The Silver Buick's 1969 Firebird OHC six project.

[TheSilverBuick]

I verified yesterday the torque converter isn't locking up at all when driving. I had my suspicions since the last bit of transmission work, but hadn't given it any focus until yesterday with some datalogging to verify it. So this weekend I'll do some wiring checks. I had an issue with the plug when I swapped it out so it should be an external wiring fix.

I'm also running into a registration/licensing issue with TunerStudio and the raspberry pi. It is happy when it has an internet connection on start up and unhappy when it does not. I've gone back and forth with their tech support and hoping to have it solved soon. This weekend I'm going to start on the car power supply side for the Rpi and screen. Once that is sorted it'll be the real test if it is laggy or not.

This last Monday though a "new" Raspberry Pi model came out that has a processor that is 6 times faster and it has twice the RAM, 1 GB, than the model I have, and still just $35. So I guess if I am still having speed issues after I optimize the start up routine, I could spring another $35 for a second Pi and find another job for this Pi (they are pretty versatile).

[squirrel]

Pi 2:

Availability: Awaiting Delivery

• 2,700 Further stock expected to ship on Feb 16, 2015
• 5,400 Further stock expected to ship on Feb 23, 2015
• 853 Further stock expected to ship on Mar 1, 2015
• Per the manufacturer, more stock expected week of 3/9/15

[TheSilverBuick]

Yeah, I'm sure they'll be consumed up pretty fast. IF I go that route, it'll be later this year and hopefully stock levels would be stabilized by then.

[Beagle]

man, I've been out of the game too long I guess. That thing is slick! I think I'll buy one for the helluvit. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[TheSilverBuick]

Did some minor work to the Firebird yesterday. The cam housing seal behind the sprocket had been leaking for a while. It would also whistle when crankcase vacuum got above 10inHg**, so I decided to change out the seal yesterday. The old one was pretty crudded up.

I also dropped the trans pan and pulled the pressure regulator apart to check which spring I had in there. I "think" I may of had the reverse boost valve in backwards (it all falls out so fast when the clip is removed), but I now get a significant pressure jump in reverse, D2 and D1 that I didn't see before. It already has the "green" spring in it, which with the .500 boost valve should be getting me over 200psi. On my test drives it did spike up to 200psi a couple times, but generally hung around 140-160psi while driving (and 75psi at idle). The only other spring available is a "pink" spring that diesel 700-r4's got. I may go looking for one, I'm getting real good at dropping the pan and not spilling any fluid, but I have a feeling this trans is just on borrowed time. Time to start saving for a built 4L60e. I did install an electronic pressure sensor good to 300psi in the test port, so I'll wire that into the MegaSquirt so I can check the pressure via the laptop or when I get the Rpi installed I can have it displayed. Perhaps that'll give me some warning if the average pressures start trending downwards.

Here is the mess the seal was creating. The good news is it appears to be the only oil leak the engine has.


And a fresh seal installed. Simple job, only took about 15 minutes from pulling the car into the garage, pull the front apart, chisel a hole into the seal, pry it out, tap a new one in.


**I installed a check valve between the intake vacuum and crankcase and it seems to have kept the vacuum in the crankcase down to around 8inHg most the time, which was below the whistling threshold.

[TheSilverBuick]

A welder I ain't =/ I need more practice for sure. It likely needed more heat, but it seemed anything higher than what I had it set at and it'd blow through the metal. Oh well, at least most the welds are on the bottom =D I'm going to run either some radiator solder or braze material over the welds to try and ensure they are air tight. I now need to figure out how I'm going to attach the plenum. I have a few ideas, but not settled on any particular one yet.

Needed more heat, but hopefully will get the job done.


Fortunately this is the visible side! =D

[DanStokes]

You DO know that those square tubes will only flow square air, right?

(At least I think that's what was decided...........)

Dan

[TheSilverBuick]

Which is okay because they match the square ports in the head, which is good because I'm looking for cubic feet of air, and the best cubes are based on squares

[JWS4621]

I don't know what it is but your builds bring out the inner geek in me and I want to put a bunch of electronics in my car so I can view every parameter of how slow it is going. I have always loved screens and electronics. It is very cool what you are doing with the technology available and hooking it up to a what looks to me to be a very old school engine (I really know nothing about inline 6 gm engines) pretty cool. I am going to make my first endeavor into the efi world and your setups make me think about megasquirt alot.

[squirrel]

...and if a Geologist can figure it out, anyone can, right? I mean, he specializes in ROCKS.

[DanStokes]

I've seen Randal's shop. Pretty much all of his tools are rocks. Some have handles lashed on, some do not. So he's doing all this with stone-age tools!


But seriously - Randal, you MUST make a stone caveman hammer! That would be just too cool given your profession.

Dan

[TheSilverBuick]

I could be going A LOT faster for A LOT less cash if I did things by the straight and simple way, but my satisfaction is 90% driving the cars and 10% fast, so the gizmo's and tinkering are what I really enjoy. I'm a big fan of "Before I pay someone to do something, I want to see if I can do it." That way either A) I have learned how to do something, or B) I really appreciate the work someone else does for me and fine the cost worth it. The Mega Squirt though can be pretty simple and grow in complexity down the road as the desire and project grows.

Bossman, Nick Smithberg, will more than likely someday port me a head and build me an intake for this engine, or at least may depending on how fast or slow my work gets me versus what I'd like to see. It'll be big dollars though for a hobbyist car.

[Deaf Bob]

To check your welds, put some rubbing alky on a spray bottle and spray inside the tubes... Alky will wick and show the leak by a wet spot...

[Scott Liggett]

Can you pressure test your intake and it's welds? A bunch of pin holes might cause a mystery lean condition.

[TheSilverBuick]

I'd bet it'll be a whistler the first time I fire it up, lol. Until then I'm going to try a few things to get the best "visual" seal I can get. I may try the acetone/alcohol idea for leaks

I did some intake work this weekend. Truly testing my abilities (or show casing my lack of?), but as long as I can get the final product to hold vacuum and pressure I'll be happy with it. Plus a coat of paint covers a lot of sins, lol.

Also I didn't realize my error until I was mounting it up, but it appears I welded the last pair of runners upside down on the flange so they sit a tad lower, which has caused the plenum tube to angle downwards some. Not a critical flaw, nor do I think it'll even bother me once installed, just not squared up. On the positive side, it should allow more clearance for the throttle cable to come over the top of the runners from the firewall. Just tack'd together at the moment.


The tube is a fixed distance from the head, the front and rear ports are pretty much centered on the tube with the middle one slightly up of center. I've flared the ends and currently debating about how to handle the entrance. I see three options, 1) Leave it as it sits, 2) Weld pie shaped corners on, 3) Make a separate single pieced curved entrance to weld to the port pairings. I'm leaning between 1 & 3. I will probably try and give 3 a shot.


Needs plenty of clean up work on the entrance, but overall I'm satisfied with how it looks at this stage. It will be going on a ported head so the head lip seen there shouldn't be present on my other head. The other head is gasket matched, so I intend on doing the same on the intake if possible (shouldn't require much).


Also got these really slick steel injector bungs from CNC Dude on the inliner.org forum. The idea is to use the same setup BBR James did on his Ranger intake. The issue I ran into with the stock intake was the injectors hit the throttle body/carb when laid over too much. This isn't the case here, so I'm going to lay them over at least 45º. I haven't decided how close to the flange I'm going to put them since I can't reasonably angle them at the back of the valve due to the ports pointing away from each other in the head.


BBR's set up.