I'm Baaaaack

[mistermike]

:muahaha:
Well, after over a year and a half with no car to tune, the new motor is in and running. While I visit the site regularly, when your brain isn't in "tuning mode" you don't read it with the same focus.

I've upgraded my Flashscan cable, attended EFI101, and prayed the Rosary. Good thing too, because the new engine has more displacement, bigger cam, and much bigger heads. Naturally, it's idling like it was running on stale beer. (Actually, it's stale gasoline that's been sitting the whole time LOL) A few gallons of 100 octane and a couple cans of Techron is the best I can do to turn it back into useful fuel. You should have heard it running on the peanut butter that was stuck in the fuel line LOL.

It's remarkable how far everyone here has progressed. I feel like a newbie all over again. I've been reading up on idle tuning, but I'm sure I've missed a lot of useful information, so please forgive me if I ask some questions that have already been answered. Reading it and doing it are two different things.

Anyhow, greetings to all my old and many new friends. Hide the women and children.

Cheers,
Mike

[joecar]

Welcome back Mike... :cheers:

[Tordne]

Let the fun begin :beer:

[TAQuickness]

Welcome back Mike! Have you looked into a RR yet?

[mistermike]

Welcome back Mike! Have you looked into a RR yet?Thanks. I'm giving it some serious thought. It sure would make quick work of getting her dialed in. Right now, I have to focus on getting this pig to idle without surging and cold start without stalling. I'm running AFR 225 heads with a 228-240-117*LSA-612 lift blower cam There's not much overlap to speak of, so I should be able to maintain some semblance of vacuum at a reasonable RPM.

All I've done so far is to increase cylinder volume to account for the 408 displacement, and fooled around a bit with the control panel to see how it runs when I override all that idle automation.

I've been told by an experienced tuner that unless I get my idle VE's right, I might wind up chasing my tail with the other stuff, which is just as well, since I'm pretty green at idle tuning anyhow. Somebody stole the carburetor off this thing.

Right now, the car is at my old job at Stainless Works, which is a 40 mile drive from home. Once she's reasonably driveable, I'll get her back home to re do the fuel system and swap the blower for the 3.4L unit. My math says I'm going to need something more than 60 Lb injectors, so I'll need to put on a Versafueler to run some Siemens 75 Lb Low Impedance injectors.

I have a feeling I'm going to wind up with a pretty high IAC count. Does anyone know how far you can open the throttle with the screw stop before the ECM no longer thinks you're at idle? Since I'm running 2 bar SD and have redesigned the PCV system, I can also use the PCV make up air port on the throttle body to bleed more air into the blower inlet if need be. That way, I can dial the idle in with a couple of clothespins on the hose LOL.

[wait4me]

How long ago did you buy your AFR heads?

[mistermike]

How long ago did you buy your AFR heads?They were in Flowtech's inventory as of a few months ago, then sent to Erik Koenig for the buildup. I have a sneaking suspicion you're thinking I might have gotten bad valves, but Ed Curtis was on top of things, pulled the valves and sent them to AFR for metallurgy testing before shipping them out.

[wait4me]

Yeah that is what i was just checking. I just went thru it on my motor. Sucks having to pull it. At 500 miles the valve tip is gone, all the way to the retainer..

[mistermike]

Yeah that is what i was just checking. I just went thru it on my motor. Sucks having to pull it. At 500 miles the valve tip is gone, all the way to the retainer..Appreciate the heads up anyhow. At least Tony Mamo was pretty honest about the bad stuff getting through. Hopefully, I'll be OK. I put some Scorpion roller rockers on there, so my valve tips should have a reasonably cushy life. Not that I won't be pulling my valve covers from time to time.LOL

Any suggestion on where my rough idle settings might wind up with this H/C combo on a 408? I won't be able to get back to the car until tomorrow.

[Redline Motorsports]

Welcome back Mike! Have you looked into a RR yet?

:cheers: Must have item!

[highperf]

good to see you back Mike.... How did you like the EFI101 course ? I took it more than a year now and I thought it was pretty good.

Jim

[mistermike]

I enjoyed it a lot. I would love to see a more advanced GM specific course.