Last night I finally passed the 500 mile mark on my 355. I took it for a belt. unofficially my car ran 13.43, 13.02, 13.33.

However, I still have a problem with the engine. I am getting a code 43.

When you start it from a cold start, it will idle roughly at 1000 rpms. the tach reading seems ok but what's up with the engine shakin all over the place. The idle starts to smooth out at about 200 degrees.

When you start it on a warm start, it doesn't want to start or stay running on it's own for that matter. after awhile it will stay running on it's own but you gotta drive it around for about 10 min.

I also have that infamous surge but, I have seen so many different answers as to what to do to cure the 305 to 350 syndrome. That I think I'll just go study some specs between the two engines and do some research according to my setup unless some one here knows the right method.

I used the stock 305 intake. measured up the same to a 350 intake ports.
The heads are 1.94/1.5. 64 cc and the stock TBI

I need a fellow ASE response here. I can't figure this one.

 

What are all of the car's mods, and how did you measure those times?
What were the 60's and the MPH?

 

Mine was doing the same thing as your then I was told that it wasn't getting enough air, so I installed a 454 tbi and 65 psi injectors, that took care of the surge and the runnin rough....but another question is how did you manage to get 13's out of your car.........all I can get is a 14.2 but then again I have a 305 chip. Let me know what you find out.

 

You try stabbing your distributor back in again? Could be off a little bit, what's your timing set at?

 

code 43 is a pretty common thing to get after a swap. Mine did that as well becasue i wasnt running enough timing and the computer wouldnt see any knock when it went into the check routine. Youll need to tune it if you want to get teh engine to run right and the hard starts/surging to stop (basically dump the stock chip for a custom bin done by you) and its also a good idea to dump the stock sruff sitting on top of your motor and get a larger tbi and a decent flowing manifold.

 

car mods...ok here we go:

350 punched 40 over
turned crank 10 down on mains and rod lobes
aluminum i beam rods
aluminum dished pistons
cam looked stock but, my friend says it's a fuely cam
My dial caliper is busted so I couldn't measure and I wasn't to inquisitive on it. just wanted to get this beast together before it started getting cold.
The heads, according to my casting number list, are 1.94/1.5 used on 305 and 350's from 87 and up. (centerbolt)
The intake I used was from the orignal 305 ( stock 2 barrel aluminum intake ) I measured it before using it and double checked the specs in my book. The measurements and the spec book confirmed that the ports openings were the same for stock models. So I used the stock intake. I never removed the TB from the intake. I pulled them together and re-installed together.
Stock TB was used.
Seems to be running a little rich. I'm getting a little grey smoke at startup.
I may try a new set of wires seeing as I noticed one of them was leaning on the exhaust and burned a hole in the insulation. That may improve things but, I can't be sure.
I will keep you posted.

Oh and by the way, the method I used was my buddy sitting shot gun. he had a stop watch and he would tell me when to go and I would tell him "mark" when I hit the finish line. The readings aren't official so I may be running a little slower under an official clock. My speed was about 95 m.p.h approximately. I know I should've been paying more attention to my speedo but, I was worried about redlining again. Last time I didn't pay attention to the tach, I went over redline to 6k. needless to say it drove fine that night but, the next day I started my engine to squeaks and knocks. Hence the reason why I now have da tree fitty in dere now.

Keep in mind I'm in chicago. stoichiometric ratio is 14.7:1 over here

 

Timing was set at 6 BTDC because this engine came from an 80-84 truck according to my casting chart. I know from experience with pre-86 SBC's that most of them are timed at 6 in most applications so I figured that would be a good place to to set it. I was concerned with what the ECM might think about that since the ECM is expecting 0 TDC. However, I figured that 6 isn't much for the ECM to learn and I am more concerned about detonation then what the dumbass computer thinks. but, maybe I'm wrong. can you safely time an early 80's SBC at 0? I just don't feel like rippin this bastard out again.

 

I suck with words like "custom bin" which chip should I pull? KAM, RAM, ROM, PROM, EEPROM? See my teacher kinda sucked at teaching these things so I only know what the chips do BASICALLY but not completely. I don't even know which chip is which. All I really know is how to remove a chip. I don't even know which is which. And I never done it before. needless to say I don't attend that school anymore. How do you set a custom bin?

When you say you weren't running enough timing where was your timing set at and where did you have to set it?

 

read the DIY-PROM board, there is alot more to it than just pulling a chip out.

 

You'll be in for a big surprise then, if you ever get to a track. You have a rebuilt 350 with an unknown cam pulling though stock heads and a stock factory intake, and stock TBI. I'll guess that you might run 15.0 @ 91 mph on a real track.

You need 280 fwhp and 330 fw ftlbs minimum from a 3500 lb car to run low 13s (e.g. an LT1 4th gen). And if you do run low 13s, you'll trap at 104+ mph, not 95. 95 mph trap in a 3rdgen Fcar is more like a mid 14s timeslip. And it sounds like you don't have nearly enough engine modifictions to run what you think you're running.

I'm not adverse to using a stopwatch for testing & tuning, especially when you can't easily get to a track, and you can find an empty stretch of open road and your rider is running the watch. But don't expect the timing to be accurate to more than 0.15 sec (at both ends of the run), and the distance you used is less than a quarter mile.

The stopwatch data is good for before/after tuning though. Compare the mods you have on your engine to the ones others have here -- then compare what you think you ran to what they ran at the track. You'll see the difference. FWIW.

 

I agree, you aren't running the times you think you are. Maybe high 14s to mid 15s I would guess. Maybe higher considering your tune. IMO, using a stop watch is always a bad idea. It just isn't accurate, bottom line, not with a human operating it.

 

Read my sig, only differance is cam and rods, and TBI......I bet your lookin at a 14's But thats not bad at all for a TBI car.........

 

well right like I said my readings aren't official. No doubt in my mind that he wasn't slow on start and quick on finish to try and make me feel better. I do know this though, with the 305 I had in there and the 350 I have in there now....WOW. This 5.7 was from a 80-84 and it has a 4 bolt main. I can definately feel the benefits of going from a 2 bolt to a 4 bolt. The engine seems more stable. and seems to squeeze out more hp. Maybe it's just in my head but, I race and test at this one section of road that I have been for years. I do know where the quarter mile mark is at so yes I was running a true quarter. However anticipation of where your front end is more accurately determined by an outside eye. But you can't rely on the outside eye to start you accurately. I used to get up to about 75 80 m.p.h. in that stretch with the old motor. I have definately surpassed the 80 mile mark. Hopefully I will get to the track this year before the season is out but, if not. I know for sure I'm going faster and in the words of Bart Simpson, "that ain't not bad" But, I really need some ideas here on what to do with the surging lopey idle thing goin on here and the code 43 is more of my concern right now. if I'm not pulling 13's now maybe I'll at least get close if I can nip this thing.

Thanx guys

P.s. The heads are stock but, They are a rare breed for being stock. They are not 1.84 heads. They are 1.94 heads. I got suspicious at my chart so i pulled them apart and measured. They are what the claim to be. 1.94/1.5
I'm not saying this automatically makes my car a rocket but, assume I have a stock .28 cam. we know that my cylinder is 40 over which lowers compression but with the extra .10 in the heads, what kind of ratios do I have? Did they kind of cancel each other out? This is just my curiosity. My problem begins with a 4 and ends with a 3. I will go read the DIY boards about the whole bin thing.

 

that sounds very similar to my engine. 72cc heads with 1.94/1.5 valves and a copy of the 929 cam. The four bolt mains wont really help with stability, well, unless somehow your old motor was coming apart inside, and thier probably not really even necessary for a street motor. Theyre insurance. When i first got my car together it definatly did seem alot faster then the LO3 but it only g-teched at around 15.3 sec in the 1/4 mile. Not fast but probably a full second or more than the L03. Definatly something i could feel. One of the beauties of an engine swap in these cars is that you really can never be dissapointed because theres nowhere to go but up as far as performance is concerned. This is not to say that your car is slow but with a good set of heads, intake, cam, higher stall converter, gearing and tuning the feeling you get now with the new motor will be three fold with good mods.

 

oh, did you replace the stock esc/knock sensor with the ones for the 350? They are different. Youll probably want to mess with the timing as well. The truck heads seem to like more base timing then stock to run well and idle nice with the stock chip. That thing should have excelent idle quality, even with the stock chip since the durations of the cam are probably fairly small. Get a data logging program so you ahve some feed back and mess with the stock fp and timing, and maybe consider a set of 55 pph injectors as well. Those things should get teh motor to run fairly decent.

 

I didn't replace the ESC yet. I was trying to decide if I should get the 350 ESC because the motor is a 350 or if I should get the 305 ESC because the ECM is set for a 305.

BTW I found something I wrote down during construction of my motor. they are numbers from the cam. I don't remember which numbers came from which part of the cam but, I did remember writing them in my chilton's to remember to check them out and find out what kind of cam I have, //here they are :
CWC
13/16
c4 d4
ep 1
112A

Can someone tell me what the heck I have pushin on my lifters?

 

never seen specs like those before....

 

they're not specs. they're the casting number that were on the cam.

 

lol, yeah i figured. unforteanutly (sp?) i cant help ya....

 

oh