Jeff to the rescue!

I fried my coil by forgetting how the connections were and turned the key on to set the TPS. Jeff brought his old stock one by and still had no spark. Must have fired the 6AL as well

After removing the MSD it fired right up.

That was the easy part.

During break in we had a little oil fire though. Amazingly there was no damage at all.

After fixing the drivers side valve cover seal we're back in business.

The idle is smooth but the valves are really noisy still. It isn't just the loud injectors either. It also feels like the computer is still thinking.

Cam is set at 2 deg advanced and it runs best at 18-20 deg set with a timing light. I set it at 12 for now. It makes it really hard to start though.

So now it's all tuning and valve setting.

 

Congratulations!!! Hope to be doing the same soon.
What do you mean a fire?

 

The valve cover leaked soooo bad that it spewed on the headers and pawoof there was fire.

I tried to blow it out first of course that didn't work. I knew I had a fire extinguisher in my truck (forgot about the one on the wall in the garage) but I grabbed for the water first. It only increased the flame by splashing the oil but another shot of water put it out.
In hind sight I'm glad I didn't use the extinguisher, big mess to clean up.

After charging the battery it starts up fine. I did notice that my feul pressure does act the same as before. It used to start at 42 then go up to 50 with at romp of the gas. Now it stays at 42 and goes up to 44 max. I bumped up the adjuster to 46 and it reacts the same by only going up to 48 at 3.5K

I'm sure ther will be more problems later stay tuned.

 

Break-in? Aren't you using a roller block? Roller blocks don't need an initial break-in like flat-tappet cam blocks (20 minutes @ 2500-3000 fluctuating rpms). Just turn on and go. Or did you mean the GM recommended: at 30 mph roll, floor it to 80 and let the engine slow you down to 30 (repeat for 3-5 times).

 

Congrats Dwayne. Glad to hear it's running again.

 

I was thinking of the rings not the cam. The top ring is a special one able to handle the spray. I'll have to check but I think they are ductile iron rings. I was told by the machinist I needed to do 20 minutes at 2.5k and then put it under load to set the top ring.

Anyway it starts better after I gave the battery a good charge.

I still have a leak from the front of the oil pan though. It's very small and left a quarter sized spot on the garage floor this morning. I'm going to try to seal it from the out side bafore I drop the pan and possibly create more leaks.

I'm still trippin on the feul pressure though.

It doesn't increase the same amount (used to go from 42 to 52) or at the same rate as before (only bumps up 2lbs vs. 10). The only difference in the fuel system is the larger injectors. Would they effect the pressure like that?

 

What type of FI are you running? MAF or SD?

You will need to tune your code for the 383 setup. I'm sure you'll get Kevin to do that. Ductile iron top rings are no big deal. are they chrome faced? they will take longer to break in than moly or straight iron rings but better sealing and long term. Did you soak those lifters before they were installed? they just need any air bled from them. that'a alot of advance to run base but I do the same with my stock RS. I think 10 is where it is now. if I put it at 0 it's a pig. FIRE??????? Oh man you're lucky.

Barry f

 

FP issue is weird, I havent heard of such a small change before... what sorta vacuum you have at idle? The injector size will have no effect on pressure if the pump itself is up to the task. The vacuum will have an effect though, since its vacuum referenced. What you have to keep in mind is the intention of the system is to keep the fuel pressure differential the same at all engine vacuum levels. Its not designed to increase fuel delivery at WOT, its just there to cancel out the effect the vacuum of the engine has on the discharge side of the injector. I know that sounds complicated and may take some figuring out, but in the end you should end up with x psi of fuel pressure actually delivered no matter what engine vacuum.

Maybe I should stop now... I can just see this opening up a can of worms. I have written something up at home that explains it exactly, I should really get it up on my website so people can read it. I'll try and explain more later when I'm not at work

 

I haven't checked the vaccum at idle yet. I'll do that tonight.

I'm still using my stock MAF but have a Kevin special chip.

I'm not sure if the top ring is chrome or not I'll check the reciepts.

The lifters were soaked but wasn't started for a month after they were installed. I did prime the motor though andthe lifters did pump up because I could feel each of them go from spongy/springy to solid. That's good right?

I'm thinking I really need a Diacom now. I attempted to make a cable from scratch but it wouldn't connect to my ECM. bummer

The FP problem has got to be a vaccum thing. Maybe a new AFPR is needed. Everything else is the same. I'm pulling the vaccum from the plenum box and haven't taken the motor past 4k yet. I should have full vacuum at those r's though, which should have bumped the pressure up.

Also how long should I wait and hope the rocker noise goes away before I open it up again and try to adjust first then freak if that doesn't work? I'm mostly worried that the front rockers are not getting lubed because they never spewed oil while priming.
Oil pressure seems fine. It's 20 at idle and just above 60 at 3500+.

I still need to fix my custom tri tip exhaust too. $$$

 

I don't think you have an oiling issue but you never know. I would make sure you have the rockers/valves adjusted properly.

FP is a weird thing to diagnose but Max has the concept right.


try this WINALDL. I have yet to try this but i know a number of guys swear by it. FREE TOO!
http://w1.601.telia.com/~u60113744/s...dl/winaldl.htm

Get an RS232 cable to hack and a few e parts from the shack and your in (suppposedly)

on OP...rule of thumb is 10 PSI per 1K with no more than 50-60.

 

Okay, to set the record straight, it was only a "small" fire, no big deal. Im in the driver seat watching the gauges. Dwaynes in front of the car smiling, happier than a pig in shi* cause its running. Im looking out over the dash and see these flames coming up off the drivers side of the engine. At the same time Dwayne starts yelling "FIRE,FIRE,shi*, f*ck, FIRE!! I scramble out(thecars up on all four jack stands) and Dwayne starts blowing on the fire. And I do the same. Monkey see, monkey do. We quickly realize this wont get the job done, and in the scramble Dwayne comes up with a gallon of Arrowhead, and splashs a couple of quarts on the now licking (and hot) flames. It kind of flared up, and stairing danger right in the face, Dwayne doused it again. With that , the flames knew he meant business and quickly subsided. We treated ourselves to a couple of cold ones, laughed a little, and chalked it up as another learning experience on our way to master mechanics!



:hail:

 

OK, as well as I know you two, the mental image of that had my stomach hurting a minute ago. The thought of you both standing there blowing on the engine is too much!! Dwayne, sorry to laugh at your unfortunate experiance, but HAHAHAHAHA !!!




:lala: :

 

No harm no foul I say.

It did take a minute to see nothing was wrong and then we laughed and thought about what could have happened then saw the fire extinguisher hanging within arms reach.

Any body have a large fire extinguisher sign with arrows or maybe a lighted flashing one that saws "Hey your on FIRE idiot use me"

I'll put his experience in the "under the hood fire" file. Next to the carb backfires that burn all the hair off your face or arm when your setting the timing. Done that before.

 

Tonight I adjusted the timing starting at 4 then 6 then 8 then 10.

At 4 deg advancced it felt like I was taking off in 5 gear everytime I gave it gas. That wasthe feeling till I hit 10 deg advanced.

I still get detonation. Should I get some race gas and try it then?
I thought I heard pinging at start up as well. What does that mean?
Does my chip have too much built in advance (is that possible)?

I didn't have a "T" to set up the vaccuum guage but I adjusted the FP up to 46 then 47 then 48 at idle. All were really rich and burned my eyes when checking the exhaust. I put it back to 42 rev'd it and got 47 lbs at 4K rpm. It moved +4 this time., Maybe something was stuck but now I have FP increase of at leat +4 lbs. So I got that going for me.

I'm going to try to put on my old cat after I gut it and see if my worry of a plugged cat is for real. I want to test it with the cat disconnected as well. I think that cat has some loos e stuf floating around

I also think that my old stock oil pump was better then this one. The pressure just isn't as much or increases the same as before. It usually stays at 45 when before it was 60 at the same RPM's. I used 5W30 Mobil 1 for initial start up. Should I go to 10W30 or maybe even 20W50?

 

Using Mobil 1 on a new engine is a no no!
Break it in on something else first (too slick for setting the rings).

 

Dwayne, I used Kendall 20w50 for my break in, actually I used it for about 4000 miles or so, then went to Mobil 1. Good luck working the bugs out....

 

So what should I do? Drain and replace with ???.
I wonder if some of the valve noise would go away if I used something thicker?