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Discussion starter · #301 ·
Here is the other update to share.

I was notified by the shop that I had a misfire in cylinder # 3 (I think). I was not too surprised as this problem also occured on cylinder #4. The Hedman Hedders 68620, mid length headers fit my old 350 SBC Gen I with no problem. But the new motor is a BluePrint 355 with BP alum heads. These heads feature a straight spark plug hole like the original motor, but the spark plug holes are located 1/2" higher. This means that there is less clearance for the spark plugs and I am buring the spark plug wire boots on the headers.

So, I also made some calls today and asked BP for a header recommendation. They do have a relationship with Sanderson Headers, but not Hedman. THey also said that Sanderson has a set of the BP 8002K heads, just like mine so they know how to build headers for this head design. Of course my next logical question was what model number do I need for my 70 El Camino. I was not surprised to hear that they did not know. Headers are designed for the motor and the car, not just the motor and heads that are being used.

So, I made another call to Hedman and Sanderson. Hedman said that they do not have headers specifically designed for the BP heads. That is too bad because I like Hedman Hedders. So I called Sanderson. They were very nice and helpful. They do have the BP heads in their shop and they recommended the CC17 headers to fit my car. However they were concerned that the tubes may need to be dimpled to have proper clearance over the spark plugs. So, they told me they would call me back after lunch so they had time to throw a set of headers onto the BP cylinder heads to make sure they did not require any customization. If it did, they said they would do it for me. I love this kind of attention to detail and custimization work.

When I got the call back, they said the headers were ready to go with no customization. So, it looks like I found the perfect headers. I asked about the gaskets, becuase I wanted to use high quality copper gaskets and they told me about there proven no gasket design. I was shocked and sold! They use heavy duty steel plate with an offset to match up with the cylinder head. Only a small bead of hi temp RTV is required to get a seal that is not likely to leak. I have certainly had my share of exhaust leaks and found that my crappy bolts were the cause. I switched to locking bolts and these were much better, but I was using a cheap gasket, because there are very few out there that fit the 68620 local port headers.


So, back to the muflfer shop for my fourth change over. These guys love me as I make them rich with all my modz. haha.

I also decided this time not to wrap the headers. I am going to splurge on the black ceramic coated headers and if I don't like the temp level of the pipes I can always wrap them later. I was thinking that I can just wrap the one tube by the tranny dipstick. Becuase I dont want to burn my hand when I check the fluid level and I love this about the wrap. But, I decided to just buy a new Lokar tranny dipstick that mounts higher up on the firewall insteadd of the current one which is lower and mounts onto the tranny bell housing.

I cant wait to get these mounted and report back later. I wanna drive soooo badly. I have not taken the car out for the past month and a half and summer is starting to wind down.
 
Discussion starter · #303 ·
I got a call from the shop today. The GV parts worked great. I am so happy things are moving forward. As predicted the shop did have to trim some of the output shaft off, but it seemed minimal and the spacers and parts all worked perfectly.

So, a good lesson learned here is that the tranny is what it is and the GV overdirve is what it is. In order to mate the GV to the tranny is a simple matter of using a coupler to connect the two shafts and the proper adapter which is based on the original tail length of the transmission. GV has most of these parts and these small parts are teh critical components to match there overdrive to most transmissions.

I pick the El Camino up tomorrow if everything comes together and the test drive is successful. The shop owner is a hot rod guy and he owns a pretty badass 72 elcamino with a 502 motor. I have a feelign that he is going to test drive my car himself. I think he is going to try and determine the shift points and I gave him my governor weights. So, if he gets into it, I am hoping that he tries to tune the tranny. I am curious to see where the shift points are on this TCI Streetfighter Turbo 400 before we tweak it, if that is even necessary. I would like to have a 1-2 shift and 2-3 shift somewhere around 5400rpm.
 
Discussion starter · #304 ·
Got my baby back and it is faster than ever. It now has the TCI Streetfighter TH400 and a TCI Breakaway 2500 stall torque converter. The shop did warn that I have a misfire at cyl #5. Those Blueprint heads lift the spark plug hole 0.5" higher and this causes the fat MSD plug wire boot to melt out a little bit and the arc fires through to ground out on the headers. That header pipe even has a dimple, but it is slighty off from where it should be. The car was running well and hard for me to tell it was missing, but you can definately see the arcing. The #3 cyl also had a very little melting on the boot. So, I changed the #5 boot to a standard 90 deg angle low profile boot for now. I also placed the DEI plug boot back onto #5 and added one to the #3 wire. This should help until I can install the Sanderson headers. The test drive and driveway test proved no arcing. Yay.

I hope to go for a longer drive tomorrow. I am able to burn rubber off the line. Not something I am used to. So, excited for this. The kickdown is working awesome. It does seem like I have a very small leak. I also have super soft shifts, so I need to adjust the vacuum modulator. I also hope to test out the 1-2 and 2-3 shift points tomorrow. The shop did not do any tuning because they were afraid that it is not quite shifting right. After fixing the #5 cylinder it feel good to me, but I do notice that the motor winds up to 2000-2500 rpm before it really engages. Is this what the high stall converter does? Even when I am pulling up the driveway at 7 deg angle the motor winds up before it moves forward. Any thoughts on this.

Oh one last thing, that MFing vibration is gone. $$$$ later to get rid of that, but damn it drove me crazy! This car is practically brand new now. Just need a new interior and AC. Then I will be done. hahahahaaaa.
 
Discussion starter · #306 ·
It was OEM, then I went to a Hughes 1800.
 
Discussion starter · #307 ·
More tweaks today. The reason the tranny woudl sometimes start out in 2nd gear instead of first was too much fluid. About 1 qt over the max line. That correction worked great. The shifts are much softer and smoother than I was expecting. I gave the modulator another 1/2 turn and still pleasantly soft but firmer when I am on the throttle. This is about right. I also changed the govenor to the one in teh old tranny and I get much later shifts. The standard govenor was about 1-2 @4000 and 2-3 @ 4800. My old governor is 1-2 @5400 and 2-3 @5800. I need to change thse weights to add just 1 gram and I am aiming for nothing higher than a 5400. I woudl like to have both shifts in the 5000+ range. May need to change some springs too.

There is a big car show this weekend and registration closed 2 weeks ago, so the flyer said. I never registered because I was not expecting to have the car back. This is a show I really wanted to enter since they are expecting 250 cars. I called today and they still have open spots so I am in. I did a lot of polishing and cleaning today. I buffed in a nice coat of Chemical Guys Butter wax. Let is shine tomorrow. I entered this car into the Restomod category.
 
Discussion starter · #308 ·
Okay, this is a reference post for me. Trying to get the governor set to my preferences. I have tried about 8 combos now between the two trannys. Here is what I understand:
1. Lighter weight = later shifts
2. Heavier weight = earlier shifts
3. Lighter springs = later shifts and farther apart
4. Heavier springs = earlier shifts and closer together.

This is a balancing act. It appears to get shifts closer together you need one light and one heavier spring. I do not think it matters which weight has which spring. But, still investigating this.

420Hp with peak Hp at 5800. Rev limiters are set at 6k rpm.
My goal is around 1-2 shift of 5200 and 2-3 shift around 5500

TCI stock governor has 41g arms and inner weights of 11g each for a total of 22g. The 1-2 shift is 4500rpm and the 2-3 shift is 4800rpm
TH375 governor has 45g arms and inner weights of 11g + 5g for a total of 16g. The 1-2 shift is 5400rpm and the 2-3 shift is 6000prm.
 
Discussion starter · #309 ·
On another note, more test runs today and I am liking the torque converter. I have a brake stall at 2700rpm.

I replaced the Lokar tranny dipstick from the trans mount style to the firewall mount style. This is so much better!

I also did another break-in period oil change. I had a conventional 5w-20w in there and the oil pressure was low at times. I switched to a conventional 10w-30w oil.

I also inspected the inside of the oil pan with a remote camera snake and this worked great. Evertthing is stll connected and I did not see any problems. When I called Blueprint motors last week they did advise that the oil pressure sensor should be relocated from the back of the block to the port just above the oil filter housing. Once I realized that I put 5w-20w in there this makes sense. This was a recommended oil weight, but so is the 10w-30.
 
Discussion starter · #310 ·
Ok, I nailed it today. On the fourth attempt to adjust the governor wieghts and springs I was able to get the shift points right where I wanted them. The 1-2 shift is at 5400rpm and the 2-3 shift point is at 5600rpm.

I can really feel the power difference by letting the engine rev up to 5400rpm off the line. The previous shift at 5200 just felt too early.

I made a video today demonstrating the shifts in a trial run.

 
Discussion starter · #311 ·
I took a long drive yesterday and today to and from work. The car is really dialed in right now. So stoked!
 
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Discussion starter · #312 ·
I should change the thread name from Lots of Modern Modz to Chasing Problems. Haha.

I replaced the Hedman Headers to some Sanderson Headers. I also gave up on the wrap and went with a Ceramic Black coating. These headers were recommended by BluePrint Engines for better clearance over the spark plugs. They were right. These are perfect and really heavy and well built. I also got the clearance I was after over the spark plugs.

The other cool feature of the Sanderson is that they require no gaskets at hte cylinder head. They use RTV silicone. The collectors are only 2.5" which also makes it easier to fit next to the firewall.

I also switched the spark plug wire boots from the standard gray, fat MSD boots to the MSD high temp boots. These are also low profile.

So the new problems are:

1. I still have a small oil leak and it looks like it is coming from the valve covers. I think my studs are too large so when I crank down the wing nuts they bottom out. they are tight, but the treads are too long and I think I dont have enough torque on the valve covers so they leak. Working on a solution.

2. After the motor was installed I noticed the oil pan had a big dent in it and the paint wore off and was exposing bare metal. The shop pointed out that the engine is sitting too low and this is the reason teh pan is hitting the crossmember. So, I need to find a way to lift ht emotor up higher. I just added new motor mounts, but I think the problem is worse. So, I need to talk with the shop and see what we can do to shim the mounts or replace them to somthing that raises the motor up about 1/2".


I went out for a test run today at 5000ft. A little lower then Flagstaff. My best time ever at 14.15s 1/4mile with a 0-60 in 5.95s and speed of 97.47 mph. I'm getting close to 13s. I may be at 12s at sea level. Soooo, happy with performance right now.

Here are some photos to share.




Sanderson Headers Install-1
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Sanderson Headers Install-2
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Sanderson Headers Install-3
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Sanderson Headers Install-4
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Sanderson Headers Install-5
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Sanderson Headers Install-6
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Sanderson Headers Install-7
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Dragy-8
Light Blue Azure Font Screenshot
 
Discussion starter · #314 ·
Are your spark plug wire guide covers providing a longer contact to spread the load on the valve cover hold downs?
yes. Plus I have some spreaders on the top too.
 
Discussion starter · #315 ·
So, I identified a couple more problems. The oil was low when I got the car back and the dipstick was in a weird position with teh new headers. I added a quart of oil and when I checked today it was still low. So, I added another quart. Still no oil residue on teh dipstick. Oil pressure was fine so I drove home. When back in the garage I discovered that the dipstick was out of the block a solid 3".

Well, I needed to check everythinf out and install the new Blue Moroso valve cover gaskets. So, I pulled the spark plug looms out of hte way and removed the valve covers. This gave me better room to see that the bolt holding the dipstick could be turned by hand. This is one of the header bolts too. I had about 250 miles on the car so I like to check all the hedder torques. Everything was totally loose. So, I repositioned the dipstick into the correct position and torqued all the headder bolts.

I moved on to the valve cover gaskets. The Blue Moroso have a steel core and they are not designed for valve covers with a lip. I did not know what I had, but when I got it all apart, it had a lip. The gaskets don't fit without bending. So, I trimmed the ends and bolt sections to make them fit. I will post pics later. This turned out well, unless it still leaks. I also replaced 2 studs on each side. 2 were perfect and two were too long for each side. So, now I shoudl be able to get them sealed without leaking.

I am about 1.5 Qt overfilled now that i got everythig working properly. I can't wait to go out for a long drive tomorrow and I hope all the oil leaks have stopped.
 
Discussion starter · #316 ·
Here are those photos

The Moroso Blue gaskets are amazing. They are reusable and feature a steel core. So, they are rigid too. I have these on my tranny pan, oil pan and now valve cover gaskets. They are also about 1/8" thicker than th eblack rubber gaskets.

Blue Gas Engineering Automotive tire Machine



Another coparison. The black gaskets are flimsy in comparison.

Blue Light Wood Automotive exterior Gas




The Edelbrock Racing covers have lips and the Moroso gaskets are not designed for these style of valve covers. I did not know it when I made the purchase, so rather than returning, it was time for a simple mod. You can see here that the gasket is too log and bends when each end is inside the lip region.
Hood Blue Automotive tire Motor vehicle Wood



I used a metal grinder to take some material off of each end so the gasket fit inside the lip as seen here. There is also a lip on one long edge, so that required grinding off a small amount of material around the bolt holes on one side. The gasket fits great.
Tire Wheel Automotive tire Boat Blue



Perfect fit with a mod.
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I cleaned up the edges. These gaskets do not require any messy sealant and they do not slide. Perfect fit.
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Unlike the rubber gaskets, these will not move when trying to install them. All teh holes line up perfectly.
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I also changed the studs to be a little shorter so the wing bolts did not bottom out. This is why I was leaking before. The wingnuts were all teh way tight before there was enough pressure on the gasket to apply a proper seal.
Motor vehicle Hood Automotive design Automotive air manifold Automotive exterior
 
Discussion starter · #317 ·
The other problem I am chasing is some significant denting on the oil pan. I was told this was caused by the crossmember. I called BluePrint Engines to ask if this was a common occurance and they helped me troubleshoot the problem. They thought the problem was likely caused by the upgaraded suspension and lowering the car. They suspected the steering linkage was likely causing this damage. They were right.

Both sides of the pan have some damage, but the driver side seems to have a little more.
Tire Wheel Car Vehicle Automotive tire



Here is a good angle to see when the car is lifted and the wheels fully extend the steering linkage hits the pan. When teh wheels are on teh ground there is about 1/4" of clearance.
Hood Automotive tire Motor vehicle Vehicle Automotive design


The solution is to replace the pan or add motor mount shims to move the motor further away by about 3/8" to 1/2". Changin the pan will likely cost a lot more so I am leaning towards the shims.
Vehicle Automotive fuel system Tire Automotive lighting Automotive tire
 
Discussion starter · #318 ·
So The shop was too busy for my car today to add shims to the motor mounts. So, I was bored and decided to give it a try. Uggh! What a pain the the butt. It is really hard to line up the holes after adding a 5/8" shim stack. I managed to get the passenger side lined up and I have two bolts in there that are loose. Any suggestions on how I can line up the other side. It seems like the motor is backwards about 1/2". I have the tranny mount loose but all the other connections are still in tact. I was thinking of starting the motor to see if it self aligns, but that sounds like a recipe for disaster. I was also thinking about using a pry bar at the back of the motor on the driver side.

Any thoughts?
 
Discussion starter · #320 ·
that's a good idea. the tranny mounts are loose already, but if i loosen or remove the big bolt from the body mount that may give me more movement. i also thought about mounting the plate with shims to the motor then try positioning it into place with just one bolt alignment to do.
 
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