Okay .... Im able ready to push the car off of a cliff...

I installed a CC 236/242 on a 110lsa, CC "R" lifters, choromemoly pushrods, pro magnum 1.6 rockers, GM guideplates, new valve seals, EX-612 valve springs, CSI water pump, cloyes double roller timming chain, and a new opti with new vaccum lines. Tuning was done by Ion Sultan.

When I first cranked it over it fired up and ran fine except for a slightly high idle. I drive around get the debris out of the car so that I can change the oil, however I left the low coolant sensor clip slightly off and the lost about 3 gallons of coolant.

I reinstall the sensor and while burping the coolant system I accidently ran the water pump on with the t-stat housing off....so it drenched the opti.

I drive the car home and it sputters and isn't 100% so I attribute this to the opti getting drenched. Changed the oil, readjusted the rockers and discovered 2 were off the valve stem completely. Fired up the car and it ran good but with a stumble below 3.5K rpms. I pop the hood and saw that all 4 primaries on the passenger side where glowing red! Next day I readjusted the rockers and cleaned the IAC valve.... fired her up and now she won't idle.

I swap in a new IAC valve, readjusted the rockers one more time...and same result. So Im thinking okay...its the damn opti..I swap out the opti today with the old one and it runs EXACTLY the same!!!! >

Someone mentioned that I should try unplugging the MAP or MAF sensor....same result....won't idle above 950rpms like it was programed to do...sputters then dies. If I try bring the revs past 2K it stumbles and misfires and pops. What the hell is going on?!?!

-B

 

Have you checked your fuel lines and fuel pressure? It seems wierd than only one bank would be having problems- which would be attributed to an ignition problem or else an extreme lean condition.

Anyway, when you fix, it post sound clips, maybe even a video?

 

N E luck yet

yes and sound clips would be lovely....

 

almost sounds like the valves are adjusted incorrectly

 

On a totally not related note, those springs are pushing it with that cam. Sounds like an ignition related problem.

 

Big thanks to Mike Leaf who drove out to my house and helped me diagnose the car. The guy stayed till 1am!

We're still having problems with the damn car, when Mike scanned the car it had trouble codes indicating problems with the MAF, MAP, O2s, and it also looks like the long term log said that its been running lean for a while. We ran the car till it went into open loop to get some readings.

A mechanic friend of Mike's mentioned that it might be the injectors thats causing the headers to glow, so we swapped out the stockers for a set of SVO 30lbers....no change. So we decided to try and adjust the rockers, Mike went with what looked like 1/8 of a turn after zero lash and it idled a little bit better but still sputtered and died. This time around BOTH headers were glowing RED.

The 2nd time Mike scanned the car after the readings the only thing that popped up was the MAP code, the 02s looked fine but I will replace those.

Mike has the files on his laptop, does anyone know how or who might be able to interpret them? Im still puzzled on whats causing the glowing headers and why it won't hold idle. The IAC is new and showed counts of 160.

-B

 

Well, I guess I can interject here a bit and tell you all what I saw. First off, as B said, I used Freescan and Datamaster for the diagnosing portion, I then used tunercat to "re-tune" the computer to hopefully help even things out. As far as the plug went, it looked like it had been heated up a bit too much, but still looked more one the healthy side than anything. The MAP sensor did keep popping up in the trouble codes after we would run
the car until it heated up enough and went to closed loop, so Im thinking that this may be a big culprit. I also noticed when running the car with Datamaster, that it was showing good spark advance, but was also showing an almost constant 8* of retard. I couldnt figure this out. If anyone out there is good at reading the datamaster files and figuring out possible problems, I will gladly e-mail his file to you. (Nick? Jason?)

Anyways, B was a good host even though he worked me like a dog (j/k)
he did treat me to In&Out, so I cant complain.

Good Luck Bin!

Mike Leaf

 

Okay I adjusted the rockers to zero lash and it runs ALOT better and idles longer however it still will slowly sputter and stumble and eventually die. At times it searches for the correct idle and then die.

I also tested the fuel pressure and it goes to 20-23psi and drops to zero right away. At idle it will stay around 40psi and without the vaccum line it'll go over 40 psi.

Would bent pushrods cause a bad idle and how do I check for it?

-B

 

Where's that red flag smiley

Sounds like your valvetrain geometry is off.... wrong pushrod length. Correct this problem first, then go from there.

Check Comp Cams website for details on checking for correct pushrod length. If it's off, you'll just continue to have problems.

-Mindgame

 

I swapped in the old opti and there was no improvement. However I have stock length chromemoly pushrods. So how can my valve train geometry be off?


-B

 

Because you have a huge cam on a 110 lobe.

 

I have 3 pushrods that are slightly bent but its really hard to tell if they're bent or all of them have a slight bow in them....or my eyes are just really ****ty....is there any sure fire way to check pushrods to see if they're straight?

-B

 

Roll them on a flat surface.

 

Yep, you need to get a pushrod length checker and get some shorter ones. That's def the problem. Same thing happened to me when I put milled heads on my 383 stroker I had.

 

Okay my car hasn't been running for about a good 9 months now. After my cam install things ran great for about a week and took a dump after I drove around for a week and readjusted the rockers.

After several suggestions on the boards and lists I pull everything and discover that 6 of my pushrods have a slight bend in them. So I get a new set and swap them in and readjusted the rockers. I also did a compression check on cylinders 1,3,5, and 7 while the motor was cold with all of the spark plugs pulled and TB crack all the way open.

#1 showed 30, 45 and jumped to 120 on the third time I crank it over.
#3 was 120
#5 was 70-90
#7 was at 30

I have no idea what this means but its probably bad.
I took one look at the passenger side and said screw this...NO way in hell I could get that compression fitting and hose to fit. So I replace all of the spark plugs and pray that its only the pushrods.

Reinstalled the pushrods and adjusted the rockers to ZERO lash and locked down the ploy lock. Started up the car and it finally idled!!! So I shut her down and put the valve covers back on and fired her up again....then I hear this nasty knocking sound and yanked the valve covers to find 2 rockers off the valve stem and a bunch of the rockers were totally loose.

Readjusted all of the rockers to ZERO lash again and this time around it didn't idle at all! Maybe I messed up....so I tried adjusting with the same method of spinning the pushrod till I feel a slight drag and lock down the ploy lock. Fired her up....and same deal...no idle.

At this point I was pissed....so I loosened up all of the rockers to the point where they would wobble back and forth but not slip off the valve stem and cranked the car over. It idled like a CHAMP! One by one I just turned the rocker nuts down enough to where it would start to lower the idle and almost stall and back up using only my fingers and tightened the poly lock. These damn comp "R" lifters are sensitive as HELL... a 1/6 of a turn will either stall the car out completely or let it idle.

After adjusting them I went for another ride and it idled but after a while it started to stumble again and stall. I need to readjust them again but need a preceise way of doing them. Anyone have difficulties adjusting the rockers with comp "R"s? I tried everything from 1/2 turn to 1/4 to Zero turns after zero lash and Im getting nowhere.

-B