Shammoo update

Side pipes are off...THANK YOU,for finally seeing the light.

He's only moving them up top to the roof rack,..

Nick is almost right.

Gonna mount 'um onto the roof and make'um into a snorkel so it can breathe underwater.

lakeffect wrote:

Nick is almost right.

Gonna mount 'um onto the roof and make'um into a snorkel so it can breathe underwater.

I am not surprised,.

you're pulling the motor anyway,. regardless of any advice you,ve been actively seeking,.

so sidepipes mounted vertically,. yes i could see it,..although the outlets should be at the bottom of the vertical so as to be utilized as wool dryers,.

Thanks for the insight Nick. Gotta clean up the exhaust somehow, or the wool will just get oily.

That I now of, nothing short of pulling the block is going to fix the seals, so the motor was coming out anyway. The leak was coming from below the valve cover. It seems to start at the exhaust gasket at the header. There was a burn through mark on the exhaust gasket, and the exhaust passage is oily. Along with the smoke in the exhaust from the right bank, I'm reasonably sure it's either valve seals and. or rings.

I do appreciate the other perspectives to the issue. If for no other reason,in the end I'll have piece of mind exhaust when all is done, I'll have a fresh motor.

lakeffect wrote:

Thanks for the insight Nick. Gotta  clean up the exhaust somehow,  or the wool will just get oily..

Same old thing on this forum,..

Do what you want ,. you're gonna anyway,..

i,m impressed you,ve diagnosed the problem ,. without pulling a valve cover or the intake,..

soon as a plug starts missing,. it oils up the exhaust,.

I listened to your car a couple of times,. it was definitely struggling to fire on all 8,...

I wish you the best with your endeavor,.

Thanks, and I apologize for not mentioning that the valve covers had been pulled and no blockages were found, nothing loose.

As is noted from the photos, The engine is out. I took it to the engine builder on Tuesday morning.
While it's out, I'm going to "doll up" the engine bay , condense and organize the wire harnesses better.
scrub and repaint the inner fende walls and firewall.

Surprisingly enough, for a twenty two year old car, there is only some surface rust dust on it, nothing deep or rotted out. looks like staying out of upstate Winter  weather has helped.

Since I 'll be swapping over to a Clear Image transmission brace prior to installing the new NON-sidepipe exhaust system, we dropped the tranny  and drive shaft as well. It will be easier to clean and repaint the underside with it all out of the way.

(The good news is all the lift time doesn't cost me anything as it is my son's shop.)











Photos courtesy of my son, taken at Buchholz Auto 3200 State St Caledonia NY  585-538-9334

You better make sure the Mrs. doesn't see this bill or you'll be sleeping out in the wagon.

tom

I really like the color choices for your whale. I think the purple makes it pop. I especially like the rockers, and wire harness. nice touch.

Purple People Eater....Errr, should I say dollar eater?

I'm picking up the refreshed motor in just a few hours.In the meantime, I decided to change the color scheme of things. No more purple. Keepin' it simple as the "old" motor bay had too many colors in there and wires going everywhere.

So while the motor was out, I changed all the convoluted tubing over to black. And gathered them into fewer tubes. It should help to clean things up. The accent color will be red, which matches other details on the car, like the red digital dash, and markings on the car.

I'm also getting rid of the Sidepipes.

Been looking unsuccessfully for some deep rocker panels, like used for NASCAR to effective lower the look, without lowering the car.

here's few progress photos of Shammoo getting the new lung transplant, actually more like getting the old one rejuvenated.   Original was a stock 350ci (5.7L) TBI. This is a rebuild on the 400 block that I put in about five years ago. Thirty over makes it a 406 (6.6L)

New cam as the steel gear on the Distributor was chewing up the cam gear.  BIG MISTAKE. Dizzie gear is now brass.

No more purple colors. Red matches the instrument clusters better, keeps a theme going better.


Engine in



Progress on the build



Ancient  killer whale herder doing physical therapy malpractice without a license.

Looks much better this color than that purple and NO sidepipes,almost a new wagon again!

406 breathing thru a tpi,..

interesting,...

i like the red alot better

mtrhead79 wrote:

i like the red alot better

If it were orange, it would match your official polo designer shirt.

Tom

Lookin' good Dave. The car that is. No more side pipes huh? That's one identifier my buddy's notice. They come up to me and say, "Hey, I saw a black wagon like yours in Irondequoit, but it had side pipes."

Famous Dave's side pipes.... They added character.

Looking sweet! Will it be ready for Wagonfest?

Keeping my fingers crossed and greasy.

My wife has been in a wheel chair since April 5, and headed back for more surgery on July 20 . Time is not my own lately.

The new exhaust system was welded on as of today. It was firing up, Sounds a little quieter than it did with the sidepipes. Exit s just in front of the rear wheels.

Got ir started, then it quit. Discovered zero fuel pressure. I may have simply run out of gas, or have pump related issues... just changed the sender last Fall.

Will have to check it out tomorrow... ran out of time for today

Looking good...like the red and glad it almost running!

Chris

Went from running on Thursay to not running well yeasterday, to no spark at all today. I'm so tired of this crap.

Don't give up, this crap helps to keep your mind off the other crap in your life.

Ahh, but I'm married and have a built in reminder of all the other crap!

oh crap,....

Someone needs to do a courtesy flush,there is too much crap in here.

Well, Shammoo made it home from the shop last night. UNEXPECTEDLY.

I wasn't planning on it being here last night, but my son decided to drive it home... that is AFTER he went to meet some woman for dinner. Something about the rusty Monte Carlo not making a good impression. As If a loud obnoxious wagon would be better

So Now it's reprogramming to accommodate changes that occurred to the engine. the cam is positioned slightly differently, straight up at zero advance, not the two degrees ahead that was previously there. Also the plenum and runners were opened up, ported more for more airflow. so there is the expectation that more fuel will be needed in some areas.

The body and interior area mess, and will need to be cleaned up and put back together.
It is BADLY in need of a repaint and lots of body TLC.

Was there more than dinner involved if the interior was such a mess?

I'll have to check for wet spots.

lakeffect wrote:

I'll have to check for wet wool.

See I fixed it for you

Thanks for the edit Bro!

Must have been a brain fart induced typo on my part.

Pulled a few plugs today, (1 and 2) Both looked plugs looked somewhat carbon fouled, so now is a good time to change them all out.

Bought new plugs today after hitting the Infrared ray gun at the exhaust headers. Cyl #2 is about 100 degrees lower than the others. Just waiting fr it to cool down to work on it now.

Are you bring the HHR, Dave?

Trying not to.

It would nice to actually have the wagon at the event I'm hosting.

I'm sure you'll make it, Dave.

Tom

one of us can tow it there for you.......

Hey Pat.... WHAT DID THE HOOK SAY TO THE HUNGRY FISH?


(bite me)

LOL

Running the engine has been nearly impossible,I  may have found part of the issue. 

I could not pull a vacuum with a hand pump on the fuel regulator.  Additionally, when clamping off the return line, fuel would drop quickly, would not hold for more than a few seconds at key off.

 Pulled the regulator, looked pretty beat. Since I've never changed it before, it was likely original from the 90's  Afterward, retest would pull vacuum.

 In for an inch , in for a mile, pulled the injectors to test if hung open . Nope.
 Need to put everything back together again, and see if system will now hold pressure. If not, likely the check ball in the pump is leaking in the tank. It's a 255L/hr Walbro.

lakeffect wrote:

Running the engine has been nearly impossible,I  may have found part of the issue. 

I could not pull a vacuum with a hand pump on the fuel regulator.  Additionally, when clamping off the return line, fuel would drop quickly, would not hold for more than a few seconds at key off.

 Pulled the regulator, looked pretty beat. Since I've never changed it before, it was likely original from the 90's  Afterward, retest would pull vacuum.

 In for an inch , in for a mile, pulled the injectors to test if hung open . Nope.
 Need to put everything back together again, and see if system will now hold pressure. If not, likely the check ball in the pump is leaking in the tank. It's a 255L/hr Walbro.

ok,. mebbe a small vacuum leak at the regulator,. but not holding fuel pressure won't affect driveability ,..

I think you have not payed any attention to the advice given you and you are forging ahead in your own direction again,.

the car is running so rich now its hunting at idle,. and it should be tuned to run at full fuel pressure,.

NO, not rich  at all Nick.. The AFR readings are at or near  being too lean to burn around 18.0-20.00 at all times (20.0 is the limit of the meter)  Blipping the throttle will stall the motor. There is no rich smell. Both visually , by the AFR meter in the car and by recorded AFR's on both narrow and wide band that  agree. Not enough fuel. The hunting is recovery from stalling.

 Additionally fuel pressure at the rail was around 30 PSI instead of the 44 needed.

 I would follow your thoughts if it were rich, but by several indicators, it clearly is not. It is very lean, which also explains why VE learn was trying to add fuel in every part of the fuel table. There is a fuel supply issue.

ah,.. fair enough,.. i spoke out of turn,..

Thanks!  Have no remorse though.. I'll be picking your brain soon enough as things sort themselves out.

 I added some fuel pressure at the regulator, which helped.  Increasing  the pressure at the rail helped as I saw the AFR improve from 20.0 down to 17.5 in open loop with no other changes. Adding fuel  pressure will increase the fuel table everywhere.    Still not up to the 44 lbs  pressure that I'm after but ran out of time.

I was called away by my son to help him at his shop. Replaced the front differential and drive shaft on a Yamaha  700 four wheeler.  Got nice and greasy for my efforts.

I'm wondering what could be causing your fuel pressure deficiency, worn out pump, failing regulator? hmmm.

The p-ump is only a few years old. I generally don't put more than a few thousand miles on the car per year.  The fuel regulator had never been changed though up till now. I got the TPI fuel rail used, and never changed the regulator. So figure it was from around 1990.

 I replace it, put am still fiddling with the setting to bring it up to pressure. It's close. For the first time yesterday I was actually seeing rich AFR warmup conditions in the 13's instead of around 19-20.

 I have to check the tranny fluid level and reset the kickdown cable. as it was not liking going into second gear, so it went down to the end of the street. I turned around and brought it home. So less than a quarter mile driving before it got parked again.


Dave

Rest the kickdown cable. It was too tight.

I was going around the block a few times when the throttle body hose blew off and shot antifreeze all over the engine bay. Luckily, I was only a mile from the house, ran two red lights and got it home quickly Found the culprit easily , hose clamp wasn't secure.

 Pressure is back up to 44 lbs now. I am seeing  reasonably "normal" AFRs again instead of lean at 19-20. I am actually seeing rich warm up. 

So I'm back to doing VE learns on the laptop and getting the fuel tables in line. There's a few other relatively minor tune issues to correct as well. . I don't trust it yet, but it's close now

 Dave

Learned that I was trying to do my  EBL "VE Learns" in correctly. I actually read the directions, so now I'll probably have to give up my Man Club membership card.