Project No-Flight Update
January 2012
Did you think the project had died, or maybe I had? The project was pretty close to death, having only gotten a few days here and there before getting too frustrated to continue and going back into cold (literally) storage. I went back to
the website and was amazed to find that 10 YEARS! had elapsed on this thing. Hoping that it is opening a new chapter, here's what has been going on over the last year.
Brakes: I spent months and many days of frustration trying to do the simplest task, getting the brakes to work. I'd bleed the brakes, but they would always take multiple pumps to get any pressure. I'd check all the liens were tight, bleed them again, get frustrated at my incompetence, and put it back on the shelf for another month or 3. Talking with a friend at work (who raced a Porsche 911) I finally decided to take another look at the brake calipers I had installed. I put on a set of Wilwood aluminum GM-metric calipers. Wilwood makes good parts so I kept telling myself it couldn't be the calipers, and it only sort of was. The Wilwood calipers have a very slightly different inlet and bleeder location. They (obviously) work fine on normal GM spindles, however I also installed a set of 2" dropped spindles, which rotated the calipers back just enough that the Wilwood bleeder location now created a very small air pocket in the top of the (rotated) caliper. I switched to a set if IMCA GM metric race calipers, which have the bleeder in the stock location, and Eureka, the first time I bleed the brakes they actually worked.
ECM: Feeling inspired that I finally had brakes (and was able to cycle the trans through the gears with the car up on the lift and verify that the brakes actually stopped the wheels). I went back to trying to see what I was competent enough to try with cleaning up the fast and rich idle.
Unfortunately, I had changed laptops and could no longer talk to the ECU. This started the next cycle of months of on and off frustration, including some emails with ACCEL before finally re-stumbling on the particular combination that made my laptop, USB/RS232 adapter, and ECU all play nice with each other. By then it was cold, and I didn't want to work outside and couldn't run the car inside, so another many months elapsed (mainly due to the boat running and spending all summer out on the water).
7Jan
Well, today was the very unusual 65 degree January day. The boat is in storage and I had
strangely become interested in working on the car again. So...
ECU: Continuing where I had left of, I again had upgraded my laptop and once again my new laptop would not talk with the ECU. I had the same USB/RS232 adapter and setting, but the new laptop runs Win 7, not XP. After trying a half dozen things I went upstairs and got my
old laptop (still runs, just overheats). Like magic (after the many long minutes of time for the system to reboot and update itself from sitting for months) the laptop and the ECU once again exchanged greetings and
began displaying the current status. I fired the car (needed to prime the injection directly the first time but it started up fine on subsequent runs). Once the motor warmed up I set the ECU to fixed timing and got the timing light hooked up to see how close the TLAR distributor positioning was. You set the initial distributor position by setting the motor to zero degrees and watching the lights inside the distributor housing. It was close enough to run, but the timing light showed it was about 15 degrees retarded to what the computer thought it was. After a few minutes of struggle I advanced the distributor to match the ECU, you can set the ECU to fixed timing which makes that part of the task possible. You can't use a normal distributor wrench since with the Hilborn manifold I had to move the distributor collar up to get the oil pump shaft to engage so you can't get a closed wrench over the top of the nut, only reaching around, thru, and under all the plumbing, wiring etc with a
shortly open end wrench can you actually reach the nut.
Now that the motor was warmed, and the ignition advanced to where the computer thought it was, the car would not idle below 2500 RPM. Argh, isn't that where I had left off a year ago?
Shortening the time sequence so you don't run out of beer before finishing my story... I eventually found the high idle was due to one mis-aligned throttle plate. I loosened and rest all of them, re-adjusted the left to right throttle shaft linkage and the trans linkage, and finally got the car to idle around 1000 RPM where it was told to (the ECU idle for this cam and motor combo was set to 900 RPM by the guy who did the electronic conversion of the Hilborn manifold for me). In the (very long) interval from when I got the ECU and now, I had managed to come across a pre-set ECU file for a 500 HP 383 ci 36# injector setup. I
transferred the ignition, VE, and target AF ratio tables from the found program into my ECU. The car would now idle at a reasonable RPM, and with the ECU set to closed loop fueling "just" get to it's desired O2 sensor feedback by using almost but not quite all of it's "available" adjustment range (-20 on fuel, it max's at -25).
I've got many things left to do, but it seems like a hill has been crested. Still on the list:
install the rear window - I had planned to use a Lexan piece, but I broke the one I had molded while trying to trim it to size, so am leaning to using the "real Corvette part" I have (and hoping it doesn't kill my No Flight scoring potential).
do an end-to-end bolt check - everything has been on and off so many times I forgot what is tight/locked/cotter-pinned and what isn't so want to do a bumper to bumper check.
get plates - still need to run to a title and tag place and see if they can approve my vintage 65 plates and transfer the title to Historic so I can use them.
seek professional help - for the car (though by now I could probably use some too) to really set the ECU correctly. The couple things I managed to finally accomplish are pretty much the limit of my knowing what to change and in what order to do any more detailed tuning. I have a dyno tune gift certificate I got from my wife Christmas 2010, so I think it's time to finally use it.
Maybe, just maybe, I'll actually get the car running before my daughter graduates, keeping the "promise" I made so many years ago when I thought it would be a no-brainer ... she graduates June 2013
8Jan
Had my brother in law Craig come over to help and went through the end to end
bolt check to tighten, Loc-Tite and replace some setup bolts and nuts with
high-grade bolts and locks. Warmed the engine and the idle was still too
high. Took advantage of the hot engine to set the valve lash (it's a
mechanical roller) and then while cooling re-set the throttle blades and all the
linkages. Idled much better, probably at least part due to the lash
setting. So ... backed it out of the driveway and hit the
streets! Only went down the block and back. Took a video
but Craig's camera ran out of memory and didn't save it so will have to try a
video again next time. It will spin the tires at the slightest hit of the
throttle, even with the locker. May have a little much gear in (4.86) it
for street tires. Couple of pics from Craig's i-phone.
Heard an unidentified sound in the right rear when going down the street. Think it may be the brake rotors setting in as they have the typical surface rust from sitting so many years and the pads have never been used before so aren't seated. Anyway decided to just turn around and come home. Quick look underneath didn't show witness marks from rubbing, but was too tired to really go over closely so put it away for the day. The interior panel between the rear wheel wells is removeable, so will pull it and have someone ride along on the next test to see if we can track the sound down.
14 Jan
Well, I found the sound in the right rear. My rear uses race
axles with bolt-in wheel studs. I'm using standard Explorer disk brakes with
drum e-brakes in the rear. There wasn't "quite" enough clearance
between the e-brake actuation lever and the back of the lug bolts since the bolt
heads are taller than press-in studs would be. It would hit on the raised grade
marking bars on one lug and "ring" the metal e-brake backing plate! I
ground in a bit of clearance on the e-brake actuator arm so hope that one is
closed.
My hubcaps came, I'm using 67 style "Disk Brake Equiped" caps on the
rallys. I like the stealth look 
Another interference was the dust caps on my non-corvette front hubs/rotors
sticks out further than stock so the caps wouldn't seat tight. I had to
"dome" the inside of the caps behind the Disk Brake logo covers. The
front caps were also a touch loose (they are repro rallys) so I had to slightly
expand the circumference of the latching lip to get a snug fit. The rears have
the opposite problem, they fit on fine but finding a way to take them back off
took some hunting through the tool bin. Since they are so deep in the 12"
wide rear wheels it's hard to get anything in to pop them off. Finally found
that one of my pry bars was long enough to pop the cap back off if you give it a
good quick hit. It's hard to get a picture in the garage, will have to
wait till it's outside to get a good overall view.
After looking for possible closer alternatives I finally went ahead and mounted the coolant overflow tank the only place I could find space, to the left of the radiator. It makes for a long run to the expansion tank which is in the right-rear of the engine compartment (the highest place I could put it) but it will have to do. It really shouldn't be pumping any coolant to there if it is running right.
28 January: It's Alive
Did some more fiddling with the EFI. I used the "autocal" function to let it find a VE value for a couple of rpm points at idle and then did a little smoothing to locally blend it in far enough to get it to idle without smoking (Yea!!). Not perfect, but close enough for another attempt at a trip around the block.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usf9cpwd9aU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsli2DffiIo
It still goes way rich when you come off the throttle back to idle which I have to figure out which setting controls. I also discovered that the software version in my ECU doesn't seem to support the torque converter lockup, so will have to chase a solution to that too.
I still need to work on the throttle linkage, I think I need to use a longer throttle arm to get more travel so it isn't so sensitive and will give a smoother return to idle. If you snap the throttle shut it goes back to idle RPM, if I ease it back slowly it wants to stay a couple hundred RPM too high. The ECU may be doing some of that too with the IAC, I couldn't find the active IAC position when I had it running to see what it was doing so have to search through the software control panels for that.
While it was out it was also time for some more up to date pictures.
Here is No Flight pretending to be a "stock" 65 Corvette!
And a few more current shots.
Coming down the driveway before I bent the front license plate mount, it was too low to clear the step going into our garage. I'll have to figure out a different mount location or at least raise the current one.
Time for the adrenalin to stop and take a break!
