Long slow MS3X build starting soon

[BlueCuda340]

Remember I said this was a LONG and SLOW EFI conversion, well its moving forward again. I have a goal for the end of this month to start it on EFI but I still have some fuel tank stuff to sort out that may delay me.

I got the injectors wired today, I hate wiring but this is my best work so far as I am getting good at it. I used a 10 position delphi connector to make it easy to unplug, I also made sure it fit both manifolds before I heat shrinked it(almost forgot to test both). The intake is port matched and wired now. I need to swap it onto the car and then plumb the fuel stuff and wire a connector for the IAC motor and injector harness.

[BlueCuda340]

Ok an update, the new motor went in and then out after a thrust bearing failure at 38 miles on the clock. I stuck the 360 back in for Drag Week #4.

Drag week went great, other than a couple of data log issues(easily resolved) my ignition only MS3X was awesome. The last two years on drag week I have had MSD failures, a coil one year and a box meltdown the next resulting in me swapping to my spare which was also bad but good enough to run. This year everything went really well, I ran my fastest average on drag week and didn't have much trouble beyond a few rocker arm adjusters.

I had TONS of question about the coil on plug ignition mated with the carburetor. I don't know if I would have had so many if it was fuel injected or not. Lots of double takes and lots of questions. I even had a guy who pulled me aside to tell me he loved my car even though it had a chevy motor in it, he seemed relieved when I told him it just had GM coils and was still a small block mopar.

Thanks to Scott(Dieselgeek) and Matt Cramer at DIY, and Randal(TSB) they all helped me get this thing going and it worked perfect. Now onto fuel control.

[Dignlif]

Aha, found the thread. Disregard my pm. Sucks to see the news about the new crank walk but cool to see the progress you made getting the MS going

[BlueCuda340]

Got the sequential working with the Help of Matt@DIY. It runs a little cleaner that way and really idles and drives around town great. I haven't put a ton of miles on it yet maybe 40-50 but all seems well. It really seems odd not having to mess with the fan switches etc the MS does it all for me.

The crank is in the new motor, pistons on the rods, rings, etc all ready to go so hopefully next weekend we will have a rotating assembly. I know my Dad is talking to Comp today about the cam and the heads are getting a few things done to them at the machine shop. Tick Tick Tick Tick

[BlueCuda340]

Yes he did some work on the W2 heads, balanced it, and did the machine work on the block.

[ksj2]

ShadyDell do the motor?

[BlueCuda340]

The car made its first drive today since December. It ran good, I have a very basic timing table built that it seems to really like. I added a good amount of timing at idle and it seems to run cooler and idle smoother. I haven;t hooked my tach up yet but my logs show I saw 6400RPM with zero hiccups or anything. It was a little odd driving it and not having to mess with the fans or water pump switches, the ECU handled all that just fine. I still have a cam fault so I must dive into that more to my sequential working. But overall a successful trip.

The drag week motor is now on the engine stand ready to start clean up and assembly.

[BlueCuda340]

And a pic of the real mess on top. I will post some more pics after I un f it some.

[BlueCuda340]

That would be cool Randal, you can send it to Clamb 12 at gmail or fb message it to me.

Here is a few pics of the install. The wiring is rough looking but will clean up easy. I wish I could have centered the coils but the vc breathers were in the way. I think this will be a "rough draft" harness as I had to kind of guess where some stuff will be on the other motor. I have mad respect for people that can do this and make pretty harnesses LOL.

[TheSilverBuick]

Ooh, you definitely don't want the coils powered directly with the key on, that can cook them during extended periods of engine off, key on if they are not the self protecting kind, which most aren't but some OE GM ones are.

I'll send you a snapshot of mine when I get home. You could probably plop it right into yours and it would run fine, but then just tune it from there.

I'm no expert tuner, but I just put the top two rows from about 3,000rpm up at the timing I want, 32º in my case, then I find where I cruise at and put about four cells at 45º (my car is good with a lot of timing and light throttle cruising), then the 1,000rpm and less cells around 15º with the higher kPa cells down as low as 5º, then use the interpolate tool to smooth between those areas, and tweak from there.

[BlueCuda340]

No the coils are not wired that way its wired to my key on power. Since its still a carburated engine I am not running the fuel pump through the MS but I will hookup the fuel pump wire and power the coils with that relay. My timing table is stupid, I made it just like it was before the MS 35* all the time. I need to research and see what kind of table I need to build to get a good idea where to start. I do know that 35* all the time works well but with a capable system it is far from ideal. I have not had anything that needed vacuum in so long I didn't have any line to hook up the MAP sensor, that will happen before I fire it up again and I can see where my KPA is(won't be much).

[TheSilverBuick]

Check your cranking rpm setting, make sure its not set too low, as well as look at your ignition timing table at the fields below 1,000rpm and at high kPa, and pull some timing out of it, or at least cap it around 15º.

Also, how are your coils powered? Are their main +12v feed tied to the fuel pump relay? If not, if you are running certain coils they have "auto-protect" mode that will cause them to fire if the key is on for a second or so, and that could light off the injector's priming pulse. Plus you'll want it wired that way (if it isn't already) if you are leaving the key on to run the waterpump and fans.

[BlueCuda340]

I got some run time on it this weekend. Didn't drive it any as I still have some things to button up but I got it all warmed up and blipped it to 6500rpm a few times, everything is great for the most part. The fans and water pump come on and off just as they should and all the gauges are reporting accurately, I was also able to run my fans and water pump with the key on and engine off just like I wanted. This will be nice in the pits as I can shut it down and leave it sit with the key on and not have to worry about the fans running anymore.

Sometimes it tries to sneeze out the intake right when I start to crank it so I need to figure that out, its not every time but its often enough to be annoying. But for the most part I need to finish a few things and take it for a drive.

100 Days till drag week and I can call the new ignition a success I think. Now Dad and I are just waiting on the call from the machine shop saying they are ready to ship all the machined parts to us so we can put it together.

[BlueCuda340]

I got it fired up today, thanks to TheSilverBuick for some help on some initial settings I wasn't understanding. It fired right up and ran great. I have a cam fault I need to sort out but I am out of time today. I will post some pics of my mess later this week. It was a good feeling that all this wiring and soldering etc has paid off and it runs. My schedule gets pretty nuts for the next two weeks but I can hopefully get some stuff wrapped up and drive it. Then its time to put together the Drag Week motor with my Dad.

[TheSilverBuick]

At ~$25 each, they are cheap spares. I think I have four of them, two on the shelf. I'm considering using one up as a vehicle speed sensor in the Firebird.

If your wiring is correct, I wouldn't worry too much about carrying a spare cam sensor if they are readily available. If the cam sensor fails it just defaults into semi-sequential/wasted spark mode and won't leave you on the side of the road. It runs essentially the same. I drove the Firebird for another couple months after the junkyard cam sensor I put in it failed and it didn't have any real noticeable effects on how it ran. Though when the Skylark's cam sensor didn't sync-up, it tended to run a bit on the rich side, not terribly so, but just a bit richer, it was noticeable on the AFR gauge. Of course if the sensor is small and cheap, then why not.