A Positive Update!!!!
 

Last night I fired the car again, and after some tuning, things were looking better. Vacuum was still a bit low, wavering steadily back and forth from 6-10 in/hg. But it was idling very nicely at 1000-1150 RPM (on the datamaster) with the VE tables at 40% at the 75-80 KPA MAP it was pulling, unlike the last time where the VE was at 25%.

So......I actually took the car out for a drive. Drove pretty good. Hammered on it a couple of times, and while sluggish down low (big cam and stock gears) about 3500 it came alive and above 6000 RPM it was pretty impressive. It's making enough power to make the entire car VERY floaty on a hard shift.

Brought it back home and left it cool, and pulled three plugs. All three plugs were decently white!!!!!! Yes, I wanted to see if it would run lean instead of carbon fouling the plugs in an instant, and it did!!! That's gigantic progress right there. So, I pulled the manifold to look at the gaskets, and I didn't see any oil seepage!

What I changed were the gaskets. Instead of using the Fel-Pro 1284's, the paper gaskets with the raised ridgeline on the ports, I used a set of Fel-Pro MS95580, the factory styled flat crushed metal gaskets. That's the ONLY thing I changed. So I picked up another set today and will be reassembling it tonight.

When I pulled the manifold last night, it still had a lot of oily residue inside it, but there were also dry spots unlike before. The runners were still somewhat oily, but having been run pretty hard I'm hoping that's just residual from before. My PCV system is bone dry, so it's not sucking excessive oil through there.

I'm still somewhat concerned about the low vacuum at idle, and I'm still getting some light puffing smoke out of the exhaust at idle which I'm hoping is just all of the excessive carbon and oil residue burning off. Hopefully it's taken a turn for the better and I can get it tuned and go blow up the rear soon.

Sounds very uplifting!

Best of luck with tonight's reassembly, and keep us updated on the progress :)

- Justin

isn't it wonderful when the car actually runs well after you put it back together? i always have a feeling of trepidation when firing it up after some change or other, as in maybe i've forgotten something and it will screech to a halt, shredding pistons and crank in the process.

good luck with tonight's activities.

That's good news :D Keep me posted

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, MY BROTHER!!!!
Best O' luck to ya!

Well, just finished putting it back together today, and with a new baseline tune ran it. Pulling about 75-80 KPA MAP, but burning good and idling stable. Took it for a spin and surprisingly it was fairly docile wiht some light to moderate cam surge in the 1500-2000 range. Then it happened.

My buddy with his 405/405 RWHP/RWTQ 383 95Z28 was over, and we ran em'. He's got a six speed and 3.73's out back, but his powerband is incredible, from about 2K on up to 6K.

From 40 to 130, I lost by 1 car or so.

From 15 to 130, he put 2-3 on me.

I think I'm looking good considering that I've got stock 3.23's, a MUCH more high end oriented powerband (turd town low to about 3500), felt like I was running into valve float at about 6500 RPM or so, and was on a BASELINE tune.

This think should be pretty mean when it's set up for a lil' ol' 355.

congrats on the good news

nice! glad to hear she's back up :D

SCENERIO:

unstable bob reads post about Fastbird finally having some good luck, and unstable bob smiles. He salutes his fellow USAF bro with a sharp salute, then selects a song on the CD player in honor of Fastbird. It can only be one song:

HIGHWAY STAR!!!!! 8)


Keep 'er flying, flyboy! :wink:

What's your job?

I'm "former" USAF. I was an AGE Mechanic.

Oh ok. I'm a kc-10 crew chief

Thanks guys.

Hey Jersey.....how's your car coming along man??? Last I remember you posting you had some knocking or something and that's the last I saw of it.

Unstable Bob, here's a salute right back at ya!

I just got the new forged pistons, honed block, and crank(had it polished) out of the machine shop. Â*Also got new rings and bearings going in. Â*I should have it back withing the next week and a half. Â*I have some other things going on too to get her ready for a late season track appearance. :D

Shoot dude, keep us posted because I'm hoping for a very late season debut with mine too. Just in time for the end of the year. I plan to make mince meat out of my rear.

8) :D