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Old 04-26-2011, 11:52 PM   #105
Beelzeburb
Devil's in the Details
 
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Southern Utah
Posts: 353
Beelzeburb: Part 37

Well, so far I've uncovered about a half dozen ways in which I can throw wooden shoes into my own machinery. Sabotage, get it?

Since completing the fuel filler neck (and cutting a hole in the column for a NSS which I didn't take any pictures of), I'd dumped about 2 gallons into the tank. After fiddling with the wiring a bit, the fuel pump now engages with the turning of the key like it should. Fuel gauge still doesn't register correctly but all the others work fine. The first time the pump powered up, there formed a rather sizable puddle of gasoline underneath. Turns out I just hadn't tightened the fitting on the “out” end of the fuel filter. Simple fix. With it wrenched down, the rest of the fuel system held pressure just fine. Not that the pump generates more than approx. 15 psi anyway.

Next fluid on the list to be checked was coolant. It was low about two gallons because I hadn't yet refilled the system after taking a shower from it a couple years ago (post #38). With the radiator topped up, I noticed a rivulet of green liquid trailing down the front of the block. Again, something else I'd only left finger tight for reasons unknown. The front most coolant temperature sensor (of three on this engine) only needed a smidgen of thread sealant and a little torquing to put an end to that leak. The other fluids looked good; oil and ATF were at acceptable levels and no other connections had dripped yet, so I was ready to start the engine and break it in. It didn't want to play my little game though.

So far I'd been able to run the engine one short burst at a time using starting fluid. Then even that stopped. Unphased, I began following the troubleshooting flowcharts in the Fuel & Emissions Supplement. After rigging up a temporary Service Engine Soon light, I knew that the ECM was getting power and could command a ground. The next items to check were the fuel injectors and their associated wiring. After balancing a test light precariously perched where I could see it while cranking the engine, it didn't flash. Flowchart A-4 told me the next step was to probe a purple/white wire on the distributor with a second test light to see if the first test light would flash momentarily. I thought something was fishy when none of the wires leading to the distributor were purple with a white stripe. After probing each of the connectors without the desired result, it was back to simply tracing the wiring and looking for faults or shorts. So I followed the purple/white wire from pin B5 on the ECM all the way down the harness, across the cabin, through the firewall, into the engine bay and finally to the IAC solenoid. I was quite sincerely desirous to know which GM engineer decided to make the IAC solenoid and distributor wiring connectors exactly the same dimensions. Cheerfully though, I swapped the two, glad to have found the culprit.

With a little more cranking of the starter, fuel began to squirt from the injectors which was a great victory. Now I had to figure out why the motor wasn't getting spark anymore. Surmising that having the wiring reversed might have fried the HEI module in the dizzy, I swapped it out with another. There happened to be an entire spare distributor on hand to liberate one from (not sure why I've got one, it was just there in my parts pile). That did the trick though, and the engine roared to life, running on gasoline for the first time. By now it was getting a little late in the evening and I didn't want to disturb my neighbors any more. Today though, well, I broke in the camshaft by running it at 2300-3300 rpm for nearly 20 minutes. I hadn't been paying attention to all of the gauges for a couple minutes and the coolant got a little above 200 degrees and began spewing out of the overflow (I'd ordered an overflow bottle from the Chevy dealership in town earlier today) onto the engine. The motor started stumbling, so I shut it off. No harm done to anything mechanical. Looks like it's time to finally hook up the auxiliary cooling fan though. Now the Suburban is close to being ready for a drive to the muffler shop to have a dual exhaust system bent up. On a side note, my sister stopped by today while I was in the middle of breaking it in. She later told me that she'd been a bit confused when exiting her car and had begun looking around for a low flying aircraft only to find me varying the throttle in my Suburban instead.

One second to last aside. That freshly re-tubed front driveshaft is the perfect length. No more splines sticking halfway out or fears of it coming apart when raising the front end with a floor jack (or coming out of a steep driveway).



Oh, and my transmission temperature code went away when I unplugged and replugged the connector. It's nice when fixes are simple like that. As it sits, there are no problem codes in the engine or transmission controllers, and the only wires that aren't hooked up are for dash warning lights. Those lights will include high beam indicator, brake warning, SES light, alternator/charge warning, cruise control engaged light and possibly a 4x4 indicator. Electrically, I'm basically done.
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'70 K10 Suburban - TBI 454, 4L80E, NP241C, Dana 60 & 44 - The 10+ Year Project Thread
Datsun 240Z, 510 2 door and an old Honda motorcycle

Last edited by Beelzeburb; 04-27-2011 at 01:23 PM.
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