All the recent activity on this board is awesome. I like signing on and seeing 17 new posts! keep it up.
Updates:
-got the new brake booster in and it works like it should
- new starter is in and working great
- replaced my rear pads and rotors because I guess a slide-pin locked up and killed one of my inner pads. I knew it was happening a few weeks ago and knew I was due for pads and rotors in the back so I ordered up a powerstop set.
Recent Major issue (resolved)
-I was all set to race at island dragway about 3 weeks ago but they canceled for the night, so I went to take the car out for a fun drive and it went crazy (bad). wouldn't start. had to work the throttle to start it and keep it alive. spent many house troubleshooting it and eventually became baffled that the ignition timing was 20 degrees retarded. I usually idle at 19-20 deg and that is why the car wouldn't run , because it was seemingly now at 0 deg timing. spent lots of time on the holley efi forums and tech support. I was suspicious that the Holley sniper was having an issue controlling the timing, so I decided to put the weights and springs back in the msd 85551 distributor. The problem still existed, but at least I ruled out the holley sniper unit. During all of my troubleshooting, it kept being a primary theme that the magnetic MSD style ignition setup I was running does not play nice with sniper efi. It is the same CD box and coil that I had on my old engine, and I was fairly certain I could use it with this engine. Some people get it to work fine, but most eventually experience problematic issues. Mine worked great for 6 months, but in an instant, it was unhappy.
The fix: switch over to a Holley HyperSpark ignition system. Specifically designed to use with the sniper efi, it uses a hall-effect sensor and no sensitive magnetic stuff. Even though dozens and dozens of my datalogs showed no traces of RFI, something was somehow pulling 20 degrees of timing from my ignition, mysteriously. I checked as many engine components as I could without taking off the timing cover and something kept bringing me back to the CD ignition box (MSD Digital 6Plus). I have had this box on the car since 2015 and in that time it has been sent back to MSD TWICE for problems/repair. It has a feature integrated to it ....when selected it will retard ignition timing 20 degrees during cranking rpms. I am skeptical, but I think something in the box went bad and this feature, despite being not selected by me, is now stuck on. I tested the car by driving around the neighborhood with adding an "additional" 20 degrees of timing to my base timing and the car ran great. So I had to run 40 deg at idle to get 20 deg in reality. I had to run 58 deg at WOT in order to get 38 deg in reality. i was not really at 58 deg, but thats because I had to add 20 deg advance to compensate/cancel-out the mysterious false 20 deg of retard. Drove it around for a week like this and no issues. This was not a long term fix, but it was to ensure that the engine was in good shape.
Holley hyperspark arrived yesterday and finished the install today. I went overboard running wires neat, shortening the long lengths of wire, labeling each wire with my little label-maker, and generally doing the best job I could. Sniper and Hyperspark wires run directly to the battery.
Took the car out for a short test drive after checking timing, static timing at idle and 3,000 rpms, and whatnot. Car felt a bit stronger than usual! That was weird, but it felt noticeably angrier. I like that. Hopefully it wasn't just my imagination.. but regardless, the Holley Hyperspark system verified that mechanically nothing is pulling timing from inside the engine and that the problem was indeed with something in the MSD setup.
Called MSD and asked them about the box. They want to take a look at it, so I am sending it back to them for an evaluation/repair. I told them I plan to sell all the magnetic MSD stuff (coil, distributor, spare cap, wiring, and this CD box) so I want it back with a clean bill of health. This ignition setup will work great for many many engine setups, but I would use caution if using it with a sniper efi. Keep an eye out for the classified ad in about 2 weeks.
I plan on heading to Island Dragway tomorrow night for Test and Tune, so we will see how it goes!