It looks like I've learned something myself, never knew the valve itself regulated that passage into the manifold. But how is that possible, being that the valve is entirely external? Is the valve port split in half?

 

I'm assuming that the valve's resting position is closed, correct? So if one removes the solenoid and caps the vacuum ports, the valve won't allow leakage?

 

Well I emailed bryan at PCM for less and he told me the problem I had from a stop could be remedied by adjusting my throttle body set screw, so today I went ahead and opened it up just a little bit more and it definitely helped.

Also I uncapped the vacuum port at the drivers side of the intake manifold and put a vacuum gauge to it, and I'm getting 13 in. of vacuum at idle. Is that good for a cam like mine?

 

It's now been about 1200 miles since the heads/cam swap and I changed the oil today to prepare the car for storage. I noticed that on the drain plug there was a layer of greyish/black sludge covering it and underneath it, there were a few (maybe 3-4) metal shavings (not small sand-like particles like when I cahnged it the first time) Is this bad news? The car still seems to drive fine and oil pressure is the same as usual.


Just wanted to get people's opinions before I start jumping to conclusions...

 

Just wanted to add that I hacked apart my old oil filter (K&N HP3002) and didn't really find anything alarming. Some very small metal particles here, a few other dirt particles there, it didn't seem out of the ordinary. Also I took the car for a spin for about 30 mins. and it drove smooth as the day I bought it, with good oil pressure the whole way.

Could it be that my drain plug is making things seem much worse than they actually are? Or do you guys recommend I investigate this when I take it out next seaon?

I'd apreciate any input.

 

did you ever get your low hp problem fixed? that you pm'ed me about.

 

Z95m6 I was going to look into that next year. But I think the stock fuel pump might be on it's way out, since lately I've had a few hard starts as well as the symptoms you were telling me about a while ago that still occur.

Either way I'm going to check my fuel pressure when I take it out next year and go from there. Thanks again for the help, you made me think of something I wouldn't have considered otherwise.

 

MTL_Z28,
If you getting 13" of Vaccum in a 350 with that cam I'd say you are doing really good. I would have expected less. This amount of vacuum should allow you brakes to work well.

I had a fuel pump go a few years ago. Thet symptoms were hard starting. I new pump fixed that. it could be a fuel filter also.
I didn't check at the time but a good way to check is to put a fuel pressure gauge on the fuel rail. Montior the fuel pressure under different conditions to see what is happening. Also leave the gauge on it over night to see what kind of leakage there is in the system. If it is a pump i'd do things different than I did and replace it with an aftermarket one rather than the stock GM unit.

 

Isn't the HP2002 the right filter number?

 

The 2002 is the regular filter, 3002 is the long one.

Crazyboy, thanks I'm going to test the fuel pressure next season when I take the car back out. The fuel filter was just changed last year, this one has about 4000 miles on it.

I'm still a little worried about what I found in the oil the other day but I guess there's nothing really that I can do about it...