Got the garage painted anyway.
Got the hood open. leaking oil from somewhere. up on the jack stands tomorow. i feel a BIT better. Jason didnt really say anything about the car. He did a lot to make it better. He got it to idle, fixed my neophyte mistakes, and got some other work done such as:, exhaust, alignment, wiring. He just didnt have the means to do the chip work. who does on a SDS. Ill get it done to the best of my ability and probably get it to a dyno, tuning session in Naperville, IL.

Unsure of the brake problem, i think the MC needs to be bled. I had replaced the calipers, rotors, ss brake hoses. maybe a vacuum issue, i dont know yet.

Mark

 

Yeah I think I am going to go see Tom down in Portland next week if I can arrange it. I can't really afford it now, but I think I might this job up at school and be able to manage.

On the bright side, the car no longer runs....

I was trying to get a video to show you guys what it was like running, but now it just cranks forever! Urghh, I pulled some plugs, they are all wet and black, which I knew, because it was puffing black smoke out the tailpipe. Eventhough the chip is burnt for it and I am running a fp LOWER than the stock setting it was programmed for. I just hope my O2 sensor is still ok, I will be trying some other spark plugs in it, and if those work. I am just gonna sit on it I think till I can get down to TJ's and get it tuned....

 

I've never had any trouble setting the valves without the engine running. If you are going to try to set the valves with the engine running, get a crappy set of valve covers and cut the top off of them. I hope you didn't stain those shinny new headers

Sounds like your tune might be off, if your idle cleans up after it goes into closed loop. BTW, the ECM will adjust for that a bit. My 350 ran best with very low FP. But on a freshly flashed chip it would be way lean until it got into closed loop. After some driving it would adjust and idle fine even on a cold start. The MAF systems are very forgiving, but if you were puffing black smoke, it's way way rich.

And now it won't start ........ Having fun yet

 

Yeah that about sums it up... ugh, this is not how I pictured it going...

Don't worry about the headers, I spent a few hours one-on-one with them and an SOS pad, well a couple, can't even tell they aren't brand new, thankfully! Next time, I will definitly be taking a trip to the junkyard prior to attempting to set hot lash.

Yeah I think the chip is giving me some problems as well, looks like I am gonna go pull the plugs clean em up and then try and get her started again...oh joy....

 

USA,

BTW, another way of setting valve lash is using EO/IC method. Meaning
Exhaust Opening/ Intake Closing. This makes certain that the lifter is on the base circle of the cam for the valve being adjusted. Method is pretty simple. Crank motor over until you see the Exhaust valve just beginning to Open. Adjust the corresponding INTAKE VALVE. Continue cranking and when you see an INTAKE valve just beginning to CLOSE, then Adjust the corresponding EXHAUST valve. This helps especially if you have installed cam with more overlap.

 

Did you install your stock chip with my piggyback adapter? If you need I can send some install instructions. Just shoot me a email at chips@pcmforless.com and i'll respond with them.

You have to make sure your installing it right or you'll definately get a cylinder select error.

If you got a problem make sure you contact me.. its hard to watch every post on every board.. I'm sure I can offer up some helpful advise

 

Also, alot of times when you don't install my chips correctly the car will sit in a limp home type of mode where it refers to a factory calibration inside the computer.. In that case the car wouldn't be corrected for whatever injectors your using, camshaft, etc...

Make sure your plugging the stock chip into mine and then plugging it all back into the stock computer.

 

Yo, any luck gett'n it running again???

 

Ok well.....sorry I was gone for so long.

I finally made the trek down to see TJ, he tuned the car to the best of his abilities. It runs, in fact, it runs pretty well. (TJ is awesome, I can't say enough about him, GREAT GREAT GUY, really helped me out, I owe him big time, Thanks Tom!)

I finally had a chance to get on it the other day.

First off, I geuss I am sort of dissapointed with the performance. I think its my fault for picking too mild of a camshaft. Also, there are some tuning issues that couldn't be resolved because even after replacing the computer, checking all the wiring, and using a freshly burned chip. Tom couldn't talk to the computer, with all three of his devices that should be able to hook up to the ALDL port. So there is some work there.

Also I noticed a lot of vibration right around 4500 rpm. Its pretty bad I don't know what could be causing it, but it doesn't seem right. However it does still pull strong through that range.

I geuss with work needing me to be in for 10+hr days recently and then the dissapointment and the problem. Recently, I just have let it sit a bit. Urghhh, anyway, I geuss I am trying to figure out the vibration issue first.

Anyway, I do owe all of you a big thanks!
Ralph, TJ Wong (who helped me out soooo much, I owe him big time, he is a great guy!), Dock, PeteK, CFI, Corvette0096, everybody, I really appreciate the help.

Any ideas on the two current problems would be nice. I apologize for not posting earlier.


Chris