Hey Charlie,

I tried to make time to stop by, but work overtook my weekend :oops:

Hope all went well.

So how did it go today Charlie?

well.....there is still no power at the garage, and a very relaxed afternoon, but we did manage to get a few things done. Installed new engine and transmission mounts, got the engine off the stand onto the MC lift, installed the clutch and mated the tranny. She is all ready to go. I still need to modify the rearward piece of sheetmetal to get the air ducting to fit to the heat exchangers, replace various vacuum hoses on the CIS and install the pop off valve. Hopefully I can get these done on sunday and monday and may have a very small and QUIET engine lift party Monday evening. Post more details later......

Hurricane cleanup put a stop to my lift as well. I did get the valves adjusted and reset the cam timing (One more time.)

I was able to get the two sides w/in .02 mm on the dial gauge.
The Left pin (#1) is tight in the hole and will not slip. When setting the #4 or right camshaft I could not get them to match with the pin tight while turning the crank in the right direction. This was only accomplished by using the slop between the pin and the hole. Is this what you ended up doing? Is the torque on the bolt supposed to keep this setting?

I ended up advancing it slightly over the previous setting. It's at 1.12 mm. now. (Actually I just realized that I didn't move the left camshaft and the 1.00 to 1.12 variation is probably because I am using the mark on the fan now instead of the case joint.) This is more precise because you can read it easier, but maybe not as accurate as there is a little slop in the fan housing where the pin on the block indexes.

I'll need to keep this in mind as I set ignition timing. If I set it to the mark on the fan it will be a little off. (It's a brain teaser to figure out how much and which way.)

Like you I had to modify the heat hose set up to fit my SSI's.
Here's what I ended up doing:
Mine is an 83 SC.
The right side engine tin simply has a hole that the flex duct goes through. The left side (Actually the rear piece of tin) has a short metal elbow that is welded to the rear tin. On the original heat exchangers there was a seperate elbow on each side that was held to the heat exchanger with a large hose clamp.

On the left side I used a 1" long piece of the flex duct as a bushing inserted on the end of the SSI conection. Then I inserted the original elbow on that. (Without this little piece of hose the original elbow was too loose.) This got the loose elbow pointing tward the elbow welded in the rear engine tin. I tried to conect the two witha short piece of flex hose, but the bends were too tight. I ended up cutting about 1" off the welded elbow and this allowed enough clearance to get the flex pipe to bend and connect. That short piece of pipe is about 4-5" when straight (I'm Guessing but it is just enough to make the bend with about 3/4" on the front and reat elbows.)

On the right side the flex pipe simply connects to the SSI heat exchanger with a hose clamp. I hope this helps. At least it's one way to get it done. A longer piece of flex pipe might work from the Left SSI to the welded elbow, but I didn't have good piece that was long enough.

I installed the new seal and all that is left is to install the clutch before I do the lift.

In Darnestown, we lost power about 11:50 PM on Thursday and got it back Saturday night about that same time.
I spent Friday and Saturday with the chain saw and the leaf blower spent all day yesterday washing off the leaves that went splat on the house.
I only got about an hour free time on the car.

Bill,

I just removed the left side elbow completely and enlarged the hole a little so I can pass the flex hose through. I could not get the hose to bend to such a tight radius with the elbow there. Still waiting for the large flex hose to arrive.

Regarding the cam timing, to get both side to match, I could not let the pin sit on one side of the hole as the timing would be too advanced/retarded. So essentially as I torqued the cam bolt I moved the sprocket as I torqued so the pin would not sit against one side of the hole or the other. Eventually got the left side to match the left (2.00mm). The pin on the right is not 'pinned' against either side of the sprocket hole and I'm hoping that the torque of the bolt holds it in this position.

You might want to put something arround the flex hose so it doesn't get cut where it goes through the hole. The hose is pretty fragile. If it's still in one piece, maybe slice the elbow you took out length wise and wrap it arround the flex hose. (Maybe bend it open a little.) You might also try a piece of ali=uminum roof flashing and just wrap the flex pipe where it goes thru the hole.

I read somewhere that you are off this week. Hopefully you can get your project done!

I was worried about that....good idea. I'll fabricate something simple.

Engine lift went well last night. I finished and took it for a short spin.
I drove to work this morning. No obvious leaks, but it's hard to tell because everything is so wet. (No more trail of smoke following me either!) I've now got about 120 miles on the rebuild. It slowly running stronger and smoother with every few miles. It was running very lean (Small popping backfire on very light loads so I richened the mixture about 1/4 turn.) Now it does it every so often on a light load or just when you start decelerating.) I think this will go away as the injectors get more fuel thru them and I'm going to run a tank with the Techtron? (fuel injector cleaner.)
All that's left is to install the heater blower and hoses and other tinkering.

Time for a good detailing as well.
BTW, That burnt oil smell, how do you get rid of it?

I've been living with it since I bought the car in Nov. 2001. It always had an oil leak of one kind or another. The old heat exchangers were saturated with oil. I hoped that it would go away with the rebuild and new exhaust, but with the rear main leak, even if it was only for a short time the new heat exchangers have burnt oil.

I know cleaning the carpet is on the list (I learned this before.)
I can clean the outside of the heat exchangers, but I know oil got inside them and will stink for weeks if not more. On the front side of the heat exchangers the hot air blows into the control boxes on exch side and then dissapears into the body of the car. I think it blows thru a tunnel under the door sill and I've seen where the flex hoses enter the trunk area.
Does anyone know if the hot air just passses thru the body cavity or is there a duct of some kind?

Second, is there any method to clean these areas?
Anyway to clean out the inside of the SSI's.

Charlie, keep us posted on your progress and your postponed lift date!
It's great to be back on the road!
Hopefully it will be soon for you!

Charlie, how's it going with the project?
I saw Richard's post on PP BBS.
Did you get the idle issue sorted out?
Did the CIS books help?
My engine smoothed out finally as I have been tweeking the fuel mixture leaner and leaner. It was loading up to the point that one or two of the cylinders were missing. The interesting thing I found was that I could run it with a light foot with no problems. If I stomped on it it would load up and start to miss. If I shut it down for just a second and restart it it would run smoothy again.
On the way home Monday evening I stoped and tweeked the mixture one more time and found the sweet spot or at least am within range that it runs smoothly and doesn't miss or backfire in the exhaust. (The unburnt fuel was getting ignited in the exhaust.)

I began the installation of the Air Fuel meter last night. I found a good waterproof connector at Pep Boys. It's a GM 3 wire connector that snaps together with the green seal at the joint and also where the wires enter the back of the connector. I actually bought the pieces seperatly, soldered the wires from the O2 sensor on to the bare terminals and pushed them into the connector. I didn't need to extend the wires that were attached to the sensor. The plug is routed up to one of the bolts that holds the left side engine tin to the cam case between the rocker covers. I used a rubber covered strap clamp here to hold the wire away from the exhaust.

I bought some 4 wire 16 gauge wire that is used for conceled speaker wires in walls of homes. This has 4 wires with a jacket. I think 16 gauge is plenty heavy. The wires from the sensor look like 18. I need to find a route to run this wire up and under the dash board. I mounted the gauge just below and behind the knee pad (below the steering wheel.) I can see it between the spokes. I mounted it upside down so the important part is just in view. (When the A/F mixture is perfect it will point straight down.) I was thinking about mounting in the junk box in the console, but ours is smaller than the one we saw on the other thread and the gauge would take up most of the space.

Since my car is a Euro model it does not have a hole in the engine tin or the wiring for the lambda system. As an alternative I was thinking of supplying the power and ground from the engine compartment and trying to find a spare wire in the harness to send the signal up to the dash.

Because mine is a cab, It doesn't have the rear defroster. So I was looking for the wire that goes from the defroster relay to the switch on the dash. I wonder if they used the same harness for the cab?
I did find 3 wires that are not being used and were taped together. They are comming out from under the 3 fuse/relay holder in the engine bay.
One is brown (a ground) one is black and the third is white with black stripe. They all have the female end of a spade connector. The only wiring diagram that I have that is close is the 82. These are not the correct colors for the defroster relay. (I saw a picture of a newer defroster relay in the owners manual. It was a rectangular box, not a round one. I also read in the manual that the defroster switch had 3 positions off, defog and defrost. So it's possible I found the wire set.

Th only other thing it could be is wires for A/C. The a/c on my car was installed after the fact. I removed it recently. I have a seperate green wire that goes to the compressor clutch. There was a relay that I removed with a small harness that went to the condensor fan in the rear wheel well. I don't recall it being connected to these wires.)

When you get the chance can you look and see what you have back there?

Do you need any help with your CIS. As you know I have the gauges if you want to check your fuel pressures. Doesn't your's have a test connection that you can hook a dwell meter to to see what the frequency valve is doing?

Let me know if I can help!

William,

I'm getting close. The rough running was caused by the distributor being off by a tooth. Once found/fixed, it roared to life and ran quite smoothly using the accelerator to keep the rev's up. Its spewing out white-ish smoke and cutting out at idle. I definitely have a rich mix as the plugs were quite sooty and full of fluffy carbon which is probably causing my idle cut out....even with the air bypass screw almost all the way out. I definitely have to play with the idle mix screw to lean it out. I was doing some research on pelican regarding cam upgrades on CIS systems and any changes that affect intake vacuum will require the CO% to be reset. The intake valves now are opening twice as much at TDC as the stock cams were and their duration is a bit longer as well. This is definitely creating a greater vacuum which in turn is causing greater movement of the air sensor plate, thus my rich mix. I'm going back tonight and lean it out until the white smoke clears up at idle/acceleration....at least I'll be in a better position to actually drive it and continue the break in process. Then its off to the shop for an alignment and final setting of the CO%.

I'm going to try my hand at building one of there 20 LED A/F monitors. http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...el_monitor.htm
I have a spare VDO gauge that I'd like to modify into a A/F and CHT gauge to replace the clock. One side will be the 20 LED A/F, the other side CHT.

BTW: I would use the thinnest gauge possible for the O2 sensor signal as its signals are quite weak (0-1v) and will require running the total distance of the car. The thinner the gauge, the less signal attrition from the copper's (or what ever conductor is used) inherent internal resistance.