Vlad's rides thread

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vlad01
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Unfortunately there isn't a lean cruise timing offset table, so the main table is the only way and wouldn't be ideal.

The changes are single digits with the above data, so timing would not make much if any difference. I checked the table and in this condition the timing is about 31 deg and is in a region where it jumps to 40-50s on the left and mid 20s on the right. I had this dialed in carefully on the dyno, so it's not an area you could play with without compromising the non lean cruise mode.
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immortality
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by immortality »

Well bugger :(

I'd love to put the Calais on the dyno and do a whole lot of steady state tuning to really dial in the normal cruise and lean cruise tables.
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

I missed the bit you added to your previous post. Do you recall the amount of spark that was added in the lean cruise table? And roughly what the stock main table had in those areas?
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

All good, eventually found it in one of the enhanced tunes after downloading virtually all of them and it was in the last one I opened :lol:

So I worked out the % as the Buick has way higher timing than the ecodonk, so the 1.8deg will do nothing. It works out to be about 6-7% more timing so I added that to the tune to see what happens with the L/100Km.

I'll report back.
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Here are my results with updated notations.

Looks like it does make a difference with extra timing. But I would need more data points to be sure on a figure.

Lean cruise testing+Extra Spark.PNG
Lean cruise testing+Extra Spark.PNG (17.92 KiB) Viewed 3700 times
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by immortality »

Nice.
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Don't anyone know if tie bar lifters are long lasting/reliable for say multi 100,000s of K?

I have some unused Johnson custom hyd tie bar lifters for VN-VR and seeing how expensive they are now for just the drop in dog bone versions (like $1100) I'd rather use what I have than chuck money down the drain.
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Does anyone know what the volume pressure index number means when it comes to the basic engine config? I can't find any relevant google results other than one old 90s website that talks about how to calculate it but not what it actually means?
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

The old shitbox needed some rear suspension work.


The rear was feeling like it had hexagon wheels when taking off. The rear bushes pretty much all failed at the same time (originals from factory) and the tail shaft yoke managed to hit and mark the floor even though the car is stock height :wtf:
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Couldn't get superpro via my mechanic is any timely manner and I regret not waiting. The McKay ones needed machining on one to fit and another was so soft that normal driving caused it to collapse in and fall out after only 1 day. So I put a used good arm in for now and that's been ok now.


Then a few weeks later the front end went. Shocker failed and spewed it's guts inside the guard covering everything in oil. The other side shocker jammed immediately after and became solid lol.
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Since I did the bushes 200K ago with superpro at the front, they were still in great nick. The ball joints weren't great after 200K but ok, put a new boot on the one that was aftermarket as it failed weeks after installing it some 7 years ago and I never bothered fixing it. New rack ends, shocks, boots and swaybar link bushes (took 6 weeks to arrive from only 70km away :roll: ).


I ordered Felpro timing cover gasket/seal set from the US for these engines for less than 10 USD each so I purchased 3 sets.

I also ordered a new Melling timing set as they are all US made and to original specs. All the other OEM type sets looked shit to me. And also got a chain damper off ebay locally, Nason brand.


The timing cover had been leaking coolant for few years and was getting worse, so hence the above parts.


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Turns out the main source of the air in the cooling system was actually the water pump. I could see there was some cement looking deposits that leaked down the front of the cover that I never saw when checking. The air promoted severe cavitation that really damaged the timing cover and pump housing alloy.


I prepared another cover and got a new pump too. Got it sand blasted and a lick of Duplicolor caliper paint ( that stuff is awesome! One of the best paints I've used thus far)

Transferred the oil pump which shocked me to how good condition it was in, looked like one from something like a 40k old engine, certainly not what you'd see from a 400K engine that has had an extremely hard life.


The old chain and damper were pretty buggered. The new one was much tighter. Installed with new cam bolt which is genuine GM and I noticed the class and head size was metric and obviously the thread remained freedom units. :lol:
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

So no more leaks on the engine side. Still need to deal with the heater core as that's still letting air in in the splice I did when replacing it (never had success with the splices, always leak)

The water pump gasket is just an embossed plastic shim, no coatings or anything. I had doubts but the ZZP reveiws for the same plastic pump gasket said otherwise. Really surprised how good they work.


The Felpro Buick timing cover gasket is actually a very thin steel shim with a rubber coating and very subtle raised beads in the crittical areas. You can really feel the difference in how positive the cover bolts torque up vs shitty paper gaskets :thumbup: Mind you, the later VP gaskets are metal core re-enforced cement type gasket which are great too unlike the early paper type.


The engine runs better, no more unstable combustion at idle and just feels easier to drive at low speed. Mid to high range don't really feel any different. Fuel economy seems unaltered.

A negative consequence that had me scratching my head was the balance shaft is extremely noisy now where it wasn't really audible before. It's great when cold but has the famed "death rattle"when hot and it's really odd. The noise is the rear bearing area of the balance shaft. I hypothesis that the much tighter chain and damper has dramatically increased the coupling between the crank and top end so the shaft gear lashing is much stronger than it was with a sloppy chain which took up a lot of this lash.


I've done about 1000km since and the sound is exactly the same and come out as it warms up to operating temp as it did the first start up. So it's probably fine but a bit alloying and not what you'd expect with a new timing set.
IMG_1962.jpg
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