You're probably right but I havent been focusing on the chip stuff for now. As for the injectors, I've read that people have run 24's with an AFPR on the stock tune with no issue. That would only be a temporary setup though as I would still definitely want to tune it more precisely once I went MS3.

Yeah the megasquirt stuff is really cool, especially since the tech was adapted from GM ECM stuff from around this time of this vette. This will be my first MS install so it will be a big part of the whole project!

 

Check for Rats I found 2 dead ones in my heater box under the dash and they chewed up vacuum and electrical lines everywhere








They can do a lot of damage under the hood too

 

Oh man those pics are gnarly haha. Some kind of rodent definitely has munched my injector nd map wires among other stuff, we'll see if he's still lurking...

 

Cudamax,
I hope the PETA don't find out about your "torturing and starving" those poor varmints. Since I am the consummate gentleman I will not report you nor send them your pics. HOWEVER for a price I will avow my complete dis-knowledge of any misgivings they may have and defend you to my last dying breath-----well maybe not quite that much!!!

Tommy

 

Worked on the drain problem a bit more today. I found the aux fuse box on the passenger side and pulled each fuse, but the 1.5A drain still persisted. One of the fuses was toast however, the "l conv pl" which runs to the cig lighter apparently. Pulling that fuse made the drain measurement move around a bit, but not drop significantly. I also tried pulling the fuse for the under hood lights as well, but to no avail.

I'm very much leaning towards continuing to gut the interior and start eliminating the sound system and other accessories entirely from the get go...

 

Sounds like you're going to need a factory service manual. You're chasing a bunch of problems currently just to get it running. I was going to give my fluids and rubber hose speech, but I think you have other problems, especially if that car housed rats.

 

Try unplugging stuff and pulling/disconnecting fusible links and relays and disconnecting plugs on everything in ur search of your Draw.
If it finally goes away you can check that entire circuit, but the first thing you need to remove out of the Equation is the VATTS Module. That's always a draw and is always pulling. Good Luck. Those are always a PITA

 

I am a BIG FAN of solder. Even when I crimp on the specific terminals for the GM connectors....I still do not trust it and apply a small dot of solder so the wire does not ever come out.

Sorry to read that they used a solderless butt connector. I NEVER trust them. And If I use a butt connector..i remove the insulation because I will be applying the shrink wrap to make sure the wire does not fatigue at the end of the butt connector.



Marmz,

On your power drain because 1.5 amps is WAY HIGH....100 to 200 mA is where you kinda want it. If you get 300 to 400 mA...it will drain the battery. Oddly enough I can not remember what the actual draw is from the factory. NOW...this power drain has nothing to do with the alternator not charging in the 13.O+ volts area.

Not meaning to step on your 'toes' but this is also for others who may not know.

Pull your courtesy/clock fuse and test again. Or whatever fuse that has to do with interior light illumination. You are looking for a circuit that is ON regardless if the key is on or not.

And when the system is still correct with the fuses in place...OPEN your door and see that the interior lights come on. Connect your tool when the lights go off. Then open the door and see if the amps increase..as they should...and go back down when the timer shuts off the interior lights. IF NOT...it may be something internal in your CCM.

Also..I have had some cars sun visor lighted vanity mirrors have the switches on and the lights lighting up and drain the battery. I believe that these should only work when the key is on but I have encountered some cars when they work with the key out.

Also...I have pulled every fuse before...and still had a drain of significant value...only to find some BOZO connected wires to the main power wire at the ignition switch mounted on the top of the steering column.

DO yourself a big favor and remove the connectors on your alternator...the main one that is connected on the stud and unplug the 2 wire connector and test again. I have had internal issues with an alternator cause a drain....because it does have a constant 12 volts going to it.

It is very wise that you will begin ripping out carefully all un-needed wires. These are not your problem...because they would cause a short circuit and not a drain. But knowing that someone has been in the car....I would check all that I can.

As mentioned...if you do not have one...a factory service manual will pay for itself rather quickly.

DUB

 

boy are you right....don't want to admit how long I looked for a battery drain not realizing every time I put the meter in series with the cable and battery, I started a power drain....really chasing my tail..

here's an easy tip....check it out in the dark.....

 

I do have an FSM with the supplemental stuff and have been utilizing it, it's definitely very useful! The electrical stuff is a little hard to digest though, but that's just me.

Great info again DUB, those were all possibilities I was going to explore next and it's good to have those tips. I really wouldnt doubt that whatever nut job did this wiring did something similar to pulling power from a main wire. I'll follow your procedure for the door/courtesy light fuse business and see where it leads me. Same goes for the vanity lights and alternator.

There is some good news though, I replaced the broken injector and MAP connectors and the car is running a hell of a lot better! It fired right up and no longer sounds like it's running rough. It still smells pretty rich but it's a start. My soldering job isnt as perfect as I wanted but I'm fairly happy with it, the result is clean and functional. Just for kicks I measured the resistance of some of the other non-broken injector connectors and got a value of 2.9 ohms (I did it quickly and forgot what scale it was on), and my repaired connector measured in at 3 ohms.

Next steps is the compression test... we shall see how that turns out.

 

Good Advise
As far as your Injectors, run a balance test even without a scanner it's easy. Buzz it up to 2000 and have someone hold it steady and you can pull each injector connector 1 by 1 and watch the rpm drop on each one.
That will tell you. Also stick with the ones you have. Why buy 2 sets. You really won't need stock size anyways, later down the road you might need 30 lbs-ers. Wait on those.
If ur balance shows more of a drop on just 1 or 2 of them. The factory won't pay for replacements until they have been first blasted with cleaner. So you should do the same. Clean them the right way. With a good can of Injector clean. By disconnecting the tank fuel and running a full can or 2 of injector clean with the motor running off of the can at about 2000 rpm.
High or hunting Idle speeds could be a lot of things. Check to make sure first base idle is right and some clown didn't jack it up. Check for vacuum leaks everywhere. Good place to start and also a good soaking of the TB and re-install with new gaskts. Is another good place to start to rule out any carbon buildups and or ledges on the throttle plate and carbon in and on the IAC Passages.

 

I never use a meter. Always a Test light

 

Solid advice, I was going to run the injector balance test after the compression test if the results are good. If they are, then everything else you mentioned will follow.

I see where you're coming from about the injectors, I'm going to give it some more thought. My initial impression was that the 24lb's would be alright to run temporarily on the stock tune and that they would give me head room for the amount of power I want to run (around 350hp). Also, given the quality of work done to the car in the past, I wanted to replace the injectors mainly to replace all the seals and gaskets. It's not leaking fuel now, but if I'm going to be tracking the car I'd want to be assured that I won't end up with an under hood fire.

What type of power are we talking about with 30lb injectors?

 

That was just a injector i pulled out of the air thinking of something DUB had said in an other post. Ask him. Im really a Carb man and a C5 dude. Never really built up a C4
On another note. A really easy way to run a compression test before you run a compression test. Is to run the same as a injector balance only pull plug wires instead to evaluate if a compression test is even needed. A lot easier too.
I can post some articles of mid to low 12 sec builds I think with 24 lb-ers, if you want

 

Hmmm interesting. I'm surprised I've never heard of people doing the uhh, 'abbreviated' compression test you mentioned. But I don't see why it wouldn't work so I might give that a try. Yep low 12's is probably around the amount of power I want to be running. Though I'm not gonna be hitting the strip but rather the road course

 

Big waste of time and money. Multecs are not even worth keeping around. I'd dump them in the same bag as last week's dog poop. I'd be having my injectors tested and cleaned every 4 years. Injector cleaners are waste of money. Testing verifies. Cleaner in a can is a shot in the dark. I test and clean my powers port injectors every 3 years and daily driver cars every 100K.

I don't think he can really do much with base idle without a scanner.

 

Don't waste time on junk injectors. 30 pph injectors will support 400HP. You will need dyno tuning. Get reman injectors from FIC that are stock rate till you need to redo engine then sell them.

 

My bad, I forgot to mention I was looking at the 24's from FIC. Seems like you can't beat what they offer.

 

money ahead to buy road course car

 

Jumping into a fire here.

Glad that you got it wired up and it is running better.

I have NEVER performed an 'injector balance test' by revving the engine and un-plugging an injector wire and note the RPM drop. I can not wrap my head around that one.

Performing an injector balance test is CLEARLY OUTLINED in the Factory Service manual.

In my opinion...this test is a CRITICAL TEST. Having fuel injectors that are not spraying the correct amount of fuel into ALL of the cylinders.,...how can you expect it to run smoothly. And if there were another way that it could be done...with no tools...I am sure that GM would have outlined it. When dealing with the slight kPa drop GM allows...which is very slight....I can not comprehend on how the pulling of an injector wire is as accurate as when I do it as it is outlined. Most people will do 'whatever' when they do not want to buy the specific tools to do a specific job on a fuel injected engine.

Compression tests need to be done with the correct tool. Pulling a spark plug wire is only confirming that the cylinder is firing...and YES...I know what some may reply..I know the physics/dynamics of in internal combustion engine...BUT...the fact remains....why be lazy..pull all the plugs after getting the engine warm and do the test correctly.

AS for it running better but still having a problem.

I wrote it before...and I know that they are on E-bay....but it is getting really close to you needing a scanner. There are lines of data that you can not get any other way.

And if you plan on having a race car..having a scanner will help you IMMENSELY in trouble shooting.

At idle...if my memory serves me correctly...if you go buy one of the 'jumpers' that the major vendsrs sells....you can check your MAP sensor voltage at idle and it should be around 1.4 volts. But this data is on a line on a scanner.

The scanner will also aid in seeing if your coolant temp sensor is correct or not. And this sensor is to give the computer the IMPORTANT information to keep it running correct. Because if it is bad...it can cause your car to go into 'flood' mode and dump gobs of fuel into the engine....but will often times throw up a trouble code. But I have had them be bad and NO CODE also.

You have to know what your fuel pressure is also...SERIOUSLY..this is important.

And if possible...you need to know what your voltage is when it is running at idle. Also CRITICAL information. These cars do not like to be running at 12 volts.

I having to agree with aklim. Using an injector cleaner is somewhat pointless. I would have to see the spray pattern and verify that is is spraying correctly. The whole idea with this engine is to get each and every cylinder to be equal to all the others (obviously)....so fuel delivery is important. So an injector that is throwing droplets of fuel and the rest of the injectors are misting the fuel....that one cylinder can be a problem...especially at idle.

Make sure that you O2 sensor wire is away from a heat source and NOT grounding out on the frame is any metal part.

DUB