Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

gbrettin

Been a little bit since I posted an update. The initial dyno tuning session did not go well. The car was not running properly so a series of tests needed to be conducted. Ill try running through the list... We ran the gambit. This is also to show some of the not so glorious things that happen on fresh builds. Mine may be a little worse... well, becase I worked on it.

1. Before we put the car on the dyno the injectors were cleaned because the e85 sat for a while, couldn't run the risk of a lean cyl. One of the injectors got pinched on installation. This required the fuel rail to come back off and a new O ring to be put on.

Re-test on dyno. Car still running poor. Symptom. I could stand on the gas pedal for 15sec and no power.

2. Reviewed plug wires and saw that 2 boots were not pressed in all the way. Push them in more. The angle is weird and Firecore plugs clip really hard... fine, easy fix. I will take that. No dice. Car still runs like **** where it should make power.

3. Pull the spark plugs and inspect them. They all look good.

4. Verified Spark from coil packs. Good, they discharged enough electricity to kill someone on death row.

5. Pulled the valve covers and checked lash. I measured but didnt account for the oil pressure on the Johnson Lifters. Ordered new push rods and installed. This was an issue but not the fix. Car still ran like junk.

6. Did a compression test to make sure nothing was hurt. All cylinders came back with 185-190 compression.

Dave had a sneaking suspicion that the timing was off. The question was farmed out to a group of local well known drag racers and they all kind of thought the same thing. I went back to my picture archive and looked at the last rebuild 2 years ago. Not sure if any of you remember that, but I pulled the engine apart because there was debris in the engine. I DID HAVE THAT PICTURE! wow! The timing chain had two sets of numbers, one number on the teeth and another near the crank snout. I used the "0" near the crank snout and not the 0 on the tooth. Well.... my car was literally off by 90 degrees!

So... This is where the pictures below take us. I had to take apart the front of my car to get to the timing chain. This last weekend I took it apart on Sat and then on Sun it was reassembled. Much to my delight, we resolved the problem. Also, other problem areas were addressed such as a little a leak from my scavenger pump, heat shielding, and zip tied wires. The "small things" had to be addressed before they turned into massive issues. Example - The heat shielding was specifically for the power steering line. There was a small burn mark on it. I'm certain that would burn through and cause a fire if it wasn't addressed. SO, I'm taking all the stuff we did in stride. The suck was embraced for lemonade.

The car runs smooth (not so much like a promod now.. and I'm ok with that!). Boost comes in and rips at 3800RPM. The short video at the end is just a quick verification of everything.

I permanently removed the swirl pot for the A2W up front... too much of a PITA. I couldn't get it to fill properly. I purchased a Shear Fab 5gal water tank and will have that in the trunk of the car. Ill have the option to run ice I guess.

-Edit - I made 20lbs of boost in the video. Bonus points for someone to say why. Hint: evidence is in pictures. For the people that already know the answer through Discord, keep the answer to yourself. lol






Heatshield.



Top radiator hose is not hooked right. intentionally didn't want it flopping around.