[bulletpruf]

How does this happen in the first place? I can't say that I've seen something like that before.

[HWYSTR455]

It starts with a blown head gasket that goes unnoticed and progresses to that.

Without the intake tube on I was able to hear the pop back into the intake track, but before that, with the intake tube on, I didn't hear it, and suspected other problems causing my issues.

What blew the head gasket in the first place? Simply put, this is usually caused by a lean and/or detonation condition. And it went unnoticed.

More simple, human error.

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[AG]

This happened to a combustion when a titanium retainer lensed and the exhaust valve dropped. The valve head broke off, the stem stuck in the guide and caused havoc. My local machine shop welded up the chamber, installed new seats and machined it to get the same size as the rest for $500. Looking at the retainer under a microscope I noticed a small oclusion where it broke. Your head can definitely be fixed.

[HWYSTR455]

Bummer!

Oh yeah, it can be fixed, and the cheap way out would have been to have them ported to 340cfm at the same time. But. The lead time is brutal.

Butler sends them out to fix, they don't do it anymore, but they gave me the contact who does them for them, and I will just send the bare head there to be fixed.

After I have the boxes from the new heads, I will use them to ship the broke one to be repaired, then shipped to Butler's. I will ship the other head in the other new box directly to.

I have like $1100 in springs (#1243), retainers, locators, locks, and lash caps. It's all PAC stuff, @ 1000 miles on them. Butler uses the same springs, so opted for those, Comp titanium keepers, locks, and think they are Manley retainers. Again, to save time.

Not sure I will set the original heads back up with the same stuff and sell them, or sell the springs and stuff separately. I will figure that out when I reach that point. But the idea is to sell the original stuff, corrected, to offset the cost of the new ones.

I have all the part numbers etc for everything and will have work orders for the repairs & assembly, so it's not like there will be lack of confidence of the work when selling them.

Someone may like the fact that there's a set done and not have to wait for them, who knows. But I will obviously take a loss, just not as great of one.


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[HWYSTR455]

What brand retainer?


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[A1cnc]

Parts look good.
Just a thought on heating / drying the paint on your parts. Look online locally for a large toaster oven or even an old electric stove for bigger parts.

[HWYSTR455]

I'm going to build a detached garage that's going to get that kind of stuff, the current garage is pretty packed. The new building will have hvac, so won't be an issue.

I have a cheesy heater in the garage that just can't keep up, and am not going to put a good one in, it's not worth the effort. Once it's strictly parking, won't need to spend any extended time out there.

On the brake install status, I've used ARP 12 point hardware as much as I could on the rest of the car, and ordered stuff that will replace what shipped with the brake kit. So hit a little slow down on that.

I knew I was going to have to step up injector size from #48 to #66 once I went to the 340cfm heads, was able to install those.

Also added a vacuum reference line to the regulator, not sure if I mentioned that yet or not.

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[HWYSTR455]

Couple updates, one is that for whatever reason, adding the vacuum line to the regulator wasn't a positive experience, varying idle quality and startup, and just ran rich across the whole range. And yes, gave it plenty of time to learn.

I pulled it, will clear the learn table and let it settle. I may revisit this later, possibly add a fixed orifice PCV or something.

Decided to move away from the dual sync and am working towards installing the 2nd Gen Engineering 24x crank trigger setup. Will still use the dual sync for cam signal, and if that gives me trouble will move to an MSD billet or something. Will post more on that as it developes.

Went to a local car show this past Saturday, was a sunny but windy day. Turnout was 65+ cars, bunch of nice stuff there. I did pull off People's Choice award and got a small trophy, which made me feel pretty good. Lots of cool people there, and many hardcore hot rodder types.


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[HWYSTR455]

Couple updates, one is that for whatever reason, adding the vacuum line to the regulator wasn't a positive experience, varying idle quality and startup, and just ran rich across the whole range. And yes, gave it plenty of time to learn.

I pulled it, will clear the learn table and let it settle. I may revisit this later, possibly add a fixed orifice PCV or something.

Decided to move away from the dual sync and am working towards installing the 2nd Gen Engineering 24x crank trigger setup. Will still use the dual sync for cam signal, and if that gives me trouble will move to an MSD billet or something. Will post more on that as it developes.

Went to a local car show this past Saturday, was a sunny but windy day. Turnout was 65+ cars, bunch of nice stuff there. I did pull off People's Choice award and got a small trophy, which made me feel pretty good. Lots of cool people there, and many hardcore hot rodder types.


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[HWYSTR455]

Quick update:

So I have the original AFX spindles with the lower ball joint upgrade (larger 2.0 pin), and the GW lower control arms that were designed for them.

The newer Speedtech spindles come in both ways, and I ordered the typical 1.5 pin ones, and the matching lower control arms. This would in the event I want to go to coilovers later I can easily do so.

To keep it simple, I ordered the matching upper control arms.

I should have it assembled by end of day and will get the car roughly aligned using the 'TZ' alignment plates. Then will run it up to a shop to have it full aligned.

The upper control arms don't have stops, so I drilled a hole in the cross plate and added a Moog bumper.

The Speedtech lower control arms have only holes for the shock mount, pretty sure that's due in the event you want do coilovers. Since I won't be doing that any time soon, I went ahead and did steel rivnuts for the hole, beats having to try to hold a nut up there while you tighten it. The GW lowers had nuts tacked to the arm, that was nice, but obviously not desired if you want to swap to coilovers, would have to remove them.

Also on the Speedtech lowers, when using regular coil springs, you need to use their' 'isolators', which is no biggie, almost all aftermarket LCAs use them. But, the one they provide is a smaller center diameter than many, and has to be clearanced for shock hardware if you run coil springs. (I wasn't going to start shopping around and try to figure out the different versions).

Finally, I got the 'enhanced' steering arms for use with additional ackerman. Basically you mount the arms pointing towards the outside of the car, and use longer tie rod adjusters.

Soon as I get the previous parts cleaned up I will list them for a deal. You want a better deal, where I don't have to clean everything, PM me. It's the GW lowers & uppers, AFX spindles, with the steering arms, and all the matching original docs. Can pan back thru this build thread and see them.

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[HWYSTR455]

Quick update on another topic:

I've been experiencing a WOT fuel delivery issue once I get over about 5500 RPM. Went thru everything, electrical, pump flow, AFRs, base fuel table, you name it, no help. (Yes, I did datalogs)

So was looking at the Walbro flow charts for the GPA-6 400LPH pumps and noticed that the tank I have is not compatible with the 6-series pumps:

"These pumps are not compatible with the 1968-72 GM-A Body stock sized (non-notched) EFI Gas tanks."

Non-notched?

I have a TM34I-T tank, which at the time I ordered were the only EFI tank offered. So I looked at the available tanks, and sure enough they now offer a notched tank, and it's 1" DEEPER than the non-notched tank. (palm-on-forehead moment!)

So the pump is sucking the bottom of the tank up and blocking flow. Uhg.

Ordered the notched tank and will swap it out. Dang. Live & learn!

I may try to put a U bracket on the pickup of the pump to prevent it sucking up the floor, will have to see what I can come up with after I pull the tank.



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[HWYSTR455]

New tank came in, dropped the old one, cleaned it up a little, and is now listed in sale section:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=875172


The tank will work fine using the GPA-4 and GPA-5 pumps, up to about 700hp, but is not recommended for anything larger than the GPA-5.


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