I installed a new 95-97 LT1 Cam in my 91 Camaro and now it's not running right and there's way too many things that I could have done wrong. The symptoms are 0 oil pressure at idle and it will raise up to about 30 when I rev it. When I drove the car it wouldn't go above 4500rpm it felt like it just completely lost torque. I have installed a bunch of goodies when I did the swap, and I'm running fuel Press at about 12.5 PSI. Also my timing isn't exactly on point just yet, and I haven't done any tuning, but I was hoping I could get away with it until I get an EBL setup.
Here's a rundown of the stuff I installed:
Edelbrock TBI intake bored to 50mm
50mm Throttle Body
New IAC valve
New TPS
Adjustable Fuel Press regulator
160 Thermostat
55pph Injectors
New timing chain
Stage 2 Chip from TBICHIPS
Moroso Ultra 40 Wires

 

No tunig? I think you answered your own question.

 

he also said no oil pressure..did you knick a cam bearing really good or something?

 

The poor running is because of the TB and cam change. The two biggest things that effect your tune is a cam swap and a TB swap. The TB isn't so much of a deal with WOT and steady state situations as it is with AE (pump shot) You can introduce a whole lot of air quickly.

The oil pressue is a wierd one, I would verify that your factory guage is reading correctly. It could have been that you bumped the connector or damaged the sensor if you removed it. You would have had to knocked a cam bearing clear out to cause this, it could also be that you didn't adjust the valves correctly.

 

Yep - you went too far without a custom chip. You might be able to adjust timing enough to get it running slightly better, but you're too far gone without custom chip. I ended up at same place with mine - finally got a chip after months of talking to everyone I could find to make me one, and all I got in the end, was running, and barely.

My experience with TBIChips - I waited on him for weeks and weeks, emailing 2-3 times a week - finally got my cash back and found a local programmer that did what he could to get me running and driveable.

My next Camaro I went carb and solved the entire issue! If you can't do your own chips, and have the patience and time for the learning curve, and weeks of adjusting programming everyday, you'll never get where you want to be with the TBI.

 

Well I'm pretty sure I was careful when I installed the Cam. Are there any other symptoms that I would see If I had knocked out a cam bearing? I'm going to readjust my valves just to make sure and I'll look over the oil pressure sensor. I think that the low oil press is what has got me worried the most. It looks like I'll be ordering an EBL from DynamicEFI real soon. for all the replies!!

 

You didn't knock the cam bearing out unless you used a hammer to drive the cam in. You either have a sensor issue, lifter issues, or wiped out a cam lobe after the swap and took out all the bearings. Being that this is a roller motor, my money is on a sensor issue.

Just FYI you still need the burning equipment with the EBL, the EBL is just an add on board for your stock ecm. So you still need a burner, aldl cable, and some chips. If you want to save some money get the equipment now and the EBL down the road.

 

All tuning aside, I'd worry about the oil problem first. Toss a carb on it if you want to rule out the TBI until you can get the rest of the engine running properly.

 

for all the replies. I'll post up what the issue was no matter how embarrasing it is. When I was installing my pushrod's I missed the lifter on more than one of them. Let's just say I was running on about 4 cylinders. So I went out replaced all the pushrods since they were like $4 for a set of 8 at the autoparts store and it fired right up. Sounded much healthier. I'm glad it was soomething easy like that. My oil press looks better, and now I'm working on my tuning issue. Thanks again Will

 

Just woundering, how does it run when everything is good without any tuning (doing this swap in winter months myself) will be doing tuning, but is it driveable?

 

Sorry to hear that man, does anybody around have a tuned chip he could grab?

 

That brings up another question, do I need a CUSTOM chip... JET chip wont work eh?

Im scared to do it myself.. and I dont have time.. and its a headche to me..

I would gladly pay somebody on here to burn me on once i get my heads/cam installed... idk if people do that... PM me if you do, thanks **stops hijacking**

 

Wait wait wait...you forgot to put lifters back in????

Can't say I've ever heard that one before! These aren't lego sets, you're not really supposed to have extra parts . A lot of the "do I need to tune or not" is covered in the sticky thread at the top. Do you need to tune after a cam swap? Depends. Do you want a car that runs right *some* of the time and gets poor mileage? If so then a VAFPR will hold you over until you learn to tune. In other words, just tune it

 

my 210/216@ .05 114 LSA needed a tune real bad. with stock fuel pressure car ran terribly. I replaced heads same time with cam. adding larger TB made things worse. upping fuel pressure improved in some areas made it worse others. adding a GM VAFPR as a fix was a failure. you need a tune badly. but you came to right place to learn.

 

he didn't forget to put lifters in but he didn't get the pushrods on the lifters when he put them in, if that happened how did you adjust your rockers

 

Well like Johnnyboy said I didn't forget to put in the pushrods I just missed the lifter and had it sitting on the block. I unfortunately tried to adjust my rockers and for some reason thought I did it right, but I think instead I bent the pushrods.

Stinger RS to answer your question on how the car ran. There was absolutely no throttle response. Putting the pedal to the floor seemed to hurt it more. There was just too much air at once and it didn't know what to do with it. It was driveable but I wouldn't get on the highway with it. You'd definately need a Custom chip.

I now have an EBL setup and it helped out instantly. I'm still having problems like my O2 sensor acting really erratic, and I can't get my BLM where it needs to be, but I'm still doing research on this stuff.