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Ballpoints are next on the list. I figured out my fuel pump issue... Weird, I have it mounted in the frame rail which sits it about 2 inches higher that the feed from the bottom of my sump, so apparently walbros won't pull any fuel, they can just push. When the fuel level sits higher than the pump it works, or when I have the bump loose and let it hang down below the sump it works and is quiet. It's a genuine walbro 255. I have the identical fuel plumbing as lownfast and his 71. I guess some pumps are better than others. From what I've read walbros are kind of a hit or miss if they work. Probably gonna run a bosch 044 before I ever take this on any kind of trip.
Well I spoke too soon with my fuel pump issue. I can't figure it out. I have an in line walbro 255 with a corvette regulator and filter. When it's been sitting and everything is cold, I'll go out and start it, fuel pump kicks on and sounds good, car fires right up and runs smooth. It can idle smooth for 2 hours and the fuel pump is quiet. I go drive around the yard and back, the fuel pump starts whining really loud in different pitches and the car starts running bad and will die. Then it will start and run rough and die until it sits for awhile. I don't have the gas cap on and have 15 gallons of gas in the tank. I can take the fuel pump out of the car and wire it up to my jump box and run fuel through it with no problem. It pumps great, stays cool, I even took the corvette regulator out too and plumbed it up like it is in the car on my shop floor, the pump sounds good and flows through the regulator fine, when I restrict the regulator the fuel flows out the return fine with no problem. Then I put it back into the car and it sounded good until I drove around the yard, this time it stayed and idled fine for about 5 minutes then started running rough and died. I'm at a loss... I'm not sure if the pump is bad or not?? Regulator seems fine too. One thing I'm not sure about is the thing on the fuel rail? 1998 ls1 fuel rail, it looks like a fuel regulator on there? Does that need to be gutted since I have the corvette in line regulator or does it matter? And finally the last possible thing I can come up with, my 6an push loc hose runs up the inner fender about 5 inches from the header, it does get relatively warm. If that could cause some sort of vapor lock. But wouldn't the fuel pump still run and sound fine, it should just flow through the return on the vette regulator if there was a blockage up there right? I can always tell when the cars about to start running bad because the fuel pump gets all crazy sounding. My tank is a stock tank that is sumped. Even if it's off the wall, any advice is appreciated.
Well I got the fuel pump working and got to drive it a bit, it made its first trip to the gas station. Then decided on what I was going to do with the exhaust and went with a full 2.5in true dual with turbo mufflers for now. I trailered it there because it was about an hour away and I still had open headers. It was pouring down raining all day and when I went to unload the car it decided not to start. The fuel pump finally called it quits which was frustrating. So me and the exhaust guy pushed it off the trailer and onto his lift with the help of some other customers he had at the time. He did a pretty good job tucking it up nice but didn't quite understand what I meant with the tail pipe exits. Anyways lucky for me he got really busy when he finished mine and I had a lot of guys to help me push it back into the trailer. He made me a killer deal, $350 for everything. I'll do a full mandrel bent magnaflow system later but this gets it on the road. The most aggravating thing is that I have no idea what it sounds like because now the car doesn't run... Anyways it was nice to have some opinions on the car, everyone there loved it. Pretty much nobody but me has seen the thing until today and other than it being on here. I'm excited to get it running and hear it though!!
Do you have any pictures of the completed exhaust?
He said it was tough getting the 2.5 over the axle because it sat so low, but he did it. Everything really looked good to me, none of the bends are crushed by any means. I'm gonna take it back after awhile and have him put on an x-pipe and re-route the tail pipes. Also I have 4th gen f-body headers that come out at crazy angles but didn't seem to cause any problems.
Well I feel like I keep having goofy unexplainable issues... How in the world did this happen? I was driving through a neighborhood around 20mph and I hear a Big Bang. This is about 5 minutes of drive time since the new mufflers. I noticed the car was a little louder but didn't see anything noticeably wrong to my surprise. Car kept running fine. So I turned around to go back home and have a huge bang like a shotgun went off in the car. It never ran bad, but I killed it immediately and jumped out to see what it was, I couldn't figure it out so I started the car which fired right up but it was obviously louder so I looked underneath and saw this carnage. The mufflers literally exploded. One was just slightly peeled back which I would imagine was the first less aggressive bang, then the other one was shredded. Which had to of been the Big Bang that my ears are still ringing from. It never backfired or anything. It was running really good and did both sides at a low rpm. I've read that vapor build up in the muffler could ignite and do this, but I've only seen this on carbureted vehicles that leaked gas down the intake while sitting and they'd blow as soon as they started up. If I was running and driving before it did this there couldn't have been any vapors I don't think? How would vapor get past the open flame coming out of the cylinders? I have no check engine codes and the car is running great. Could these mufflers be too restrictive? And they blew? The exhaust guy refused to replace them because he said it was caused by backfire. I told him that's not what happened and got into an argument with him. What do you guys think? I'm afraid to go out on a high dollar set of magnaflows and have this happen again to them? But that's what I'm planning on putting in next. Any advice will be appreciated.
Have you had it tuned or are you still runing on the base tune? Looks like to much fuel and a backfire.
We used to do that on purpose on old beaters with manual tranny, shut it off while going down the road and pump the throttle about 8 times, hit the key and BOOM! entertaining but destructive.
^^that was my first thought, but these are cheap turbo mufflers, I've read online that most of them are reversible. I looked all over them and can't find an inlet or outlet inscribed on them. And the one that has the inside completely exposed I was able to look at the internals and can't see anything to make me think that they are not reversible.
I pulled the spark plugs today. All cylinders looked like they were burning clean. I had some crappy bosch +4 plugs in it so I changed those out for some NGKs... But it showed no signs of running rich. I also did a compression check, all cylinders were 148-152 pounds. Is that decent compression for these motors? I'm just blown away how the mufflers blew up. I looked all over them and see no signs of them being backwards.
Went with what I should have gone with from the get go. Muffler guy agreed that the mufflers were to restrictive and made me a deal on these. Sounds so much better. They are 14in magnaflows and they have a life time warranty lol
Looks good. Glad you got it fixed. How's the drone? Any audio clips?
Ill take a video tomorrow, it sounds awesome. Quiet idle but really opens up if you're on it. It does have some drone to it, but not unbearable. Once I get my interior in I doubt I will bother me.
Nice job on your entire build. Its really interesting to see the variations we conversion folks use to get the job done. I thought when I decided to do my conversion the biggest investment was the money and second the time.Man was I wrong. For me turns out I needed more PATIENCE than anything else. But I gotta tell you I love my LS Chevelle. I get a big smile very time I get in it. Keep going and very soon you will to.
Nice job on your entire build. Its really interesting to see the variations we conversion folks use to get the job done. I thought when I decided to do my conversion the biggest investment was the money and second the time.Man was I wrong. For me turns out I needed more PATIENCE than anything else. But I gotta tell you I love my LS Chevelle. I get a big smile very time I get in it. Keep going and very soon you will to.
Thanks man! And yes it is, everyone has their own techniques that they've learned over time. Patience is the key in these things, every time I started getting impatient and throwing stuff together I'd have to go take a few days off so I could do it right. First time I drove this I was grinning ear to ear. So relieving seeing it come together. Sharp car btw, I love the wheels!
I cleaned up and primed the hood today, also put it on. I would like to get the little shaker vent functional with the ls1. Worked on some body panel alignment. Stripped the rest of the car down to the metal, hopefully I will get it all in primer tomorrow. Then I'll probably let it stay in primer until I finish the interior and get all the little bugs that are left worked out.
01-26-2015, 09:12 PM
