Time for some new ignition wires

Topic: Time for some new ignition wires (Read 16660 times) previous topic - next topic

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #45 – November 01, 2014, 09:16:22 PM

I don't notice the tach twitching at idle on either the Thunderbird or Mark VII. If I rev either car at idle and let off the gas they fall down to just a couple rpm above normal idle speed and then a second later back to idle. I think the computer keeps the IAC open to keep the car from stalling. I have put a timing light on the Thunderbird with the SPOUT connector in and a tach/dwell meter hooked up. At idle the timing will bounce around about 2* and the engine speed will go up and down about 20rpm or so. I don't notice it on the factory tach. It's a normal EEC function to keep a steady idle.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #46 – November 02, 2014, 12:03:20 AM

Spent way too long driving around to stores today - first got new o2 sensors, then realized I had the long-wire ones before, so returned and purchased long-wire sensors from other stores. Every store only had one in stock, and stores that I purchased short-wire sensors from didn't have the long. I went to parts stores 6-times, AND went to a shop to weld my wideband bungs into my new midpipe section. Tomorrow I will test injector flow, bolt up the new midpipe, find my DataQ, and start datalogging my wideband sensor. I will also add additional grounds tomorrow - connect the heads together, and ground them to the frame.

Tomorrow may have some dry patches so I should be able to get some good datalogs of WOT to see where I'm at.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #47 – November 02, 2014, 06:02:34 PM

Replacement x-pipe took FOREVER to bolt on. I ended up grinding the hanger mount a bit to shift it to one side, but it still was close for clearance with the transmission pan.

I'll have to verify after the exhaust cools down, but I think my passenger side is the bank giving me a weird idle. Whenever the engine stumbles, the new o2 sensor on that side goes a little more lean. The new sensors respond so much quicker than the old - they start to climb in voltage in about 5-seconds from cold start. Old ones took forever to increase.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #48 – November 02, 2014, 06:50:46 PM

Any idea as to why?

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #49 – November 02, 2014, 06:59:00 PM

Quote from: thunderjet302;440090

Any idea as to why?

I'll be attempting to test the injectors soon. Engine is a bit hot at the moment. I want to compare their flow. I also haven't added the new ground wires yet. Getting a good ground back to the coil should give me more consistent spark. My new wires won't be in until (hopefully) Friday, so I can test my ignition system more next weekend.

If I have good compression on every cylinder, ignition wires, rotor, cap, and timing, the engine should run the same on both banks - one side shouldn't misfire.

After injectors, I'll be able to swap my wideband from either side now. I will use an old o2 sensors to block off the bung on the side I'm not using a wideband sensor in. I figure the wideband will have a better chance of showing exactly where I'm at in terms of AFR - with the narrowband, I just know I'm "still rich", but not by how much my AFR changed with a misfire.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #50 – November 02, 2014, 11:50:02 PM

So I got some injector testing done. I highly suggest sending them out to be tested! This was a bit of a pain.

Injector on cylinder #2 was an overachiever - below I have a picture of the markings of where the fuel level was when I stopped the test. I swapped injectors from #2 and #6, but the passenger side is still giving me problems. On the first cold start, it didn't seem too bad, and once in closed loop, I can't read the sensors for any hints. Restarting the vehicle though, before going into closed loop, I saw a lot of roughness, and each time the engine would stumble, the passenger side o2 sensor showed a quick drop in AFR. I'm guessing that a cylinder is missing, and it's igniting in the exhaust. That or the injectors aren't at fault, but cylinder 2 is being told to put out too much fuel for some reason.

I will do more testing later on this week. Since I had the same roughness on the 24lb injectors, and moving the richer injector to the other bank didn't solve anything, I'm going with the idea that fuel should be working fine, and consistent enough. I may purchased another set of injectors and immediately have them flow tested, just to see about getting a better matched set. Slightly richer generally isn't so bad though.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #51 – November 02, 2014, 11:52:23 PM

I just realized I had test tubes for 6 and 7 in the wrong spots in the last shot! Doesn't matter - they were close in flow.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #52 – November 04, 2014, 11:34:49 PM

Am interesting thing I found - my Accufab throttle body is not perfectly flat where the IAC attaches. A new gasket can't seal it well enough. http://www.americanmuscle.com/accufab-throttle-body-70mm.html

I will remove and sand it flat later, but for now, a thin coat of rtv will seal it up.

New wires are being delivered Thursday. I also have some R&M wire loom to keep the ignition wires vertically separated to the side of the valve cover.

I WILL get this thing running perfectly. I drive it for many thousands of miles as a daily driver without it being smooth/slight miss. I don't see why I can't get idle smoothed out with some more tweaking.

I also have some contact-cleaner/deoxit and conductive grease coming to go along with my dielectric grease. Get all of those electrical connections cleaned up! I will be using the conductive grease for ground mounting points.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #53 – November 06, 2014, 01:11:39 AM

Spending a lot of money on this testing. I pulled the intake and was going to reinstall my 24lb injectors to compare behavior. I figured I'd do a compression check while the intake is off. First gauge is reading 120psi on all cylinders. Second gauge is reading 150psi on all cylinders. Spraying oil in the spark plug holes doesn't change anything. 50-miles ago when the heads were first installed, I read closer to 190psi on all cylinders. My battery is well charged for the cranking. Engine was warmed up beforehand, but had probably cooled a bit by the time I got the intake off. Maybe I just need to do the test immediately after shutting the engine off. I don't remember what I did last year - if the engine was cold or not. Both gauges showed much better consistency this time though.

Not sure what's going on. I purchased an OTC compression gauge from Amazon to be here this week. We'll see what it says.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #54 – November 06, 2014, 01:28:48 AM

After the car settles down to a 700rpm idle in park, it's pulling around 15 inches of vacuum. I don't think I've ever tested vacuum with these heads previously.

Revving the motor up to about 1000rpms from the throttle body gets the vacuum up to 18-19inHg. Disconnecting the IAC, vacuum drops to about 10 inches at 550-600rpms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrJ8i4j5K0I

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #55 – November 06, 2014, 01:48:18 AM

An audio clip of a couple things. The car right now has nothing connected up to the mid-pipe. With the exhaust like it is, there is a repetitive noise coming out that I'm not sure what to make of. Also at 1:45 you can hear the idle starting to miss badly. I hear and feel that issue quite often.

http://www.masejoer.com/20141105_192143.mp3

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #56 – November 06, 2014, 12:21:12 PM

Quote from: Seek;440226

After the car settles down to a 700rpm idle in park, it's pulling around 15 inches of vacuum. I don't think I've ever tested vacuum with these heads previously.

Revving the motor up to about 1000rpms from the throttle body gets the vacuum up to 18-19inHg. Disconnecting the IAC, vacuum drops to about 10 inches at 550-600rpms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrJ8i4j5K0I

That sounds about right. My Thunderbird pulls around 16.5 inches of vacuum at 700rpm hot idle in park. Don't forget I'm at a lower elevation than you which effects vacuum readings. My Mark VII pulls 18.5 inches of vacuum at 700rpm hot idle. Free flowing heads/intake will drop your vacuum readings from the stock 18-19 inch range as less resistance = less vacuum.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #57 – November 07, 2014, 04:49:20 PM

My new Firecore wires came with a missing boot on the coil wire...

Anyway, going to spend some time this weekend starting over from a blank tune, and make notes on everything I change. May be able to simply tune-out my idle. I'll need to re-calculate/estimate my throttle body cross section, and volume of intake. Other than pulling the car's old tune and running with it last week, I have no clue what I modified years ago.

I will be videotaping some noid light and spark tests for my review - see if I can find anything inconsistent. I'm also going to go over my upper intake's mating surface to take care of a couple minor marks.

I'm about 250ft above sea level.

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #58 – November 07, 2014, 10:36:37 PM

Have a MSD 31329 wireset coming into Autozone tomorrow. $65 for the set is a pretty good price!

Time for some new ignition wires

Reply #59 – November 08, 2014, 01:31:11 AM

Aaaaand, I have one corner of the passenger side valve cover that isn't sealing up well. I have some reusable gaskets on there that have very little age/miles - I think installed last year when I did the heads.

We'll see how that goes tomorrow - that one can be a pretty bad vacuum leak as the filler-neck to TB is on the same side. This last engine startup, after a few minutes, something started clanking around for a minute (between 3 engine-restarts), and now I have a rattle in the new exhaust. I'm wondering if I lost a pintle cap with all the injector pulling I've been doing. I'm not missing any washers or anything, so I don't see how it could be anything more dangerous like that

To top it off, the spark plug from cylinder #4 has two cracks in its porcelain.

New compression gauge arrived - shows 147-153psi across all cylinders with a cold engine. I apparently have one dead gauge on-hand, and now two good ones...

Lots to do tomorrow! I seem to be idling at 16 inches of vacuum now at 700rpms. After working out all the remaining little kinks, we'll see how it idles, then see if adjusting timing at idle will help at all.