BritishV8 Forum

QuoteAs I have mentioned in the past, making buckets of torque down low in the power curve makes no sense in a lightweight sports car. Traction will be an issue.

So, you might want to read this before picking out that new cam:

[www.seight.com]

That was a great read Carl. Thanks for the link and the feedback. What you're suggesting is a great idea and something I'm going to pursue. I think we also talked about potentially configuring the PCM to help reduce timing (torque) under certain conditions, like mashing the throttle in first. I know this was possible with earlier versions of the GM code and suspect something similar is in the F-body code in my PCM. I'm for sure going to look into it.

Unfortunately, I didn't get out to the garage this past weekend. Went to a conference last week and picked up a bad cold there. My wife was insistent that I not go into the cold garage while I was sick. It about killed me on the one hand but it was kind of nice not doing anything for a weekend. That's pretty unusual for me. I did order a few more parts. So I'll be shooting for a first start next weekend. Hope to have a few evenings to work on the car during Thanksgiving week as well.

I dunno, I always rather enjoyed having buckets of low end torque. Even not being able to deliver all of it to ground, sometimes that is the point.

Jim

QuoteI dunno, I always rather enjoyed having buckets of low end torque. Even not being able to deliver all of it to ground, sometimes that is the point.

Jim, I do realize you're just stirring the pot a bit but if I ever hope to beat out a 3.4 v6 I'm going to have to do something.

He likes to cut donuts.

It's not that so much as the 1 lane U-turn.

Jim

I'm with Jim on this one. I love to throttle control a car in the 1st 3 gears.

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Congrats Scott
Isn't it so nice when a plan comes together. so what's left do you have the drive shaft all set ? I also noticed it sounds a little quite. Are you intending to have a sleeper?  Well all looks good so far good luck.

Scott, Congrats on first start up video. Where is your water pump, you know I had to ask? I bet this feels real good for all your hard labor. These engines always start no matter how long they sit.

Awesome Scott!

Fantastic!!!

Way to go Scott!!

Great job Scott !  It's sounding like you'll be in Indy for sure! I like the frozen breath in your garage. Isn't winter in the Midwest a blast?   Mike

Atta Boy! Scott. Congratulations! Sounds Great!

Thanks everyone! Here is another one with the O2 sensor screwed into the hole. I've got a hell of an exhaust leak to track down. You can see some evidence of it toward the end of this video. The first video is actually the first start. You can hear my wife come to the door to see what the noise was about....I'm trying to shush her and she proceeds to have a 10 minute conversation with me. LOL.

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I'll do another post to detail the adventure I had the past couple of weeks but the bottom line was I had 2 wires crossed on the crankshaft position sensor.....that's a no start condition.

I'll try to address your questions:

Bill, the driveshaft is installed so theoretically, it should be able to move on its own at this point. I've got a little ways to go. Lots of small fabrication jobs at this point. I started the throttle cable today, I am getting there though. As far as the sound, it's difficult to capture on video. I don't think it's that quiet but I'm not looking for that open headers sound either though. I'm pretty sure my neighbors heard some noise!

Calvin, yeah it's pretty exciting to hear it come alive! I actually cleaned up the injectors before trying to start it. Soaked them in Seafoam and then used a 9 volt battery to work them a little. It sounded like a few of them were stuck as they didn't "click" right away. As for my water pump, I was thinking about saving some weight and going without one. Is that bad?

Mike, I'm giving up trying to predict when it will be ready but it seems like Indy mightbe doable. It actually wasn't as cold as it looked yesterday. It was 50 here today! Having said that, I just ordered cheap eBay insulated coveralls.....the Midwest can be challenging during the winter.

Scott, you are on the final lap.  I have been watching all the way, thanks for sharing. You called it fun sometime back, I think we all consider it fun. Again thanks for sharing.
charles

I know you are glad to see that. Tell you what though, this one will make your eyes wide. I know you will be careful, but even so I expect to hear back from you about just how much it surprised you when you do finally nail it. Congrats,

Jim

Final lap?  Looks like you are coming down the homestretch!

Scott

You should try to cure the exhaust leaks. I had some header flange leaks on my LT1 and screwed up the air/fuel balance at idle. I had to correct them before it could be tuned.

Try these http://catalog.remflex.com/ , they are the best I've seen and will seal up anything and they guarantee it. They are 1/8" thick and compress 50%

Great advice Jim. It will never run right with leaks. I'm suspecting the passenger side header isn't seated against the head for some reason. I need to pull it to figure out why. Those gaskets look great, I may have to breakdown and get a set. They aren't overly expensive either. Thanks for the tip!

I originally had a set of dead soft copper gaskets and they showed multiple black leak paths when I took them off. The Remflex don't leak at all.

Interesting, plus you can buy the blank material.

Jim

Maybe i missed something, but doesn't anyone have their flange surface trued once they finish welding up thier headers? If headers are puurchased in the A/M, they can still be trued.  We used the Old Cyl Head machine;  One side required quite a bit to be removed to achieve a flat surface.

Hey Kelly,
I build mine with the flange bolted to a spare cylinder head and haven't had any problems with sealing.  I always figured I would straightedge it and use a flapper wheel to true it up if I had to.  Don't even want to think about clamping it down in my mill!  
Cheers,
Bill

That's a good thought Kelly. I'll put a straight edge on it to check it. I'm betting the header itself is hanging up on something and I just didn't notice it. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. I did that video at the end of the day and it wasn't apparent until then how bad it was. I'll get it off the engine first thing Saturday and take a closer look at it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to take Jim's advice on those manifold gaskets. They look like they will handle small imperfections really well.

So I've run the motor probably no more than 5 minutes total time and it's sounding better each time I start it. The audio recording isn't really capturing how it sounds but it is running smoothly with no obvious bad noises. Oil pressure is at 50 lbs. at idle. You never know with a junkyard engine. There was a date of October 2010 on the oil filter that was on the motor when I got it and the tiny bit of oil on the tip of the dipstick was really clean so I imagine that the car it came in was totaled not too far from that date and the engine has been sitting since. My cheap Chinese OBD2 cable gave out at the perfect time so I was unable to check for codes or take a log unfortunately. So I ordered another cheap Chinese cable to replace it.

I had a bit of an adventure as I was troubleshooting the no start condition. The first thing I checked were the grounds and couldn't see any issues there. I actually added another ground from the head to the body while I was at it. Next I checked the ignition wiring to make sure they were grounded and that the PCM control wires matched up to the correct cylinders. Same with the injector wiring. All was good there. I checked the voltage drop at the battery and was surprised that it was in the mid 8 volts while cranking. While trying to figure that out I noticed the ground cable eye that bolts to the body was cracked and the cable was hanging on by a thread...not good. So I replaced that with a much thicker cable and cleaned up the terminals and clamps while I was at it. That helped a whole lot. It got me to the low 11- high 10 volt range. The funny thing about it is the engine was turning over like it was a warm spring day the whole time. Anyway, I've got a battery kill switch I'm going to install and I'm going to run a cable to ground things at the transmission when I install it and that should make things even better. After all that, still no start. The next thing to check was the crankshaft position sensor which is behind the starter so that had to come off. Sure enough, two of the wires were crossed. I could have sworn I checked those. Funny thing is it was correct for the 4.3 V6 in the S-10 the harness came out of but not for the 0411 LS V8 motors. I spent time while I had things apart fixing a pesky fuel leak caused by a careless flare I did and tidying up the wiring that runs down the fender well. All things considered, all the troubleshooting was a good exercise and will result in a more reliable car in the end....all good.

The next few tasks are the throttle cable/pedal, which is in process now. Then then tweaking the transmission tunnel for the shifter...the engine is shifted back about an inch and a half from where the previous V6 motor sat. Then the fuel pump and a bunch of other small things like permanently mounting the PCM, putting the interior back together and adding the kill switch and the cable to the transmission. The largest fabrication task that is left will be the accessory mounts/brackets at the front of the motor. I've located a machine shop to handle one of the smaller tasks that I can't do myself. I'll give much more information about it as I get into it. I must be forgetting something but overall I'm closing in on it!

Gosh, as I'm proof reading this I realize I just wrote a book!

Switched sensor leads is a common issue if using a VR sensor. Your voltage drop can be a real issue with an EFI system. Not unusual to have a motor that will crank OK but not have enough voltage to fire off. I'm not sure whether this is an issue with the coils (I suspect), the injectors, the ECM or the crank sensor.

Jim