TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

This thing never wanted to do a power brake or light them up from a stop with the Autoleak on dry pavement. The engine at points of the tune feel way more snappier, and it chirped one tire leaving a stop sign when one injector was bad and it hit that sweet air fuel ratio it liked. It can spin the tire (singular :-\) on my crap asphalt-gravel driveway. This thing is going to run wickedly I think when I get it dialed in. It'll be interesting tuning with the automatic, since the 5-speed I can lock in an rpm and load easier, but I think it'll be more forgiving in the ride characteristics.

And it starts helluva lot easier with the TBI than it ever did with the Autoleak. As in it starts right away!

your fixes are too easy ;D a blown head gasket, a bad injector.... i'm jealous :-[

I try to keep them that way ;D

[milner351]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Nice work Randal - you get this thing all dialed in and lined up - and maybe I'll follow in your footsteps on my 428 in the mustang someday - but it will all have to fit under the shaker air cleaner and look stock otherwise - I'd have to hide everything behind the firewall.

The C6 is a non lock up converter trans set up - so you won't be able to lock in speed / load points as you can with the skylark - however - if you can keep it in 2nd while doing some tuning - you should be able to get a good range of speed/load points at reasonable speeds and as "locked up" as that converter will get.

I'll be really interested to hear about your MPG numbers on your long trips with this luxobarge and it's 428... ;D

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Oh, speaking of "Fitting Shaker Air Cleaners". I did realize a clearance issue yesterday. The air filter I have on there, which is short and small, sat too high with the little spacer under it, and it was hitting the hood, or at least the insulation, and pushing the hood up in the rear. So I removed the spacer and promptly ran into a throttle linkage interference. When I ran the TBI the first time for a short period, I don't think I had the spacer, but the linkage was still the GM linkage and there was no interference. The Ford linkage is taller.... So for now I've got the spacer back on there and being gentle with the hood. Trimming the insulation would likely solve it, but I don't really want to do that.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

leave the insulation.... cutting it out makes the situation ripe for hood dents from the air cleaner and its hold down rod...

[milner351]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Safe to say if you ever go for performance with this thing - you'll be severely limited in your intake manifold choices.

Ditto Buickguy - leave the insulation - nobody likes hood dents from carb studs....

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Yeah, I had no intention of doing anything with the hood insulation. The only performance things I've thought about is a turbo or two smaller ones. The packaging would be a nightmare I think though. But nothing too fancy, just flip the exhaust manifolds around type. It wouldn't be a max effort thing, just for a little more oomph. Of course if I do that it'll likely go to multi-port EFI and a simple performer intake (which it'll likely get when I get around to pulling the engine).

[milner351]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

between now and then you can always run a bolt instead of a stud/wingnut for the air filter housing - gains you a 1/2" or so.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

For those of you who think I may be ignoring the T-bird ;D

Today I think I got the tune just about nailed down. How ever I do have ton of noise in the charging system and some in the tach signal, so I think this weekend I'll be doing some electrical troubleshooting. But back to the tune, I've got it running pretty consistent and the VE table with numbers I like, not too high, not too low, by playing with the required fuel, number of squirts per cycle and type of firing (batch vs. alternating). Before I either needed very low VE table numbers or very high, but is good now.

A mechanical change I made today was on the throttle linkage geometry. Looking at this picture you can see the straight shot the throttle cable is pulling on the throttle, which made it a bit hard to over come that initial push of the throttle, which made it jumpy off idle. Another thing to note, is between the trans kickdown lever and above the return spring, this is where the throttle bracket bolts to the intake.


So what I did is two things. The bar that was between the two nuts was the bracket for the cruise control linkage, so moved that below the throttle bracket, then I added two washers to it to raise it up a tad more. This completely solved the higher effort off idle pedal issue.



Going to drive it to work tomorrow

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Still chasing a voltage fluctuation issue. I'm back to thinking it has to be in the alternator, I've tried three regulators. I swapped batteries with the Skylark to ensure it's not a bad cell in the T-bird's battery, the battery is good. After reading Brian's HEI thread I got to thinking about the source of my "ON" power, it was tied into some random circuit breaker behind the glove box, I have no idea what circuit it's on, so thinking it could be the blower motor circuit or something I moved the power source, no change. So I ran a test wire straight from the battery to the relay board and still had the same voltage fluctuations. The ground runs right to the battery, I haven't tried moving it to the engine block, maybe I'll try that (just thought of it now). I did re-solder the ground wire on the relay board as it looked "suspect" to me, but no change. My DVOM and aftermarket volt gauge both show a slight fluctuation in voltage, but not as extreme as the megasquirt is showing, I'm thinking the megasquirt has a higher refresh rate and more sensitive to voltage swings than the other two.

I'm taking a break for lunch then I'll start messing with the mirrors for the Skylark

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

AH, I think I solved the voltage fluctuation issue! I pulled the alternator to swap in a known good GM internally regulated alternator (although only rated ten amps higher than the T-birds), and looking at the GM one I had to clock it to get the plugs where I wanted them. Well I ended up pulling the alternator apart, so I looked around the inside, looks good, put it back together with the clocking I wanted, then thought to myself, why not take a look inside the Ford's alternator? So I popped it apart, and sure enough, there is a wire that has broken free of the solder! The main power one no less. It appears to have arc'ing marks too. So now I'm waiting for the soldering iron to warm up to fix it. All the other soldered joints that I can see are way clean and solid.

The soldered joint is burned, and the wire is loose in that connection. I'm hoping that is the source of my electrical noise.

[DirtyWhiteBoy]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

nice find!
The last alternator that I opened up was from my boat, the regulator bracket broke and shorted everything out. The damn thing was shocking me as I disconnected it. >

BTW
I just used a soldiering iron to install $7 worth of capacitors in a flat screen tv power supply. It's nice when a plan comes together ;D

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

:-\ The solder I have wouldn't take to the joint/wire. I have a warranty on the alternator so I put it back together and went to the parts store and they won't have one until Wednesday > So I guess I'm done with the T-bird until then. I need to change out the power steering pressure hose on the Jeep anyways, might as well do that tomorrow instead of screwing around with the T-bird :-\

[Scott Liggett]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Go rent a bulldozer and start building the Bat Cave. ;D

[langleylad]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

A mechanical change I made today was on the throttle linkage geometry. Looking at this picture you can see the straight shot the throttle cable is pulling on the throttle, which made it a bit hard to over come that initial push of the throttle, which made it jumpy off idle. Another thing to note, is between the trans kickdown lever and above the return spring, this is where the throttle bracket bolts to the intakeI've had this same problem with my 88 S10 which has TBI . But the stock cable comes up on a steep angle from the bottom of the bracket on the intake .

[IRONHEAD]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

^^^^^^ zzz roll back..
killer of many a tranny