Only a couple of hours ahead of the 'storm' in northern NJ last night I finally finished the last few things to fire up my new motor. I was apprehensive to say the least.

Did I hook up the starter correctly? Will I get oil pressure? Will the preliminary tune I put in work out well enough to get it to fire? Will I have to do a CASE relearn? What if I blow up the PCM when I go to start it? Did the engine builder do his job well? I could go on and on. I figured 'why delay the inevitable...'

So I removed fuses 18 and 22 (injector and coil fuses) and turned the key, fully expecting something bad and the DIC came up happy and no codes...

I then turned the key to the start position, still squeezing those cheeks together and it turned over, so I kept it going for about 10 seconds and let it stop. Did it one more time and saw the oil pressure come up. One sigh of relief. Reinstalled the fuses, got back in the seat, one extra tight pucker and go to start it.

Fired right up, got 51 psi. oil pressure in less than a second and it settled into a 'decent' idle.

I let it idle and jumped out checking for leaks, etc. and checked the AFR with my WB and all was well, so I let it idle until it got to operating temp. while keeping an eye on the oil pressure and coolant. When it got to about 180 the coolant started to fill into the rest of the motor so I added some as it went along.

I shut it off and took it off the jack stands, and retorqued the wheel lugs.

I started it to take it for a ride, but it wouldn't stay running. Idle would drop to 0 and it would shut off. So, I raised the idle to 1000rpm's added 2 grams of air throughout the Desired Air table, and set the ETC conversion factor to 305 and restarted it. That fixed it all up. Since I had no codes, I was amazed btw, I backed it out and took it for it's maiden, break-in, as in drive it hard for the 1st 50 miles voyage.

With a very conservative tune, I pulled 4 degrees of timing everywhere, since the gas was 6 months old, as I pulled onto the highway and pushed down on the go pedal, I smiled so wide the top of my head almost fell off. I will say I kept it between 30mph and 65mph, the speed limit, but put some good loading on the motor all the while.

Now I know how Dr. Frankenstein felt when he yelled, it's alive!

I am putting together some video and pics to doc this stage of the project and will put them up as soon as I can.

I would like to thank all those that answered my questions and helped out with suggestions as this went along. Also, thanks See5 for a pretty darned close and totally usable inital tune. I would especially like to thank Tony Mamo for his guidance, suggestions, patience, sanity checks, specs, and great port work.

When the weather breaks in a few weeks I'll be bringing 'Seabiscuit' aka 'the biscuit - to BLACKTOP2000' to the rollers for some tuning and numbers. This thing is gonna be fun!

 

Glad you got it running.

I know the feeling that you're talking about. I converted my auto to a six-speed and removed the maggie at the same time. Did all of the work myself with some guidance from Dr. Phil and Dr. Phil reflash and tune of the PCM.

Car fired on the first crank and every worked, no codes. Checked for leaks, etc. Took around the block a few times and then back up in the air to check and retorque everything as I did the suspension and brakes at the same time.

What a great feeling to see your project come to life with no major problems.

 

Congrats! I remember when my stroker fired up for the first time. I was so excited I didn't no what to do, so I called Dr. Phil while siting in the drivers seat with it chugging away on jackstands

 

That's awesome Roger....

Glad things went smoothly (always nice when that happens!)

Seems like yesterday we were discussing the nuts and bolts of this combination and then I realized alot of our emails were actually swapped while I was in Vegas attending the SEMA show (about 4 months ago!).

It takes time to properly plan and execute a good combination....but like most things well planned, the results are usually very good.

Vettenuts (Bob) is right behind you spending similar countless hours calculating, optimizing, and hopefully soon dialing in his new combo....LOL

Looking foward to your dyno data as well as driving impressions when you finally get it tuned to its full potential.

Congrats!



Tony

 

Congrats Roger!!! 403's are

 

Great write up I felt your trepidation all the way!
Can't wait to hear about the results.

 

Enjoy the new found displacement and torque of course

 

Congrats Can't wait to read the "rest of the story".

I was getting excited about starting the work on mine soon as well since the weather was so nice, at least until yesterday

 

Bob, I'm looking forward to your "play by play" build as well

 

I know the feeling. I was kinda scared to fire up my 402 the 1st time. It started and ran pretty good.

Looks like you have a good handle on getting your tune straightened out. Good luck, your going to love the extra torque!!!!!

Bob K.