Chevelle 2009 projects

[markss327]

There's no replacement, for displacement. OK, so maybe technology has made this statement obsolete... Still sounds cool.

Humm, mouse-to-rat changeover.
Exhaust. New headers.
Misc belt driven accessory bracketry.
Cooling plumbing -hoses.
If memory serves, I believe the existing rad is OK.
Misc wiring and linkage changes.


The 454
Reliable, dependable, proven.

Now ya got one more thing in the thought-process mix.

[Fred32v]

Well the distributer switches over. If it's like Oldsmobiles, the accessary drive should bolt on,
and I bet the motor mounts are the same. If for nothing else, at least your problems would be different.

[Basement Paul]

For $3700 you can have a WHOLE 12 second car, turn key... That drivetrain would bolt into your Chevelle with only a motor mount swap (it even has the right headers). The tires / wheels would bolt on too. Then sell the carcass. It would be like having a rocket ship.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

This thread has been lacking pictures the past few posts.. here's a few..


This what the inside of a $1000 350 looks like. Not bad, oil seemed a little slimy, but nothing that a hot oil change couldn't take care of


Yeah, the STP/Summit/Crane Cams/CarCraft sponsored hoist was doing what it does best this weekend.



Now the hard part is done.



The big picture

[TireSmoker]

It runs! kinda. It won't idle and I gotta have it at WOT (initially) to get it started, but it runs, and runs smooth in the 2000-3000 rpm range in the garage. More coarse and fine tuning to go. Once I get it idling ok, I can begin to drive it and datalog, at which point, it'll get dialed in pretty quick.

-Dave

[ttamrettus]

So currently it's a stock 350 with megasquirt? Are you gonna have the body done next and just drive it?

[TireSmoker]

It's not totally stock -- it has some sort of better cam in it.. maybe a 230-ish duration hydraulic roller with Vortec heads, but its not what my 406 was.

Not sure what the next step is yet. Body work would be nice.

-Dave

[Fred32v]

Can it do a full quarter mile? That is the question.

[TireSmoker]

HUGE PROGRESS!!

As mentioned, I got the car fired previously, but it was very unreliable. When it would die, it seemed like an electrical fail. I changed the distributor to another one I had, and it fired right up and ran GREAT. I actually took it for a short ride around the block with VeeDub in the car, and Fatica following behind in his Chevelle. Its running on the auto-generated fuel map, so there's a lot to be desired. BUT, It fires right up and will idle consistently, but it'll burn out your eyes and nose in the garage. I'll take it for a drive tomorrow to datalog and get this thing going!

Just knowing that I can go out there, twist the key and it'll fire right up is a huge relief. Feels really good!

Also, I asked Fatica about the cam and he said it was a 220/224 hyd roller with 474/474 lift. According the part #, it's actually an "extreme 4x4" cam. So, not big. This is the motor that he bought from a guy in Michigan. We drove up a few Sundays ago to get it, $1000. It has 60 psi of oil pressure @ 3000 rpm. It sounds pretty darn good, actually.

I still have time to make a Wednesday night this season.

-Dave

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73vID_fpXZ0[/youtube]

[Fred32v]

Love that video, I'm goin' have to figure out how to do that.

[TireSmoker]

Went out for a decent drive today. After last night's initial drive, I hooked up the Bypass and Ign Signal wires from the Megasquirt to the distributor and it stayed running (past attempts a couple years back, this is where the car would die or run terrible). This time, it seemed to run just fine. I never got the timing light out to verify anything, but I had a reason. The timing pointer on this engine is unlike others I've seen. Plus, along with the previous owner's paint job, it's impossible to read, even after I tried wirebrushing it. Some people are saying that the "deepest" or "widest" V is 0*, so in the picture, I should be at about 6-8. The other problem is that it's really hard to see once the water pump is installed (picture is w/o water pump). So I don't know where it's at, its hard to read, and is running fine for the moment. I might make a stab at it tonight.



Also, my narrowband O2 sensor seems to be giving weird readings, so my datalogging wasn't going as planned. No matter tho, the auto-generated map for this engine is surprisingly drivable. Went out to BP's house on a whim, but he wasn't home. Drove over to Harbor Freight tools in Eastlake, then headed for home. All in all, it was a very good day. Probably 60 miles of driving without any real hiccups, side streets to freeway. Man it is nice to finally drive it again.



-Dave

[TireSmoker]

Well, I ordered a new Innovate LC-1 Wideband Controller from Summit last night. The original one I bought 4-5 years ago was almost always flaky, and I could never really trust its results (by flaky, I mean the engine would be running smooth, no hiccups, and you'd see the air-fuel ratio jump from 14 --> 20 (or 10) and back real quick -- it just didn't inspire any confidence). But I read about lots of other people having good success with them, so I'm hoping the first one was just a lemon.

There's a Saturday test-n-tune at Thompson -- 10am - 8pm! Maybe if the stars align, I'll try to make it out there.

-Dave

[wxo]

Hey Dave,
For those of us who are interested but not enough to investigate for ourselves, could you elaborate on this new wideband controller. I'd be interested to know what it does and how it relates to your MegaSquirt unit and ultimately the running of your engine.

[TireSmoker]

The wideband controller is simply a controller + wideband oxygen sensor. Wideband oxygen sensors are capable of accurately measuring the air-fuel ratio (AFR) over a wide range, easily from 10:1 up to 20:1. However, they cannot work "standalone" like the older narrowband sensors. They require a controller. The Innovate LC-1 is the controller.

The older narrowband sensors were only accurate at 14.7:1, which is the chemically correct ratio of air and fuel for a complete burn -- However, 14.7 is neither ideal for power or economy, but is good for emissions when combined with a catalytic converter.

12.5:1 is considered ideal or near ideal for best power. Best fuel economy can be achieved at ratios of 16:1 or 17:1. I'll bet if you look at your dyno sheets from the Camaro, you'll see an AFR scale at the bottom.

So the wideband controller outputs a voltage to correspond with the measured AFR. In Megasquirt setups, it's usually 0V at 10:1 and 5V at 20:1 (and it's a linear scale in between). Megasquirt can read this voltage. For comparison, narrowband sensors output from 0V to 1V and 14.7 is .5V

So in the Megasquirt software, we have an AFR-Target table. It's a table with RPM on one axis and the MAP sensor (vacuum, measured in kPa) on another axis. So at 4000 RPM and 100 kpa (full throttle), we might have a value of 12.5 in the AFR-Target table. If Megasquirt sees an AFR of 14, it'll add fuel. If it sees AFR of 10, it'll subtract fuel. At 2000 RPM and 50 kpa (cruising speed), you might want an AFR of 15 or 16 for good fuel economy. So when you combine this table with the wideband, you have a setup that can basically tune itself to whatever values you put in the AFR-Target table. Shown below is an example AFR Target table (not mine)


These wideband controllers are still useful even if you're running a carb. You'll need some sort of gauge to read the voltage, but it's still the manual process to change jetting to change the AFR. You don't need to bother pulling plugs to try and read rich or lean.

Hope this helps a little..

-Dave

[wxo]

Perfect. Thanks.