FAQ |
Members List |
Social Groups |
Calendar |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#21
|
||||
|
||||
It will be an E cam. I'm starting this engine with a used but good 1bbl cam, then I'll swap in a new E cam and followers. This engine is also bored .030 over. I know the previous measurement was gross, but
Working for me: I have removed the water pump drag and will hopefully have better air fuel distribution with the EFI, tighter timing control, hopefully can give it good timing with the reverse flow cooling and I plan on putting some decent valve springs in it to "bump" the rpm limit up some. Working against me: What exhaust were you using? Headers? If so those would likely be more efficient than my setup. Also, this engine was thoroughly used and I simply pulled it apart, looked, and reassembled, so the valve seats and rings are plenty worn though I honed the cylinder walls and lapped the valves, there is no guarantee either will help or the rings will seat again. I'm thinking I'll probably get the car chassis dyno'd in spring just to satisfy my curiosity. Might have EGT sensors on each port by then too to further attempt to dial in the fueling. Of course the wheel HP will be less than flywheel, but it should still be interesting. I can lock the converter for the dyno run too.
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#22
|
|||
|
|||
Yes, I was using Clifford shorty headers with the water pump and alternator. I found out that my engine started nosing over at 5000 rpm and it was not the valve springs. The stock H cam is really are not that big of a grind. These Sprints could use more cam in my opinion!
|
#23
|
||||
|
||||
I have a re-ground cam that is set up for when I build my "good" engine for the turbo that has a bit more lift and duration than the H. You've seen my exhaust system, not exactly high tech, but less restrictive than the OE setup. I've removed the back pressure plate as well. My turbo engine will also have a custom intake manifold with equal length runners.
Did you try using your adjustable sprocket to retard the cam any? That is supposed to drive the powerband up. It's a trade off of course, you'd lose bottom end power but gain peak and some upper rpm. Its something I am considering trying (I have one of your sprockets if you recall). With my 4.56 gears it might be something I try if I think it's nosing over to soon as I shouldn't have any low rpm issues.
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#24
|
|||
|
|||
Actually, my numbers were best at 3 degrees retarded. I ran out of dyno time, but probably could have gotten a bit better numbers if I would have retarded the cam more. The engine wanted more cam!
|
#25
|
||||
|
||||
That's good to know! I'd stick the biggest cam I can find in mine, if I can just find a bigger one!
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#26
|
||||
|
||||
Had start up today!
Here is a video of it going. YouTube made it fuzzier, but you can still get an idea of what is going on. The smoke around the fill tube is mostly the oil burning off from when the return tube popped out of the side hole. I still haven't decided exactly how I'm going to affix the return line to the tube. Rev's pretty good considering there is not throttle position sensor and isn't tuned very well. In this video I hadn't gotten to checking/calibrating the timing, and when I did it was 8* retarded from what is displated on the screen. It gets a bit warm, but with hardly any tune and almost no air flow on the radiator, I can't complain too much, it seemed to cool off once I got the timing and fueling squared away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlwdR...Jo4BJ5Am4jH-sA Here is a video of starting it up and then the exhaust with the Summit universal muffler, a mystery Flowmaster muffler and then uncorked. It's not as loud as I would expect uncorked, but then again this is the small 1bbl cam in it. Still needs some tuning work. I can't tell if the smoke is fuel, oil or condensation from it being 32*F out. I re-used the piston rings in it, so I wouldn't be entirely shocked if it's oil. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4vxt...Jo4BJ5Am4jH-sA
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#27
|
|||
|
|||
Sounds very good! It will sound louder with more compression and cam. Best of luck on the project!
Rob |
#28
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks! Next wildcard is how well did I re-assemble the 200-4r I'm putting behind it!
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#29
|
||||
|
||||
Installed the engine in the car today. I used the Ford brackets to lift the engine (http://sohcsix.yuku.com/topic/3103/A...e#.Upfsu8TqkzI). The first lift try one of the brackets started bending, so I set it back down and ran the chain through both loops on each bracket and it was good from there. Was fairly level and straight even.
The scariest part of all engine installs. Safely in! Lots of room on the sides compared to a V8. A turbo is going to look good on the passengerside there :yes: This is pretty organized for me. I need to set the radiator in the see where I'll mount the electric water pump. Now that I've installed the engine, I can see I have more than enough room that on my good engine I won't drill the head for the external oil pressure regulator, I will certainly use the oil plug at the rear of the head. The intake/exhaust side. I need to get a universal throttle cable that will reach the new location. I will still likely get a steel pulley wheel to support the 90* bend to the firewall. Likewise for the TV transmission cable. Oh, my exhaust system interfered with the motor mount, so I had to trim one of the catches off the motor mount that is there if the rubber separates. So I also used the old racer trick of drilling a hole through the motor mount to run a bolt with a lock nut at the other end, but not snugged up to the mount to keep the mount from separating. After getting the engine in I pushed the car forward and now it waits to get the transmission installed.
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#30
|
||||
|
||||
And this showed up the other day =D
It sits a little far forward here because the back of the console doesn't fit between the backs of the seats, but I'll solve that. Never let practicality get in the way of fun
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#31
|
||||
|
||||
Oh, I can update this from last weekend.
Welded a nipple to the oil fill tube and re-painted it. Was interesting when it caught fire. I expected the oil to catch fire, what I didn't expect was it set up an airflow that had a jet of fire out one end and even sounded like a jet. Dropped it in a bucket of water I had ready for it when it lit up more than I was comfortable with. Installed the engine in the car as well. I used the Ford brackets to lift the engine (http://sohcsix.yuku.com/topic/3103/A...e#.Upfl0MTqkzI). The first lift try one of the brackets started bending, so I set it back down and ran the chain through both loops on each bracket and it was good from there. Was fairly level and straight even. The scariest part of all engine installs. Safely in! Lots of room on the sides compared to a V8, but you guys know that ;-) A turbo is going to look good on the passengerside there. This is pretty organized for me. I need to set the radiator in the see where I'll mount the electric water pump. Now that I've installed the engine, I can see I have more than enough room that on my good engine I won't drill the head for the external oil pressure regulator, I will certainly use the oil plug at the rear of the head. The intake/exhaust side. I need to get a universal throttle cable that will reach the new location. I will still likely get a steel pulley wheel to support the 90* bend to the firewall. Likewise for the TV transmission cable. Oh, my exhaust system interfered with the motor mount, so I had to trim one of the catches off the motor mount that is there if the rubber separates. So I also used the old racer trick of drilling a hole through the motor mount to run a bolt with a lock nut at the other end, but not snugged up to the mount to keep the mount from separating. After getting the engine in I pushed the car forward to get the transmission installed. Spent half the day working on the center console and installing the shifter. Should be good to go now. I modified the rear of the console to fit between the seats. It is close enough. Painted it black so it wouldn't contrast so much with the interior. It is all bolted in and the cable attached. Here is a short video of what fun I expect to have. Yes I've sat there making engine noises for a while =D The transmission isn't installed yet. http://youtu.be/2oXdv86PZoI Got the transmission in and bolted up. I don't think the crossmember that came with the car was an original TH400 crossmember as it appeared to have been modified in the past, so I further modified it. I cut the mounting bracket off and re-welded it on in a place and notched the backside to add clearance around the transmission pan. I hooked up the shifter cable and adjusted it as well. The dipstick tube is ready to be installed, but I couldn't get the rubber plug out of the transmission, so I'll have to wait until I drop the pan to change out the governor gear and verify the adjustment of the TV cable, and then I'll pop it out from the bottom. I need to bend up some cooling lines now. One issue I have is the universal TV cable I got is too short by about six inches, and it was the longest cable I could find. I have an idea on how to lengthen it. I need to set the car on the ground and measure out what length I'll need for the driveshaft. I have two to pick from to shorten. Installed the TV correction cable bracket for Holley carburetors to the throttle linkage. I will adjust the cable once I lengthen the cable housing (assuming I'm successful). I'll tie the throttle wide open and drop the transmission pan and adjust the cable so the valve is pushed all the way in.
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
The Following User Says Thank You to TheSilverBuick For This Useful Post: | ||
#32
|
||||
|
||||
What Cadillac starter did you use and is it the same dimensions as the original I am looking for something smaller than the stock one without loosing any cranking power
__________________
When you really do something right it's like you didn't do anything at all 1931 Pontiac 5 window coupe OHC6 powered 2015 GMC Yukon SLT |
#33
|
||||
|
||||
I used a spare NAPA stock Buick 455 starter motor. I had a timing problem last spring on one of my 455's and cracked two nose cones, but the shafts appeared to still be straight and were collecting dust in the corner of my shop. So I bought an OHC nose cone off Jeff (Hamlin?) and installed it on the Buick starter motor. The motor itself is a hair larger than the stock OHC one, less than 1/4" bigger in overall diameter, so the opposite of what you are going for.
I don't know how any of the aftermarket small hi-torque starters will work. Some of them have a crap ton of adjustments on mounting block though. Considering some don't run any nose cone at all, a regular aftermarket GM issue one might work just fine on the OHC. Just do like you should for any aftermarket starter and check the tooth interference and have it shimmed accordingly so it doesn't grind or eat stuff. You can see it's a big bastard in this picture.
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
The Following User Says Thank You to TheSilverBuick For This Useful Post: | ||
#34
|
||||
|
||||
High Torque Starters
Can be adapted, you will need to fab the mounting hardware.
All thread could be used if you can't locate longer bolts. I've not had to do this but have seen it.
__________________
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did, in his sleep. Not screaming like the passengers in his car. Last edited by Jeff Hamlin; 07-02-2014 at 05:53 AM. |
The Following User Says Thank You to Jeff Hamlin For This Useful Post: | ||
#35
|
||||
|
||||
Got some more done today. Installed the throttle cable and TV trans cable. I welded on a bracket to the throttle cable bracket to help support the throttle cable's 90* turn. There is still some play in the cable so shouldn't tug on it with engine movement. I solved the "too short" TV cable by getting some very stiff walled fuel hose (high nylon content?) that one end of the TV cable housing would slide tightly into and with a few hose clamps successfully extended the line casing. I had the pan off the transmission and adjusted the TV cable for the appropriate WOT position. I also installed a green 10-tooth speedo gear on the governor to get the speedo closer to accurate (still a ways off).
Then I installed the transmission dipstick tube, which ended up way taller than I expected. So I cut it down, which that part turned out good, then I "thought" I'd get fancy and when I cut the dipstick down I thought I'd cut the bottom off with the Fill hatch marking and then weld it to the bottom of the further trimmed dipstick so it'd read correctly. It was all good right up until the part where I welded it and the dipstick got super brittle. D'oh! So I need to pick up a new dipstick but when I modify it next time I'm going to overlap the lengths and drill two holes and rivet it. For now, the short stick will keep dust out of the tube =P And then I set the car on the ground to get a measurement for the driveshaft and by some miracle my old Skylark driveshaft is the EXACT size I needed. I picked up a new set of u-joints and will install it tomorrow which will be the real proof. I started mocking up the exhaust as well. I still have to cut out the section of pipe where the X used to reside and do final fabricating of the collector to the rest of the system, but it's essentially in. I'm going to order up some 2.5" exhaust couplers before I go any further than I did today. The throttle cable and TV cable hooked up and adjusted. I painted the bracket black after grinding the plating off the bracket for welding on the support. You can see one of the hose clamps and extension hose on the TV cable in the background. The no bueno dipstick tube. Much better. Even bolted to the bellhousing bolt. The exhaust system. Here is the collector hanging down. The 400 engine had headers and the ball and socket coupler. I'm tempted to keep a 3-bolt flange there for quick removal. Haven't decided yet. Looking down the car. It's up on jack stands so the axle is hanging low. You can see the hole from the X pipe. From the side. I put the car on the ground to measure the driveshaft, and took a picture from the rear. Here is a picture of one of the motor mounts I ran bolts through. I used bumper bolts with the small head on the bottom and used all metal locking nuts on the top. I didn't run the nuts all the way down, they are about 1/16th of an inch from being seated to allow normal movement of the mount. I didn't have to do this to this mount since I didn't modify it, but by the time I 'thought' about it I had already drilled it. I cut half the safety catch off the other side to clear my exhaust collector, hence why I felt the need to do this. And here are a couple shots of my saw blade trigger wheel in the car. Conveniently the bottom is protected by the cross member. Just moving along.
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
The Following User Says Thank You to TheSilverBuick For This Useful Post: | ||
#36
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
Hmm, I hadn't updated this in a while, but progress has been going. Started it up yesterday for the first time in the car even.
Dec 14, 2013. Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
The highlights of today are, I heard the engine run, a couple of times, but it certainly wasn't smooth sailing. Long post warning. Started the day pretty good. Hooked the battery up and no smoke, sparks or pops. Headlights, tail lights and dome light worked, figured I'd check the stock systems first. Then tried the key. Found my trigger wire to my relay didn't power with the key. Not a big deal, found the needed power source. Then had the megasquirt and fuel pump relay power reverse. No problem, swapped plugs moving on. Things were looking good at this point. The system powered up, the megasquirt was reading the sensors, the engine cranked when pressing the start button. Though it seems the neutral safety switch is out of adjustment as it won't crank in park, but will in neutral. Won't crank in any of the gears so it somewhat works. Problem for later. Then it started to go down hill from there.... Started working on checking the fuel system and first the lift pump wouldn't prime, so I threw 7 gallons of fresh fuel in the tank (probably needed fresh fuel anyways) and used the shop vac to blow air into the filler neck and the lift pump promptly started leaking at both ends..... After tightening up the fittings, the filter, breaking at least one hose clamp, I tossed the pump and got a new one that had the fitting built in and a new filter. Only bathed in a gallon of gas in the process *blah*. Had a minor leak at the fuel rail and ended up moving the fuel pressure gauge to the regulator. By now it was mid-afternoon so I figured I'd skip filling the cooling system with water because I'd have to promptly drain it, and proceeded right to start up :thumbs: Started the car up a couple times for ten or so seconds at a time and topped off the transmission fluid as well as ran it through the gears (speedo works now! Didn't when I got the car), and while doing this had no problems. The engine started reasonably well and shut off when I turned the key off like it should until......... it didn't...... The big difference between when it was working fine and when it didn't was I rev'ed it up high enough to get the alternator charging, and when I turned the key off the alternator was feeding the system, but cut off from the battery because I had the charging wire on the wrong side of my master relay and then bad things started to happen. The engine didn't shut off, but didn't sound right either, and I hit the power switch to the megasquirt to kill the engine but it was too late, the damage was done. When I key'ed back on the megasquirt did not power up. I checked and the fuse was good, it had power on the wire going into it, but nothing. Took a sniff at it and it smelled burnt =/ Dragged it into the house and opened it up and yup, a few cooked parts, some obvious and some not so obvious. Using the obvious visual cue's was easy for the damaged parts, but I hooked it back up to the JimStim and started testing the power circuit to find the two bad diodes. Started testing and replacing parts until I had power at the processor pins, and turned out just to be the two diodes. Here is an obvious exploded capacitor And an obvious burnt out power trace. (the copper color, it's not copper and doesn't conduct) So I started troubleshooting. The exploded capacitor is essentially the first part that is installed when building a megasquirt and is part of the power circuit. So I started there. Fortunately I have some spare parts (not that any of them are exotic, but I was able to get it going again today). I replaced these four parts. The capacitor on the top right may not be bad, but I didn't trust the way it looked compared to the good ones. The bottom two diodes were toast, no conductivity in either direction. New capacitors installed. A jumper wire installed in place of the cooked trace. (it doesn't look pretty, but will work and is hidden in a case!) So I went back out and took a video after the fact =D The phone picks up the fuel pump sound more than you can actually hear it in person. http://youtu.be/ljgzz8O__Ck
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
The Following User Says Thank You to TheSilverBuick For This Useful Post: | ||
#37
|
||||
|
||||
It moves under it's own power! Shifted into second gear putt'ing around the yard, which is enough for me to say time to go get insurance and registration! A few minor things to work on today and it should be cruising this weekend!
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
#38
|
||||
|
||||
IT'S ABOUT TIME!
Great to see it moved. Best of luck with road testing.
__________________
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did, in his sleep. Not screaming like the passengers in his car. |
The Following User Says Thank You to Jeff Hamlin For This Useful Post: | ||
#39
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks! Road testing so far has gone well =D
Quote:
Quote:
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
The Following User Says Thank You to TheSilverBuick For This Useful Post: | ||
#40
|
||||
|
||||
To keep the high tech theme going and give you guys and update of the fancy behind the scene's things I've been doing with it the last couple days.
Quote:
Quote:
__________________
__________________________________________ "How I learned to stop worrying and love the OHC Pontiac L6" The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455, SPX, MegaSquirt 3 & TKO-600 (Drag Week 2011, 2012 & 2015!) 1969 Firebird with a turbo'd Pontiac L6 controlled by a MegaSquirt 3 and backed with a microsquirt controlled 4L60e and 4.56 gears! (Drag Week 2018!) |
Reply |
|
|