When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Thanks. Might have it down this Friday for some testing.
Originally Posted by Bad Apache
Sounds Bad!
I see how you got it done so quick. You have a pit crew!
****, you see all them not doing anything! Lol. They wanted to be there for the first start.
I have been dialing in the tune a little. Did a few WOT pulls on gate pressure which is 7 lbs. It feels good.
Having an issue with the converter not locking up at cruising speeds though. No idea what's going on there. Also have an issue with the front tires rubbing on the bumper. Need to get it aligned.
These last few days have been interesting to say the least. I took the day off of work Friday to get some things done on the car and one of them was taking it to get aligned. It took the shop almost 3 hours to get it set up and everything is right on now. However, the front tires are still rubbing the bumper for some reason. Not sure what to do about that at this point.
While driving home from the shop I did a couple of pulls and noticed the trans shifting weird on the 2-3 shift. The tires were spinning in 2nd and when I hit 3rd it seemed to free rev so I immediately let out. I started at a littler higher MPH on the next pull and it shifted into 3rd but didn't feel right. I got it back to the garage and checked the trans fluid level. It was down a bit but still reading on the stick so I began to add some fluid. While doing so I see this at my feet...
I crawl under the car and see fluid pissing out of one of my trans lines that's routed along the k-member. Immediately remembered that the alignment shop was using a ratchet strap to move things around and saw where they must have pinched it. This is what the line looked like.
They were closed for the day but I called them and left a message. They called me back Saturday morning and said there was a trail of fluid leaving the bay at their shop and said they would do anything needed to make it right. I told them I will want reimbursed for the lost fluid, the new trans line I had to make that morning, and my time. Not to mention if the trans is hurt they will be footing the bill. They agreed to it all without hesitation which was nice.
I drained the remainder of the fluid in the pan and added new. Took it out and it seemed to be shifting fine. I planned on racing the car on Sunday so I needed to make sure everything was fixed and the trans was operating as it should.
So yesterday there was a small event at our local track. I loaded the car up and swung it through the carwash quick to get the year of dust off it and spray the underside the best I could.
Made it to the track and got the car through tech and ready to race.
I had changed out the rear comp shocks for some Vikings so I knew it was going to be a learning curve. Slow94Formula helped me out with some settings and was also the man behind the keyboard for me. I was sending him logs at the track.
First pass was on like 10-11 lbs if I recall and went 6.35 @ 111 with 1.49 60' leaving at 3100 RPM. The trans also shifted straight from 1-3. We tried using the RPM based shift in the microsquirt but I had problems with it doing the 1-3 thing last year as well. I went back to the MPH based shift and it worked as intended.
Second pass was a 6.33 @ 114 with a junk 60'. The track wasn't working at all and I wasn't the only one having problems. After looking at the log I noticed fuel pressure wasn't rising on a 1:1. We tried jumping the hobbs switch and the 2nd pump was not kicking on. After trouble shooting we ended up directly wiring the pump for one more pass. I ended up with this on 16 lbs.
I thought maybe it would go a little quicker on that boost level but I was pretty happy with how the car did after having all the issues prior to, and during the track outing. I am going to a No Prep event next weekend (might just do TNT) and will lean on it a littler more. It's also supposed to be 70* instead of the 90+* it was yesterday.
And just like that my season is over. I drained the oil for the first time on Friday night and wasn't happy with what I found.
A buddy and I checked thrust clearance and it was at .009 according to my trusty Harbor Freight gauge. Original clearance was .006. Spoke with the engine builder and he said to make a couple of passes and drain the oil again and see what it looks like.
I also installed a pressure sensor in the transmission pressure port and Slow94Formula wired it into the MS3. We verified that the transmission had **** poor pressure which I suspected due to the 1-2 shift feeling so soft. In reverse we had 40 psi and it would spike to 80-90 psi on a WOT pull. With that being said I decided to take it to the track anyway and make a couple of passes. Probably a dumb move but I wanted to see if it would make the shifts again like it did the week before and the engine still has great oil pressure with no noises or anything.
I made 3 passes and on every single one it hit the limiter on the attempted 1-2 shift and it went straight to 3rd gear. We lowered the shift points and it did the same thing. My second pass was the best one of the night and it went 6.08 @ 117 with a 1.39 60'. Once again it hit the limiter and went straight into 3rd. No doubt it would have been a personal best if it would have made all the shifts.
I unloaded the car from the trailer yesterday and it struggled in reverse and felt like something was binding up. It seemed to come out of it after backing up a little further to make the turn into the garage where it now sits.
I have no ambition to touch the car but I need to get it tore down so I can get the trans and engine back to their respective builders to get them diagnosed. At least it's the end of the season but I am still really upset with how things have gone for me this year. This may be the end of my footbrake days as I am heavily considering changing over to a powerglide.
Also, I will be going to talk to the Tire/Alignment shop this week to inform them of the bad news. We will see how they react when I tell them that my pinched trans cooler line more than likely killed the bearings in my engine too.
Sorry to hear about the back luck Andy. Take your time to put together a lot of documentation regarding trans pressure taking out thrust bearings. That’s gonna be a battle. Hopefully not, but most don’t understand how the two tie together. Really nice numbers at the track however.
Thanks. I have some documentation that my engine builder sent me. He also lives in the same town as the tire shop and I know he'd go in and speak with them with me as well.
I am just glad I spoke to them as soon as it happened and the manager informed me that they'd certainly help out in anyway possible. We will see if they stick to their word though.
Sucks. Prob gonna have a hard time getting them to do anything for pinching a trans line for 20 minutes.
Well, as I stated a few posts up, I called them right after it happened and they called me back the next day. The manager of the store said to let them know what I find out and they will reimburse me any money I spent on fixing the line, trans fluid bought, and if anything happens to the transmission they will make it right as well. He also confirmed that there was trans fluid in the bay and a nice stream of fluid leaving the bay that continues out into the street.
Time for a quick update. The trans shop got busy with more important customers I guess and just now finished my transmission that they had since October. I am going to give him a call today and he is going to go over everything that he found and what he did to fix it. Right now I am leaning towards posting it up for sale and trying to find a powerglide that work for me. If I can't get it sold within a month or so then I will order up the PTC non-lock converter for it and live that footbrake life another year.
I also got the engine to the builder and we started tearing it down. The thrust took a pretty good beating but all the other bearings looked perfect. He's going to finish tearing it down, clean it up, and put it back together for me. He's going to look over everything good and try to determine what happened and why it happened. Once I talk to the trans guy and he goes over what he found then I can relay that to the engine builder. Hopefully I will have some answers shortly.
On another note, I picked up a new tow rig over the weekend. I wasn't happy with how much 1500HD towed so I sold it last fall. I started looking for something else a couple of weeks ago and a 2500 Suburban with the 8.1L caught my eye. It's a 2003 with the 8.1L in it and 105k miles. Has a couple of small issues but I will get those taken care soon enough.
Another small update. I decided to make the switch to a powerglide so I sold the refreshed 80E last week. I am going to get the trans and converter ordered this week.
Still no word from the engine builder. Hopefully he tears it the rest of the way down shortly so I can get that back.
I am also going to switch out my eBay seats for some Kirkey's as well. Want something a little safer that also sits lower in the car.
Another small update. I decided to make the switch to a powerglide so I sold the refreshed 80E last week. I am going to get the trans and converter ordered this week.
Still no word from the engine builder. Hopefully he tears it the rest of the way down shortly so I can get that back.
I am also going to switch out my eBay seats for some Kirkey's as well. Want something a little safer that also sits lower in the car.
I'll post up more when I get the new parts.
Damn. Saw that for sale on a local FB group and almost had myself talked into it. Looked to be a pretty good deal.
I test fitted my 80E now that the converter arrived, I had always used the 80E FW and spacer. Last engine the thrust bearing took a beating, so doing everything to make it live. This time I used the curved FW and Hughes spacer. The converter pull out stopped shy of the pads, and I could see the spacer was bottomed out against the converter. Doing a little research, others had this problem, and without clearance for the FW to "flex", it could push hard on the crank, and thrust bearing. So I am machining off enough to still allow the conv. to regs. into the spacer, but also allow the converter about .080 to move if the FW flexes. Been a lot about charge pressure, etc, taking out the thrust, lots of opinions, but having proper clearances on the FW side makes a lot of sense to me. Just some thoughts on thrust wear.
I am not sure what caused my thrust issue. The R&R converter was setup the same way my Circle-D was and the SBE never had any thrust issues in the 4 years it was beat on.
I am not happy with my Hughes flex plate due to the fact the starter hangs up on it every time. I have read that others have the same problem. I will probably get a TCI plate before it comes time to install everything.
09-17-2017, 07:39 PM
