09-26-04 - Sometimes it makes me wonder!
Yesterday I wanted to attend a cruise event in Thousand Oaks, but I had problems before I even got out of the South Bay.
As I was cruising down Vista Del Mar, almost to Playa Del Ray, I noticed my voltmeter reading around 10 volts. I stopped by a friend's in the area and we checked it with another voltmeter just to be sure. It was only putting out 10 volts.
I turned around and headed back home, hoping that I'd make it. As I got closer to home, I saw the volts slowly dropping off ... 10, 9, 8 ... It finally gave up and died at 8 volts and wouldn't restart. I was lucky I made it as far as I did though, because a stock setup would have died at 10 volts or so. My computer, coils and injectors are all wired directly from the battery, therefore I had enough juice to run the engine for awhile, but the electrical instruments wouldn't even read. Luckily I do have mechanical gauges for oil pressure and temperature, and coolant temperature, so I was able to monitor those critical readings.
I flat-bedded it home yesterday, removed and replaced the alternator, charged the battery for two full hours, and everything appeared to be A-OK. Wrong!
This morning I got on the 405 headed north, and lo and behold, what does my voltmeter read but 10 volts - again! I kept my eye on it and it didn't appear to be dropping any, so I continued out to the SF Valley. The 405 was more of a mess than usual too for some reason. I think the 10 had its own problems, and it was causing the backup on the 405, in both drections.
Anyhow, I noticed it continued to slowly drop until by the time I was on SR23 near the park where I was originally headed for a Corvette show, the voltmeter reading was so low that I just continued to Tierra Rejada and then into Simi.
However, the station I thought was a full service station was only an AM/PM Mini-Mart so I couldn't just charge the battery and drive it back home; instead I had to call AAA again and flatbed it back. There's a K-Mart there too, but I didn't have the money to buy a battery either. I didn't see a garage there at the K-Mart so maybe they didn't even have batteries.
Now, I get home and put it on the charger to recharge the battery fully before attempting to start i again. After 45 minutes or so, I had enough charge in it that I thought it would start and I could move it in the garage and get back to it later.
When I tried to start it though, I noticed a rather loud "clicking" noise coming from somewhere around the plenum, but couldn't pinpoint it due to the noise from my electric fuel pump. I disconnected the fuel pump from the circuit by removing the fuse, then tried the key again, this time with a stethoscope to pinpoint the noise; # 8 injector was merrily cycling away, pumping tons of fuel into the cylinder.
I unplugged the offending injector and tried it again. Still clicking on #4. I unplugged that one and tried again. Still clicking! So I unplugged them all and tried it that way.
I turned the key with them all unplugged and there was no clicking, so I started plugging them in one-at-a-time. Not only were #4 and #8 cycling, but #3 was as well!!
Now, due to the fact that as I was checking things the first few times, a lot of fuel had accumulated under the plenum and around the manifold base. Even though I checked the oil for any excessive gasoline odor, I decided to pull the plugs just to be on the safe side. It's a good thing I did!
The fuel simply POURED from those three offended cylinders. I mean it poured! I had so much fuel around the front of the car, it was a good thing no one was around smoking.
Now, on top of my charging problem, I have to figure out why the injectors were cycling like that.
Sometimes it does make me wonder!
09-30-04 - Status returned to former condition, sir!
I had the Powermaster alternator rebuilt and it works fine now. I changed the oil and filter and tried to install the check valve from my oil cooler, but that effort was to no avail because my knock sensor is in the way. I'm probably going to have to mount it up near the exchanger.
Took it out and ran around for a while today and am glad to report that it's running like a champ again!
Now, back to fine-tuning the driveability issues, finding the cause of the ever-present "Intermittent Cam Synch Sensor Failure" code, and finally, return to the dyno shop to search for the missing horsepower.
In the meantime, I'm off to the 13th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield. It's gonna be a fun weekend!
10-21-04 - Aha! It's beginning to make sense now...
Today I was standing over my running engine and noticed what appeared to be a vacuum leak, so I got out the old piece of vacuum hose and held it to my ear while I searched for the source of the sound (leak). I discovered a major vacuum leak at numbers 2 & 3 intake ports; it's leaking more at the leading edge of number 2 than it is at the rear of the same port, but it's still bad enough to be causing tuning problems. It will also have an effect on my dyno runs, and I'll probably find some of the missing horsepower once I repair this leak.
This will give me the opportunity of accessing the wiring under the plenum too, and hopefully I can make some room with it so I can have an easier time working on it in the future.
Now it's just a matter of doing it.
10-24-04 - Repairs are underway.
Here are some pictures; click the thumbnails to enlarge them. Looks like I was leaking at more than one place.
Here is the main offender, although all of the ports appear to be leaking. The others are mainly sucking oil though.
10-27-04 - Oh yeah, Mr. Murphy and his laws ...
The intake's back on, but of course Mr. Murphy couldn't allow me to finish this job without something going awry. I felt one of the intake bolts go slack on me just as I reached the torque spec. I didn't **** with it any - I just left it alone and moved on. I'll cross my fingers and take my chances I guess.
10-28-04 - It's on the road again.
But not without Mr. Murphy having one more shot at me. This time it was an O-ring on the crossover tube that wouldn't seal. As soon as I turned the key it started spraying gasoline everywhere again. Damnit, can't anything ever go right the first time, and not have me rework everything I do. I took my time too, and followed everything to the letter, including lubricating the O-rings before installing them. Sometimes I just can't win!
Ya know, I had a guardian angel sittin' on my shoulder again today. When I first turned that key and had fuel spraying everywhere, I also had a cigarette burning in my lips; I had just lit the cigarette before attempting to start it. Needless to say I was very lucky!
Also of note: the stock fuel pump certainly wouldn't meet my current requirements for fuel supply. Before checking after each attempt to find and fix the leak, I pulled the fuse for the Bosch racing pump and just relied on the stock in-tank pump to pressure up the system. That pump barely allowed a trickle from the leak, whereas with the Bosch pump on it was spraying leak a broken fire hydrant! My engine drinks a lot of fuel (45 lbs-hr injectors), but what it doesn't need obviously returns to the tank.
08-10-05 - Latest dyno results.
I found a new dyno shop in the San Fernando Valley called "The DynoStore". The latest numbers indicated a rear-wheel horsepower of 428 at around 5500 rpm, with 437 ft-lbs of torque beginning at around 3000 rpm, and averaging 430 ft-lbs across the board for a pretty flat torque curve.
When this was done, it was 96-degrees outside and I only had 91-octane in the tank, but it looks like I'm getting closer to the numbers I should be seeing!
08-13-05 - By the weigh ...
I had it in for an alignment last week and I finally got a chance to weigh the thing. Its total weight came in at 3,274 lbs (sans driver) with a full tank of gas.
The curb weight* for the 1987 Coupe, as listed in Michael Antonick's The Black Book, is 3,216 lbs. In his book CorVette Specs it shows a curb weight of 3,229 lbs with a shipping weight of 3,125 lbs.
My build sheet indicates a GVWR of 3,756 lbs and a shipping weight of 3,194 lbs, with the front coming in at 1689 lbs and the rear at 1505 lbs. It also indicates a 47/53% front to rear weight distributon if I'm to believe those numbers.
* Curb weight is the calculated weight of vehicle with standard equipment, only as designed with the additional load of oils, coolant and fuel filled to capacity. Shipping weight is the same as curb weight except with 3 gallons of gasoline. GVWR is the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, which includes the net weight of the vehicle, plus the weight of passengers, fuel, cargo and any accessories added to the vehicle after purchase. The GVWR is a safety standard used to prevent overloading.
So although I removed the air conditioning, the cruise control, the radio and speakers, and I switched to lighter seats, the weight removed was offset by the installation of the roll bar and the sound deadening/insulating material, which was quite heavy I might add.
Now I'm in a quandry as to whether I want to continue in the direction it appears to be headed, that is, make it lighter and more of a real hot rod, or make it more comfortable for cruising along on something like Hot Rod Magazine's Power Tour.
It's borderline comfortable as it stands, although it's more comfortable going fast (where the car wants to be) rather than going slow on surface steets at the posted speed limits. With the 6-speed and its .0.62 overdrive, I can cruise at 80 mph with the tach reading around 2700 rpm, three grand takes the speedometer to triple digits. I could put a few hundred miles on it and not be too bad off.
I can do away with the sound deadening material and not only lose weight but gain a little clearance between the seats and the center console in the process. The noise probably won't increase significantly going by how noisy it is as it stands, but the cabin temperature will definitely rise, and it's warn in there already. I have to remind myself as I wipe the sweat from my brow while lolling along in LA traffic that it's a Hot Rod now, not a boulevard cruiser.
But then, I could keep the interior as is and continue making it nice again - livable for longer distances, although I think I will do something about the center console.
I might ditch the whole factory design for the console and make something to go with whatever design I settle on for the instrument panels. Maybe I'll remove the console completely and relocate the various switches found there. The console is basically half of what is originally was anyway; I had to remove the back half due to decreased clearance with the new seats and harnesses, so now what you see where the glovebox once was is just the lid, and that isn't even attached to anything. I use the area above the tunnel for rags and my laptop connection.
Back to the weight thing. The breakdown of the weight for front, rear, and the left and right corners, showed the front to be at 1660 lbs (50.7%) with the rear at 1614 lbs (49.3%).
The right side weighed in at 1624 lbs (49.7%) with the left coming in at 1650 lbs (50.3%), with a right front/left rear cross weight of 1704 lbs (52.0%). However, I wasn't there to set it up, that will have to wait until I switch to a coilover suspension if I so decide; I was just curious as to what the total weight of the car was. Now I know, and I also know where to take it when I want to set it up - Johnson's Alignment at Hawthorne Blvd and 190th Street in Torrance, CA.
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UPDATED: June 13, 2006
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