Well, where do I begin.

Alvin got me running and idling at the dyno day. Had to back the fuel pressure off from 44 to 30 PSI, I.E. she's WAY too fat for some reason. So we bump the pressure back up and take it for a spin. It's just sputtering and running like doo doo, throwing a code 36 for a High Resolution Pulse Fail/Extra Low Res Pulse detected. Driving along, I was going into a shift, and I felt the car sorta kick. The real familiar sort of kick that it was doing before the motor swap. So, I set it up. Anything below 3000 rpm, and a nice hard fast throttle movement. Yup, you guessed it. The EXACT same symptoms that the prior motor had. The cutout/hesitation/miss/whatever the flying **** it is has not been dealt with aparrently. Alvin takes a look at my fuel trims on Datamaster, and sure enough, I've got one side that was "spot on" according to him, and the right side was just way rich for some reason.

So..........more to follow on that. We get back to the dyno, and I already know it's senseless to even try to tune it, as I've still got an unknown problem to work out. The car is immensely hard to start, to which Alvin attributes there being too much timing for the 11.7 compression ratio. Unfortunately, there's no tunercats table for timing retard, so now it looks like I'm looking for the Accel 375+ add on box to the 300+ ignition. It has dual limiters, start retard in .1 increments up to 15*, and some other neat goodies. But I digress.......

In addition to the too much timing issue for starting, the motor is also having an issue with backfiring out of the intake. It fired off a real hard one that broke three tabs off my lower Ram Air airbox while the car was running. When I try to start the car, it does this and kills the engine rotation, which puts me back at square one for the start too. I KNOW the rockers need adjustment, but I just found out last night from a couple of people (completely by chance too) that a failing opti has been known to cause backfires such as these too.

Fast forward to the end of the night, got the car started and on the trailer. Get home, decide not to put it into the garage until Saturday morning. Saturday morning rolls around, and I go to put the car into the garage. I get it started on the trailer, amazingly enough, but cant' get my door shut because of the freaking fender on the trailer (I had the same one that Dean had). So, begrudgingly, I step out to step on the fender and get my door shut, and yup, the car stalls. AND WON'T RESTART. AT ALL. So now my car resides streetside.

I was going to work on it today, but it's decided to rain now. Go figure.

So, my list of problems are as follows:

Unknown factor causing fuel LTERMS on the passenger side to go to the way rich side. I'm going to be pulling the injectors and sending them out for a flow balance to see if tha's the cause, as it's the only thing I didn't do from the last motor.

Opti could very well be on it's way out. The High Res Pulse code 36 coupled with the intake backfires doesn't look too swell.

Rockers are way out of adjustment. Making some ungodly clacking.

Still needs tuning.

Start timing too advanced, needing a retard box.

Starter doesn't like the high compression ratio. Hopefully the retard box will help, or it may be LT4 or other starter for me.

Gotta love new motors. I was so mad on saturday morning that I was about to start tearing parts off the car and just parting the entire thing out and start over with an LS1. The thought is still residing in the back of my mind actually. I won't do it, but it's there.

So, more to follow, as funds return. I'm six deep into this new short block now, and am just tapped at this point. Stay tuned, I swear it's going to run again.

Does anyone have any suggestions on any of my issues????

 

I think I'm going to rephrase one thing. My main concern is the fact that the problem with the rich bank/stumble at fast throttle is still there.

We were driving and the right bank showed to be way too rich, while the left side was spot on, according to the tuner. Unexplained. My O2's, and associated wiring are fine.

The injectors are SVO 30#, and the only thing I haven't checked. I checked them for leaks, which there were none of. Flow testing hasn't been done, and I'm wondering if it would be worth my time at this point.

I can't think of anything else that would cause the right side to go rich like that, but I can say that it's extremely furstrating to have a brand new motor with the same old problems.

 

I think that you may have done this before, but did you swap the injectors from bank to bank?

If the problem follows, it might pinpoint the cause.

 

Actually no, but right now I can't get the car to even start. It cranks, and acts like it's going to light off, and then BAM! Backfires through the intake hard enough to kill all motor inertia. Car just won't start.

 

I forgot to add this:

Code 36 was setting: Faulty High Resolution Pulse/Extra Low Res Pulse/DIS

The service manual states that the car DOES NOT NEED the High Res Pulse to run. The Low Res is the biggie. BUT, if an extra low res pulse is detected.......how much would that throw the timing off?? Enough to cause backfiring out the intake manifold?

 

I just got the hi-res pulse code on my 97 T/A and it will start if I let it crank for awhile, and then stab the go pedal. But it still runs pretty rough and I don't get a tach signal, so the tach sits at 0rpm.

 

Well, I just talked to another buddy of mine who, when he was having his opti failure, has the same notorious backfiring out the intake manifold.

I believe my order of operation now is going to be to double check my plug wire routing, reset my valve lash, and try to fire. If it's still a no go, the opti will be coming off tonight.

 

Give us a call if you need anything. If you need to replace the opti let me know. I can get you one at a pretty good price. How much preload did you have on the lifters when setting the vlaves? Did you check lifter preload @ TDC? Just trying to help out and get you up and running.

Thanks,
Chris

 

Chris,

I had to remind FBC, who installed the motor, that the lifters were the Comp R, and only needed 0 lash to 1/8 turn. The guy who actually put the motor in said he set them to 1/16, which I'm double checking. I'm going to do static setting at 1/16-1/8 turn just for now with each cylinder at TDC, until I can do a dynamic setting.

My opti is less than 200 miles old. It got put on in October last year, while I was diagnosing my old motor. It's still under warranty, but I definitely appreciate the offer.

 

Well.....

We have ignition. I found that three of my plug wires were crossed on the passenger side. Two of those were my fault, as I went dyslexic at the dyno fixing a routing issue. Also readjusted the rockers, which needed it. I got it all buttoned back up, and went to start, and nothing. So, I disconnected my Accel 300+ and tried again, and wham, started right up. MUCH better than before, but:

There's a nasty hesitation when I tap the gas (accidentally found that one trying to keep the car going);

Bad something (probably ground) with my Accel box;

I need to do a few of the rockers again because I think I got them too loose. They were going clack clack except it was more like "snap" "snap". Don't want to take any chances with that one.

Come to think of it, I don't think the car even set the High Res code this time.

I think loosening those rockers really helped big time. On quite a few of them, I released the poly lock, and as I backed the stud off, the entire rocker would raise probably 1/4" or so. They were freakin tight. The engine didn't even have problems turning over this time, and NO backfiring out the intake.

Once I get the car idling nicely, I'm going to try to do some light driving and datalogging to nail down this fuel issue, unless the rockers took care of it. If if persists, I'm going to swap the injectors from side to side and see what happens.

It's running though.

Yaay. :blah:

 

Haha! Plug wires!!!!!! I have done that twice in the past my friend. Glad you got the big problem sorted.

 

I know, it's embarrassing. What happened was at the dyno I noticed that the shop that did the install routed my OVC wires in a way I didn't like, so I swapped the #4 and #6 wired at the plug, but my buddy read the opti firing order wrong to me from the manual, and instead of switching #4 and 6, I switched #6 and #8. Doh!

The valve lash was the big one though. Car cranks and sounds sooooo much better. Still have a couple of rockers making a god awful racket, but that's me having left them too loose. Going to try again tomorrow I hope.

 

Glad to see you are getting it figured out. If you need anything else just let me know.

Thanks

 

Will do. I appreciate all the support from you guys. I'm hoping to be tuning by the end of the week, and diagnosing the fuel LTerm issue if it still exists.

 

My CC306 totally screwd my idle up. My BLMs are always 158-160 on the right at idle and around 150 on the left. I've been through the stock TB and adjusted everything, dyno tunes from 2 different places, mailorder tunes from both the big guys on the board, new 02 sensors, even a new PCM. Hell, my KR problem was so bad I got a constant 3 degrees at idle!, not to mention totally erratic readings after that.

I had to replace the injectors to get it to fire for the first time as my stockers were stuck open from sitting. After that, it leaked like crazy out of the WP shaft hole in the timing cover, I replaced it like 4 times in a week before it sealed up. Then, within the first 20 miles after the motor was done, my damn T56 locked the tires and I nearly wrecked on the freeway- Guess the mechanic forgot to fill it back up with ATF, at least thats what the shop that fixed it said. It was in the shop for three months gettin' a dyno tune after that, they accidently fried my PCM twice by not disconnecting the Scanmaster before downloading(waited 4 weeks each time to get PCM fixed and sent back). Then, while waiting for a PCM, my car got broke into at the shop and I got my new MTX amp and Excelon deck ripped off.

Everythings been resolved but, my fuel trims are still off(which I've learned to live with), I zeroed the KR in the PCM, and it still eats optis every few hundred miles a year later. Somethings done right though, runs the times in the sig through a stock catback, shorties, and unported stock heads.

Your problems aren't that bad after a new motor install. Sounds like evreything will be ironed out by the end of the week.

BTW- my stock starter turns my 11.8:1 motor just fine.