Torana SS

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Gareth
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Re: Torana SS

Post by Gareth »

What is the phone app called you are using??
According to chemistry, alcohol is a solution...
VK_3800
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Re: Torana SS

Post by VK_3800 »

I've used one named "Resonance" which is good for making and saving short recordings, and one just named "vibration analysis" which is slightly more useful live. They measure frequencies in the three different axis' via the accelerometer. With resonant frequencies I noticed that often it would show contributing frequencies separately on different axis which is handy. Both offer amplitude readings too which are kind of useful to distinguish which frequency is more predominant but accuracy seems to be pretty low and not very useful for comparing whether a vibration is getting better or worse between multiple recordings. Resonance will give you more features if you pay for it and I've seen others mentioned that are pay-only and more specific to driveline analysis.

When driving you can get pretty good readings from the drivetrain just by sitting the phone on the shifter since its attached directly to the gearbox. I also spent some time with it up on stands with a mate sitting it on the problem speed and sitting it against various different components. Not easy when everything is loud and has some natural vibration but still somewhat helpful in narrowing it down.

Once I had some rough frequency data to work with I made up a spreadsheet which graphed two frequencies together and showed them added together. Because my vibration was a resonance/combination it was pulsing and I had some idea of the pulse frequency, so this helped confirm I was on the right track. Not super-scientific but a lot better than randomly changing expensive parts!
VK_3800
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Re: Torana SS

Post by VK_3800 »

So I've been mucking around with the breather systems on and off to fix all the little issues to my liking. The main thing is minimal maintenance, I don't want to be draining excess oil or replacing filters too often.

The catch can filter just filled up with moisture and didn't work well with PCV vacuum running through it, so that is now atmospheric only. To maximise the flow and cater for repeated high rpm I stepped up the hose size. This required a bigger fitting for the rocker cover:
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There's also a nipple for the air cleaner housing which I don't seem to have a photo of, and a couple of custom-made large flange nuts to retain the fittings:
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The fittings are 6061 aluminium and the nuts are 4140 steel.

Along with some black cloth braided hose gives this on the atmospheric side:
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I'd like to change the cable ties on the ends to some of those heat shrink clamps at some stage to tidy it up. Seems to work well, the filter in the can no longer clogs up but it does avoid smelly fumes. The fresh air hose to the air filter housing is always clean.
VK_3800
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cars: SS Torana
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Re: Torana SS

Post by VK_3800 »

Next part is the PCV, it works fine but occasionally depending on what sort of driving I'm doing it can start pulling some oil. A big part of this is the lack of baffling in the rocker covers but I want to keep them. I've tried making a few different internal baffles in the past but they never really work, I don't think there's enough room in there for an effective solution which means I need something external. I could run a suitable catch can, and you can get small inline oil separators, but as mentioned previously I don't want to be emptying oil out of something like this all the time.

The ideal solution for me is a separator that sits on top of the rocker cover and stops oil from tracking out and/or allows it to drain straight back in. This is what I came up with:
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It has a lower section that is angled to match the rocker cover so the whole unit basically sits upright making for easy drain back. This bottom section has stainless perforated plates (cheese grater) top and bottom, and is filled with open stainless filter media (pot scrub). The top section is open and is where the PCV goes.
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The pieces bolt together allowing servicing if that is ever necessary, and the whole thing seals and bolts to the rocker cover. I added a small baffle under the cover to avoid oil tracking along the top being sucked up (one of the things that has caused a re-think of the system is replacing the rockers a while ago - the new ones direct oil straight up to the inside of the cover where the old ones were drilled to push it to the valve stems).
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This seems to have worked very well, there is ample flow and never seems to be any oil in the top chamber or around the PCV.
VK_3800
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Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 3:15 pm
cars: SS Torana
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Re: Torana SS

Post by VK_3800 »

Lastly I've never managed to find an oil cap that seals fully and wanted to fix that. With the proper breather system the cap can be sealed which makes it easier too. This is the best I'd come up with which at least stayed in place and mostly sealed but it needed two rubber gaskets and still weeped a little (plus its too shiny and we can't have that):
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The last piece of 6061 on hand was just enough but I needed to get creative to have enough for all the necessary work holding:
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This is the cap itself, the stub sticking out is the hole-sawed area and is needed for indexing the part in the mill:
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The remaining piece is the boss that it threads into. I set it up with a nice coarse thread that is a slightly loose fit, and suitable shoulders for an o-ring seal.
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It looks kind of small but the hole is exactly the same size as the cover. The boss bolts on with three small stainless button head screws and seals against the original sealing face on the cover.
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All done.
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Charlescrown
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Re: Torana SS

Post by Charlescrown »

You make me envious with your skills and equipment. Why wasn't the original PCV capable of doing the job?
VK_3800
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Re: Torana SS

Post by VK_3800 »

The PCV valve itself I bought:
http://mewagner.com/?p=444

The engine has a bit of a cam so the original PCV valve didn't really suit the vacuum characteristics; in particular it was creating quite an issue for idle tuning. GM had different ones for this reason and a lot of guys use the Corvette (I think?) valves but this being adjustable just solved the problem, although quite pricey.

As far as the separator goes its just a substitute for having covers with decent baffles really. Although the engine does see a bit more RPM and have a bit more stroke than Holden originally intended... :lol:
Charlescrown
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Re: Torana SS

Post by Charlescrown »

I would have thought putting more timing around the idle area would have smoothed out some idle issues. Ok on the baffles. Yes I noticed they were missing. Great looking car. It's the best looking model they ever made.
VK_3800
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Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 3:15 pm
cars: SS Torana
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Re: Torana SS

Post by VK_3800 »

The PCV valve should partially close under strong vacuum at idle so its controlled rather than just a massive leak, drop the available vacuum without changing the valve and it can become one (quite inconsistently so in my case too). At that stage I had the throttle with zero crack (which was also an issue for return to idle) and the IAC still kept ending up closed with no more range to control idle air flow. All I could do at that stage was retard timing right down to stop it from idling too high, couldn't put in more than about 15 degrees. Change to the right valve and the air leak drops to a more manageable level, fixing all these issues. When I say 'a bit of a cam', its 242/252@50 and idles around 65kPa.
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vlad01
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Re: Torana SS

Post by vlad01 »

Are you using a brake booster? If yes, just wondering how well it does or doesn't work with that level of vacuum?
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