I just got done doing my heads/cam swap with the xe230/236 cam and stage 2 heads. We loaded Bryan's program and the car idled right about 800 in nuetral and 600 in gear. It occassionally dies but that is probably related to the big problem.

The big problem is the car feels like it has no power at all. What are the possible causes of this? We are pretty sure the roller rockers are not adjusted right, but we don't hear any noise from them (although we can't hear much with open hooker lt's ). If they were way out of sync, would that cause the car to feel like it had no power at all? I have no idea what it could be, and I'm tempted to just have it towed to speedworks or ape and have them "make it go." If anyone can help me asap it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Well there are a couple of possibilities. Your rockers are adjusted wrong or too tight, your actual timing is messed up from not lining up the dots on the cam and crank gear properly, or your opti is in there wrong. I bet its one of these.

 

Well there are a couple of possibilities. Your rockers are adjusted wrong or too tight, your actual timing is messed up from not lining up the dots on the cam and crank gear properly, or your opti is in there wrong. I bet its one of these.

Well the timing is on because we doubled-checked that and I even have pictures of it before we put the timing cover on and I saw that it was right on. The 94 opti's can only go on one way so it can't be that either. It's got to be the rockers, but we'll find out tomorrow. An awesome local club member is going to trailer my car to his house (since I got pulled over after driving my car for five minutes down sidestreets) and he said he'll see what he can do. Hopefully that all works out without me having to pay a shop 500+ bucks!

 

My dad thinks it's computer-related, ie not enough fuel, not enough air, etc.

My buddy Adam says it has got to be the roller rockers.

And I say the damn thing just sucks...anyone want it for 5 bucks? :-)

 

How did you adjust the rockers? It sounds like you have them too tight.... way too tight. I personally like to adjust them running. Back it off till it starts clicking, then tighten till it stops. Thats zero lash. Then 1/8-1/4 turn more. Factory spec is 1/2 turn I think, but I dont personally like em that tight.

You reused the stock lifters right?

 

I bought a new set of GMPP lifters and they came w/ the lifter guideplates and spider hold down plate.

I am going to adjust them as you said tomorrow with Danee (local slp member...real nice guy) and hopefully that'll do the trick. If not, I guess I'll have to suck it up and bring it to a performance shop so they can figure it out since it must be computer related at that point.

Thanks everyone...let's hope this all works out. Then all I need is a full exhaust so I don't get pulled over every five minutes. Seriously though, open headers at 7pm isn't that bad. If it were 9 or later, I can see why they would complain (even though it's a darn saturday!). People just need to get lives.

Wish me luck. See ya guys.

 

hey, my car ran like *** after headers and cam install because of the o2 sensors. did you get the 02's installed in the longtubes? If not you need to unplug them to run in open loop. my guess is you extended the harnesses and your voltages are off causing a split BLM's condition, which in turn makes your car suck. If its not the 02's then i would guess the rockers also.....hope this helps...later

 

hey, my car ran like *** after headers and cam install because of the o2 sensors. did you get the 02's installed in the longtubes? If not you need to unplug them to run in open loop. my guess is you extended the harnesses and your voltages are off causing a split BLM's condition, which in turn makes your car suck. If its not the 02's then i would guess the rockers also.....hope this helps...later

Well...that could definitly be what's going on with the o2's because I used extensions on both sides. And I do recall when I ran the freescan one o2 was a little higher than the other one. Should I swap in new ac delco o2's and adjust the rr's and see if that'll wake her up?

 

unplug the harness from the o2's and go drive it, if the o2's are your problem then running in open loop will "fix" it temporarily until you fix your o2's, see if that helps!!!

 

Okay so here's the plan...have my friend who knows his stuff adjust my roller rockers and then see what's up. If still a problem, unplug the o2's and check again. If still messed up, start checking plugs, wires, and then run a compression check. Sound like a plan? Or am I missing something that I should be doing?

 

sounds good

 

Well we went to start the car yesterday and it wouldn't fire. Turns out we had flooded it, so after we adjusted the rockers, we swapped out six plugs for my old ac delcos (just wanted to see if she'd fire with 6 good plugs) and it worked. We even ran on 8 cylinders for a few minutes it seemed. We took it for a ride and the tranny slipped like crazy so we went back to check that. Well, since I'm a complete moron, I only added 5 qts. to the tranny since it's supposed to need five quarts (or so I heard). Well after we added it, we checked the level and it was full. What we didn't think about was the tranny lines that probably weren't filled, plus the tranny cooler which was empty. Once the transmission fluid started flowing, it left hardly any in the tranny so I gotta pick some up today and add that. I also ordered parts for a true dual setup that I will run for this year since I am starting to run out of funds. My friend said the o2's don't even read when you first start the car since the car would be in open loop, but I will remember to unplug them next time I start it. We get the used vigi 3000 verter tomorrow and we'll install that. Then I'll drive it to get the true duals welded up on Thursday or Friday, swap in 8 new tr6's, and hopefully she'll be running decent (and quiet) enough to test it out :-). If she's still having problems, I'll have a few local guys look at it and at the last resort, take it to a speedshop to get a real dyno tune.

 

That's great man. I'm going with the exact same engine setup and cam. prolly a 3200 stall though.

How did she feel?