Shreck's 6.0 build

[67shortie]

Umm, maybe

Not much to update, still waiting on parts. I did get my power brakes hooked up via a factory fitting that goes into the rear of the truck manifold and from there it's simple routing of a 3/8 hose to the booster.

It still wants to start and run but with no fuel pressure it does very shortly but it does run. Oil is in, filter on but I cannot tell what kind of oil pressure I have without my guage hooked up but by this afternoon my Summit order should be here. It is circulating, the oil has a pink hue to it from the assy lube on the bearings.

I hope to get in everything I need by tomorrow so I can continue, I am kind of worried about the exhaust, the SS manifolds may not working referencing to USMC's build. We will see.

[67shortie]

Parts came in, oil pressure adapter, pulse gen, fuel injection clamps, frame hose clamps, fuel pump and SS Trailblazer manifolds.

I am seeing 30lbs of cranking oil pressure, but it took a few cranks to get it there. When the engine starts for the milliseconds that it does the guage shows over 40 lbs

The SS manifolds worked

Well, not without a little grinder happy time. The drivers side bolted in without any issue except the heat shield needed trimming by the engine frame stand. The pass side engine stand needed a little taken off the top because the manifold would not sit all down where it needed to be. 10 min later it all bolted up and with the factory heat shields.

Admittedly, they are close to the stands and what I mean by close is less than 1/4". The only way around this cheaply would be to raise the engine a 1/4" and that would give ample space. I am going to leave them for now just to see if there is any knocking when the engine is running. If so, I will stick spacers between the mount and stand but overall I am very happy they bolted in there so money well spent ($50 used).

Next, off to fuel pump and lines.

No pics yet, I am not posting from home my internet decided it did not want to work the past 2 days and I do not know why yet.

[usmcchevy]

Glad the TBSS manifolds worked for you. I could get them to work on mine with a bunch of grinding, but with my 4L80e I'd have to cut the "wings" off the trans.....don't really want to do that.

[67shortie]

Are you looking at a header solution? I know the Thorleys work, but they are spendy. If I had the extra cash handy I would be bolting those in for sure though, very nice looking.

Picking a header/manifold was tough because of all the different ways to mount these engines in the frame. If one member had good fitment with the long tubes from the Camaro/sanderson shorties/A body header/F body manifolds etc, that may not be the case with the next guy because of a different mounting plate position and that was too much of a gamble for me to put the money out there not knowing for sure. If every mouting solution was the same, like a factory 350 for example, this would be much easier to figure out for the first timer but that unfortunately is not the case.

$50 for used manifolds was fine to take that chance, and I am very pleased they worked for my combo so I feel I got lucky.

[eagleuh1]

You get a pic of how they look installed yet? Interested, this may be the path I go with my next project.

[67shortie]

Got internet back

I do have a couple of pics of the manifolds installed, I tried to take detail but they may not show what you want so if you need to see something specific let me know and I will see if I can get the camara in there.

Tomorrow, I will be installing the fuel pump and lines, I hope to see the engine actually run on it's own for the first time which will be an exciting moment

Going to try to make time to roam around a wrecking yard for a few things too, I will keep everyone updated as I go along.

[5150.4.67]

I can almost smell the oily finger prints on the manifolds burning..........

[5150.4.67]

BTW, what are you using for a fuel tank?

[67shortie]

Originally Posted by 5150.4.67

BTW, what are you using for a fuel tank?

Stock Blazer tank, I installed my fuel pump and lines last night but stopped because the fuel rail has a leak at the manifold 'O' ring and it was after 10PM so I will fix it this morning. I did get 60lbs at the schrader valve, that was good to see.

I could not get under the truck very well to hard mount the new fuel line so I ended up using zip ties on the stock hard line until I get this thing on a lift where I can get to it. It's safe, but I don't like this long term. The pump is mounted to the frame right in front of the fuel tank.

It should run today, I need a truck coil from the local parts place and a couple of 'o' rings. I also placed my order for the TVmade easy from BTO yesterday so I hope by the end of the week I will be able to install it.

I also had my stock radiator fitted with a nipple so I can run my steam line post throttle body.

It's getting close

[67shortie]

Fixed the fuel leak, was the o ring in the return line. I did end up using a ring in a kit that I bought at NAPA this morning, the dealer wanted $37 for 3 rings, I decided to look for an alternative

OK, have 58lbs of steady pressure at the fuel rail and it's ready to start for the fisrt time and I'm a nervous wreck

Wish me luck, I will post back with either good news or bad news...

[VA72C10]

Hope we get a good report!!!

[spike38]

Good luck

Spike

[usmcchevy]

Good luck!!!!!

[67shortie]

It runs!

BUT I think I flodded it by turning on and off the key testing the fuel rail for leaks. It belched out black smoke like no tomorrow and the computer was hunting around trying to find a happy medium. Now it won't start, pulled a plug and it's wet with fuel, so either I have a metering issue or I am just flooded and it needs some time to dry out.

I am going to give it a few min and go back out and see if I can get it to start again. I don't have my MAF or O2 sensors hooked up yet so that may be an issue so if anyone has any suggestions here please let me know. I will post back, my ears are rinnging it's kind of loud with just manifold and nothing else

[mjensen]

I'm not sure on this particular model, but most modern fuel injection systems that I've read and had experience about have a clear flood mode which is holding the throttle wide open while cranking. This will restrict fuel flow so that the flooding condition doesn't worsen.

Also, I would be extremely surprised if it would stay running without the MAF and O2 sensors, as the computer wouldn't know how much air is coming in and how well the engine is burning the mixture.

Congrats on getting this close!

[usmcchevy]

I thought the motor would run in open loop without the MAF and 02s?

[mjensen]

Open loop ignores the O2 sensors. I don't have personal experience with these particular ecms, but that's what I've seen.

[67shortie]

OK, tried cranking it a couple of more times with the same result, flooding.

I pulled the fuel pump relay, tried starting it again and it fired, high idle and settled into a smooth lower idle until it ran out of fuel. SO, my next move is to test fuel pressure while running and see if I go off the charts.

In general what would my idle running fuel pressure be? I have a vacuum controlled diaphram on the fuel rail that is hooked up to full manifold vacuum.

I am headed out to do some more testing, be back in a min.

[mjensen]

I couldn't find the exact specs, but I would think it should be idling about 40 PSI.

[67shortie]

Originally Posted by mjensen

I couldn't find the exact specs, but I would think it should be running anywhere from 70 - 80 PSI.

It's running at 58 before starting but I can't check it while running because it won't start with pressure in there.

Same thing again, I plug in the fuel pump relay and it floods, will not start. Pull the relay, it starts and runs smooth until fuel runs out.

Humm, regulator bad or my injectors are cycling open all the time but if that were the case when the relay is pulled would the engine still flood until pressure is relieved and not want to run? It actually runs well when the relay is pulled, idles so smooth you cant even feel it running And as you mentioned, initial start it will first go to high+ idle and then settle down like you said about flood mode.

My first guess is I have either a faulty pressure regulator or my injectors are fully cycling at idle letting in too much fuel.

[mjensen]

I think I was high on my guess. 58 sounds good. A fuel injector expert should correct me, but too much pressure makes it so the fuel injectors can't open.

Just as another thought, are all your temperature sensors hooked up? I'm not sure what problems it would cause if they weren't, but the computer really needs to know what temperature the engine is so that it knows how much fuel to deliver and control the PWM.

Is there any kind of performance tune in the ECM?

[67shortie]

Originally Posted by mjensen

I think I was high on my guess. 58 sounds good. A fuel injector expert should correct me, but too much pressure makes it so the fuel injectors can't open.

Just as another thought, are all your temperature sensors hooked up? I'm not sure what problems it would cause if they weren't, but the computer really needs to know what temperature the engine is so that it knows how much fuel to deliver and control the PWM.

Is there any kind of performance tune in the ECM?

This I need to look at, as far as I know I did not need these but I may be mistaken. If I do, I have to ask the tuner (or the fine members on this site ) and see if this may be true, you bring up a great point.

There is no performance tune that I know of, I think he tuned down the torque management and gave me no emissions.

Even if there were no temp sensors (forgive me I am learning here) with a mechanical pressure regulator, if there was reduced or no fed pressure in the rails would not still it run rich/flooding until fuel was exhausted if the PCM thought it was in cold start mode? This it does not do, it runs normally until fuel is gone.

I may need to start the engine and then plug the fuel pump in and see how it reacts.

[67shortie]

OK, focusing on mjensen's question, thinking back I cut off a sensor plug that was broken off and did not fit anything that I was hooking up, and what do you know it is the coolant temp sensor plug (based on harness colors) and is needed in this swap. Rookie mistake, and I admit it

So, tomorrow morning I will get back into the harness connect this back up and plug it back in.

I will post back with what goes down .

[usmcchevy]

Don't feel bad about the temp sensor man. When I initialy removed all the not needed stuff from my harness I removed my serial data line and check engine light............Don't drink and wire Hope you get her up and running!

[mjensen]

By no means am I an expert on this, I'm just drawing off my experience with building my own FI system (MegaSquirt) on a sandrail we built. That was awesome because a lot of the same principles exist.

I do have friends that work at the dealerships that are pretty good at this kind of stuff, so I sent an email to him to see if he could give you ideas of other things to check.