I had to replace the chrome water neck because it warped from the heat and I shoulda learned my lesson then. So we still dont know what was causing the miss. I have my buddies carb, dizzy, wires and msd box on the engine from his race car and we will take them off one at a time to see where the problem lies. Process of elimination. Other than that I am very happy with the results. The aluminum heads are awesome. Car never gets over 160 on the temp gauge. Will be installing bowtie overdrives lockup kit for the 700R4 raptor tranny and also their tv cable setup and I'm done. Then I can move on to finishing my ford 9 inch rear.

 

How much for the HSR setup????

 

Here's the list...if I missed something I will add it later. I will list the price I paid for it and then the asking price:

intake/plenum.......299.........200
rails w/afpr.....220......150
30# ford svo's.....300......150
fuel presure gauge......50.......free
CAI.....elbow (80) pipe (100) filter (45).....100 for all
msd 8366 distributor........280........200
msd blaster coil........40.......free
painless 90/92 harness.........289.........225
comp (90/92) w/chip......125
auto prom....325.......275 (comes with program and files w/chips)
58mm holley throttle body.....399......300
MSD digital 6 box...289.....200
Comes with all paperwork and manuals that I can find.


Total: 2716.00...selling for 1950 includes all correct sensors and connectors etc at no charge. Thats over 20% off. I think thats fair. This is all you need to convert to speed density. The entire setup has 1K miles on it. The only thing I did on the harness was clip off the fuel pump wire so I could temporarily use it on the carb setup. There is plenty of wire left for it to hook up again. Otherwise the harness is intact. If you have questions please ask.... I would prefer not to piece it out. Another day or two and it goes on ebay.

 

well.. here is my problem. the stuff i have on my car now.. is..well.. more tuned for my engine... and all i need is the actual intake and fuel rails. if ur not going 2 sale those 2 seperate, thats cool.

 

az406 tpi...why are you wanting to change anything on that car? you know its a 10 second car right? chris had that built at azautomasters. if it would hookup it should do high tens. he was pullin 12's at like 128 or something...what it needs is some paint.lol

 

Capt,

I am looking for a CAI. If you are interested in selling seperately, pm me with some pics with dimensions of tubing, etc.

Thanks.

 

yea, but a HSR would be better for it as well as some 210 heads for the 400 block. the TPI is good, but runs out of steam and the 195s are good heads, but 210s would b also better. plus i can throw a direct port 300 shot on it. as far as paint.. yea. still needs it. need $ though. lol. (i say that yet i want a HSR.. go fig)

 

I already have a committment from someone to buy the entire setup for 1925.00. I will be getting a deposit shortly. Thanks for the interest.