So first, I’ll lead with an apology. This update was supposed to run last week but a blizzard and a bunch of other stuff jumped up and caused the delay. With the amount of email, text, forum, and other messages I got from fans of the Buford T Justice 1987 9C1 Caprice I knew that I couldn’t delay in getting this latest story posted. Like Chad and I have promised from the earliest days of BangShift, we’re here to tell you the truth, give you the whole story, and not shy away from looking dumb, especially when we do it to ourselves. Consider this one of those situations.
As you’ll read below, we didn’t make near the power we should have with the car during our last visit to Performance Auto and Dyno in Plymouth, Massachusetts and we missed some big signs and reasons why. Fear not. We’ll give you the specifics and we’ll also tell you our plan to fix those issues on our next visit, which should be really soon.
AS ALWAYS, THE LINKS TO EVERY PREVIOUS BUFORD T JUSTICE STORY WILL BE POSTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE – CATCH UP ON YOUR READING TODAY!
Before we launch into our normal litany of photos and stuff, we’ll give you a spoiler alert and tell you that nothing blew up or broke, we just sucked out loud on the day we visited the dyno and missed what should have been some obvious, basic signs that the car was trying to give us with regard to its failure to make the power we thought it would with our nicely cleaned up 083 cylinder heads by Custom Auto Machine and the nice new lumpy bump stick from COMP Cams. We’re not blaming the parts, they are finer than fine. This one is complete operator error.
….and away we go.
Here’s a quick video of a pull being made with the stock cam and our current carb on top of the engine. Think the secondaries are opening?
PRESS PLAY TO HEAD THE SNOTTY PISSED-OFF ATTITUDE THE CAR NOW HAS AT IDLE –
So it was at this point that we just knew all of our troubles were behind us and this cam was going to make it all right again. We fired up the car and made a pull. It picked up….2HP. Yep, two freaking HP. By this time it was getting late in the day and we’d been hauling ass for hours so we rechecked the valve lash, timing, and even the damned firing order. We pulled the car a few more times and picked up one here, two there, and then lost some when messing with the timing. So what in the bloody hell is the problem?
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We’ve got a couple of issues happening here that have cut the nuts off of the engine…we think. As we mentioned earlier, at this point it certainly seems that the secondaries are not opening up on the carb. The circumstantial evidence is the fact that we went up six jet sizes and our air fuel ratio did not change from the very lean 14:1 we saw on every pull we monitored. Secondly, watch that dyno video we posted above. Do you hear them open? It sounds all the world like a 2bbl running at wide open to us. How did we not know this? Plain and simple we should have. We’d taken for granted that the carb was cranking all the way open from the time we bolted it on and it probably hasn’t been. It explains why the car fell off some when the Holley was swapped in place of the grungy Q-Jet months back, and why the thing continues to run out of breath at 4200 RPM even today…even with the new cam and fixed up heads. We’ve got a Holley 750 double pumper to bolt onto the engine and try. It has mechanical secondaries. Too much carb? Maybe. We’ll test that, too. Yes, it is getting full throttle travel from the pedal.
Secondly there’s the ignition. This is another area that we should have been more on top of but just took stuff from granted that we shouldn’t have. We had the stock advance springs and stock advance bushing in our MSD distributor. While the advance springs are not going to make us more peak power, they’ll make the engine get to the happy place a lot quicker. The bigger issue is the advance bushing (in our opinion). The stock bushing in these distributors allows for a maximum of 21 degrees of centrifugal advance. There is no vacuum advance on this distributor so with our initial timing set at 10-degrees, this thing was only seeing 31-degrees of timing all in at full advance. That’s several degrees short of where it should be for this engine to be happy. Ideally we’ll be looking at 36-38 degrees all in with decent gas in the tank. We’ve since swapped the smaller bushing in, which allows for 28 degrees of advance.
In our opinion, these are the two most major factors hampering the engine and keeping our HP totals down in the 215 at the tire range. We expected 240-250 at the tire with this combo and we’re going to get there. We promise you that!
What’s next? We’re going to get back on the dyno as soon as we bolt the new carb on and the snowbanks melt a little. Also, we have a Flowmaster exhaust system to bolt on and finally put a sock in this thing’s mouth. It has been very obnoxious with the Purple Hornies on it, especially because they are the ONLY things on it. After that we’ve got some more parts to throw at it and a mental goal of where we want to end up with power at the tire…before the nitrous.
So there it is, a realistic look at what happens when you make assumptions, get ahead of yourself, and fail to heed the warning signs the car is giving you. Lesson learned Caprice. You’ve won this round in the battle of public humiliation, but we’re not going away that easy. Stay tuned…
EPILOGUE – After the day we had on the dyno, both my father in law and I were tired and kind of dejected at the complete lack of power and seemingly fruitless effort. Matters got exponentially worse when I pulled into my driveway after the 30-mile drive to find the entire engine bay absolutely drowning in oil. The front seal piece for the oil pan gasket did not seal at all and the thing had been pumping oil out the front of it for the entire ride. Thankfully the pan was not dry (a couple quarts left in it), nothing appears to have been harmed, and we’ve been driving the car since. It was majorly depressing, though. I actually had to walk away from the car for a couple of weeks because I was so annoyed, embarrassed, etc. Last week we swapped the oil pan gasket and got the Exxon Valdez issue sorted out. I’m back in love with the white barge….time to get after it again.
- Introducing Project Buford T Justice – Our 1987 9C1 Chevy Caprice – The Adventure Begins!
- Project Buford T Justice: Our Cop Car Cruises Home and Then We Beat on It!
- Driveway Tech: Bodywork on Buford T Justice – We Close Our Roof Hole For Fun and (NO) Profit!
- Project Buford T Justice Hits the Strip with Some Pretty Shocking Results!
- Project Buford T Justice Hits the Dyno and Goes KABLOOEY! CARNAGE VIDEO INSIDE!
- Project Buford T Justice Will Be Saved For About A 100 Bucks With a 15 Year Old Transmission
- Project Buford T Justice Update: The Trans Thrash is ON!
- Buford T Justice Update: It Lives Again Thanks to a Down and Dirty Driveway Thrash and Junkyard Parts
- Buford T Justice, Our 1987 9C1 Chevy Caprice Goes Through Final Testing Before the Upgrades Begin!
- Buford T Justice 9C1 Update: The Parts From Hotchkis, Cragar, AFCO, and Mickey Thompson
- Update: Hotchkis Suspension & AFCO Bushings Transform Our 9C1 Caprice
- Buford Update: Our 9C1 Caprice Gets Real With Mickey Thompson Tires and Cragar Wheels
- Driveway Tech: How To Swap A Jeep Steering Shaft Into Your GM B-Body or G-Body Car With A Trashed Rag Joint
- Buford Update: We Flog The Suspension, Unveil a Mountain of Speed Parts, Spill Our Wild Drag Strip Plan
- Project Buford T Justice Update: Drag Strip Thrash Squashed By Ma Nature – We Learn Stuff – Plan B!
- Project Buford T Justice Quick Update: Where The Hell Has Our 9C1 Caprice Been?!
- Project Buford T Justice: We Go On Hot Pursuit Of Horsepower-Our 9C1 Caprice’s 350 Gets A Slap!
- Buford T Justice 9C1 Caprice Update: Metal Fab,Head Work, A Good Surprise, An Awful One
- Buford T Justice Update: Headers, Cheap LS Technology, New Valvetrain Parts, More Compression, Fun!
- Buford T Justice Update: A TCI 700R4 And Breakaway Torque Converter Get Our 9C1 Caprice Shifty!
- Buford T Justice Update: A Very Frustrating Day On The Dyno And How We’re Planning To Fix It
- Project Buford T Justice Update: Where Has Our 9C1 Caprice Been Hiding?
- Buford T Justice Update: We Install A First Gen Chevelle Flowmaster Kit On Our 9C1 Caprice!
- Project Buford T Justice: Our Caprice 9C1 Gets The Shaft! A Dynotech Drive Shaft That Is!
- Project Buford T Justice Our 1987 9C1 Caprice Hits The SCCA Autocross – Photos And Video!
- Project Buford T Justice Update: We Finally Give Our 1987 9C1 Caprice A Cheapo Nose Job!
- Project Buford T Justice Update: We Hit The Strip Again With More Power! (W/Video)
- Buford T Justice Update: We Bolt On Power From Trick Flow And Snappy Looks From Trans Dapt!
- Project Buford T Justice Update: Where The Heck It’s Been And Where The Hell It is Going –
- Place Your Bets For A BangShift Shirt! Buford T Justice Is Hitting The Dyno With This Engine One Last Time – Guess The Power And Win
- Project Buford T Justice: The Long Arm Of The Law Gets Longer With A Stroker Build – 388ci Of Budget Fun
Heck you can gain 10 hp by just adding some window decals.
Too soon Monk, too soon.
For us non-Holley-ites (Q-jets rule!) what is keeping the secondaries from opening?
Brian,dont get frustrated. If anything you make me feel like Im not the only one that F’s up sometimes so I dont feel so bad! Why not try more intial timing? I have 16 in my 350 then 20 in the distributor with some kinda light springs with a little vac adv. too.
Thanks for the update. It is never enjoyable when a gearhead’s stuff does not work first time. Maybe TNT is a good idea. The only thing worse I can think of is to try and do TNT while participating in Drag Week while a few hundred see how underpowered a combo can be ……………….but then again, even a bad day turning wrenches is better than a great day at work.
This is why I hate dyno-ing anything haha. My first trip to the dyno ended with a long, sad drive home. The second trip wasn’t much better. By the third trip, I had grown accustomed to the disappointment. It’s sad that my wife’s daily driver puts down more horsepower than the car I consider to be my “hot rod”. Stupid dyno.
We swapped out the stock but badly corroded Carter carb on my Jensen FF’s 383 with a lightly used edelbrock carb from my Barracuda. Sadly after the swap the motor didnt feel like a 300hp 383. Turned out the secondary butterfly’s actuator was hitting the manifold and keeping the secondaries from opening at all. Sounded just like Buford. Weadded a thicker heat sheild style gasket and the problem went away!
That is not a loose timing chain. Loose is when it wears a hole in the cover and you can pull the chain off without removing the cam gear.
I would find out why the secondaries aren’t opening before bothering with a double pumper.
LS power is calling you. Resistance is futile.
Agreed..Just do it already. You could have swapped an LM7 in by now.
Too bad they don’t have a “lifter Guide” similar that would allow that trick with hydraulic flat tappet lifters…
Why don’t you just put the Q-jet back on?
Would you really use “used” flat tappet lifters on a new cam?
Ah, good point. Need more coffee this morn…
Awesome update. I instantly saw #88 jet as that is exactly my own custom reaming recently.. I conclude modern fuel. that should be right on the money when you get it to scream. I have done th backyad cam swap..the gasket spewing just might have satisfied new metals getting cozy (it has to go somewhere on an old unsterilized engine) my own chooses the oil pump, external mounted, to make similar changes. looking forward to really hearing this run. It seems it is saving itself…good signs.
I ALWAYS pull the cover and take out the spring on the secondaries. Rookie mistake. Also your jets should be in the low 70’s if you’re 4 cornering it. Theres nothing wrong with the vac carb, unless you have huge heads and a giant cam, that 750 will more than likely kill all your tq, and pick up very little high end power.
The lack of horsepower is the result of the removal of the awesome custom exhaust hanger I made for you.
Incorrect PCV valve.
Ahh, if it was easy everyone would do it!
Hang in there; we’re all pulling for you. I know you’ll get this car sorted.
I would not recommend removing secondary spring …a lighter one yes. Also check that interlock choke lever is allowing secondaries to open once choke is warmed. Choke will not allow secondaries to operate if it thinks motor is too cool. Got to get AFR up to a more performance oriented 12:1.
Purple hornies are quick and sound cool (for a while) but aren’t really flow masters (pun intended). They tend to bottle neck the exhaust and kill velocity.
Get the timing curve and AFR up to NON-EPA standards …. drop the mufflers or add a more performance tuned exhaust….. and HP jump “should” reach dual digits. Don’t expect 1969 numbers….your still dealing with an emissions era compression ratio…….SOUNDS WAY COOL THOUGH….. 🙂
Maybe you guys should buy the cross-ram setup with the blowers and Predator carbs and bolt them onto the engine of Buford? http://bangshift.com/blog/craigslist-find-a-z28-crossram-topped-with-twin-camden-superchargers-and-predator-carbs.html
Well, I had trouble with secondaries not responding, but it was a compete opposite what happened here. It was blowthrough 750 DP Holley with quick rebuild with correct gaskets. No difference in a/f ratio, weather it had the smallest jets –> no jets at all! Fuel pressure and level ok, direct line from jets to boosters, tried with compressed air. I fought with it for few weeks and finally gave up and drove the rest of the summer with primary barrels only (secondaries wired shut and link removed). For next summer I built carb enclosure and stabbed in 600 cfm vacuum Holley (with sec. metering block). Works like a dream now! Go figure.. If you find out the problem with Caprice secondaries, let us know!
Ok, I still want to know why you have no secondaries, is it a mechanic interference issue or is the carb locking them out? Just wondering, and why the jump to another new carb even before you get this one working correctly, will the new one work any better, seems like a poor way of going about things.
MORE BUFORD
MORE BUFORD
MORE BUFORD PLEASE
THAT IS ALL 🙂
Dude, dust off Buford. Updates needed, going through withdraws.
Take that junk ass holly off and toss on a demon or a new qjet… holleys are junk.
Also ditch those shit ass nonflowing glasspacks, that shit sucks for flow,. You guys are really starting to piss me off picking shit parts….
You can always paint it yellow and throw a meter in…
Please GO easy on the guy, the glass packs were just to have an “exhaust” to avoid issues with local law enforcement. The holley needs a little tuning tweeking to work right. The emissions area Q Jet’s aren’t the greatest and the already have the Holley in place.
I’m jonesing for updates too but this isn’t the guy’s main gig.
This is one hilarious/semi-depressing saga. Love it.
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