well first off ill tell you i have a 1985 305 tpi, and after doing a cam/headers swap this winter my car has never ran right since. Heres what i have:
- running rich, i get about 7-8 flashes every 15 seconds which indicates i am running rich i believe. ( and it burns your eyes)
- Another problem is when i start my car (warm or cold) it revs up to around 2000 rpms and then slowly down to where it should. I don't believe it ever did this before so what could this be?
- seems like ive checked everything over 3 or more times now and just have no idea. Timing is set at 6* BTDC, Wires are in correct place...now lol, plugs, rotor all good. Cant find any vaccum leaks, set IAC and so on. Can somebody help me out here! thanks!

 

Did you check for any vacuum leaks? Did you burn a new prom. I bet some of your problems are associated with eht enew cam. What are the specs? These cars don't like cam swaps without a custom tune.

By the way: Where in ohio are you?

 

well i didnt offically check for any vaccum leaks but im asuming that i dont have any b/c i took my time and really sealed my intake good, and none of the lines were cracked when took them off and i was gentel with them so they didn't crack.
The cam i am running is the Crame compucam series 2040 the specs are (210/216 @ .050" lift .440"/.454). I know ill probably need a custom chip burnt for it soon but is it ok to drive running rich? I was kinda planning on taking it with me to myrtle beach next month if i get it running right.
What would cause it to run rich and whats the deal with the idel problem?
BTW shifty im from mansfield...a few hours away from ya

 

Yea I am from newark and know exactly where mansfield is. I am in dayton for school. What is the LSA on that cam? If the car is running to rich you can actually get gas in your oil and that can be bad. You can damge your piston rings. You mostly lose a lot of drivabilty. See the stock tune on these cars can barely maximise the stock heads and cam. When you add bigger stuff it has no idea how to compensate. It is trying to get the car to run on the parameters that are set for the stock cam. That cam has changed all of those parameters and the stock prom needs to be changed to correct those. That is a good size cam and most people who run on stock tunes run really rich with a high idle. I bet that is your problem. I would not take the 650 mile trip to the beach without getting a tune dialed in. The best way is to burn your own but if you can't do that right now you could always spend a littel and have a mail order one sent to you. It will return the drivabilty of you car but just won't maximise the potential with that cam that a stock tune would.

 

sorry shifty i forgot to mention that the chip i have in the car is not stock. It was a chip from tbichips.com... ya know one of those $30 deals lol. I mean the car seems to have really good response and power but it is still running rich and i know it could have a little more with a custom chip. Now i just need to find somebody to do it..i dont have the tools required.

 

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Yea that chip is no good. It just advances the timing a bit and adjusts a few other things. Those are just blind adjustments that stock heads and cammed cars can take advantage of. That chip is very close to stock and you are still way off as far as a tune goes. You may want to data log and send him the bin. Then he could get youa little closer and make your car run normal.

 

thanks shifty, so what im gathering here is that my car is going to continue to run rich and not to its full potential until i get a custom chip burnt. I figured i would need one but i didnt think it would be a major downfall as to the performance of my car. Oh well, ill get this done and see how it runs. Thanks!

 

Yup you are correct. Some poeple have gained almost a full second in their quater mile runs with just changing their tune. And that is with a bone stock car with a few exhaust mods. The stock tune is that bad. A custom prom will make your car feel awesome with that cam. You should have a serious pull to your car with that cam. If you don't feel it than a new prom is in order. Many 305's get a bad rap becuase people add better heads and cams but don't tune. My buddy did a heads and cam swap and actually ran SLOWER than he did stock. It all boils down to the tailered prom.

 

I've owned a few of the '85 only '870 ECM TPI cars...


I've swapped all the way up to 400 cubes using the stock ECM / chip...

While tuning is crucial to getting the MOST PERFORMANCE and EFFICIENCY out of your particular engine, there's no way it should run as rich as you've stated. The 2040 is a REALLY MILD cam.


Toss the $30 chip out the window and put the stock chip back in.

Run it for a bit, then reset the IAC, TPS, timing etc etc.


I ran a pretty stout 383 with a hogged out '85 TPI setup. Ran the stock chip and everything. It ran fine.

Could it have ran much better with a custom tune? *** YES...but it still shouldn't be running as bad as you say it does.


As far as the revving problem on start up, that should have done it BEFORE you even modded your car.

Even '165 ECM'd MAF cars do it...just not as pronounced.

 

No two cars are the same though. I have seen heads and cammed L03's run fine with the stock tune and others that wouldn't even idle with the same parts. But I would try to put the stock prom in like cgb suggested. It is always a good idea to start from base and work from there.

 

well i tried putting my stock chip back in a few weeks ago, i pulled it out of the case and what do u know...its broke. I shoulda been a little more careful last time. Back to the topic, Cgb, its not that my car is running that bad, cuz it doesnt seem to be, its just running real rich. It still pulls hard and has the power just not running to its potential i dont think. Would running rich cause a little hesitation off of idel? I get this when just barely accelerating...like pulling out of my driveway. The car just hesitates for a split second..sometimes twice or 3 times really fast. Anyways i have somebody in line HOPEFULLY to do a custom chip for my car.

 

sorry guys but i seem to have one more problem. After taking the plugs out and everything else off to do the cam swap, i reinstalled everything and 1 of my cyl. wasnt firing, so i took the plug out and the threads were covered in oil and had alot of carbon built up on them after only running it for about 30 min. total. So i took all the plugs out and they all seem to look the same. These plugs were dry and clean when i took them out.
BTW #1 cyl. wasnt firing b/c the end of the plug was smashed... but its gaped right and firing now.
What would be causing the carbon build up and iol on my threads? Everything ran perfect before i started this project.

 

You are really rich which is causing your fouled plugs and hesitation.