Elacruze 505" engine build

[Steve P.]

It has been a while since I was messing with it, but I have tried changing the swing position of the alt and raised the height of it giving more belt friction area.  Also tried moving the AC pump out an inch or two to make room for a tensioner between the crank and AC pump w/serp. belt, but I am afraid it would then hit the frame of the car. 

The best option for all to work very well would be a reverse running water pump and a serp. system in my humble opinion. I did check with a marine parts joint here in Tampa Bay on the water pump itself and they sell the same pump for clockwise and counterclockwise running motors. Somehow I don't remember if I asked about the housings. But then my memory has been playing massive games with me lately. 

[elacruze]

Discovery of the obvious:

I can't use the dual belt setup, because the crank and water pump pulleys both have one deep groove, so their diameter is different in each belt track. I'll have to run the belt-to-compressor/belt-to-alternator setup for now.

[charger2fast4u]

How's the build coming along? Getting close to starting it up? Haven't had any recent updates I'm interestedin how 93 pump gas will be with your cam and engine setup I think I'll be fighting with my build on 93 getting it to run without pinging. Hope that engine harness does you good

[elacruze]

The engine is done and in some time ago, the only things left are to wrap the ECU harness, power it up, verify the functions on computer and hit the key. That could be as early as Sunday. (May 8 )

[flyinlow]

Qapla  (success)

[elacruze]

Installed the FireCore 50 plug wires today, with heat boots. Man, are these things nice. The heat caps fit tight and smooth, and are very high quality.
Here's the follow-up to the spark plug/header clearance issue.

And crap, how dumb did Edelbrock have to be to counterbore the spark plug holes too small to get a socket around a 13/16" spark plug?

[flyinlow]

Does Firecore make the heat cover?

[FLG]

They sure to FL 


Looking good, ive been trolling this thread for awhile 

[elacruze]

Does Firecore make the heat cover?

Yep, got them with the wires from Firefighter Ron.

[flyinlow]

Does Firecore make the heat cover?

Yep, got them with the wires from Firefighter Ron.

Thanks

You mentioned 13/16 plugs on Eddy heads? Mine use 5/8 NGK BCPR6ES a little smaller.

[elacruze]

Does Firecore make the heat cover?

Yep, got them with the wires from Firefighter Ron.

Thanks

You mentioned 13/16 plugs on Eddy heads? Mine use 5/8 NGK BCPR6ES a little smaller.

Right, but I have plugs with a 13/16" hex, and I think it's dumb to make heads that restrict me to 5/8" hex when there is plenty of room for a bigger counterbore. I got them tight with a short open end wrench, but it was a real headache. I'll have to find 5/8 plugs next time, or pull the heads and have them bored.

[FLG]

How about a thin wall socket? 

[elacruze]

How about a thin wall socket?  

Nope, the counterbore hole is a plug fit to the hex points on a 13/16 plug. It's clear in the photos upthread, but I never tried to put a socket on them while the heads were out.

[firefighter3931]

Installed the FireCore 50 plug wires today, with heat boots. Man, are these things nice. The heat caps fit tight and smooth, and are very high quality.
Here's the follow-up to the spark plug/header clearance issue.

And crap, how dumb did Edelbrock have to be to counterbore the spark plug holes too small to get a socket around a 13/16" spark plug?

The 90* boots and shields look great Eric....and they work just as good as they look ! 

I'm sure you won't have any issues in the future with burnt boots. 

Nice progress....won't be long now ! 



Ron

[elacruze]

Sorry to post a teaser, but I have to buy a digital video cable for my camcorder to get the video out.

Installed radiator, fluid check, final pre-flight inspection, double-checked distributor and hit the key.
I was caught totally off guard when the thing lit off on about the third cylinder, and stayed lit-not at all like the 6-tries-and-a-screwdriver approach I'm accustomed to with carburetors. Aside from a leak at the temp gauge sensor thread, everything was great. The initial fuel map was way too rich, so a few minutes of keyboarding and Viola! running smooth, restarting instantly. I must have an air leak someplace, the idle won't come below 1500 on the screws.

This engine sounds NASTY!

Initial timing will probably end up 5*-10*, by the sound of the hot start at 15*. Thermostat temp (185) was reached in about 5 minutes, no threat of being too warm. Throttle response is instantaneous, just scary quick; this thing snaps up faster with the heavy flywheel than my 11:1 440 did with the aluminum wheel.
Today I'll see about getting the exhaust installed (open headers are always more fun on startup) and do more fine tuning on the timing and idle air.
As soon as I get cabled, I'll post a video.

[elacruze]

The video is about 7 minutes long, and 1.5gb. I'll try to compress it, and get better footage as we go along.

This was actually the second fire-up, after tightening the coolant temperature sensor. RPM is about 1700, though it sounds like a lot less due to the over-rich mixture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtabo9umJfo

[Roger 68 charger]

   sounds good!!!!   what is the laptop hooked up to?       

[elacruze]

  sounds good!!!!   what is the laptop hooked up to?       

Laptop is connected to Holley 950 Commander via USB/Serial cable.

[FLG]

Sounds nasty!!!

[Brass]

Congrats on the fire-up.  Very cool! 

[dstryr]

That does sound good!

[GPULLER]

That does sound nice!  Can see that it is rich be the way the driver is holding a rag over her face. 
Its a TBI correct?  You say the injectors have to be swapped out, those are in the throttle body?  How big of a chore is that?

[twodko]

Nice Eric, very nice. All your hard work has paid off in spades. 

[elacruze]

That does sound nice!  Can see that it is rich be the way the driver is holding a rag over her face. 
Its a TBI correct?  You say the injectors have to be swapped out, those are in the throttle body?  How big of a chore is that?

Each throttle body has 4 injectors. They are pretty easy to replace, they just fit down in the pods with an O-ring on each end. There is a retaining plate that captures all 4 injectors in place. The tricky part (and last learned, of course) is that you have to put the lower O-rings into the pod grooves and lube the injector tips-otherwise they will not seat and you'll have massive leaks. Care and patience is the order of the day, and you can't put them in one at a time or disconnect the harnesses from them either. Just not enough space and slack.

I spent some time on the phone with Holley, fortunately they obsoleted the tiny injectors from their system so they were willing to share cross-reference information. I have 4 45# injectors and 4 75# injectors, and didn't know any of that before. I ordered 4 more 45# injectors ($40 each, fit '92-'94 Saturn 1.9l motors) so I should have them in tomorrow. I have to sort out some electronic noise in the ground and idle air control, I don't have a clean RPM signal to the ECU. More later.

[elacruze]

Got the ECU back from Holley today, first fire up with exhaust. Just a little clacky...check adjusters...2 nuts off and one more loose.
I guess it's a right of passage to have the adjusters loosen. I thought I must have forgot to final torque one, then found the 2 on the other side. Re-torqued all of them and only found one more that moved any...have to keep an eye on this and re-check often for the next week.