[TheSilverBuick]

12-15 psi.

[TheSilverBuick]

I've cleaned up the hot side a bit, repainted it with very high temp paint and re-wrapped it. I haven't done the cross over pipe yet as I may re-do that one entirely.


On Facebook there were some questions on valvetrain follower tolerances, so I finally did what I had wanted to for a while and cut up a cam housing and cam to see exactly what is going on under the cam house. I have a housing that literally was pulled out of a garden bed and a 1bbl camshaft that has a few flatten lobes that could be used.




For the measurements I was looking for, I pulled the check balls out of the lash adjusters to make sure I could easily compress the adjuster.


Basically questions were around the tolerances of the thickness of some aftermarket cam followers versus GM. In my case, every follower I had was the same.


The base circle of the cam compressed the lash adjuster 0.10". The lash adjuster would bottom out if the follower was another 0.057" thicker (or base circle was bigger for some reason). I suspect this is why the valve stem heights need to be within 0.025" tolerance, to still allow the lash adjuster to have some range to work if it was on the high side.


Here is a video rotating the cam. The lash adjuster in operations should not compress, and you can see how much of the follower contacts the cam on the ramp up and down.
https://youtu.be/kuCSJbVflyQ?si=a5p4oRtgj7szL0mi


I don't plan on converting to a manual transmission yet, but I figure eventually I will, so bought a used scatter shield for a Magnum T-56 I have. The problem with the OHC engine is its a deep skirt block, so the starter sits lower than the typical BOP.




Here you can see how much offset it there is from a normal BOP bellhousing.


I know I'll have to cut the scatter shield to clear the starter, but it was mentioned I might get away without cutting using a mini starter that doesn't have a nose cone. Well almost. Still would have to clearance the block plate and scatter shield, but would be much less trimming than a nose coned starter. I have a while to decide which way I'll go.

[TheSilverBuick]

Did a little work on the hood tach update. A long while back I epoxied the inside of it up because the plastic is pretty degraded and flaking. I also put iron sleeves around the threaded stands, filled them with epoxy, drilled and tapped new threads into them.

I made a panel out of sheet plastic to hold the digital tach screen and red and orange lights. I'll use the lights as warning indicators for the EFI. Overheating, low oil pressure, lean condition under load, or as shift lights.



I took the boat tach out of its housing entirely. There is a settings button on the top of the tach that I'm looking at soldering some wires on to and mounting a remote button on the bottom of the hood tach assembly so I can adjust the redline, etc on the tach.




All assembled and I checked that it still powers up.


I may get some black vinyl and cover over the sides and Chinese writing on the screen. Just leave the actual bar gauge and rpm numbers visible.


Here is the video of my proof of concept from a few months ago.
https://youtu.be/LJDj-_oQey4?si=xkJm6lxPFMjG5TUd

[Cammer-6]

I see Im not the only one to hack up an otherwise useless housing and cam.
Tom Langdon modified his lash adjusters to be manual,so cut access windows into housing

[Cammer-6]

I see Im not the only one to hack up an otherwise useless housing and cam.
Tom Langdon modified his lash adjusters to be manual,so cut access windows into housing


Another thought is to use the smaller Atlas lash adjuster and offset it in bore to gain a higher than 1.5:1 ratio

[TheSilverBuick]

Atlas lash adjusters? I've got a few Pinto 2.3L ones, maybe a roller one Pinto one as well and just remembered I have a few experimental Prima-Tech roller ones, but a steel roller is very likely to eat the cast cam.

[Cammer-6]

steel roller requires a billet cam from what Im told by Crane.

[TheSilverBuick]

I've been told the same, plus when the 2.3L Ford engine went from slider to roller they changed to a harder cam core, though there are a few people posting supposedly tens of thousands of miles of running rollers on their cast slider cams without issue. The lobe profiles aren't optimized for that though.

[TheSilverBuick]

Started filling up the engine bay some more and got the hood installed! I still have to sort out the cooling system changes and external oil lines, then I'll get to the wiring.

I have the EGT probes in place and most the hot side in. I haven't installed the exhaust cross under pipes yet, and still need to see if they clear the oil pan with the 1/2" spacer installed.




No changes here.


Exhaust of the front three and rear three cylinders are still kept separate all the way to the turbo, and merge at the turbo and waste gate.




Since I put the hood on, I thought I'd take a look at setting the hood tach on the hood. I haven't bolted any of the hood tach parts together. Visibility is a little better than the camera shows but I think I'm going to try either a polarized or anti-glare screen on it to improve it.


The screen isn't sitting level in the housing because its not bolted together.


I found that grounding the signal wire to the car chassis made the rpm float around 5,000 rpm. So I fired up the ol' Buick next to the car for some not matching video sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuaOh3s5ECA

[TheSilverBuick]

Just poking away at it still.

I mounted the electric water pump. I had it mounted to the battery tray, but I removed the tray so I made another mount for it and set it on some bolt isolators to keep the vibration from humming on the fender well.

I enlarged one existing hole and used another as is.




From the bottom.


This is just a hose I had on hand. I may replace it with one that is a few inches shorter.



I also mounted the remote oil filter and made the high pressure lines. I'm sure I'll get grief for mounting the filter open side down, but it made the most sense for access and limited the length of the oil lines. The filter does have an anti-drain back valve and I'm going to augment that with the EFI not lighting off until it see's oil pressure. I've read that when removing the filter, punch a hole in the top of the filter and wait a bit and most the oil will drain out of the filter before removing it. I can soak most the filter media and have some oil in the filter before install. The reasoning I did this is the factory oil pressure port is pressure BEFORE the filter, so tapping it for the lash adjuster galley and turbo feed meant that it was unfiltered oil going to them. Also this gets by the convoluted internal passages from the accessory drive to the block. I'm going to use the adapter's inlet as an outlet source of oil for the lash adjusters and turbo. It will be backfilled from the block feed and be filtered.

I'm probably going to install a 90º fitting for the oil pressure sensor to keep the wiring along the core support.




Where I left off for the day.

[TheSilverBuick]

Starting to look more like my engine with the coils mounted! Poking away on it.



About done with the cooling system. Just have to add hose clamps and cap a port on the water pump. I welded together a Y-fitting to merge the two water pump outlets into one. Painted it black and put a heater hose over it to hide my welding sins, LOL! Also tied the heater hoses to the heater box and fender well to keep them off the exhaust. At least one of the hoses always sat against the turbo exhaust and survived, but I didn't like it. That header wrap really works, plus it was just putting more heat into the cooling system.


Made a new turbo drain line to drain to the oil fill tube. I previously had it draining to the fuel pump block off plate, but I had to clearance the intake tube to make it fit. The new line doesn't interfer with anything and drains to the back of the engine so quicker return to the sump.


I still need to mount the lash adjuster oil pressure regulator and run the lash adjuster oil lines as well as turbo feed. I think I'm going to mount the regulator off the lower stud holding the turbo to the head. Keeping it down low.



I still need to install the transmission, likely mount an external transmission cooler, run the exhaust cross under pipes (possibly making new ones), install exhaust pressure sensor tubes, then lots and lots of wiring.

[TheSilverBuick]

Still chipping away at it. The big change is I put the 4L60e back in.

I would like to put a different torque converter in it, but between not knowing exactly what the new engine/cam will want and likely going to a T-56 in the future, I didn't want to spend the money there.


Installed the 5/16" thick BOP to Chevy adapter plate. Red loctite'd the bolts in place. I installed longer dowel pins so they go into the bellhousing by a good amount. Nice to see the crank has a pilot bushing in it. Its a little deep, but at least its drilled for it for when the T-56 ends up in the car.


Installed the re-drilled Buick 455 SFI flexplate (with the weight cut off). These OHC's have one off crank register size (I'm using a spacer to get to the Chevy size) using the Chevy small block bolt spacing. Buick's using the same Chevy register size, but a bigger bolt spacing, In a previous post I went over all the flexplate differences, and ultimately decided that the new holes in the twice as thick Buick plate was better than running an O.E. plate. I'm on the fence on what I'll be doing for a flywheel for the T-56. I have an OE flywheel, but would prefer an SFI modern metallurgy unit. Right now the two options are a Chevy one where I can press/offset the ring gear closer to the block, or a Buick 455 one that is also re-drilled unless I can get a pre-drilled Buick one to have drilled with the Chevy bolt pattern.


All bolted up. Still have to connect the wiring, cooling lines, etc. But the big mechanical part is done. After the cooling lines are installed, before I put the car back on the ground I'll degrease the bottom side of the transmission.

[TheSilverBuick]

Still poking away at this.

I didn't want to remove the cap on the "cam" sensor when ever I needed to check or set it so I added a viewing port to it. This lets me quickly line up the tooth with the sensor. This will be useful when I start changing cams out. I'm breaking in the engine on light springs and old engine cam, then will swap in the bigger new cam, then swap in stiffer valve springs. Each time the belt comes off I run the risk of the cam tooth moving and this will make it easy to verify.




I got the driveshaft and starter in (no new pictures) and went back to electrical. Finished putting together the fuse and relay panel and mounted it in the car.


With that I got all new pigtails for all the sensor and stuff so started laying out the engine wiring harness as well.




I need to put the down pipe back on the turbo, mount up the exhaust pressure accumulators and sensors, add spacers to the exhaust cross under, or remake the whole assembly, and finish up the under hood IO box.

I've completed all the electrical parts of the IO box. I need to finish the solid mounting of the two circuit boards and associated wiring, then pull it apart and paint it black.


I bought a handful of these 0-5v ammeter sensors off Amazon. The reviews say they are good for a lot more amps than the terminals that come on them, so I did as the reviewers said they have done and stuck heavier duty terminals on them. I'll use two of them to monitor amp draws on the two electric fuel pumps and maybe one on the electric water pump. The idea is to give me a heads up if the motors are going out or even if a fuel filter is starting to plug up.

[TheSilverBuick]

Its been toasty out, but between yesterday and today I got a handful of things done.

It's been around 100ºF out, but single digit humidity so the shade does help.


I finished up the IO box, including painting the box black and sealed it up. It should be waterproof, but if not strongly water resistant. I mounted it under the hood on vibration dampeners. It should be a relatively cool spot under the hood getting fresh air from the fender. I wired up the EGT sensors to it. The other terminals are for power, ground and two CAN bus wires. I have to make the IO engine harness for the other circuit board in there but that won't take long.




Finished up all the hard external oil lines as well. The turbo feed, lines to the external oil pressure regulator (to keep pressure at 12 psi) and to the lash adjuster galley. Not the greatest picture, but its all there and the lines are not rubbing anything.


I wanted to work on the air flow through the radiator. I found when I added the 3" intercooler in front of the radiator that it had a hard time keeping the engine cool below ~60 mph unless the fan was on. My general assumption was that the air would get through the intercooler, but basically loose all speed/pressure and then escape around the radiator instead of through it. So I added some baffles on the sides of the intercooler and sealed up the radiator flush to the core support. The 400 panels on top will ensure air doesn't push upwards, and at some point I'll seal up the bottom and add an air dam. Not just forcing all the air through the radiator, but want to go through the radiator. I'm happy to see I still have plenty of room between the fan and engine.

Maybe hard to see, but the aluminum flashing between the intercooler and core support.




Before bolting the 400 core support panels on. I contemplated putting more flashing over and under the intercooler, but figured I didn't want to limit the open area of air coming through.


Looking down between the intercooler and radiator before bolting on the 400 core support panels. The radiator is flush with the core support. On the bottom I slit a rubber hose and put it on the sharp edge of the core support to take up space and seal it up. On the top I stuck 1/2" foam on the core support to seal up against the radiator.






I was quite happy that its still easy to pull the radiator with the hoses disconnected. Plenty of room.


Then a minor "oops". I went to install the air intake tube, just to have it in place for the wiring, and found the air filter couldn't fit between the re-located water pump and fender!! D'oh! The pipe itself fits over the pump fine, so I need to unbolt the water pump to slide it over a hair, stick the filter in the fender, and bolt the water pump back on. Not the worse thing in the world, but slightly inconvenient.


Oops.


Just moving along.

[Cammer-6]

have you thought of a liquid cooled intercooler?

[TheSilverBuick]

I have! Mostly because I already have a Craigs-Davies pump that would be perfect for circulating fluid. But it really doesn't make sense for me. Technically this intercooler is much bigger than I need (31"x12"x3") and, to date, I haven't seen an intake temperature issue. An air/water intercooler presents its own packaging issues, such as where to mount the water tank, and the intercooler itself needs to go somewhere and are usually weirdly shaped to fit in corners of the engine bays. For as much street driving as I do I'd probably still want some kind of radiator to keep the water at ambient, and again added complexity. Then of course having to run an anti-freeze in the winter.

So all in all, unless I see a serious intake air temp issue I cannot resolve with ducting/fans, the air to air intercooler works well for me.

[TheSilverBuick]

Calling it done for the weekend. Pretty much just have to install an alternator belt and the air filter and the rest is electrical.

Mounted the exhaust pressure dampeners and sensors to an existing fender well bolt and bent up some lines to them. If the bends I put in it aren't enough to deal with the engine vibration I'll get longer tubes and put a handful of proper loops in. I'm measuring exhaust pressure right before and after the turbo. I'm wondering if I'll see changes to pre-turbo pressure with cam timing changes, and if so make adjustments to improve spooling. Likewise with ignition timing on the 2-step. I'm going to be real surprised if there is much post-turbo pressure. It's a 4" down pipe and 4" straight pipe all the way to the rear axle before reducing to 3". After getting some baseline data I may stick a little straight through "race" muffler on the car to see if I can smooth out the exhaust tone a bit more. Then in the long term, use the data to pick out a more appropriate turbo for the engine.



Mocked up the cross under and tacked it together. Its more or less about 1/2" lower than the last one. Its located just a smidge further rearward than before to give a bit more room to the drain plug. Historically I always put a piece of cardboard on the cross under to funnel the oil into the pan and I'll probably continue to keep doing that.




This is what the old one looked like. Because I put the 1/2" oil pan spacer on it, the flex pipe hit the oil pan.


And just like that all my welds look better!


Connected up the rest of the exhaust and as I was doing that I noticed that the cross under really doesn't sit much lower, if at all, than the 4" exhaust.

[Cammer-6]

I guess we will see but 4 inch seems like a bit overkill.

[TheSilverBuick]

Been on there since 2018!

[TheSilverBuick]

Nothing dramatic this past weekend. There is a transmission firmware update so I thought I'd take a moment to put all the modules together at once and be sure they play nicely together as well as having all the firmware's up to date.

The Megasquirt 3/3x, CAN EGT, Tiny IOx and Microsquirt transmission controller.


Its a good thing I did, turns out I installed a transistor backwards on a TinyIOx sub-board and it let the smoke out when I powered it up, lol d'oh! For background, the Tiny IOx runs on 5 volts, and the two PWM output circuits to run the water pump speed and maybe someday the radiator fan speed run on 12 volts, so I made a separate board just to keep 12v away from the Tiny IOx board. I thought I had mirrored the circuits on either side, but I did not. So it popped the side that was mis-wired.


The "relay" kit I bought for the circuit came with little transistors rated for like 0.5 amps, but Amazon had bigger ones in stock that the Tiny IOx vendor says are fine to use and capable of driving 5 amps. Or at least if they don't overheat since they do have heat sink mounts. In my case, I shouldn't get anywhere near even 1 amp since it will be signaling a dedicated solid state PWM fan relay with a big heat sink on it to carry the water pump amperage. Soldered in, and powered up without issue.


All powered up and all modules recognized on the CAN network. I'm taking this moment to also put names to all the generic "ADC-input" names. So in the software I'll know what input is "Engine Oil Pressure", "Head Oil Pressure", "Crank Case Pressure", "Pre-Turbo Exhaust Pressure", "Post-Turbo Exhaust Pressure", etc. Get them all mapped out so its easy to check when its wired up.