[73LeMans]

You may have seen my post in the Street forum on this, but just in case you didn't, here is an update the Fuel Pump Speed Controller. Calling it semi resolved is the best way to term it. Here is what was done -

I grounded the shielded wire using a shield bond connector.



I also created an EMI filter as instructed per Aeromotive Tech Bulletin #302. I soldered it inline with the MSD tach signal as instructed, yet it seemed to make no difference. I made a video so I could show ya (Fun Fact! The video was originally 15 seconds long, but the last 3 seconds were the beginning of an obscenity laden rant I thought was better left out)

FPSC video
https://youtu.be/w2nMspJQ9_8


Here the weird part. Obviously something changed, I just don't know what, but subsequent idling of the engine a few hours later produced a much cleaner signal than what the video shows. Its not 100%, but way better than what the video shows. (Full light only flashed about once every 15 seconds!!) What changed in that time frame:

--I removed the direct power and ground feeds from the battery to the controller and returned to using the ones I originally had on my new electrical board and fuse panel.

-- The shielded wire for this test recall, was run outside of the glove box, (where the MSD resides), to isolate it from the other wires. I took it back though the side of the glove box with the rest of the wires as it had been initially.

That's it. Both of these actions should have had an adverse affect on my signal, not a favorable one, so once again I'm at a loss for whats going on. Maybe it gets worse? Maybe it gets better? I don't really know. What I do know is there is a controller bypass switch wired in so it wont ever leave me stranded. (and there's the jinx)

I'm leaning toward my ancient MSD being the root cause. Either its a dirty signal because its just old, or maybe the signal isn't exactly what this FPSC was tested against or expecting. Either way, its now in the past and I'm done thinking about it. What a relief. Stupid electronics....

[73LeMans]

I debated on sharing this. In the interest of full disclosure I decided its part of the build up and should have its place here. There's no real shame other than its the lazy way out and the fix isn't up to my usual standard. There is no compromise to safety.

On the street, I run a 1.25" ADDCO front sway bar.


In my tenure as custodian of this vehicle, nothing has made this car feel more like a modern car than this piece. The dodging, dipping, diving, ducking and dodging (cmon, you gotta know that movie!) into turns was all solved with this bar. Its heavy, (21.76lbs heavy) but it completely transforms the front end behavior on the street. I love it. Not like swimming in raw sewage love it, but I love it nonetheless. (Anyone?)

For the track, I take it off the car completely. I mention this to let you know there is a lot of opportunity for the small 3/8 bolts to strip out, especially if one uses the tightening of those small 3/8 bolts to help draw up the bar when putting it back on the car. (did I mention it was heavy?) Do that enough times with the 2 threads of engagement the factory frame gives you and you get the idea. One of the 4 holes was stripped and I gotta fix it.

To aid in stripping of the threads, please note the following:

The small 3/8 bolts present an issue. Without washers, they could potentially slip through the large hole in the bracket holding the bar to the car. Easy enough to fix right? Pop a washer in there and you're good to go. Not really....

Probably more easily solved with a smaller O.D. SAE washer, when you don't have them, you make do. As such, in order for bolts to line up properly with their respective threads, you gotta make sure the washers chosen don't interfere with the bracket. Grind in a flat side if you gotta, but make sure you grind enough, or else this happens:



Don't grind too much though, or else youll discover how quickly those washers twist out on tighten when the bolt hole has been breached.

The other problem is that because this bar is bigger than the biggest factory bar, perfect bolt alignment is difficult to get on a good day. The bar, the bushing and the bracket take up so much space, one bolt on each side is usually pointing at some sort of angle to engage. (The pic above is a combination of both problems rearing their head)

"Bar"ring any more excuses of why its stripped, lets get on with the fix.


I swear, when I measured the threads on the bolt I took out, it was 7/16 with a 16 pitch. Now, where is that tap.... this kit? This kit? This kit? Oh wait....that's not a normal tap, is it? Nope. 7/16-14 is normal coarse threading and 7/16-20 is normal fine threading, but no 16. Hmm.. looks like I gotta special order a tap. %^$

I found one, and only one, online on a site called DrillsandCutters.com. I didn't buy it right away because I never heard of the place, and ya know, my identity is kinda important to me. I figured a local search would definitely turn one up anyway, but I was less than right on that call. (some might say wrong). Even the best hardware stores around (Think Truevalue, ACE etc) didn't carry them. Then the pandemic hit.

Fine - lets take a chance on the unheard of site. (great experience btw!)

When I got the tap, it didn't fit in the way I expected. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even get it started. WTF?

I gotta mechanic buddy - one of his favorite sayings is brute force and ignorance always overcomes fear and common sense. I told him about the issues Ive been having with the fitment so he decided to help out. He takes the tap, goes under the car and sure enough, got it to fit.

Son of a .... . Am I that far out mechanic shape I cant start a friggin tap?? I must be losing my mind faster than I thought. Then it hit me. (Taking the 3/8 bolt and seeing it get lost in the 7/16 hole helped too). I bought the wrong tap.

Well, #$^. I really am losing my mind.

Yup, 3/8 bolt. 7/16 tap. Rookie mistake. Lets not dwell on it.


On the bright maybe now a regular 7/16-14 tap will work? Yeah, right.

Ugh, filling, welding, grinding, drilling, taping and painting isn't really something I want to do at this juncture! I'm this far away from driving this thing!!! [ ] I cant spend time messing with this crap! But I really want that bar in there.

Go big or stay home, right? Enter, stage right, the 1/2" bolt. (socket cap technically)





And with the proper tap this time, I present you the ugly fix with terrible lighting -



The bracket you can see, hangs off the frame a tad here. I'll correct that because I will likely catch something (skin, clothes, gloves) on that about 1,652 times until I remember its there.

Will anyone ever see this ugly ass oversized bolt? No.
Will I know its there? Yes.
Will it bother me until they are all the same size? Yes.
Will I be taking the time to change them all out anytime soon? Very unlikely.

[73LeMans]

Just a quick update on this. I'm disappointed I have no street time to show for all this work. I fully expected to be editing and posting GoPro footage by now like all the cool kids, but I took some time off for a few reasons -

- help sister move to new home
- help get moms house of 55 years on the market
- keep from purposely lighting this friggin car on fire
- no AC in the garage - thermo been sayin 88...for weeks....is that bad?


What lefts to do?

- Square away brakes.
- Figure out why all my mechanical advance isn't coming in
- Figure out why there is a ton of blue smoke coming out the pipe when it revs

- That Wilwood MC is, as the internet told me it would be, a royal PITA to bleed. The stock Motive Power Bleeder plate isn't big enough. I had to get a bigger plate to cover the length of the oval master. (P/N 1115). It arrived of course with a hole in the hose. It was returned for a replacement, but Summit decided to credit my card instead. I borrowed one from a friend and even though I moved a 1/2 gallon of fluid out the rear brakes, they still feel like there is air trapped in the system. I did bench bleed the MC, now I'm wondering if it was enough.

- The mechanical advance is made up of the same springs and plates I used the last time I successfully ran the car. The dizzy is not binding up; all seems to move freely. I'm just not getting the 29 total degrees I'm looking for at 3000. I'm getting 20 and nothing more. I'll replace the medium spring with a light one and see if anything changes. If that doesn't help, I may shoot myself with the timing gun. (just a joke).

- The blue smoke out the pipe is the least of my worries, but its still a worry. I'm not going to focus on it yet, but its creeping into my mind it may be an issue I need to address. While no street time, the engine has about 90 minutes worth of run time on it. It should be clearing up. Valve seals are new....but man, its a ton of smoke. Not good, Mav.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin glue.

[73LeMans]

I know you wouldn't know it, (because I haven't told you) but for 2+ months I've been wrestling with my HEI trying to dial it in. I finally gave up and sent it to a professional (heretofore known as "The Distributor Guy") who has a Distributor Testing machine, the proper know-how to figure out why my advance isn't fully coming in and an S TON more patience than me.

This post will be one of those "what not to do" type posts. You'll see why.

You know what is apparently being added to the latest list of unobtanium? Genuine GM HEI advance weights. Maybe I'm late to the party and they've been off the market for years, but I'll tell ya, there are none on this forum, and none in any of the 20 GM groups I'm in on Facebook. Pretty astounding considering the amount that were made available from the factory and the amount of people these social sites reach.

Don't get me wrong, the journey has been interesting - got a chance to talk to Rocky Rotella on weight and curves. (If you don't know the name, you're probably fuel injected. ) Man, what a nice guy!! But still no weights.

Got a few folks that said they could help - even willing to go with 139 weights - but I must have ticked them off or something, because they ghosted me in short order. I guess I have a way of doing that.

Enough about that. Lets get to the reason you're all here. My awesome photography.


My big cap HEI is really just a distributor of spark - the 6al does all of the heavy lifting; the dizzy just tells it where to go. No modules lefts to fry, it was strictly the magnetic pickup and the advance mechanism. Simple. Years ago my Distributor Guy even made an advance bushing to limit the curve and dialed it in perfectly, even with the crappy curve kit I had in it.



But if you read any dizzy threads at all, they all have one thing in common - the aftermarket weights and cams are junk. Its true more so today than ever before. Most serious curve guys buy for the springs and throw the rest away.


Whats wrong with my distributor? I don't really know to be honest. All I know is it limits me to half the advance Id expect to see regardless if I use new weights, or the old proven good ones. Yup, all greased, spins freely, shimmed identically as before and doesn't feel odd in any way. Oh, and it ate a bronze gear in 90 minutes of run time.....



....and put a ton of carbon under the rotor in the same timeframe. Yup, I said 90 minutes.



Something ain't right Scoob. Maybe the shaft bent when I dropped that roller lifter waaaay back at the front of this thread? Remember, that oil pump got pretty hot.

So given there are apparently no genuine GM weights left in the world, and my dizzy has gone off to the great carousel of spark in the sky, what options exist before one goes completely fuel injected?


Another Dizzy or a Crank Trigger.


You know, I tried to buy a distributor to make my life easy, maybe get me running this year, but of course, MSD no longer sells a Pontiac HEI distributor. Very annoying.

Since my mantra has always been to upgrade when a part breaks, I figured the crank trigger would give me the most flexibility going forward - either in a switch to FI or just making more power and requiring more stable spark. Take that advance weights!!! Try and squeeze me, huh? I'll show ya.

I had the trigger delivered to see if I could mount the wheel to my old Fluidamper. MSD support isn't allowed to share tech drawings (go figure) and at the same time, couldn't tell me the exact size of the center hole so I had to find out myself. I thought my biggest battle was won when I unpacked and found a removable center allowing the wheel to register on different dampers. Well played MSD.



When it all bolted together perfectly with my odd Fluidamper 4 bolt 3.3" bolt circle, I thought I was in the clear. (seems like a good timing pun could be used here, doesn't it?)



Yeah, no.

I now know what the phrase I've read on this board so many times actually means, at least partially: "I've gotten an MSD crank trigger modified to work on the Pontiac". I was hoping those were old statements said against old versions of the part and any "issue" that needed correcting was done with future iterations. Wrong again I was.

For those that aren't familiar (and I'm likely the last to ever attempt this because there are far more modern ways to get accurate ignition timing today) here is a rundown of "the problem" Ive got with the trigger. If you're looking for a solution, I will let you down.

If you're running a 4 bolt damper, such as the Fluidamper, the likelihood one of the 4 magnets in the wheel aligning with the pickup is slim. Take a look.



This picture is with total timing at 29 degrees BTDC. As you can see, there is no aligning the two, at least not at 29 degrees. (The pickup is at the end of its upward travel). I didn't measure, but it looks to be about 10, perhaps 12 degrees off, so its basically sitting at a starting point of 40 lets say, with no option but to advance more.

You see, MSD instructs one to find TDC on #1 on compression stroke, set engine for the total desired timing, align magnet with the center of the non-magnetic pickup and attach the wheel. Maybe with a 3 bolt damper you can get a magnet to align with the pickup somewhere on the slider, but not when the damper is using 4 bolts. The bolt circle and the magnets have the same relationship. (do not believe the MSD tech thread that says this trigger will work with 4 bolt balancers. Not without extensive modification it wont)

Rotating the wheel to the next spot it bolts to the damper, yields the following:



And because the slider can only travel up in this photo, that would no nothing but retard timing starting at 29 and continuing downward.

Yeah, I could modify the slider to work - this is hot rodding after all. There is a lot of material on the adjuster I could mill to get more travel, but I'm just not that sure I want to go this route just yet, especially since I'm likely to have to buy a new dizzy anyway.

Back it goes.

I'll talk to my Distributor Guy - Maybe a DUI is in my future.

More news as it becomes news.