My '85 MGM, "Maisa"

[Arquemann]

Damn! I'll continue to look around to see if anything is helpful. You do have a standard '85 GM, right?

Yeah, nothing special. Body side of the connector comes from the ignition switch and the other side of the connector is a part of the engine harness. I'm not sure but the connector might be "C951" or "C452".

[Arquemann]

We have considerable progress today!

-New upper rad hose, heater hoses and heater valve installed, fancy new stainless clamps mostly.
-Heater valve vacuum connection is awfully sloppy and loose, ziptied tight for now. Does the heater valve have an independent thermostat or does it use the engine harness' sensor or the temp switch?
-Finished fuel lines for now (temporary gauge installed)
-PCV and vacuum advance lines done, used a 90° fitting on the PCV line since the Holley's hose barb points the wrong way.
-Fuel pump relay relocated to a smarter spot.
-Adjusted the distributor by eye to be about where the old one was.
-Reinstalled plug wires, not yet done nicely or anything.

After I finished up the fuel setup, I pressurized the system and let the fuel pump run for a while. Regardless of the mess of hoses and shitty hose clamps, I only had a minor leak from one of the fuel bowl bolts. Snugged it up and no more leaks, which was somewhat of a surprise. Front bowl float level is pretty spot on, a touch above the middle of the sight glass, rear bowl float level is down a bit, to be adjusted later.
A bit of an inconvenience being the fact that my gauge doesn't show anything for fuel pressure... Dunno if it's the awkwardly long hose of the gauge that's causing it or what. Obviously the pressure isn't too high since the float bowls didn't flood, but I have no clue how low it is either. The gauge should've atleast moved a bit. A single retailer of the pressure regulators says the factory set pressure is 5 PSI, which would be enough. Factory high pressure pump definitely flows enough either way.

Fuel in an unknown used carb: check
Bastard ignition copied from a hand-drawn diagram: check
Heater and rad hoses in place so what's left of the coolant doesn't spurt out: check
Plugged vacuum sources: check

The starter struggled a bit at first since the battery terminal was just slapped on, but HOT DAMN SHE FIRED RIGHT UP! And stayed running!
The choke was set on a bit aggressive, but I manually clicked it off and kept it running by modulating the throttle. Without throttle it would stall, obviously, so I don't think I have vacuum leaks.
I have no idea on the idle mixture, timing or anything else really, but she actually idled and responded well to a bit of throttle.
Didn't run it for too long since there's barely any coolant in it, but enough for it keep idling without choke. Minty!

Tomorrow I'll get coolant in it, get the base timing set and hopefully start getting the idle tuned. Got my AEM wideband in the mail, which I'll also figure out to install tomorrow.
I won't be hardwiring / installing the wideband as a permanent fixture, I'll install it for as long as I need for tuning the engine. The factory O2 sensor spot is on the manifold, which goes against AEM's recommendations on sensor placement, as it should be further away from the exhaust ports. It will most likely just affect longevity, so I can just take off the sensor when I'm done and also won't have to have a gaudy gauge in my car.


Overall, the engine bay isn't too far off from my vision, gold valve covers definitely worked out better than the other option of Ford Blue. Doesn't look too far from what could be imagined as OEM. Still a lot of tidying up to do aswell as actual cleaning. The factory coil & bracket kinda bum me out. Maybe a Pertronix and basic barrel coil at some point?

[DerekTheGreat]

It looks good under there. I always liked the look of the CFI cars from underhood, as they've got the old school round air cleaner and what not. The starter hesitating upon initial crank could also be a sign of the timing being too advanced, but you'll work that out.

I wonder if all those loose/sloppy vacuum connections and the initial loose intake manifold were the reasons why the thing didn't run right with the CFI stuff installed.

[Arquemann]

It looks good under there. I always liked the look of the CFI cars from underhood, as they've got the old school round air cleaner and what not. The starter hesitating upon initial crank could also be a sign of the timing being too advanced, but you'll work that out.

I wonder if all those loose/sloppy vacuum connections and the initial loose intake manifold were the reasons why the thing didn't run right with the CFI stuff installed.

Yeah, the round air cleaner is quite important to me
The vacuum connection I mentioned in the post above was plugged a long time ago, and I achieved a point where I couldn't any more vacuum leaks. A loose intake manifold could've been a cause for some problems, though I had insanely good manifold vacuum. Either way the CFI is gone now, and I'm actually not that annoyed about not finding an obvious cause for the issues.

[DerekTheGreat]

I wouldn't be annoyed with it either. While I like CFI, I didn't find it to be sophisticated at all. It's trash if it doesn't employ an IAC valve...

[matth825]

Sweet! Have you gotten the TV rod hooked up yet?


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[Arquemann]

Sweet! Have you gotten the TV rod hooked up yet?


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Not yet, first gotta tune the idle, since it may need adjusting the idle screw and therefore changes the position of the rod.
I do have the TV bushing in place on the carb linkage though.

[sly]

Hopefully that's one of the "if the TV rod falls off the trans goes full pressure" versions and not the "if the TV rod falls off it roasts everything in the trans due to no pressure" versions. I'm used to the later EFI stuff that had the no pressure without a little TV tension transmissions. I don't know if it's detrimental in park/neutral, but definitely don't put in gear if the pressure is low.

[Arquemann]

Since I can't really follow any OEM specific TV adjustment procedures, I've gotta go by the pressure. What I've seen is basically 0-5 psi at idle and 80-90 psi at WOT. And fine tune from there by shift feel. Any objections?
The adjustment is done in neutral, can the WOT pressure be checked with moving just the TV rod or does the engine have to rev to the moon aswell?

[DerekTheGreat]

I tuned my '85 by shift feel. I had it shifting much like my '88 does before I sold it. Before it was all messed up and was slipping in 1st.

[Arquemann]

-Got the wideband installed, removed the ECM and recycled the firewall bracket to make a pass through for the wires.
-Literally just screw in the O2 sensor, two plugs into the gauge, a power and a ground wire and it's ready to rock, couldn't be easier.
-Initial timing set to right about 10° BTDC
-Idle mixture was almost spot on from my initial settings, leaned it out about a quarter turn and it's idling quite happily at 14,2-14,6 AFR.
-Didn't mess with the idle speed, sounds pretty good in Park, I quickly put it in reverse with the AC compressor kicked on and it didn't stall. It did go pretty low, but we'll see if it's too low when I get around to actually driving.
-Idles quite nice and responds to throttle really well, no bog or sputter.
-Driver side thermactor pipe cylinder head plug is a bit crooked and it leaks.

Gotta fix the small exhaust leak first, then I can get it on jackstands to start messing with the TV rod adjustment.
Hopeful to get the trans somewhat adjusted tomorrow, so I can go buy jets before weekend for primary/secondary tuning.

[matth825]

It sounds like everything is going to line up well with the TV so hopefully the adjusting goes smooth. Excited to see the project in the final stages.


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[Arquemann]

It sounds like everything is going to line up well with the TV so hopefully the adjusting goes smooth. Excited to see the project in the final stages.


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Talk about lining up lol. Currently the TV rod reaches the linkage when the throttle is wide open and the TV rod is almost at start of it's travel on the trans.
But it looks like there's a couple inches of rod adjustment at the trans, so I should be fine.

[Arquemann]

Got the thermactor plug rotated a bit, shouldn't leak anymore.

The stud on the carb linkage chafes the TV rod on the side. I squished the TV rod with pliers, it's better, it won't bind but it still scrapes a bit against the stud.
I'll fiddle with a little bit more tomorrow.

[gadget73]

if you make it full up at WOT you won't be grossly off the mark.

There is a factory thing where you use a drill bit of a size between the TV lever and the stop and set the pressure within a range at idle. Should be able to use that if you want to use some sort of factory setting but honestly if you tune by shift feel it'll be OK. So long as its not mushy and shifting way early it will be fine.