[TheSilverBuick]

Got new tires for the Firebird today. Made a quick burn out video =D

http://youtu.be/vnEXKvgsKyA
(Looks like I have a brake light out. Got to check the socket.)

[PMD1969]

Originally Posted by TheSilverBuick

Got new tires for the Firebird today. Made a quick burn out video =D

http://youtu.be/vnEXKvgsKyA
(Looks like I have a brake light out. Got to check the socket.)

Awesome! Are you going to dyno it to see the numbers?

[TheSilverBuick]

If my curiosity gets the best of me I may. This is just the (used) 1bbl cam and I have a brand new E cam on the shelf with new followers. I want to make sure my external oiling line is reliable before using the better cam. I'll break the E-cam in with the single springs and then swap on some new springs/dual springs to really rev it up. Once I'm happy with how it's running (particularly at WOT) I might chassis dyno it.

The 4.56 gears I think help make the magic happen =D

[PMD1969]

Originally Posted by TheSilverBuick

If my curiosity gets the best of me I may. This is just the (used) 1bbl cam and I have a brand new E cam on the shelf with new followers. I want to make sure my external oiling line is reliable before using the better cam. I'll break the E-cam in with the single springs and then swap on some new springs/dual springs to really rev it up. Once I'm happy with how it's running (particularly at WOT) I might chassis dyno it.

The 4.56 gears I think help make the magic happen =D

Excellent work Randall ! Can't wait to see the final motor done and the numbers she produces.

[TheSilverBuick]

Thanks. From what I posted on the yuku site about the upcoming turbo build.

A recap of where I am on the turbo build today. I have a thick cylinder wall'd 230 block (sonic checked), a 250 crank ready for clean up and balance, fresh set of stock rods with arp bolts installed, a cleaned up '69 250 head with the dividers fully welded up and machined flat and ready for a full port job and chamber work, I have a freshly re-ground cam with spec's around .460" lift and I think 260'ish duration (supposed to be close or same as the Prima-Tech Stage 1 cam iirc). I need everything else =P

[TheSilverBuick]

Also from the yuku site today.

I picked up some stuff from the parts stores today. I got a universal 14" electric fan as it gets warm just sitting in place and cools off fast moving along so the fan should help. I also picked up a coolant overflow bottle with a pressure cap on it because the water neck is goofed up and the cap doesn't seat very well and it'll blow coolant out the overflow port fairly easily. That should solve the problem until I get a new radiator in a year or two. Comes with a non-pressure rated vented cap for use as a regular overflow bottle later on. Also got some PVC pipe fittings to make a small breather canister for the vacuum pump. Currently it's just venting onto the engine crossmember. Now to put all that stuff on =P I'm a bit concerned about the alternator output, I need to get another high amp alternator. I have a lot of electric gizmo's going on here.


I pulled the 400 emblems off the hood and if you have ever wondered where the filter sits relative to a 400 hood scoop, wonder no more! To humor myself I popped the left scoop out to see where the filter was in relation to it. Maybe I should double up the filters? =P

[TheSilverBuick]

Got the water pump and electric fan controlled by the MegaSquirt now. It seems to reliably maintain temperature between 185*F-190*F now, so my heater should work decently now. With that I attempted to change out the blower motor but failed miserably at getting the inner fender well out. I did at least manage to get the blower motor in the car to quiet up.

Found a pretty significant vacuum leak in my home made Holley throttlebody. I had cut out a port on the base and forgot to plug an opening. I knew something was up since I had the idle screw backed all the way out and it still had trouble attaining a low idle rpm. Now it'll sit fine at 550rpm with decent timing, so idle control has been improved quite a bit. I have found another, smaller, vacuum leak at the #8 injector bung. I wonder if the lower o-ring has been damaged. I'm going to ignore it for the moment, though I might be tempted to spray some kind of sealant on it and see if I can get it to plug up.

I think I found where the valves float, right about 5,800rpm =P Seems to blow oil out the dipstick tube at that speed as well though. I have the LT1 smog pump running as a vacuum pump with the breather, but it apparently isn't enough to bleed off the crank case pressure. Being as this is just a used engine of unknown conditions I put some paint on, I'm not surprised (the oil pressure at idle is pretty low too...but at least it rises decently fast).

Here is a datalog of one of the runs hitting 5,800rpm in first and second gear. It hit's 60mph at ~5400rpm in second, and with the 175HP 1bbl cam it's still a pokey 11.8 seconds based on the datalogs. Backed it up a couple times. In first gear it's pretty noticeable that at about 5,300rpm the rate of engine acceleration slows down a bit (and slightly noticeable in 2nd, I shifted into OD at 4,600/80mph), so I'm thinking the HP power peak is right around 5,300rpm. Shifting at 5,500 netted a slower 0-60, so it seems its still worth pulling the extra RPM from an acceleration point of view.

Click the link for a picture of the data log. It posts too small to see anything.
https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...70816479_o.jpg

[gtospieg]

Been following your post for a while now...way cool. As far as an extra filter, why not just fab up some kind of scoop that attaches to the underside of the hood that directs air to the air cleaner? With your abilities this should not be a problem. Good luck and I'll be watching for further updates.

[TheSilverBuick]

Originally Posted by gtospieg

Been following your post for a while now...way cool. As far as an extra filter, why not just fab up some kind of scoop that attaches to the underside of the hood that directs air to the air cleaner? With your abilities this should not be a problem. Good luck and I'll be watching for further updates.

I've thought about that. Though for mpg's hot air is the ticket, so for the time being it'll sit like that until I get around to sticking the scoop back in. With the turbo engine though, I want to place the turbo on the passengerside and I have been thinking of doing exactly that with an air box feeding from the open/removed scoop on the passenger side. Or who knows, maybe I will make an air box =P

[Captainofiron]

this is awesome

[David Jones]

Outstanding.
Lots of great work behind this thing.

[TheSilverBuick]

Thanks! It's a project for sure. I figured I had three big block cars already, so I may as well try something a bit different.

[rohrt]

First time seeing this thread. Amazing ingenuity you have put into this build.

[TheSilverBuick]

Got a whole bunch of stuff checked off my list yesterday and the car is essentially as ready for a 1,200 mile round trip next weekend as it's going to get.

Got the front turn signal lights working (the housing plugs are jacked up), got the wiring all loomed up, even got rubber grommets finally on the holes in the firewall, got the huge (cold) air hole on the passenger side kick panel blocked (kick panel is off the car and the heater box has to be removed to install it), added a 12v power port to the side of my console, installed the glove box, hooked up the illumination light on the oil pressure gauge, patched some vacuum leaks in the throttle body (seems some internal passages bypassed air to below the throttle blades) and I got the idle air valve working!

I changed up the idle valve setup and used a plate of aluminum and drilled and threaded it directly to the original PCV port that goes into the intake plenum, then had a 90º fitting on it with a hose going straight up to the air filter housing. Which I drilled a hole in the housing, inserted a rubber grommet and a hose barb.

[TheSilverBuick]

Started upgrading the alternator today. I found a 140amp CS130 alternator from an '89 Caprice that my local NAPA stocked for $140. Unfortunately the case is larger than the old SI, which didn't fit the adjustment bracket very well due to me spacing the bracket out a bit for the crank sensor bracket, so I went and got one of those turnbuckles (I think that is what they are called?) to adjust the belt tension. The alternator came with a serpentine belt pulley, so I replaced it with a dual groove pulley and will run two belts on it just to make sure it does slip under load. Unfortunately both parts stores closed before I had it together enough to know what size belts I needed to get.


(sorry about the over exposure, I forgot I had the exposure turned up)

[TheSilverBuick]

Trip summary.

From Friday night to Monday night I drove just shy of 1,200 miles. I didn't track the mpg's while driving around town in California, but out on the highway there and back it was averaging 20mpg. Seemed to consume/lose about a quart of oil every 250-300 miles which to me is a ton of oil. Basically I checked it when ever I stopped at a gas station and topped it off. All in all, I knew the used engine would likely have some issues, rather it was oil consumption, low oil pressure, or low compression on a cylinder or two, and it appears it only has an oil consumption issue at present so I cannot complain too much as the EFI and other modifications I made to it portion worked like a champ.

About an hour into my drive out of town, 60 or so miles, my external oil line let loose and sprayed the engine bay with around 1.5 quarts of oil by the time I noticed the oil pressure fluxuations and shut the engine off. FYI, that is a bunch of oil in the engine bay =P So the pink oil line I had couldn't stand up to the heat, and what is worse is I figured as much, bought a replacement 1/8 EFI fuel line hose that would have no issue with it and forgot to both install it or bring it with me d'oh! Since I was only an hour out of town I called a friend for a big favor of swinging by my house, grabbing the hose I bought and bringing it to me. I was up and running within five minutes of his arrival. I had five quarts of oil with me since I was unsure of it's oil consumption rate at sustained highway speeds. Turns out it's quite a bit so far. Cruising between 2,800-3,100rpm seems to suck oil out of the thing. I drove a tad slower home, but it didn't make much difference. I think this engine would do well with gears that would put the cruising speed right at 2,600rpm. I haven't calculated what ratio that would be yet. My oil air separator(pipe) isn't working nearly as well as I'd like it too either, so more work will have to be done there. I'm getting quite a bit of oil out the breather even when the reservoir isn't even close to being full. And getting around 20mpg, which isn't terrible considering the 4.56 gears and rpm's turning. a friend of mine says the cruising speed is equivalent to driving with 3.25 gears and no overdrive.

Here are a few trip pictures.

On the road.


On the side of the road.


Back on the road, and actually this was in California.


It didn't run hot, it climbed all the 6% grades in overdrive at 70mph with out issue, and made the trip with out fuss after the oil line repair. Funny thing about climbing hills. I programmed the electric water pump to be on when ever the engine is under a higher load, basically calibrated it so that if the torque converter disengages the water pump should probably be on. The logic is if I go WOT it'll pump cool water into the head regardless of the engine temperature to keep detonation at bay (which has turned out to be a non-issue so far), which will be helpful when I have a turbo engine in the car. The funny thing is, when I was pulling the first real mountain, about 10 miles of 5%-6% grade outside of Primm, NV, I noticed the engine temps dropped to 140ºF and kind of sat there until I crested the mountain then it started to climb back up to normal 185-195ºF range that I have programmed in. It took me several miles before I remembered the pump stays on under load, lol. The only time I think the radiator fan kicked on was while I was in a Carl's Jr. drive through for a while, and so far has been more than adequate at keeping the engine temperature in control.

Sunday was the big car day, went to two car shows and helped a fellow cammer set an engine and transmission in his '67 Firebird. The first car show I went too, the car had a constant crowd around it. When ever I'd go look at other cars my friend's would call my cell phone and say "Dude, get back here, these guys have lots of questions!" haha. Then and helped out setting in an engine and trans then made it to the tail end of a Buick get together in the same area. I'll post a couple more pictures later, but by the time I remembered to take some pictures of my Firebird there were only two other guys there. Got the same reaction though from the folks there.

A common sight around the car (I'm the guy in the hooded jacket with his back to the camera). People were equally interested in the engine setup as the shifter setup. Definitely made a conversationalist piece if nothing else.

[TheSilverBuick]

Memorial weekend I'm going to swap in a new E-cam and followers. I'm going to keep the used 1bbl springs in there during break in. After some driving I may follow it up with the re-ground cam (for the turbo engine, and it's own set of new followers) for break in purposes. I need to decide at that point though if I'm going to lash cap the valvestems or dedicate a cam housing and shave the housing. I'm leaning towards lash caps.

When I go to do the valve springs for the E-cam I have to come up with either a good part number for a single spring (I don't think dual springs fit on an unmodified 1bbl head) or shim the springs I currently am using. BUT I'm considering pulling the whole engine and doing it a little more proper now. Still a weekend rebuild, but put new piston rings in and dingle ball the cylinder walls in an effort to reduce the blow by and while it's out install 0.001" undersized rod/main bearings to bring up the oil pressure some, and perhaps a minor port job on the head and chamber.

If I can't find approapriate springs, I might, might, maybe, take the head to a machine shop to cut the head for dual springs. And if I do that, I may use my remaining stock of new valves and get a valve job and surface the head. Of course I'll be hammering the valve stem height spec into my machinist's head if I get to that point.

The main motivation for wanting to pull the engine is to reduce oil consumption because it's making me hesitate driving it out of town (around town is fine). The Car Craft Anti-Tour is in July and involves an 1/8th mile track and I'm indecisive on bringing my Skylark which had significant upgrades since the last time it made it to the track or the Firebird. I'd like to see if I can get the OHC decently healthy (aka not blow oil every where..) and have the bigger E-cam and more spring pressure for some RPM's and take it down the track. Remember, mini-spool and 4.56 gears!

[66sprint]

Congratulations on making the trip! Awesome project with real ingenuity on your part. You definitely get the "dare to be different" prize for the drivetrain department.

On the issue of dual springs on 1 barrel head, I am not sure but I did not think that there was a difference in the castings or machine work for the 1 barrel v. the Sprint heads. Maybe someone else will confirm this one way or the other.

[TheSilverBuick]

Thanks!

There was definitely a difference in the combustion chamber, though that is machined in... On other engine makes I've heard that the valve stem guide needed to be thinned up and a flat spot for the inner spring to sit machined in.

[scooter1966]

not sure if i remember correctly but didnt the 1b heads come with stronger springs than the dual 4b, wouldnt you want to stick with the single if thats the case?