The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

wow, best I've been able to do is scare a chick 500 miles away.... you da man!! ;D

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

Ok, changing up my tuning technique a bit, plus I learned something today.

I decided to direct my focus to targeting a 14.5:1 afr and stay below stoichemetric to ensure a good burn and no lean mis-fires.

I went for a drive after work today to redo my VE map to target the 14.5:1 and learned that the y-axis, aka kPa axis, wasn't scaled in actual kPa as I thought, but in a kPa/Baro. (of course my first clue should of been the y-axis label of MAP/Baro :P) Which makes a bunch more sense of why it has issues leaning out while driving off the initial Baro reading. What keyed me into this was I was doing some WOT loading in 5th gear at 50mph and noticed the indicator go to 100 on the y-axis when I know the atmospheric pressure is 80-81kpa ??? Looking into that was the "ah-ha!" moment.

And just for reference, I set my barometric correction off Initial MAP reading rather than real time for tuning. Perhaps I should use the real time correction (though it shouldn't make too big of a difference around town......)

[stage1scott]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

yeah I had that happen once-I changed the hanger on the secondary rods........... :D

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

Well the heater core has started to leak :'( and tomorrow I'm going to make a go at changing it out. I've changed out heater cores in my '69 Firebird, '72 Centurion and my friend's '74 Cutlass, and I've always feared this one. I've always been told by my Old Man that the fender has to come off (and it sure as heck looks like it), but the service manual implies it doesn't look much tougher than my Firebirds. It was replaced once in the '80's when my Grandma owned it, and one shop apparently told her to go to the dealer because it was too complicated :-\

Now for the caviate, I want to replace the plastic part that the blower motor bolts too as well (also where the heater core comes through), as it's busted up some how inside the fender and lets air in and significantly reduces the blower motor's effectiveness. And if I want the A/C to work top notch next summer it needs to be replaced. And THAT may require the fender to be removed. I'm going to attempt it with just removing the inner fender well. Wish me luck! I'll have pictures. Oh yeah, it's snowing pretty good, so it'll be in the carport.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

Just glass it in. Some of the GM's had the heater core lift up out through the windshield cowl. Some under the dash, like Bill's Monte. Good luck.

Why don't they ever quit in summer?

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

It's even a pain just to get to the hose clamps on the heater core :-\ and the Blower Motor is even deeper into the Fender than the hose connections!

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

Just glass it in. Some of the GM's had the heater core lift up out through the windshield cowl. Some under the dash, like Bill's Monte. Good luck.

Why don't they ever quit in summer?

Can't reach it to glass it, and I already have one I pulled from the Junkyard from a car with a missing fender. I know what you mean about the summer, this car doesn't come with a heater control valve so coolant flows though it constantly, so it's possible.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

trust me, you'll be happier if you remove the fender first - IMO it's harder to remove the inner fender then to remove the entire fender/inner fender assembly... then when you put it back together you'll "forget" to put that outermost nut back on the housing..... ;)

But I thought the heater replaced from the inside.....

snow huh? It hasn't yet snowed where I live in WA....

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

Half time report :P The Core is out and the new one is sitting in the heater box. Sorry about the bad pictures, my camera I think gave out, so I'm using my phone.

Since the weather is bad I started by making a psuedo garage, it helped with the wind and keeping some heat in.


The Cluster *****


The Glovebox and Glovebox door removed. That's the MS2 wiring harness and vacuum line hanging there.


Inner fender well pulled out per the service manual I used a wooden block :P


Hey look, I can actually get to the lower heater hose clamp!


The Evap box was half full of leaves, that had to be effecting something. :'(


The blower motor portion of the Evap box removed.


The Evaporator removed and my patch job on that side of the case, I'll replace that side eventually.


The leaves are all over the headers, I'll have to clean those out before starting the car, wouldn't want a fire :-X


The inner fenderwell view of the firewall.


I was worried about the hole in the case effecting the A/C, I think this would be a bigger issue!


After throughly hosing it off in the bathtub, much better ;D


The broken case (sorry about the bad picture), there is a chunk missing next to the fan.


The Blower motor moved over to the good case.


The Heater box removed, and the core is still trapped in there, hadn't seen that before, usually the straps are accessible at this point....


The Case openned up, the seals all came off intact and are reusable .


It was leaking along the bottom corner. I tried aluma-seal a week before and it didn't fix it.


The Firewall from the inside.


I've got the new core all buttoned up in the case but haven't installed the case yet. The ground strap was broken so I'm going to go pick up another one now (and get something to eat) to put on before I put it all back together in the car.

[DanStokes]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

I'll trade you this job for the next one on the 'Stang. Both are a PITA!

Dan

[rightpedal]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

We so need to start a special fund to get you a garage. Ahh but you would probably spend it on something dumb like shipping a 6 cyl from Guam for a car you don't own. ;D
Doesn't Braub have a support group for this type of thing.

Steve



In all seriousness. You rock. Actually taking pictures of progress for our benefit while freezing your ass off. I am entertained and awed. Thanks

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

Thank you thank you! ;D We've had horizontal snow all day, seemed like the wind was blowing at a constant 30mph.

For the finishing up

The heater box bolted in and Heater Core in place.


The Evap box with the blower motor back in place and the hoses hooked up.


The inner fenderwell bolted back in place.


The Cluster **** is back, but no hole in the case ;D I temporarily removed the MSD Box, it hasn't been hooked up since I converted to MS2 controlled ignition.


And the inside bolted in. I haven't put the glove box in because I lost a small wire thing from vacuum diaphram to the vent door on the passenger kick panel. I hope to find it in the morning with better light.



Now for the not so good news :'( The car won't start :-\ Hooking up the laptop I've lost the tach signal to the MegaSquirt and I can't find the only screw driver I had small enough to disconnect the wiring at the relay box for some checking. I do have 12volts to the Ignition wire at the coil, so I need to do more checking and called it the night. Otherwise it all should be good.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

Huh, how about that, checked the weather, right now and it says:

Temp: 28*F feels like 11*F
Wind: 31mph gusting to 40mph.

(89301)

[milner351]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

all this in a carport in the winter - let it never be said Randal takes the easy way!

[Scott Liggett]

Re: The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

He shows up a lot of us as weenies. It's raining.... It's cold in my garage......

Good work, Randal. I'd think I'd suffer through that cold if meant not freezing my tucas off driving this winter. I can deal with a lot of annoyances in car. No heat in snow country is not one of them. I draw the line at having to scrape the inside of the windshield too.