I need some opinions on what is wrong

I have a friend that has a 94 6 speed LT1 vette and he found out that he had a blown head gasket, so one of his other friends recommended him to mechanic at a local dealer ship and he can do it on the side. Well my friend decided to put a cam in and port and polish the heads, valve job, installed new Crane dual valve springs, new push rods, and the cam is a Comp cam 224/236 503/521 w/ 114 lsa with 1.5 rockers and he has comp pro magnum 1.6 rr's and the heads have 2.00 1.60 valves heads flowed 252 cfm @ 550lft. He had the computer reprogramed for this cam by Brian at pcmforless.com installed a Aeromotive AFPR set at 38 psi with vaccum line on 44 or 45 with it off, new MSD plug wires new Opti every thing is new while he had the top end of the motor tore down.

It also is a stock LT1 short block.

The problem: car idles fine, no misses, good 02 readings, Maf readings are good every thing looks good with a Tech 2 scanner, but the car has NO low end power, none what so ever it will not even brake the tires loose dumping the clutch at 2500 or 3000 rpms with stock Goodyears running with alot less power than stock. You can drive the car around the block maybe 5 minutes and the exhaust manifolds are starting to glow bright red, coolant temp not even 150 deg, the only thing i can think that the timming on the timming gears are off (dots not lined up properly)

He talked to the mechanic to see if he will fix it or even look at it and he is giving him the run around on the phone and blaming it on the PCM's fuel curve being off. Not the timming at all

The fuel curve cannot be off that much for the exhaust to be glowing red, can it?

The exaust system is stock with brand new Hi-flow cats and new flowmasters and stock exhaust manifolds

He has had the problem since he picked the car up from the work being completed.

Need some info ASAP

 

hes running really rich

 

running so rich to make the exhaust glowing red?

 

rich trey? isn't lean hotter?

 

Rich condition dumps fuel into the exhuast and it combusts there causing them to blow red.

 

Well could be the timing curve. I would also hook it up to free scan and see if the car is pulling timing down low in the 1000-2500 rpm range. I had the same problem with my 94 H/C z turned out to be the drone in the exhaust at those rpms. The car was pulling up to 15* in timing from the knock. But after those rpms it smoothed out.

Or it could be that the rockers are to tight and it's letting the fuel ignite out side the chamber. FWIW

Joe

 

Extra fuel being burnt will cause the headers to glow. Definately check the rockers, if they are too tight, the valves will remain open all the time, and cause loss of power/bent pushrods, loss of power, etc..

 

ok, that makes sense, my knee jerk response was in terms of cylinder temps.

 

The mechanic told him when he picked the car up the first day and told him to bring the car back so he can reset the RR's he had adjusted them cold

We did notice that when we put the rockers on last year they were kind of noisy after we adjusted them, but now they are real quite.

Let me try to readjust the rockers and see what hapens i will post back

But the rockers to tight will cause the car run like crap?

And for the timming down low was only pulling 1 or 2 deg at idle and thru the rpms

Also the car has no throttle responce.

 

I am waiting to hear you say the car is a beast noiw with the rockers adjusted.

 

well the rockers were set fine a little loose if any thing but close enough,

Going to tear down the front of the motor to see if the timing gears are off they should be dot to dot or 12 o'clock and 12 o'clock on the crank gear and cam gear.

 

Dot to dot with #1 at TDC......then with the chain in place rotate the assembly till both dots are at 12 oclock and in stall the opti.

Still sounds like a lash adj problem to me but checking the the timing chain install is a wise move too.

 

I also agree that it sounds like the RR are to tight. But if your sure about them then the timing gears would be next to check on my list. Just something to consider but when I did my hotcam, I used a new but stock timing set. There was enough play in it that I could have the chain on there with the dots lined up but one side of the chain was tighter than the other. Moved the chain over one tooth and equal slack was in both sides.

Aaron

 

Found the problem finally

Removed the timming cover and bumped the crank gear to 12 o'clock and the cam gear was off a tooth, we will find out how it runs tommorow.

Some tell me that one tooth off is 10 to 12 degres

 

Dot to dot is #6 TDC not #1. No real need to rotate it to any particular position to put the opti on as long as you line up the dowel pin on the cam with the correct place on the opti drive (vented version).