My 427 SOHC Build..... Finally the time has come!

[newfalconowner]

good luck on the leak. sounds good though. I need to try and get that handheld for mine

[cobracammer]

Thanks.  Yes, that handheld is definetly more user friendly!

[Leny Mason]

Hi, your charging voltage is only 12.8 to 13.2 as I watched your video seems low it looked like it tried to excite then shuts off. Leny Mason

[cobracammer]

So....  still battling the oil leak at the moment.  I know where its leaking, but due to this type of engine, its not so simple to fix.  I have a slow leak at the timing chain cover on the passenger side.  I tried snugging down all of the timing cover bolts slowly and incrementally (So not to strip anything).  Sadly, it did not work.  My last ditch effort was to try an oil additive (Bar's Leak rear main seal) that says it works well on timing cover gaskets and seals.  As per the directions, let the car idle for like 15 minutes, and then I drove it for 30-40 minutes.  Says that within 200 miles, the leak should stop.  If not, I am only out like $7.00.

Lastly, I believe I may have a "stuck" IAC valve on the throttle body.  Why you ask?....  So with the car warmed up (above 170 degrees), I adjust the throttle blades so I have an IAC of about 20-25 with an idle RPM of 1000 (base timing at 12*).  Runs beautifully!  When you let the car sit over night and try and start it cold, the IAC maxes out at a value of 180 (Meaning its in the all the way open position), but the idle is rough and its more at the 650 to 700 RPM range.  If I press on the throttle a tiny bit, (so lightly that the Throttle position sensor still reads no throttle) to get the RPM's to 1000 to 1100.....  The IAC goes directly to the value of 20-25!  If you do this until the car is warmed up (at or above 170 degrees), it will stay at 1000 RPM idle and the IAC will stay at 20-25 on its own.

So this means to me that I have the IAC exactly where it should be, but for some reason, with a cold start, the computer is telling the IAC valve to open because its not getting enough air (so the screen shows an IAC valve of 180), but its not really opening (hence the rough low idle?).

In talking to the FAST techs , the IAC valve on the FAST system is just your run of the mill GM LS engine style IAC (say off of a 2001 Chevy Camaro).  A replacement is only 75 to 80 dollars, but I want to make sure this is it.  If it is, when I start the car, the IAC value should start a little high and come around to the 20-25 value while keeping RPM's at or a little above 1000.  I replaced the original air filter on this engine with a brand new one because the original one was black with soot from when I was working on this car (before Jay's rebuild)....  If the air filter was that sooty, possible that the IAC is dirty as well and possibly sticking?

Anyway, other than that, I swapped out the AutoMeter temp sensor for the coolant temp gauge today.  Will take it out again tomorrow (most likely) to get a little more of the Bar's Leak additive working its magic....

Keep you posted.

[jmlay]

YOu can buy an IAC from Summit for $30... I would just pull it out & hit it with some throttle body or carb cleaner & work it in and out a bit before buying a new one. In ~ 2005-6 or so my 01 Lighting IAC stuck closed. I cleaned it & have not touched it since, works just fine. 

[cobracammer]

Jmlay, I did just that yesterday!  It seems to have corrected the rough idle on cold start.  We will see though.  It was solid sooty black,  lol

[cobracammer]

ok guys.  lol  While out letting the ECU learn, I ran out of gas!  lol.  It was kind of a shock as I had recently put 10 gallons of gas in the car, but I guess with idle and the stop and go/ and Medium throttle.... 

When I got home, I was curious what the stock 4.6 ltr the Saleen came with had for Gas Mileage....  19 MPG.  So I could only imagine what I must go through both because its now a 7.0 Ltr and also since the computer is "Learning" (So searching richer and leaner as I drive).  What Also doesn't help is that the stepper motor on my gas gauge died (Which if you look up this year car is a HUGE flaw.


Anyway, here is where we are right now.  It drives and drives well (aside from the pesky oil leak).

My AFR's are as follows:

Idle: 13.5.....  I tried to go a little leaner and started to hear a tiny pop of misfire.  I think it likes 13.5

Cruise:  13.7......  It cruises well.  I feel a tiny TINY but of stumble, but I also think that is because its the computer "Learning" when I hit cruise.  It dips a little leaner and also goes a little richer as it tries to build a map.  My guess is that it should go away as I drive it more, but when it gets a bit more stable in cruise, if it is still doing it, I will adjust then.

WOT:  12.5 (Accel Fuel of +1)....  I have not done anything with this value as when I put my foot down, it goes.  As you can see, I adjusted the accel fuel as before that, there was a tiny hesitation due to a lean condition when I floored it.  the accel value of +1 helps richen up a bit at the time when the throttle blades instantly open and now the transition to 12.5 from the Cruise AFR is (I think) flawless.

One thing I did notice was a lean condition when I shift into neutral.  I actually was reading about this because I was curious if it was normal and found that its called "Run Out"?  Say I am in 3rd gear and cruising.  Then if I chose to stop the car by placing the transmission in neutral or downshift, the AFR goes real lean for a moment before going back to a target AFR.  From what I found online, this is completely normal (Please correct me if this is wrong).  It was said that its normal because the car does not need fuel when you are stopping. 

Also, when going over an article on Engine builder Magazine, I found some information on Target AFR's for mild performance engines.  Their information helped as I see that my Target AFR's are within range with their scale:

Idle:   14.1 to 13.4  (Mine is 13.5)
Cruise: 14.1 to 13.4 (Mine is 13.7)
Power: 12.2 to 13.5 (Mine is 12.5)

I am also assuming that if I am not getting any black smoke (Running too rich) out the tailpipe, then my richer AFR's are not loading up the cylinders and removing the oil .  Also, if I am incorrect about this, please let me know what you think.  I have watched Barry's YouTube channel and he recently built a Cammer engine with the same stroke and CI as mine, and his seemed to have an AFR (at idle) of around 14 from what I could see on his dyno.  Did not sound like it was misfiring and he actually had readings for the left bank and the right bank.  For some reason, mine just likes 13.5  LOL

[jayb]

Jason, I wouldn't get too hung up on the numbers.  Tune so that the engine runs and drives well.  If that happens to be at 13.5 cruise for your engine, that's just fine.  And 12.5 under load is a very good number, I think...

[cobracammer]

Think IaC is sticking again, so ordered a new one on FAST techs suggestion.  In slightly better news, Gave my autometer coolant temp gauge a dedicated ground, and now it works perfectly.  Still have the pesky oil leak, and I think I have it (again)...  timing cover can not be tightened any further.  Lat thing I can think of is that its leaking underneath the valve cover gasket.  The cork gasket is dry, so maybe where the timing cover, valve cover and block all meet.... leak?  Will take a while, but planning on pulling the pass. Side valve cover, give the surface a good clean, and on with a new gasket.  Keep you posted!

[cobracammer]

OK, was kind of dreading it, but I went out today to pull the passenger side valve cover and see if I couldn't find that leak!!  The reason for my dread is the fact that in the Saleen, the engine does not sit in the center of the engine bay.  It is bias to the passenger side.  This means I have plenty of room for "fiddl'n" on the Driver side (access to bolts, wires, headers.....  and on the Passenger side....  NONE.  In fact, I had to disconnect the OEM computer and harness, Pull the battery and battery tray, and also pull back all of my aftermarket wiring and tape it up out of the way, just to be able to see the areas I need access to.  Then its a bunch of rachet extensions with swivel heads.....etc.

Anyway, after pulling the valve cover, I did a quick inspection of the old gasket as well as the mating surface on the head.  The cork gasket was "tacked on" with some of the TA31 all the way around (so I had a tiny bit of cleaning to do with a razor and some acetone).  At the point of interest (where the front cover butts up againes the backing plate/block and the valve cover from above (Sort of a T shaped junction), I did notice that the gasket was a little more "wet" then the rest.  Also upon closer inspection, I saw that the backing plate is slightly higher then the front cover.  I think this might have been the issue.  I think what happened was that the backing plate sticking up only a few millimeters higher that the rest of the mating surface might have let some oil out when it got hot and thin.  Anyway, after a bit of careful cleaning (making sure nothing fell into the head), I took a little bit of TA31 and smoothed out the area on both sides of the "raised backing plate.  my hope was that the TA31 would fill in both sides where the backing plate stood higher and thus when the valve cover gets clamped down again, it would have a more flat surface.

The on to the valve cover gaskets.  I have a set of the original cork ones as well as a newer set recommended to me by Jay (forgot the name of the company at the moment).  These newer gaskets are not supposed to shrink as much with repeated heat cycles.  Also, they are unique as they are a composit of both cork and traditional gasket material (almost like Felpro)  to ensure the gasket stayed put, I put a skim coat of TA31 (paper thin) on the valve cover and set the new gasket on.  While it set, I temporarily put the bolts through the holes just to ensure that the gasket stayed in alignment as it dried.  After about 15 minutes, I placed the valve cover/gasket combo back on and tightened it down.....  another hour of replacing sparkplugs, harnesses, computers, etc and I am back together!  I am going to wait until I have the new IAC installed before I give it another go.... so It will have a few days of drying.

As a side note, the rockers that were on the back of the lobe all seemed to be in good condition!  I wanted to make sure that some had not worked their way loose (Not that I have heard anything while running).  So all seemed well on the Passenger side so far.  Hopefully this takes care of the oil leak (Fingers crossed!).  The last issue will be the IAC issue.  Hopefully a replacement unit fixes that.

A few days ago, I pulled the IAC valve (all black and sooty) and tried to clean it with break cleaner.  After reinstalling it, it seemed to work perfectly at the next fire up and cold idle.  Then a day of 2 after that, I tried to fire it up again, and it just stayed at 180 (wide open) in open loop and even in closed loop!

Tech said almost sure its bad and that its a super common issue.....  Tons of Bad IAC's...  LOL  Stay Tuned~~

[jmlay]

Brake cleaner will not dissolve the crud. Get some Berryman carb or throttle body cleaner. Soak it down good and scrub what you can with a toothbrush!

[cobracammer]

[machoneman]

Not good, way too sooty black.   

Also, I'd stick to conventional plugs with a single ground strap. 

[Joey120373]

are you sure the IAC motor is actually moving the right direction? i.e. when it says its at 180, is it actually fully open?

what you described sounds to me like its back-asswards, and closing the valve on cold starts.

GM stepper motors have a couple different wiring pin outs, and since its just a stepper motor, all you have to do to reverse the direction of the motor is swap either of the coil-a or coil-b wires.

i ran into the same issue years ago on my old mans car, different efi system, but the same type of motor.

its a simple check, and fairly simple to fix if thats the issue.

[cobracammer]

Hey Joey.  The IAC works as it should.  I tested it today and can now hear it opening and closing accordingly as I adjusted the throttle blades.

So on to today.  With the new IAC "motor" in, I wanted to test it out.  So long story short is that it worked!  the IAC worked as it should.  I checked the IRM count and it was at "0".  So after about 10 minutes, all was still working well.  Just before I shut it off, I wanted to check the IRM count again.  Unfortunately it was showing "3".  Now according to FAST, this is not bad.  I don't like it.  SO .....  on to SummitRacing, and I purchased 2 MSD Capacitors.  One I am going to put against the MSD Ignition Box, and the other I am going to use on the FAST ECU.

I also purchased a replacement wire that runs from the MSD ignition box to the MSD distributor.  This replacement wire is from MSD, and it specifically is a noise reducing wire (has a ground wire integrated into it.)  It will ground to the chassis.

The only other thing I can think of is the plug wires.  Not getting much noise (IRM of 3 and only sporadically).  I will try putting the conventional plugs back in as well. 

I was also able to lower the AFR today from 13.5 to 13.7.  It seemed to take it fine, wasn't missing or making any noises.  I think I was fouling plugs with the 13.5 AFR at idle....  but it seemed to run fine.  Runs well now at 13.7, but I guess only time will tell.  :0)

This FAST system seems really, really sensitive to electrical noise....  I don't know why FAST says its ok if its lower than 10 count, but I would definitely shoot for 0!