Hey all, so the car has been down for a little over a week as I rebuilt my E4ME. Stock dizzy, bored. 30 over, decent cam, no smog system. I finally finished the build and installed it this morning. A settings were set to the base recommendations that came with the rebuild kit (I went with cliffs kit) so first attempt she started right up! Was idling near 1000 so I let it warm up. Smelled like it was running a little rich but I figured I'd let it warm up and then start making some adjustments after road tests. Well bliping the throttle resulted in a beautiful sound, quick response etc. I'm excited right! Well I decide to take it around the block, dies half way down the street. Anytime I have it gas it hesitated bad. Got it back to the driveway and she quit, hasnt stated since. If I give it gas with it not running should I see a shot enter the carb? I'm at a loss. It sounded so good too... Any advice?

 

Yes, you should see a shot enter the carb when viewed through the primary side, just below the upper main air bleeds.

Did the car run well before?

 

[QUOTE=Shark Racer;1586911255]Yes, you should see a shot enter the carb when viewed through the primary side, just below the upper main air bleeds.

Did the car run well before?[/Q
The car was just"ok" before the rebuild. she'd hesitate when the postal was slammed down. Idled rough no matter what u did. I rebuilt using cliffs specs. Opened up a few holes here and there but nothing really radical. Like I said Idled like a champ then a sigh....

 

The E4ME is the electronic carb isn't it?
Did you have the correct tools to set it up and did you check the dwell, voltage at the TPS at idle etc. Do you know if the computer part is working correctly? Is the distributor original and in good working order?

 

As an E4ME owner (1981 Vette) I can tell you it is very hard to get right. If the Needle/Seat are not the correct OEM part, it will flood enough to stall out. Same with the float...I went thru several needle/seats from a carb shop, but not until National Carb in jacksonville Fl worked on it did I get the proper E4ME needle/Seat/Float.

** Is your Electric Choke hooked up and has 12v power only when engine is in Run?
** Is your CCC controlled Dizzy hooked up? (no Check Engine Light?)
** Is your MAP Sensor hooked up (* Vacuum line from base of carb on back to the MAP sensor)

Might be worth your time to get on e-bay and get an OTC monitor 85 or Monitor 2000, it hooks into the ALDL 5 PIN *or 12 PIN and reads the CCC real time, it will tell you the Dwell, etc on the E4ME

Brian

 

What is "Dwell" on the E4ME?

 

How's your fuel pump?

what cam did you go with? just curious.

 

As referenced above, the E4ME carb and fuel flow is managed by the car's computer. A car with an E4ME carb that is NOT hooked up to the '81 computer will not run properly. For it to work correctly, it needs to be connected to the computer, the stock '81 distributor, and the O2 sensor via its wiring harness.

Your CEL should light when you put the ignition to ON position; and it should go out when the engine is started. Otherwise, that control system is not working and the carb is just 'hunting' for what to do.

 

Dwell angle tells you basically how much "slack" the ECM has for adjusting mixture. I can't remember the range off the top of my head (something like 0-50 or 60* on the 6 cylinder scale) but you want to be in the middle of that. Going one direction increases the amount of time the mixture needles are down in the jets, and the other decreases. Similar to how vacuum signals a power piston.

It's my understanding that if the computer was not reacting at all, the carb would run full rich on the primary/idle circuits and timing would stick at whatever base timing it was set at.


The last time I built an E4ME, the idle air bleed (top of carb) had some seals that were bad. The ECM does not use these until the carb has warmed up a little bit(closed loop). Once that happened, air bleed would become a vacuum leak as the bleed traveled up and down, causing the car to stall out and die.

On top of the seals being fresh, the solenoid has to be calibrated correctly as well. Read around (thirdgen.org has some good info) on how to baseline the lean stops and rich stops of the solenoid. Then, you need to set your idle mixture screws with the dwell gauge to get it centered in the adjustment (again, look around for the correct scale).

 

[wellQelllUOTE=Brians1;1586913173]As an caravan f E owner I twit 981 Vette) I can tell you it is very hard to get right. If the Needle/Seat are not the correct OEM part, it will flood enough to stall out. Same with the float...I went thru several needle/seats from a carb shop, but not until National Carb in jacksonville Fl worked on it did I get the proper E4ME needle/Seat/Float.

** Is your Electric Choke hooked up and has 12v power only when engine is in Run?
** Is your CCC controlled Dizzy hooked up? (no Check Engine Light?)
** Is your MAP Sensor hooked up (* Vacuum line from base of carb on back to the MAP sensor)

Might be worth your time to get on e-bay and get an OTC monitor 85 or Monitor 2000, it hooks into the ALDL 5 PIN *or 12 PIN and reads the CCC real time, it will tell you the Dwell, etc on the E4ME

Brian[/QUOTE]

I got my rebuild kit from cliff.after the rebuild I installed the carb yesterday in and I don't just fine for 10 or 15 minutes it wasn't until I took the vehicle out under load that it started stumbling hesitating before it finally just quit.before the rebuild I noticed that the distributor was not stock, someone had installed aftermarket distributor with vacuum advance. I put in an original distributor and then rebuild a carburetor. I did notice yesterday for the brief time that the car was running that I had no check engine light onprayer to rebuilding the car been installing the distributor the engine light stayed on constantly. The vacuum hoses hooked up to the sensor coming off of the back of the carb the timing is set at about 12 degrees and once the car is running again I will be checking Dwell with a dwell me .meter. I observed no gas squirting into the carb after it quit running. A shot of state fluid and it starts but shut-off immediately. Pulled the fleet and it looks good but almost no fuel coming from the line when cranked. I'm hoping it's not something with the carb seeing as I just rebuilt it, maybe just bad timing on the fuel pump quitting right then?

 

your other thread stated you got only a dribble of gas from the line when disconnected and cranking, did you check for an inline fuel filter and fuel pressure?

 

Distributor is in good working order. Just say the timing before I rebuilt the carb. I'm getting a dwell meter this weekend and I have a multimeter. Should be all I need right?

 

That's what I'm wondering is if it might be the fuel pump... Just horrible timing that it would go bad as I take it on its first drive after rebuilding the carb...

The cam was installed 10 years ago. Wg 1173 this is from a spec sheet for a Jasper 373

Camshaft Specifications:
• Hydraulic Camshaft WG-1173
• .050 Duration: 224° Intake; 234° Exhaust
• Advertised Duration: 298° Intake; 304° Exhaust
• Cam Lift: .290 Intake; .300 Exhaust
• Valve Lift: .465 Intake; .488 Exhaust
• Lobe Center: 107° Intake; 117° Exhaust
Camshaft Range Guide and Recommended Equipment:
• Fair idle with lope
• Operating range of 2200-5500 rpm
• Good midrange torque and response: 3000-4000 rpm range
• Mild bracket racing suitability
• Stock automatic or manual transmission compatibility
• Recommended 3.70:1 axle ratio
• Stock or aftermarket 2 plane or torque type intake manifold recommended
• 4 barrel 750 cfm aftermarket carburetor recommended; rejetting may be necessary

 

I believe you're correct about the carb running Lan if the computer has no input. The idle air bleed has 2 seals on it. They were both replaced when I did the rebuild.

 

Your heading in the right direction. the Dwell should be between 25-30 on the E4ME, mine sit's right at 30 at idle. Fuel pressure should be between 5-7 psi when at idle as well. You may have just gotten bad luck on the fuel pump deciding to go bad...you can alwyas hook up a rubber hose to the steel hard line, snake it into a gas can and have someone crank it a few times...will at least tell you if the fuel pump is operational. I personally rigged up in inline fuel pressure guage right at the connection point on the Q-Jet, an option after you chase this gremlin down. If your top airhorn gasket isnt getting soaked then you can safely assume its not flooding, and again base don your symptoms, when fuel demmand is given, she quits....I'd start at the pump and work up from there.

Here is my Video on how to use the OTC Monitor 85, I bet you will want one after..mine was 20 bucks shipped via e-bay

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...ol-manual.html

 

Unfortunately the car quit outside and I couldn't push it uphill to the garage. I'll have to work on it Saturday morning. I'm looking through the service manual now for inline fuel filters. Is there somewhere I can put some fuel in the top to get it to fire up so I can get it into the garage?

 

Great advice! I'm looking on eBay today. Yeah I hooked up a rubber hose and got very little when cranking. It should come out in good strong bursts correct? Not a week little dribble? I know I've got spark because it starts on starting fluids...

 

Just watched your video. I want one!

 

Fuel pump very suspect at this point - should come out rather strong, Autozone, etc has cheap off the shelf fuel pressure guages (Mr. gasket, etc. under 10 bucks), may want to hook one up and validate PSI before buying a new fuel pump (should be right around 5-7 PSI at Crank and idle)...I think I paid around 40-50 bucks a few month ago for my new fuel pump from autozone

 

I'll check advance or auto zone tomorrow. Im really hoping it's the pump. The car sounded so much better than it did before the rebuild. I'd like to get it dialed in asap so I can put these headers and duals on!