Hey folks. Today I was able to get back to tinkering and.... well.... it's working now. Not entirely sure what I'm doing differently but it's working. The dieseling issue has been semi-resolved. My understanding has always been that a car running lean at idle will tend to diesel on shutdown due to overheated spark plugs. Originally I was getting a rich indication from the O2 sensor but it would diesel every friggin' time. Now it ONLY diesels if I'm on the lean side of things. The car can now run in closed loop without trying to kill itself. It's just down to road tuning now.

Perhaps the hardest part of this whole project will be riding in the passanger seat while someone else drives. :eek: :lol: (Especially when the WOT tests come.)

That's about all. Just wanted to let you guys know what's happening. From the looks of things I'll actually make it on the road this summer. :hurray:

Take care folks! :cheers:

 

I'd love to do EFI, but the price would kill me right now. Vacuum leaks can send you on a wild goose chase trying to find out why things aren're running right. Maybe that had something to do with you problems. I'd like to see a pic of what you have.

 

I FINALLY filled all of the fluids and got the fuel pump working on my TPI project today. We were going to try to fire it up, but it seems that I have a cross threaded plug on the manifold and the coolant was leaking out.

Damn.... now I have to drain it and JB weld before I could even try to start her up.

We need to keep in touch to help each other tune these conversions. :):)

(Since you are ahead of me, I need to get working ;) )
Glad to hear that it's running better.

 

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray: That's great !!! Now put some miles on her :smash:

I order my Commander 950 ECU, Harness & Software this past week, but form the sounds of it, I shouldn't expect my engine machine work to be completed before our driving season is over :sad: .

 

79VetteMike: Yeah, I can understand the sticker shock. I saved a bit from every paycheck and when I had about 1/2 the money I slapped it on a card. :rolleyes: This will be my last payment on it though. It's funny you mention vacuum leaks.... that was one of the first issues I came across. Couldn't get it to idle below 2000 rpm. :lol: Funny now, frustrating then. Snagged a couple pics for you.

phoenix: Oooh, cross threaded holes, most vile of enemies. Stripped/crossthreaded boltholes are some of my biggest fears when working on things. I just don't have the facility to repair them. Friend of mine wound up with a stripped carb stud hole, JB weld saved it. I would be glad to keep in touch. Can't guarantee I'd be much help considering the trouble I've had with mine but I'm always willing to try. At the very least I have experience in how NOT to do it. :lol:

SmokedTires: I know what you mean about machine shops. When I found out the L-48 was toast last June I went around to mechanics/machine shops and they told me that it would take until about December before they could do my block. Kind of disappointing, I had a crate motor budget and a 383 dream engine but what I didn't have was patience.

Talked to a friend of mine today. Really had to twist his arm to get him to agree to drive my car. *note* extreme sarcasm





[Modified by Cookwithvette, 10:09 PM 7/18/2003]

 

Do those ZZ4 heads have the same intake bolt pattern as the Vortech's?

 

No. L98 heads use the "normal" style intake bolt pattern. Vortec heads use only four bolts per head, standard SBC uses six. The intake ports are also slightly moved.

 

The cost for some of the EFI systems have come down over the last year. Here are some examples:

http://www.goautocenter.com/fuel_injection_engines.htm

 

good to see you have it going. trying to tune on the fly in a Vette is a nightmare, daytime you can't see the laptop screen and nighttime you can't see the keys. what I did is pull over to make changes and did it again at a different rpm range and then smoothed out the curves. mine stays in the yellow prety much all the time now.
good luck


[Modified by bossvette, 5:32 PM 7/20/2003]