A long post about long time issues with cam correlation codes. (Carnage pics)

[HKusp]

Heads finally going back on.

Sponsored

 

[HKusp]

It doesn't look like much, but there was a lot of progress today. We got the heads on and torqued down. The cams on, and torqued down, but had to take them back off to get them clocked properly and torque them again. We got the cam phasers on the drivers side and the secondary chain on. We got the headers pretty much back on and tightened. 1 bolt is missing so I'll stop by the fastener store tomorrow on my lunch break.

On the subject of headers, I will continue to beat the drum of headers on these cars are ABSOLUTELY not worth the pain in the ass that they are until maybe above 850 whp. Mine are Corsa's and I'm sure there are better designed versions by other manufacterers that are easier to deal with, but damn are they a severe pain in the ass. I hate messing with them.

A HUGE thank you to Phil (@HAVOC_5.0 ). He did 80% of the work, and let me bitch about it all day in the sun.

 

[HKusp]

We're trying to fire this car today.

 

[J17GT]

Good luck! *that supercharger pulley looks way too big...

 

[HKusp]

Good luck! *that supercharger pulley looks way too big...

Agreed. Just wait. I already have a smaller grip tech in the box...

 

[J17GT]

Agreed. Just wait. I already have a smaller grip tech in the box...

Sweet! So are you out banging gears in this thing yet or what!?

 

[HKusp]

Sweet! So are you out banging gears in this thing yet or what!?

No sir. We were close to firing her back up, but ran into a few issues that ate us up in time last night. First we put the supercharger base on and torqued it all down and then realized we hadn't hooked the coolant line to the top of the block so we had to pull the base back off. Totally our stupidity. Then we got all of that back together with the base torqued down and when I was torquing the lid on to 90inch/lbs, the bolt in the #4 sequence of 20, went "rightie loosie"..... Soooo we had to pull the lid and then drill out the threads and do a power coil in that hole. Thenwe were putting it back on and as I was torquing it back down to 90inch/lbs the #14 bolt in the sequence went "rightie loosie"... yeah...

Soooo, you guessed it... we had to pull it all apart AGAIN and do ANOTHER drill, tap, and insert a power coil in THAT hole. Needless to say, I was plenty disappointed. Phil (@HAVOC_5.0) wouldn't let ME do any of the torquing on the third go round and everything torqued to spec without pulling any threads. At hat point it was raining and we are working outside in his driveway under an easy-up and it was pretty late. He had plans to take his son to Hershey Park today and wanted to call it quits and I agreed. He's taking Monday (tomorrow) off and is probably going to finish buttoning everything up and hopefully fire the car.

I have had the Whipple on and off the car so many times, I guess the threads are getting weak. If there is a next time (and I HOPE and PRAY there is not), I will take the time to actually drill, tap and power coil every set of threads on the supercharger so that I have peace of mind moving forward. I doubt whipple deals with many people like me that have had so many issues and need to pull the supercharger off so much. If they did, it would behoove them to have these aluminum bases threaded with a power coil or heli-coil or similar product. That aluminum is too soft to withstand the repeated torquing and removal that I have put it through.

 

[J17GT]

It’s always something! As soon as it roars to life, you’ll forget how frustrating it all was.

 

[HKusp]

She started last night!! Phil got her all back together Monday and tried to start her up, but the battery had been sitting for about 5 weeks since I had had it on a charger and it didn't QUITE have enough juice in it to make the repeated hits to get her fired up. The starter got hot after 4 or 5 attempts and the car timed it out so he gave up any further attempts on Monday. I went over after work Tuesday night, grabbed the battery and took it home to put it on a charge overnight. I took it up last night and put it in the car. I tried starting it and on the 4th try it ALMOST fired off. The 5th try it ALMOST fired off and then the starter timed out again. I waited about 20-30 minutes and tried it again and it gurgled to life!!

I let it warm up and and watched all the gauges, while doing some easy revs to 3k and 4k rpm. Everything seemed normal so I took her out for a ride to the gas station to get some fresh 93. IT seemed to be okay on the trip to the station which was about 8-10 minutes. Fueled her up, took her to a friends house who lives near by. He has the fastest 8.5 inch tire Fox Body in the country, Snowflake(about 1600whp), and a 2400hp BIG turbo car that he's working the kinks out on. His 15 year old daughter likes Mustangs and wanted to go for a ride so I obliged her. I ran it kind of hard up to about 5500-65k rpm with the traction control on and then again with it off. It's on street tires and let's just say, traction was VERY limited even at that conservative rpm. She loved the ride and I took her back home smiling ear to ear. I then took the car back to Phil's house and dropped it off. Before leaving, I read codes and the starter timing out was there along with a fuel pump circuit A code, and an AC two speed switch code, so something with the AC must be unplugged. It still needs the cowling, wipers and the rest of the bracing for the battery box installed. I have to go out of town Friday and Saturday for a seminar in Princeton, N.J. So I won't get to it until Sunday, but so far so good.

I am cautiously optimistic that we have many of the issues worked out. I have a few more to go, but I think we are trending in the right direction.

 

[HKusp]

I am at a loss. As mentioned, I drove the car a little bit Wednesday night and all seemed well. Sunday morning I went and got the car, drove it about 50 miles to Phil's work and we buttoned up the battery box, cowling and the wipers. As a precautionary measure, we changed the oil and filter because even though it had less than 100 miles on it, there had been some sparkles/glitter in the oil previously from the bad heads/cams, so I wanted to just be sure and take a look. Good news was no more sparkles/glitter. We did a KAM reset and crank re-learn. The car seemed fine except while we had the scanner hooked up the exhaust cam on the passenger side(I believe), exhaust cam B, was showing negative 5 degrees retard. Hmmm....


I left Phil's(@HAVOC_5.0) work and was driving down the road and it sounded different and felt a little rough. I came to a light, pushed in the clutch and the idle went from 900rpm up above 1200, then dropped to 700ish and the car tried to stall. The car reacted slowly to accelerator pedal input and the check engine light was flashing... I called Phil and told him what it was doing and he thought I was messing with him.


I drove it home, gingerly, and when I got there I hooked up an SCT device and read codes. Cam correlation codes and cylinder misfire codes. I have no words for how disappointing this is at this point. I have been fighting with this car, on this and related issues for almost 2 years and I don't understand how what we have done, hasn't corrected the problem. I feel like this car has won. It has beaten me. I don't want to spend any more money on chasing my tail. I can't afford to keep throwing good money after bad. For what I have spent on this car, I could have bought a GT500 with the carbon fiber rims. Now what I have is a car that I still owe $17k on, that barely runs and I certainly wouldn't feel good about selling it to anyone. Not that anyone would want to buy it for what I owe on it. So unless I get a 2nd wind (or really a third or forth at this point), the car is going to go under a cover, outside, for the foreseeable future, because effe it. It ain't taking up space in my garage for vehicles that actually start and run like they should.

I'm going to step back for a while, probably start taking all the performance parts off the car and sell them off. To all who have helped me with encouragement and your opinions /expertise, ESPECIALLY Phil, and followed along with my many sagas with this car - thank you.

I hope that none of you ever go through the headaches and heartbreaks that this car has given me.

 

[Zrussian13]

Damn that really sucks! Sorry you can't get it going.

 

[J17GT]

Damn...sorry to hear this man, I've been there before with a previous car. Walking away for a while sounds like a good call. Hope you can get it sorted at some point.

 

[Timbuck]

Wow Man , That’s sux. I’m with you I don’t understand how it can do what it’s doing After everything you have replaced.

 

[Adam the Lighting Guy]

"As you may or may not know, these cams are hollow and the lobes are pressed on. They CAN move. They're NOT supposed to, but they can if conditions like low oil pressure occur. "
Not much actually Shocks me now and days when reading mechanical journeys or problems, but that statement did. Not suprised, but shocked. Wow.

I tip my hat at your perseverance with your project.

When you were telling about how you did an oil pan swap (and pick up as well I assume) the first thought was that maybe you didn't leave enough clearance between the pick up and the bottom of the oil pan. Normal deduction I suppose. But then said to myself that I'm sure he clayed the pick up and measured for clearance.

 

[HKusp]

"As you may or may not know, these cams are hollow and the lobes are pressed on. They CAN move. They're NOT supposed to, but they can if conditions like low oil pressure occur. "
Not much actually Shocks me now and days when reading mechanical journeys or problems, but that statement did. Not suprised, but shocked. Wow.

I tip my hat at your perseverance with your project.

When you were telling about how you did an oil pan swap (and pick up as well I assume) the first thought was that maybe you didn't leave enough clearance between the pick up and the bottom of the oil pan. Normal deduction I suppose. But then said to myself that I'm sure he clayed the pick up and measured for clearance.

I am sorry that I never responded to this post, Adam. That oil pan was definitely the issue that damaged the heads/cams, but I don't believe it was because of a lack of clearance between the pick-up and the oil pan. I believe it was because the pick-up tube didn't seat properly into the oil pump rubber bushing through no fault of PBH's design. They designed the pan to work with the stock main bolts and I upgraded my car when we were building the engine with ARP studs. The pick up tube just never seated right due to the different geometry between the stock bolts versus the ARP studs and washers.

Sponsored