Chevelle Projects 2014

[ttamrettus]

Hey October is coming up fast. Hope to see you at Carlisle.

[TireSmoker]

So after spending Friday night and early Saturday finishing the front struts on my Cobalt, I got the engine and trans back in the car. Still need to install starter, driveshaft, hook up exhaust to headers, radiator/fan, O2 sensor, oil filter, spark plugs and wires.

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

I havent touched the mechanicals since before last weekend. Race weekends kinda slow down the progress at home. The body work continues and my Chevelle is actually starting to look better. Rich came over again this week to fix the badly rusted sections of the front fenders, behind the front wheels. These were easily the ugliest parts of the car. The front floors were probably worse overall, except you never saw them. The fenders were always on display.

I thought I had more Before pics, and the only one I have here is lousy, but you'll get the idea. Passenger side is completed, driver's side will be done tomorrow. I didn't have Rich paint them since the whole car will need it.

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

So I made a few late-season drives in the Chevelle and the noise in the engine seems to be getting worse. After having two builds go bad in this block, I'm starting to believe there is just something wrong with the block.

On Tuesday, I happened to do an ebay search on "zz383" and one turned up-- a brand-new never-fired GM Performance ZZ383 crate motor on ebay at $3300 with 24hrs left. And it was in Eastlake. The guy had bought it from Summit, but never installed it. It looked legit, and being in Eastlake, I figured I could always back out if I showed up and something didn't look right.

The auction ended the next day, and I won it for just over $4k. These sell for $6500 at Summit. I had been pricing a 383 based on a newer roller-cam 350 block and this was only a few hundred more. It has a forged crank, forged rods, coated hyperutectic pistons, 9.7:1 compression, GM Fastburn heads and single plane intake. Just 6-8 weeks ago, there was a thread up on chevelles.com where a guy up in Ontario dropped one in his '71 with a 3600 stall and 4.10 gears and went 11.86 @ 110.

I left work at 4pm on Friday, and by 7pm I was in the garage with a new engine. Friday-night/Saturday morning, I called it quits around 1:45am after getting most things removed required for pulling it. Saturday I was pretty tired and Tony had said he would help me on Sunday. He got there in the afternoon and we pulled the hood off and got the engine out without much difficulty. We put the 408 on a stand, moved the chain over to the 383 and dropped it right back in. We got the bellhousing bolted up and the motor mounts in place and called it a day. I might go out later and put some more back together.

And now it looks like my engine problems should be behind me and I might be able to drive and drag race this car next season! Now I've just gotta get the interior back together. This garage is such a pleasure to work in too.

On Friday..


On Sunday...


-Dave

[Basement Paul]

I like to just look at it. It's cool.

Maybe next year we can race each other for pinks! Or maybe just a cheeseburger...

-BP

[GMJohnny]

I think if we tweak that old motor correctly, we can make that Giant Vac
blower move all of the leaves in one pass......

I'm hoping next year brings you plenty of happy passes and much rapid
acceleration!!

GM

[Racin'Jacin]

Man you don't fool around! Lookin' good!!!!!

[TireSmoker]

Thought I would post an update here. The engine is in and it runs! I got it started for the first time the day after Christmas. However, for the fact that I pulled a small block and replaced with with a small block, there's been a few challenges.

The power steering pump bracket, which mounts to the water pump, doesn't clear the plastic timing cover on the engine. And where on my older SBCs, where the bolt went through the waterpump, it was just an unthreaded hole, where the water pump on the crate engine is threaded. So I have three totally different power steering bracket setups, my old factory + 2 aftermarket, and none of them seem to work. I'm beginning to think I may need a different pump?

I got my wideband setup all dialed in too. I mounted a gauge in the dash that will give me a real-time readout. I've also got it hooked up and (properly) configured to the megasquirt to the point where I could really start to think about taking a couple tuning laps with it. I did go up and down the driveway with it today, making it the first time it has left the garage.

I also got the new carpeting for it. I'm not exactly sure on how to install carpeting. It's molded and in 2 pieces, so I generally know how it goes, but unsure of the details. With new floorboards and new engine, new carpeting would go a long way to making it feel like a drivable car again.

-Dave

[Maverick]

Great progress!! Should be a lot of fun in the Spring.

[TireSmoker]

I'll start a new thread for 2015 here soon, but figured I would post the latest update. After a nice, restful vacation down in FL visiting my parents, the past 8 days, I came home today and started playing with the Chevelle. Speece stopped by unexpectedly. He hadnt seen the new engine, so I started it and let it warm up a bit. We tried to drive it, but it was sputtering like crazy, didnt even make it two houses. I know its timing related, not fuel, so we swapped out the computer-controlled distributor for the old MSD 85551 non-computer unit. It hooks right to the MSD box. We got it swapped really quick, prob 15 minutes or less. The whole purpose was to remove the computer from the ignition system.

We went for a test drive and it was immediately better. It could be driven, but it just felt flat, no popping or sputtering, but it also didnt sound quite as good as it should.. I never checked before installing it, but the distributor is setup for locked-out timing, no mechanical advance at all. Not a huge deal, but would've preferred it be setup for mechical-advance. Changing from locked-out to mechanical advance would require pulling the distributor again, so we just bumped the timing up to 27* and went for another drive... much better!!

With the ignition side now behaving correctly, we were able to do some successful auto-tuning of the fuel map during our test drives and the car is very drivable now! It idles nice around 900 rpm, too.

I was gonna have the EFI on a short-leash this year. If the car wasn't running well by May 1, I was gonna yank the EFI and put a carb/HEI on it after the recent success I've had with Tony's car. But as this point, I don't think I'll have to do that. I do need to figure out why the timing control, which is supposed to be a no-brainer, constantly gives me trouble. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. But at least the car is now (very) drivable.

I need to put more break-in miles on it. Haven't spun it past 4000 yet. But I'm feeling a whole lot better about everything.

-Dave

[ttamrettus]

Good. I was a bit worried when you were telling me your going to ripe off the EFI.

[TireSmoker]

Drove it around a bunch today! Made a trip out to Thompson (even though they arent open), and then swung by BP's house, and finally back home. Probably a good 60-70 miles. The only real issue is that sometimes the idle-air motor (IAC) isn't closing enough, leaving me with fast idle even at full temp. Could just be a sticking IAC motor. Sometimes a quick re-start of the car will solve it.

I'm really happy with how its running so far. I'll try to take some video on the Gopro in the next couple days.

-Dave

[Basement Paul]

I got to drive it too! Compared to my car, it's really mellow. It shifts on it's own, you can carry on a conversation, and the power steering is lighter than my Cadillac had. Sadly, it's probably faster than mine too! Maybe we'll get a side by side or two after he breaks his in and I get mine to stop leaking tranny fluid. Should be fun either way.

Definitely cool to see it on the road and running great.

-BP

[ttamrettus]

the trans fluid on the road will make for better smoky burnouts if you roll into it.

[TireSmoker]

So the Car Gods keep smiling down on me. I changed out the IAC motor with one from an old TBI in my basement. I also found a loose wire related to the IAC. Fixing both those solved the startup annoyances.

I did the first oil change on it on 4-17 after the trip to TRP/BP's. I also checked the fuel pressure gauge on the rail, which was 50lbs, a little higher than I remembered.. I don't recall increasing the pressure like that, but the important thing is that now my 30lb injectors (rated at 43.5 psi) are now flowing 32lb/hr. Well, that requires a setting to be changed in the computer. Also, I changed from 4/squirts per revolution to 2. After making these changes, along with fixing the IAC, I re-loaded the base fuel map and let it re-adjust. I think it is smoother now

I finally have some trust in this thing again, too. It starts consistently. Doesn't really stall. I went back to BP's house tonight just to take a drive. It's driven well every time I've driven it this week. No weird electrical issues, no real belt issues (little squealing at times). Paul's house has to be at least a 20 mile drive, plus driving to TRP and laps around Chesterland, so I probably have close to 100 miles on it by now. You know how long it's been since I was able to put 100 miles on this thing in a week???

The first time at BP's house, we were noting that there were no oil or trans leaks, however there was brake fluid. LR wheel cylinder is blown. I can't remember the last time I did *anything* on the rearend. Has to be at 20 yrs +/-. I ordered 2 new wheel cylinders, new hardware + self adjuster kits, and a set of shoes.

I tried once more to get the lockup working to no avail, blowing another fuse on the power source where i'm wiring the +12v . I was hoping to avoid opening the trans, but I already have a replacement solenoid and doesn't look to be too hard to change.

As mentioned above, even pumped up to 50psi, I'm only at 32lb/hr on my injectors, where the math says I need 36lb/hr. http://www.rceng.com/technical.aspx I found a set of 36s on ebay for cheap. I knew that the 30s were undersized for this application, but I already owned them and I knew they'd get me started.

So, Sunday or Monday, I'll
Rebuild the rear brakes, re-bleed.
Replace trans lockup solenoid
Replace injectors

-Dave