73 Charger - SHE IS ALIVE - Adequate Vacuum, Fuel Pressure, Oil Pressure values

[rollo1504]

... Just came back from working at my 73 charger

Old dash wiring harness is removed...
New dash wiring harness is being installed for test purposes...
Engine bay wiring is finished...

So I think on the weekend I will try to fire her up.

IF she runs I have questions concerning adequate values during idle/drive

What are the correct values of vacuum, fuel and oil pressure as well as temperature?

Asking because if she runs I want to know if the measured values are normal, abnormal or somewhat dangerous..

Need this because I don't want to break anything.

Thanks for the inputs

Cheers

Roland

------------------------------------------

UPDATE: Today is the day!!!

After doublechecking the whole wiring as my baby was not even cranking I could find some errors.... After correcting it, she fired up!!!

Jumped around like Rumpelstiltskin in the garage!!! 


If anyone is interested in seeing it (the car, not me jumping around):

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=7q2h9fnIH2M
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=zQF-j2vX5Yc

Sorry for the bad quality of the video... My camera could not handle the loud sound inside of the garage thats why she sounds so weird...
Will post another video soon with better sound quality...

....

So next steps would be to get acceptable values concerning oil pressure, vakuum, fuel pressure, temperature....

As no one still answered my questions above I will bump this post....

Maybe one of you great members can "show" me the right direction..

So I am out for a couple of beers..... 

Cheers

Roland

[alfaitalia]

Maybe its my PC....but I cant get either of your YouTube links to work.

[70 sublime]

Videos did not work for me either ( in Canada)

[Dino]

Fixed your links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q2h9fnIH2M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQF-j2vX5Yc

Oil pressure is highly variable, changing oil weight will give you different readings. You should also check pressure with a good quality aftermarket gauge, not the standard mopar crap. Before my sender got wonky I think my readings were around 65 cold, 45-50 hot idle and cruising. I could be off a bit, it's been a while. This is on a 440. Just look for extremes. It shouldn't be super low or super high.

Fuel pressure for most carbs should be around 5-6 psi. My thermoquad was not happy with anything above 7. A Holley will be more forgiving but try to keep it in the 5 range.

Temp should be around 190 or so. Big engines need heat. You can play with different temp thermostats if you drive a lot of stop and go and it gets too hot, or vice versa if you do a lot of freeway and it doesn't get hot enough. With my a/c on on a very hot day it will creep up to 200-205 when I'm in bumper to bumper traffic. I don't worry about it. It drops back to 190-19 once I get moving again. I'd only worry if you see big fluctuations like 30-40 degree difference. That's not right. Again, use a good aftermarket gauge to find true temp or use an infrared thermometer on the radiator. If the engine gets really hot check timing and burp the cooling system. Mine went up a lot one time and it turned out to be a small leak at the lower rad hose. Easy fix.

Vacuum depends on the cam you're running and how the timing is set. More important is to make sure the vacuum is stable. I ran around 13 at idle with a mild cam. Factory cam should be a bit higher. If you have a vacuum gauge it'll show the ideal numbers. You can play with the timing and carb to dial it in more if needed.

[rollo1504]

Fixed your links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q2h9fnIH2M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQF-j2vX5Yc

Oil pressure is highly variable, changing oil weight will give you different readings. You should also check pressure with a good quality aftermarket gauge, not the standard mopar crap. Before my sender got wonky I think my readings were around 65 cold, 45-50 hot idle and cruising. I could be off a bit, it's been a while. This is on a 440. Just look for extremes. It shouldn't be super low or super high.

Fuel pressure for most carbs should be around 5-6 psi. My thermoquad was not happy with anything above 7. A Holley will be more forgiving but try to keep it in the 5 range.

Temp should be around 190 or so. Big engines need heat. You can play with different temp thermostats if you drive a lot of stop and go and it gets too hot, or vice versa if you do a lot of freeway and it doesn't get hot enough. With my a/c on on a very hot day it will creep up to 200-205 when I'm in bumper to bumper traffic. I don't worry about it. It drops back to 190-19 once I get moving again. I'd only worry if you see big fluctuations like 30-40 degree difference. That's not right. Again, use a good aftermarket gauge to find true temp or use an infrared thermometer on the radiator. If the engine gets really hot check timing and burp the cooling system. Mine went up a lot one time and it turned out to be a small leak at the lower rad hose. Easy fix.

Vacuum depends on the cam you're running and how the timing is set. More important is to make sure the vacuum is stable. I ran around 13 at idle with a mild cam. Factory cam should be a bit higher. If you have a vacuum gauge it'll show the ideal numbers. You can play with the timing and carb to dial it in more if needed.

Thanks for fixing my links. Could see I erroneously added the EDIT links ....

For the oil psi I will connect a manual oil pressure gauge to the block and for the temperature I will use a infrared thermometer on the radiator... My car is an A/C car but this had been removed... so again I conclude:

- Oil psi cold:    around 65 psi
- Oil psi warm:  around 40-50 psi
- Oil psi general: should not be super high or super low
- Fuel pressure: around 5-6 psi
- Heat temp: around 200-205 standing still
- Heat temp: around 190 when driving
- Heat temp: Fluctuations like 30-40 is wrong
- Vacuum: Important to be stable, With idle cam around 13 psi

.... Sounds like a have a plan....

Thank you sir. I really appreciate that as I now have at least "starting values" for me to compare with my acutal settings... Will post them later...

Cheers

Roland

[Dino]

You're welcome!   

You can have different values and be fine. There are several factors influencing these. Just remember you should have stable values.

Try to get numbers with cold engine, hot, idle, cruising, and turning some higher rpm. But don't go pushing it until we can make sure the numbers are good at idle.

[rollo1504]

Hey Guys!

Here is an update concerning oil pressure...

If I start the engine and its cold idling with choke than it has 65 PSI and it flickers not that much but have a look at the video as I don't know if the flickering is OK or not OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6g2fjM-slk

Concerning the temp: If it is warmed up or hot after I would say 30 minutes running standing still then if I measure the radiator with a laser instrument and it has 195°F...and it is NOT fluctuating.

So this is not that bad isn't it?

Thanks

Roland

[Dino]

No that's not bad! It would probably go down a bit with some airflow on the road, but that's a good operating temp for a big block.

Good oil pressure as well. I don't believe the fluctuation is bad but I don't know enough about it to comment on that.