I fired it up tonight, and things are really looking up. The DArt is not just a garage sculpture anymore! It fires right off now that the fuel rail is not losing it's prime. It ran really smoothly. It idled well. It felt good, with smooth throttle response. This kind of surprised me since I am now running basically with the ACcel default configuration that the Calmap untility programed in the ECU based on engine size, compression, etc. I had none of the backfiring, and missing that I experienced before. I dont; know if it is because of the NGK plugs, or the smoother intake tubing, or the reconfigured tuning, or the re-configured fueling. It is probably a combination of all of these things. In short it was a wonderful feeling.

It feels like it will be considerably stronger now. I could not do a power run because I have not done any tuning on it, and I can feel preignition coming on very early. I have a preignition gauge, and it was lighting up with little effort. So either timing, or fuel must be adjusted.

I could not get it to idle slow enough. It idled about 600 rpm faster with the same throttle setting and same timing. I ran out of adjustment at 1000rpm, so I will have to modify the throttle stop to allow it to close a little more. I will look for leaks somewhere first. The vacuum gauge was not working, so maybe that got unhooked.

I am unsure of where to go from here in the tuning. Here is what is happening. The narrow band O2 sensor seems to read OK until it gets down to about .35 volts, and then it drops off the chart, and goes down to .1 volt. At this time, the wide band gauge, which is suspect as well, is giving me readings of 16-17:1. When I am cruising down the road, if I get into a mode where the wide band gauge reads 14.5 or so, then the narrow band one reads .45 volts. This makes sense, and they confirm each other, but on the lower end of the scale, things go haywire. Neither seems to respond to changes in the VE table very readily. It does not make much sense to do much tuing until I get some idea if my O2 readings are believable. I wonder if running rich before damaged them.

I pulled a plug, and it was white.

The thing is, Eli scared me when he said I had enough fuel before to power a 500HP v-8. So I am leary to start riching things up until I understand what to do about these O2 sensors and gauges, if it is even needed.

Thanks to all for tolerating my whining, and complaining, and for all the wonderfull advice I got from the members. I owe this early indicator of success to all of you guys! I have been leaving the keys in it since it would not run, I had no fear of it getting stolen. Now I have to bring the keys with me, and hang e them in a safe place away from the car.

A year ago I was offered $9500 for the Dart with MEga Squirt ECU. I sold my "95 Corvette instead. I must say, that with all the blind alleys, and dead ends I seemed to run down with this car since, there were times when I wished I had kept the Corvette, and sold the Dart. I don;t feel that way tonight! Thanks again for the support.

Sam

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Congrats to ya Sam!

Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a bus.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Good to hear, Sam. Drive it down to Blacksburg and we'll tune it up and build me a motor on a weeekend!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Huzzah!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

.1v narrow band O2 is about 16-17:1................So they are in agreement......

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Thanks Emsvitil. That is the info I need to start tuning.
Slantzilla, I hope the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train! Lou, That sounds like a plan. I need to drive it a bit to get my confidence back in the car, but it felt last night like I could have driven it anywhere. It did not die once, and it fired everytime, immediately to start. Thanks for the spark plug tip Dan,(and the extended tip rotor is in there).

The only slightly alarming moment came when something I had dropped down on the rear exhaust manifold burned off. My brother spotted it while I had my head buried in the lap top. I never did determine what it was. It might have been oil, or grease, or maybe a chunk of wire insulation. It slowly just smoked it's way out of there, and was gone after about 5 minutes of idling. Actually looked king of cool; like some evil demon had come to live back there.

Just to recap what was changed as an assist for those working on their projects: Before I changed these things, it was completely undrivable.

1. The fuel pressure regulator would not hold the prime in the fuel rail after the pump stopped its prime cycle. Hence, very hard starting, if at all, and who knows where the pressure went during operation. I added a remote pressure gauge to discover this fact. BTW, no fuel smell in the pass compartment now.
2. Changed from a blind, dead-end fuel rail to a flow through with the regulator after the rail in the circuit.

3. Changed plugs to NGK's recommended by Dan.

4. Reconfigured inter cooler with bigger tubes in and out. Went from a set up with restrictions as small as 1.5" to a clear 2.25" in, and 2.5" out. Got rid of all factory style connector hoses and replaced them with good silicone connectors. Had new tubes welded into intercooler. Old ones were 1.75" diameter.

5. Started over with Elis's fresh global reconfiguration of all the trim tables, VE tables, and spark tables. It is clearly not set up for turbo use as the spark is up there at 25 degees clear into boost. I think it should drop down to about 15, and maybe less.

I am thinking about water injection to cool things down further, but that is a ways off I suppose. We'll see how it runs without it first. The problem with automatic knock control, which is available is that once pre-ignition starts, you have to back out about ten degrees to get it to go away, even though the addition of one degree was all that started it. It is best to get it right.


Do the white plugs agree with 16-17:1? I looked on the spark plug reading links which were posted here some time back, and they are all about drag racing, which I cannot do yet.

Maybe it is time to put the grill back in. I must mount the horns on the bumper brackets first, as I am completely out of room under the hood. There is something else pretty much everywhere. Thanks again.

Between al the new hoses, tubes, regulator, remote fuel gauge, and professional welding, I spent about $1000 in the last year, which is not too bad since it now runs, and $1000 in a year is not too bad for a hobby. Of course I have other hobbies.

Sam

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Congratulations! Tuning is going to be a lot easier with all your systems working now - fighting a bad regulator is not fun.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

How about some pictures?

Always curious to see how things go together.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

I don't have a server location for photos. This signature spot is courteousy of one of our fine members who offered to keep this particular photo on his server for me. I hate to ask again. I need to find out how to get a server location my self so I can post photos as I wish. Anyone who would like, I can e-mail photos. Just send me an e-mail and I will mail you some photos back in return.

It's not particualr tidy looking right now, as I unwrapped all the wiring harnesses to check out the wiring, and have yet to get them covered back up.
Sam

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I'm happy to see you're coming thru with your efi dart. If you want I can host them photos for you. Send the images to juancaino at gmail dot com (sorry this avoids smapper bots) and I'll host them permanently for you. Remember to send 20Mb attachements batchs.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

spammer bots

(and a tad of early morning blues)

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

Ah, that's makes more sense.

Hey Sam, you could also use Photobucket.com, if you were concerned about imposing on someone. It's free to register, doesn't cost anything to use and it's easy to link pictures from. There might me others (and better ones) but it's works for me so far.

Just a thought.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

I will look into that. My niece has her photos posted on a photobucket page. I'll ask her how she did that. Thanks for the tip.
Sam

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