Need to see what you guys think about this.

Engine is a 406 with a Super Ram. I had recently swapped heads, cam and headers. I went from Iron Eagle 200 heads to AFRs 195 and went from long tubes to SLP 1 3/4 ( to gain ground clearence back). The cam, I bumped up from the LPE219 to something similar as the TPIS ZZ9 cam. I stayed with a hydraulic roller setup.

Here's the problem: I can start the car untill I turn the distributor to about 35 ddegrees advance. This is just to get it started and idle somewhat decent. Of course the ore advance I give it at idle the better the motor sounds.

I know there could be a few things causing this:

Slipped balancer
bad ignition module
bad distibutor
bad pick up coil
bad ECM
incorrect timing
cam ground wrong
vacuum leak

What I do know is that the balancer has not slipped. The ignition module is new along with the distirbutor and pick up coil. The timing (cam to crank) is correct. The cam was degreed in twice and both times same results, ground correctly. No vacuum leaks.

The ECM is a Haltech E6GM, I was able to put it into another car to make sure it was not the casue of the problem. It works like it is supposed to.

The way to set base timing with this Haltech is that I have a the ability to lock timing at 10 degrees advance. Using (for example) a trgger angle of 70 then turning the distriubtor to match the 10 degrees at the crank with a timing light.

This is not happening at all. I lock the timing and there is no way to get the car started at 10 degrees advance. I tried jsut taking th eplugs out and turning the car over to get a stead motion while cranking and timing it that way and locking everything down..car will never start. So I loosen the distributor and turn it counter clockwise some more and when I get it about 35 degrees it fires right up and runs abit rough till I give it a little more advance. Rev it a few times and it sounds awesome with a very little back fire coming from the exhaust on the decel.

I am at a complete loss here and was hoping some of you vette guys have any ideas.

The car is an 89 Iroc using an oem distributor with an upgraded Accel external coil.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

 

lol....no one wants to touch this?

 

I read this the other day. *I* have no knowledge of your Haltech system. Locking in the timing and THEN turning the distributor, doesn't compute, for me. Good luck, and...

RACE ON!!!

 

The Haltech locks timing at 10 dgrees to allow base timing to be set.

It's the same thing as disconnecting the EST wire when you set base timing on a stock setup. There is no advance when the engine increases in RPMs.

Thanks for looking though.

 

"I" may be completely off here, but It sounds like the Distributor is off about a tooth.
After reading this again, I'm still confused, but shouldn't you have about 20-24* in the Dist. then add the initial 10-12*.

 

May not help you but when i bought my car it wasnt running very good. And was unable to get it running great so i did a rebuild cuz to make it faster. The engine was owned by a woman and the engine was all grimmy and "looked" untouched when i bought it. When i tore the engine apart i found out that the sort block was a roller year one. My car's an 85. And the timming chain was put in a bunch of teath off. Now that explained why the distributor was spun more than half a way around. This car ran like this. Anyways..maybee your cam is ground wrong?

 

I read in one of the tech articles about placing the distributor in the motor.

Let's say I build a motor from scratch. Time it (crank to cam, both makrs on gears are at 12 oclcok) while it's on the engine stand and place the distriutor in. I was always under the impression that when ever I place the distributor in I could just stick in anywhere so long as the rotor was pointing to the number one cylinder plug wire on the cap. Or so long as I get the distributor rotor close to looking at the number one cylinder.

After reading this artile (this was two nights ago and for the life of me I can not remember where) I am wondering if I am reading it correctly. My take on this now is that the distributor has to be in a certain spot. Which would explain why I could be a tooth off.

Am I on the right track?

 

And to think I thought *I* didn't understand!!!

RACE ON!!!

 

Forgive me for being a dunce but thats a yes to being on the right track?

AND the distributor has to be in a particular spot once installed into the block?...

 

When I typed that comment, I was referring to redfasts post and yours. I didn't realize you were the author of the post I was addressing, until after I posted.

As I stated originally, I don't understand your ignition system... That's if you are explaining it properly. Between 10* locked timing, 70* trigger angles and 35* static advance, *I* don't know what you're talking about. Possibly, you do.

With any ignition system *I* am familiar with, the distributor can be engaged with ANY of the cam gear teeth and be pointing in any direction, as long as the rotor passes the cap terminal holding the #1 plug wire when the #1 cylinder comes up to, and through TDC at the end of the compression stroke. Good luck.

RACE ON!!!

 

with CFI-EFI. It really sounds to me like your a tooth off with your dist. IF-I'm reading you correctly. Bring # 1 up-making sure it's in the compression stroke-check your timing mark on the balancer-but don't rely on that for total accuracy. Then check to see your rotor is pointing toward the #1 on the dist. If your like me and 1000 other guys you forget the oil pump slot needs to match the dist. notch when dropping in the dist.-otherwise you certainly can get off a tooth.
Good Luck.