Hello all.

[jeremy.farlow]

Thank you. He’ll be missed.

Whelp... running down the checklist. I’ve got fuel pressure...
Got spark

I don’t have a running engine...

Yet



Be safe and stay healthy


Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

Still no luck. Going on an hour on hold with Edelbrock which is just about piss-poor as well. It will be hard not letting show how upset I am whenever it finally is that they pick up the phone.



Jeremy

[bd]

I was never impressed with Edelbrock tech support either.  Did you verify power, ground and tach signal to the ECM?

[jeremy.farlow]

Yeah... I spent over an hour on hold with Edelbrock. Never did get through. Obviously Edelbrock tech support isn’t something to count on in a pinch.

Thankfully I didn’t ultimately have to talk to them. Thankfully dad came through and helped me cover all my bases.

As complex as some of this stuff seems... engines are relatively simple creatures.
They need:

Spark
Fuel
COMPRESSION!!!

Guess which one I was missing?!?

Guess WHY?!?

The inductive timing light showed I had spark.
Pulling an injector showed I had fuel... SPECTACULARLY!!!
A compression test on cyl. #1 showed...


Nothing.

I pulled the plug on #2...


Same.

One dead cylinder on a fresh engine ain’t the end of the world. Two dead cylinders indicates something REALLY BAD... or some stupid mistake a mediocre mechanic made.

As a stated a couple of posts ago... I’ve never built an OHV engine before.

I’ve done plenty of SOHC 750 Hondas. A handful of DOHC Yamahas. A couple desmodromic Ducatis. In cars I’m pretty comfortable with the 3.0L Mercedes in-line 6’s.

All the motorcycle stuff is purely mechanical. Either shim-under-bucket or mechanical tappet. Setup a go/no-go situation with feeler gauges and adjust a cold engine to factory spec. The car stuff all has hydraulic adjusters of some sort. But even pulling the head off a few of those cars the valve clearance takes care of itself once it’s all back together.

I adjusted the lash on this Chevrolet engine without the lifters “pumped-up”... Thank God not so much that I found the piston with a valve. But enough so there was NO WAY this engine would EVER have compression.

I thought it turned over too easily. I mean, come on, this is a BIG, high-compression motor. It should take a twelve-foot breaker bar...

And it does now.

It’s a brick wall on every compression stroke.


AND IT RUNS!!!

Not well.

It was rich enough to run me out of the shop ultimately. But IT RUNS!!!

Relatively well, no less. There’s still a lot of tuning to do and the timing isn’t even close yet...

BUT. IT. RUNS!



Be safe and stay healthy



Jeremy

[JohnnyPopper]

Bravo Jeremy!

[VileZambonie]

The lifters do not need to be "pumped up" to set the lash correctly. It sounds like you may have adjusted them on the opposite stroke which is a common mistake. A lot of guys do this by assuming the timing marks are lined up so that they are #1 TDCC when in fact it is on #6.

Good luck with the tune. You'll get it, set that timing first.

[jeremy.farlow]

That was the way I read everything:

Lifters not pumped up...
Valve train on cam base circle
I went cylinder by cylinder, watch intake start to open and adjust exhaust and vice versa

It’s not super-scientific. But there’s no overlap on the camshaft so that procedure should work fine.

I think where I mostly went wrong was achieving “zero-lash”...

Most guys say spin the pushrod until you feel drag and then tighten the adjust 1/2 or 3/4 turn.

I’ve got vice-grip fingers.

I can still spin a pushrod... in the open lifter valley, practically until the valve is opening.

It’s a little harder with the intake in place...

Anyhow, I’ve got valves fully sorted. This time I went until I felt drag on the pushrod and just added 1/2 turn on the adjuster nut.

I figure A) the valve seats will likely tighten up, as well as B) if the valvetrain is noisy, I can always tighten the adjusters up.





Be safe and stay healthy


Jeremy

[bd]

For future reference, rather than spinning the pushrod (a dubious method due to its high degree of subjectiveness) gently move it up-and-down along its axis, end-to-end, with the adjuster backed off.  You will easily feel the endplay and looseness.  Tighten the adjustment until pushrod endplay is just eliminated, then perform the preload adjustment.

[jeremy.farlow]

Yeah... that’s where I wound up yesterday. Realizing that I’d obviously gone way too far on my lash adjustments. Additionally, I can hardly get my big, clumsy fingers on the intake pushrod with the intake manifold in place.

I love the modern era... the world is at my fingertips, literally... but there’s only so much one can learn watching a YouTube video. There’s no substitute for experience and this is my very first time with the OHV architecture.

It also belies my fundamental lack of understanding of HOW hydraulic lifters truly work. Mechanical tappets make sense. Adjust cold, with the understanding that when things warm up the tolerances get tighter. I really don’t understand how hydraulic lifters and valve adjustment works.

It’s a google search for this evening.



Be safe and stay healthy



Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

Well... despite my best intentions I didn’t learn much meaningful about hydraulic lash adjusters over the weekend. Best answer seems to be: “they just work”...

Mine are now. I’m still not entirely sure what I did wrong initially. Fortunately the fix was just resetting lash, not pulling the heads to repair valves.

I pulled all the plugs and ran a compression test on every cylinder but #8... no way of getting the adapter past the header there. As a matter of fact I had to severely modify a plug wrench to be able to tighten the plug on this cylinder:


Did I mention I don’t know WHAT I’d do without a lathe?!? And a mill for this one, but I really cannot imagine not having a lathe in the future.

As the truck is running pretty well... but leaking like a sieve from a bad heater hose coupling and a crushed oil filter. (Dad and I were a little “heavy-handed” with the engine getting it in place the last time.) I’m waiting for new hoses and vacuum lines before I go any farther running the engine. Hopefully everything will be in by the end of the week and I can really start putting things back together next week.

I did get the center portion of the grill back in place, for reals this time, and the bumper and wings are mocked up just to see how they look:


I’m also pretty happy with how my bow tie came out:


Anyhow... I’m about to go drain the radiator and likely spill a bunch of water on the floor.


Be safe and stay healthy




Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

In some ways I’m so close to driving this thing I can TASTE it!!! This week has been mostly focused on other stuff and waiting for parts.
Silicone heater lines and vacuum lines were supposed to arrive today... hopefully I’ll get them tomorrow.
The work I’ve done on the suburban has mostly focused on modifying the factory accessory drive to work with the realities of my motor. The alternator/power-steering side was relatively simple. Cut and rework the top mount to work with the Edelbrock intake:



The A/C compressor side of things is proving... not as simple. Despite the electric water pump appearing similar in size and shape to the mechanical one, as well as the stock radiator hose fitting, as Newton taught us: two objects cannot exist in the same place at the same time.. and the factory compressor mount doesn’t clear the radiator hose.
I still have some more clearancing to do, but here’s where I’m at right now. My part:


And with the factory bracket attached:




Hopefully it’s stiff enough that I won’t be slinging belts.
Speaking of, I didn’t measure, but when I mocked up the accessory drive sans E-water pump it looks like I can just use a shorter belt and not worry about wrapping the mechanical fan and water pump.
thats still the case when I get everything back on for reals.
Otherwise I’ll be adding an idler pulley somewhere.

And I’ve had a bit of a set back with the Pro Flo4 system. I sprung for the higher horsepower option... biggest difference is injector size...  my kit came with 60lb/hr injectors. I ordered the recommended fuel pressure regulator, set for 58 psi.
When I follow the Edelbrock systems prompts, engine size... cam profile... etc. the only option for injector size is 39 lb/hr.

I’ve got the engine running but it’s WAY RICH! Of course it is... it’s pulsing the injectors as if they’re 40% smaller than they actually are... hopefully not enough to wash the rings, but definitely rich enough it smokes like CRAZY:

A portion of the smoke is assembly stuff burning off. The exhaust wrap, the freshly painted valve covers smoked like crazy as well, but there’s A LOT of unburned hydrocarbons as well. Edelbrock tech support suggests going to the smaller/lower psi fuel pressure regulator. That’s a lot cheaper than a new compliment of smaller injectors.
Edelbrock tech also says: “lie to the computer... tell the computer you’ve got a big old cam to unlock the larger injector setting”. That’s all fine and good, but I sized the camshaft to the vacuum specs Edelbrock recommends.
I know it’s a learning curve, but if anyone is thinking about this system... don’t make my mistake and think you’re “leaving some in reserve...”. Pick the system that best matches the actual power your motor is making.
And of course, that advice is not listed anywhere in the Pro-Flo literature. Maybe it’s just me, but they’re sold as “Up to ______ horsepower”. I read that as anything UP TO.


Anyhow, I’m a little bit frustrated... even more so when tech support guys says: “have you put gas through the injectors? If you haven’t it’s just a $100 swap fee”. Yeah, buddy... I ran it... that’s how I know it’s running way rich.



Be safe and stay healthy




Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

Yeah... the hits just keep coming.


Of the years I’ve seen... 1983-2020...


This one takes the cake.


Far and away.




Rest In Peace John Lewis... the world isn’t better without you in it.







Be safe, stay healthy



Jeremy.

[jeremy.farlow]

Yeah, well... remember that thing I said about a smaller belt and calling it done???

No so much.

I would’ve barely gotten 1/4 wrap on either the crank pulley or power steering pulley. No way I could expect the tensioner to manage enough tension do actually spin any of the accessories.

So I tried once... and failed MISERABLY.

I literally spent two days making trash.

I got really frustrated. Hot’lanta has been earning the name this week. The last couple days just weren’t going my way.

Ultimately I cut everything I added off the factory mount and started fresh today.

It went a lot better:





The factory accessory stamping is a work of art. None of the surfaces are truly parallel to the pulleys and nothing is coplanar.

I took a lot more time mocking the thing up both on the bench and in the engine bay:




Here’s the layout when I left tonight:





I do want to try and get these pulleys for the two idlers:




Tomorrow I’ll cut the tape and see how long IT is. I’m thinking I’ll round whatever the tape measures and subtract two inches from that as a starting point. Hopefully I can get the condenser and radiator back in tomorrow.

Maybe Edelbrock tech support will call me back tomorrow. I don’t want to run the truck as rich as it is. I have a couple more issues to talk through with Edelbrock, but it looks like I’ll be buying a set of injectors...

Plans right now are to keep putting things together while I wait for injectors.



Be safe and stay healthy




Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

It looks pretty good with a belt on:


Radiator went back in today. I reworked some electrical stuff. Got the TCI trans controller flashed and speedometer reading from it.

I went away from my previous kill switch idea as well. The big relay I had planned to use really didn’t like being constantly on and got REALLY hot.

Now I’m just killing the CDI box. No spark, no run. Hopefully it doesn’t incite would-be thieves to settle on mere vandalism.

If fuel injectors get here by the end of next week I’ll be about ready to drive the week after.




Be safe and stay healthy



Jeremy

[JohnnyPopper]

Nice work man! Love when a plan comes together