I have hooked up an Air/fuel ratio gauge in the car and am still running way lean at idle. The guage is lit on the lowest lean red light and about every 2 seconds will pulse up to about the last yellow to first green then right back down to the last red (ecm compensating and hold injector pulse longer for an instance). When under full throttle, the chip I have fails the ECM and full dumps the injectors and I am into the first green light of 4 greens. It should be going about maxed rich on the gauge. I am running lean still and do not even have the headers on which will lean me out more.

This picture shows the car just started still warming up/ not yet into closed loop. As it warms, the gauge will gradually drop to the lowest of the for red lights at idle and stay there.

Note: the fuel pressure gauge is not yet hooked up- hence why reading 100psi. You can see the trans is not warm yet either so the car is still warming up.
The reason for these gauges is to get 1)a baseline reading of what the car is currently doing, 2) ability to immediately gain info on running conditions when changes to fuel presure is made and goodies are added such as headers, intake, AFPR, injectors, etc. 3) then have the percise ability to tune it back for smog inspections

I would suggest bumping your fuel pressure a few lbs, see where that takes it... otherwise, what size injectors are you running?

IT'S ALIVE?
Or is a fuel air ratio set up for the temporary 2.8 engine?

next on the agenda is to get the Fuel pressure sender installed and get a baseline reading before I install the Holley AFPR. It is still running lean though as I expected. This is why I wanted to get this all plumbed and the ability to read and adjust pressure before I install the headers. These are just the stock 15lb injectors.

Karl, no 3.5L yet. It'll still be awhile. The BeCool radiator is going in next few days off also along with the dual BeCool fan setup. Want to get everything in line and able to handle the motor changes before it goes in.

I thought those damn A/F guages weren't to be trusted in the first place?

Most people are not aware of how they read during driving conditions. They will jump around erratically when cruising. When the throttle is lifted on an injection motor, the gauge will sometimes dosappear towards the lean side when the motor in no under load and slowing. this is the ECM saving fuel and rendering clean emissions. This gauge is mainly for use of idle and full throttle settings. I use to have one in a VW Karmann Ghia I owned years back, it was great for tunning the Weber IDF carbs

I'd say either upping the fuel pressure, or installing some 17pph injectors will cure most 80% of your fuel tuning, right there

That's one weber per cylinder head I presume?
You running a vacuum manifold gauge?

One per cylinder or 4 barrels total. These were 44IDF's. I miss that car and those days, That car was a chick magnet and perfect when I was younger and wild. This was a fast little car ('63 Ghia) that ran high 12 sec 1/4's. We always miss our first cars.

No Vacuum gauge. That i am not worried about. Someday going to go to a hydro boost on this car for brake pressure.

you have the 17's from the 3.4 sitting around right? Slap them in for a week and see what it does.

Nice ghia! I've always wanted a convert one.

You know Jay, I keep forgeting I have those 17# injectors laying around in a box from the 3.4. I keep thinking of the 19# injectors I have from a 305TPI I snagged them from.

I want to try and turn up the fuel pressure on the 15's first to see if they will spray more (which they should no doubt) because that will give me a better ionization of fuel. But thank you for the reminder on the 17's, I can't always remember what I have sitting on shelves in boxes.

My only concern, Dean, would be the added stress on the fuel pump... I've not heard that you've ever replaced that particular item

From a guy who had a 1966 Corvette as his high school car, I'm still gagging over desire for a VW!
Sorry!
I mean it was such a let down to see "Get Smart" opening of Agent 86 go from a 289 Sunbeam Tiger to a Karman Ghia in later episodes!

On the contrary my friend
It has an '89 Vette pump with the metal internal gears in it that is about 3 years old. I did that the last time I dropped the rear axle, figured I'd pull the tank at that point and replace the pump when it was easy access even though it was running OK. Wanted to get rid of that plactic internals pump before it ever gave me trouble.

Don't knock it till you try it They are chick magnets, but we ae all old married folk with children now--Except for Jay, He has to get himself a Ghia so then he can suffer with the rest of us. I would love to build another one for my daughter, but I F^cked up in naming her Mercedes and there is no way she's going to drive a VW- guess she's going to like walking. True story: I named my daughter Mercedes so if the wife ever asked for one I could tell her "no" she already has one- again, true story.

edit; I'm awake now, wife served me brteakfast in front of the computer. time to get off my butt and get in the shower then get to work (Its 9:20am) Guess married life isn't so bad.

I want one just cause I have always liked the look. Could care less about the babes. I always draw the teenboopers or overweight ones

Not looking to get mmmaa...., I cant say that m word. *shakes*

Actually I would've thought the opposite; pumps always put out max pressure, with the excess going back to the tank "after" the regulator.

Dean, did you ever change the fuel feed pipe from the pump to the engine? One of the TPI guys told me years ago that the V8 TPI fuel feed pipe was slightly larger than the V6 feed pipe. I've never seen a V8 TPI in a junkyard (after all these years!! Kinda pisses me off) so I've never had the chance to take a measurement.

In college, I drove from Washington DC to NJ a Karman Ghia Convertible automatic thing.
Night time.

In High School I drove my old 1966 Corvette.
Now which car do you REALLY THINK I had the girls with me?

One date in college, I had EIGHT GIRLS inside a 1977 Firebird! We pulled up to Washignton DC resturant and the door guy couldn't believe as the girls kept coming out!
It was even nicer to sit at the resturant table with me the only guy & eight girls we had blast.

And driving that Ghia...it was with a guy!

CORVETTES RULE! Hell I had a steady girlfriend and still picked up other girls going from school where I dropped her off to my high school!

Love the logic of your daughters name!
What was the topic!?!?!?!?

Lean idle is normal. As long as the car idles smoothly, don't worry about it. That's how they used to tune carb idle circuits, it's actually called a "lean idle drop". It's supposed to be like that.

As far as WOT, you'll never be able to get a 100% duty cycle out of the injectors, so with the stock size, you'll never get full dump out of them. I would try the next size injector, but remember that other than WOT, the O2 will compensate for the richer mixture and shorten your pulsewidth, so you won't see a difference anywhere else.

Also, if you plan on installing an AFPR, remember that that's a no-no in California and that when you come up for inspection, replace it with the stock one.

How are you planning on tapping into the fuel line for the pressure guage? The only way to do it and make The State happy is to install it on the Schrader valve on the fuel rail, if you actually tap into the physical feed line, it's a modification.

Just thought you'd like the heads up so you don't have to rip a bunch of stuff off just for smog inspection. the less work, the better, right?

2.8, if you look back down on the page, he showed pictures of how hes tapping in the fuel guage.


edit, futher back then thought. https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=298989

Well, just a warning, if you get a guy who feels like being a jerk, he'll nail you on it with it tapped into the metering block like that. The only "legal" way to do it is to plumb it directly off the schrader valve. It sucks, I know, but that's technically how it is.

Thats why I don't take my business to "jerks" with their heads up their butts.
There is no problem simply gauging a fuel line. You are mis interpeting the law and causing trouble if trying to reject someone for it. Its like the "wantabee cop" security guard syndrome.
Try that crap around my neck of the woods and you'll be out of business with no business in a week. Word gets around quick in Orange and the Hot Rod shops around here will tip everyone away from you.

Get a smog license and we can talk about the laws...

Oh please... Your the type of smog person I avoid in life, let it go already. I don;t need to here this crap advise, I have connections.

Everyone might not have connections and would want to do things according to the laws in case they ever would sell thier car.
With that said I am going to lock this thread before it gets out of hand.