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Keep up the great work.
Just wanted to mention the pistons with the oil ring support, to double check for burrs where the piston pin goes through the oil ring land.
I had some KB ICON stroker pistons and they has burrs in this area which kept the oil ring support from sitting correctly.You need to find Top Dead Center (TDC) of the #1 piston when both valves are closed (Not TDC overlap).
Usually easiest way is just remove #1 spark plug and place a finger over the spark plug hole while bumping the starter.
When the piston is moving to TDC after intake closing, the pressure will blow past your finger.
Check the harmonic balancer and move the engine crank position to be about 10-degrees before TDC.
Remove the distributor cap, and the spark plug tower that the rotor is pointing to is the #1 spark plug wire position.
If you want to reorient the distributor so the rotor is pointing at a different cap tower, you need to remove the distributor, and re-position where the dist gear meshes with the cam gear. Then you may have to rotate the engine to get the distributor to engage the oil pump drive.
Anyhow, once you have the rotor pointing at the tower you want, and you are at around 10 degrees before TDC, slightly rotate the distributor to align the magnetic pickup with the point of the reluctor, this will get the timing close so the engine will start.
Route the remainder of the spark plug wires using the established #1 position.
Remember to put the #1 spark plug back in the engine.
Most domestic V-8 firing orders are 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2. For some reason FORD numbered their cylinders front to back on each bank, but if you layout the cylinder numbering like above (side to side) then you end up with the same firing order. There are exceptions like the GM LS that has 4/7 firing order swap, and the Buick Nailhead, and a few others.If the transmission is slipping under load in forward or reverse, then it sounds like the direct clutch pack (rear clutch pack in the case) is not holding.
Double check the transmission fluid level to start with.
If you have a pressure gauge, you could check the low/reverse servo pressure before tearing back into the transmission.
You will likely need to drain the trans fluid, remove the transmission pan and remove the valve body.
With the valve body removed you can use air pressure to apply the clutch packs. You should hear the clutch packs apply and there should be almost no air leakage/hissing. If there is allot of air escaping, then a seal may have broken or is installed wrong.
Also check the servos for movement and sealing. The low/reverse servo can sometimes get cocked in the bore or even crack.
If all that looks good, then you may want to re-check the valve body assembly?The bore size specific, tapered piston ring compressors are great.
I like the grinder with the indicator. I have the inexpensive manual hand crank version and count how many cranks of the handle it takes to get the ring gap close, then check, grind, and repeat till I get the correct gap.
Also, on the GM sized parts like rods, bearings, piston pins and even over bore sizes when building non-GM engines (usually some sort of stroker engine) is mainly based on the lower cost and wider selection avaliable for those parts. While 0.030″ over pistons are common, some common over bore piston sizes are odd sized so a more common (and less expensive) piston ring pack can be used.I’m not an automotive tech, so I can’t say which is best for you.
I when to a smaller university and got a BSEET (Electronics Engineering Technology) degree which got me in some doors. I have worked for some of the largest defense contractors like Unisys, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, but it is up to you on how you use your degree. I also took the welding classes at Lincoln Tech. The school is expensive, but you get allot of hands on lab time. One of the instructors made a good point that what you lean in the one year class, may take you 5+ years trying to learn on your own and you may not even know where your skills have gaps that are overlooked. I had seen the automotive program working with several manufacturers and dealerships to help place their graduates.Good topic. Waiting to hear others replies.
It seems most shops and dealers isolate the customer from the tech doing the work. usually your talking to a service writer or sales counter person.
I usually ask around to see who others have used, but sometimes a shop will hire a bad tech, or ownership changes hands and a once “good” shop my not be so good anymore. I don’t know any techs that have business cards? Might be an interesting idea so a customer can build a relationship with the good techs even if they change shops?Thanks. I searched around the web last night and found the same. Looks like the correct information.
This was not an easy job, seemed everything was rusted together.
Lower ball joint was really stuck, thought I was going to break the ball joint tool, but when the ball joint finally popped, I think it moved 1/2″!
My wife was watching, and it scared her pretty good.“Where I’d be connecting to is corrosion free the issue is about 5 feet needs to be cut out first.” Which method of repair are you leaning too?
“What do you suggest for wrapping around the fuel line instead of zip ties?” Cushion clamps if you have the room. The nylon wiring covering, heat shrink tube or maybe even electrical tape?
“Do I need to flare the end of the hardline before slipping fuel line over it?” It would help keep the hose from sliding off. A bubble flare would be nice, but if you can do that, may as well flare and run hard lines?
“Do you think a new hardline connected by small pieces of EFI fuel line would be better than all fuel hose or?” No, twice as many connections and places to worry about leaks. I’d only do that if there is something that would damage the hose. usually it is fairly easy to route the hose away from problem areas.
“One more thing, how do I determine the size of my hardline? Do you go by outer or inner diameter?” Interesting question. Normally inside diameter, but if you are putting rubber hose over the hard line, then the inside diameter of the hose needs to go over the outside of the hard fuel line, but you want a tight fit, not a loose fit. There are also metric and SAE fuel line sizes. Usually 5/16″ hose works, but I don’t know on your specific car.
The EFI hose clamps are like these:
https://www.amazon.com/Fuel-Injection-Hose-Clamps-FI6/dp/B0040CU0HM/ref=pd_lpo_263_lp_t_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=86FK1V6JNK505CJ719WKSounds electrical as mentioned. Do as the others posted. I hope you can find it easely, otherwise you might need to tap some wires and monitor/data log the voltages to capture the offending circuit
[quote=”college man” post=178901]Could you post what the plugs look like? If you had a vacuum leak fuel trims would climb.[/quote]
Yes, post photos. also, how are you reading the spark plugs to determine they are lean? Are these the correct heat range spark plugs for the engine?
I think the no more than 6″ of rubber fuel line is a NHRA tech specification. Likely a good recommendation, but if your not taking the car to the race track, you could just use rubber fuel line. There are a few things to note. You need to use EFI rated fuel line, and preferably the TPFE lined type like the Gates Barricade fuel line, but this fuel line is fairly expensive. You would also want to use good hose clamps that do not cut into the outer hose.
I’m guessing you might just be mounting the fuel line with zip-ties? I would put some type of protective wrap arounf the line where it is clamped or where it may abrade the line.
If you have access to a good double flairing tool like the Eastwood one, then flares, union and hard line would be the second best option (first would be to just replace the entire line.) You might be able to make the double flairs with one of the budget flare tools after some practice, but I’m thinking it will be a real pain (time consuming) to get it done right.
The hard line with compression fittings might be OK, alot depends on the condition of the fuel line your connecting to?If your wife had old lipstick she doesn’t use, it makes a decent marker for checking interference too. Grease works OK too.
The last two engines I built (stroker engines with main studs, aftermarket main caps, and main stud girdles), I spent hours modifying the oil pan, windage tray, and oil pickups to fit correctly.The 4-pin unit just moved the resistor inside the unit.
The resistor is in series with a Zener Diode inside the unit to create the ECU internal voltage reference.
You should be able to just install the 4-pin ECU with no other changes.
Note that these ECU units are sensitive to ground loop problems.
The magnetic pickup signal may not be detected if the ECU is at a different ground reference level then the engine block/distributor.
The module grounds through the body, so you should have a engine ground to ECU/firewall cable.
One indication of bad ground(s) and battery cables is if will not start when cranking the starter (high load), but then tries to fire when the starter is released (low load in battery cables.)