Project: Over My Head

[yossarian19]

Picked at it. Stretched my starter wire to reach, fixed a ground (bolt securing it to block was bottomed out, found a shorter bolt), ordered parts to finish my air intake. Still need to get some more battery cable lugs & ring terminals to finish the starter wiring, then I'll be "done" with engine management.

[yossarian19]

Got some electrical parts at the store, made my B+ to starter wire, installed. Made it to the midwife's meeting & did a bunch of homework. Now onwards to class...
Should be able to crank & fire by Friday, if my last air intake piece comes.

[yossarian19]

Got the air intake parts in the mail today, so during a brief lull in a busy day I plumbed the the filter and MAF in. I still need to come up with a brace to support the intake, but I've got a couple ideas for it. I'll probably switch filters at some point, too.

Once it's supported, I'm calling it done.

[yossarian19]

In spare moments over the last couple days, I've gotten the air intake supported & had the radiator fixed. It was a much cheaper mistake than I'd thought - only $20 to get it holding water again. So I put the radiator back in place & put proper, barbed hose connections in my custom lower radiator hose (in place of the cheap, straight bits of thin walled pipe) and called that section "done" again.
I think I'll be winding up with a dual electric fan setup but am leaving it alone until I've thought about it a bit more.
So that leads me to "exhaust" as my next project. Got flanges, gaskets & hardware on hand. Now for pipes...

[akdg87]

summit has some proform 12" fans that pull fairly good cfm and will fit between your water pump and radiator, they are 50 bucks each and move some serious air. I used them with my build

[Kim57]

Sounds like you're getting close.
Kim

[yossarian19]

Hmmm.
Cranks, sputters, doesn't start. Has fuel to the rails.
I suspect the gas I put in it has sat long enough to be gumming injectors. I'm hoping thats it, anyway. Always suspicious of the harness after all the cutting & splicing I've done but we'll see.
I'm not putting an exhaust in it in the driveway, so it's got to get moving at least a few feet before progress continues.

[ricott]

A quick was to narrow your problem would be to put a little gasoline in a spray (409/windex) bottle Open the throttle blade on the intake and pump a few wisps of gas in the intake. Then try and start. If it is injectors, the gas in the intake should start the motor and it will run until the gas is consumed. We've done this on several LS motors where we didn't have the fuel system plumbed yet, but wanted to here it run. Good luck, you are so close.

[yossarian19]

Well, I got my first decent clue -
I'd had somewhat inconsistent compression noise and the occasional cough of a cylinder fire but the quality of the noise didn't make an impression until looking back.
I eventually lost compression while cranking - the motor speed increased greatly and I heard a nice even whirr.
So, I fuel-washed the cylinders & lost compression - fairly sure.
Tomorow I'll put a few squirts of oil in each cylinder through the spark plug holes, reinstall plugs, pull the fuel pump relay & crank a bit. When I'm sure it's all good and mixed, I'll reinstall the relay and pray like hell.
Heck, I might even pull out the compression gauge and timing light (to check for spark, not to time it) if I'm feeling froggy.

[yossarian19]

...saga continues.
I pulled the plugs and all 8 were fuel fouled to some degree. Cleaned the plugs with a brass brush & brake clean, put a few squirts of oil into each cylinder, pulled the fuel relay & spun the engine over a few times. Compression was / is restored. Ate lunch, went out, installed relays & tried to jump start it. No joy - but plenty of oil smoke. Confirmed spark on the front two cylinders of the driver's bank & decided to let the starter cool down.
So, I've got fuel & I've got spark and compression sounds good. Still no fire. I think I may have gone too heavy on the oil? Not sure if that would stop it from running but I don't know what else to think just now. Any ideas?

[Russell Ashley]

Have you tried starting fluid (ether)? If the engine doesn't have some kind of mechanical issue ether will usually make it start and run for a few seconds.

[yossarian19]

Tried brake-clean, which I've seen work just as well. Got a single backfire (clue?) and nothing else. This was before I cleaned the plugs. Thinking a new set of copper plugs gapped .060 may cure this.

[yossarian19]

Established that the battery (been mostly sitting over the last 9 months) was NFG, swapped battery from my daily driver into the truck & still no start. Hell, I even lost cranking after about 10 seconds. I can hear the starter relay kick on but not the solenoid. So I'm pretty disgusted with the project just now. I don't have time, money or interest for this.
Maybe in a few weeks.

[FarmerSid]

Go have a beer and clear your head. I bet it's your starter. Are you up for pulling it out and taking it apart?

[yossarian19]

Sure enough, starter solenoid is bad. It was replaced at a local electrical rebuild shop just a few months back. Now power is applied & it's dead.
I've still got a no-start condition to sort out but hey, if it was easy there wouldn't be a reward to it.

[dmack91]

Glad to see you stuck with it.

[iowaboynca]

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” -Greg Anderson

[yossarian19]

Originally Posted by iowaboynca

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” -Greg Anderson

With that in mind, as well as my sometimes mantra "first thing's first"...
Called the electric shop. They said "bring it in!"
They took it apart and said two things. First was "Oh. My fault. I apologize" and then asked "Have you been having to crank it a lot?"

Turns out that the starter motor had gotten hot enough to melt the solder at the brush connections. Since the solenoid grounds through the brushes, it was dead as a fish : no solenoid action and if the solenoid worked, the motor wouldn't.

So they put a new brush pack in, free of charge, and I learn something : duty cycle on a starter motor is about 15 seconds from every 2.5 minutes. I really should have known that.

So, with my starter fixed & reinstalled (and a free T shirt from the shop, since I'm a good customer and they want to make me happy) I look under hood and think for a second.

Hmm. Remember the two coil leads? And how neither one came out the length I thought it would? I wonder....

Swapped the coil leads, touch the starter button & WHAM it's running immediately. I had to laugh.. actually laughing at myself as I type this...
The harness only works if you plug it in right.

So I had spark & fuel, but I had spark so far out of sync with the pistons that it was a miracle I got the coughs and sputters that I did.
Now I just need a fresh battery in it and I'm good to go, drive it into the garage and start on an exhaust.

Quick list of lessons learned:
1.) leave the labels on the wires until the engine runs
2.) Duty cycle for a starter - no more than 15 seconds per couple minutes. They get HOT
3.) Calm down already
4.) You totally *could* plug everything in on the wrong side
5.) Seriously, Tom (my name), calm down.

[dmack91]

Cool. I am always willing to admit that I screwed up, especially if it is only associated with a minimal cost instead of damaging something major from my errors.

You will be driving it in no time (should feel good to just be able to get it moved into the garage under it's own power).

[yossarian19]

Well, it's back in the garage. Some jerk cut the OE rear engine cross member but didn't knock all the rivets out & make a clean job of it. The nubs left behind have got to go before I can get an exhaust past the 4L60E. So I ground off & airhammered out a few rivets just now, maybe half a dozen to go.
Have to eat something before I go to class, so no more grinding for now. A bit relieved, honestly.

[yossarian19]

Pics later today, I think. I've got a couple lab reports to do and theoretically somebody is coming by with a Land Cruiser that leaks oil faster than it burns gas.
I'm spending the morning, though, starting in on exhaust : which first means burning the engine / trans cross members into position. This whole time they've just been floating in place, a good 3/4" side-side adjustment still available & the trans pointing well south of the carrier bearing.
Those guys that can weld on their backs inside a 2 foot pipe, fresh air being pumped to them? They earn every penny of that $35 / 40 an hour. I'm on my back under the truck and finding it enough of a challenge.

[yossarian19]

Here we go...

The news here is that I'm beginning to see where / how I can route the exhaust, I bought my first few bits of pipe for it, cleared some vestigal bits of cross member off the frame & welded the trans cross member to get the trans pointed in the right direction.
I'm still a bit shy about my welds - when they start looking good, I'll start posting the pictures
Probably this Tuesday I'll start tacking the exhaust together if I'm not buried under school work already.

[yossarian19]

Got the first bits of exhaust tacked in place. Pretty awkward trying to tack things lying under the car. Once I'm convinced it's all tacked correctly I'll have to drop it to get decent welds. Finnesse with the grinder as well as welding skills are improving. Fun is being had (and my school work is somehow getting done)

[Kim57]

Sounds like you're making good progress.
Kim

[dmack91]

Sounds like you are getting closer by the day.

What size pipe did you end up going with and what type of mufflers? Just curious.