Installed ported head and have some issues

[My96z]

I am trying to set the ignition timing. When I unplug the coolant temp sensor it stalls. I cant figure out why.

I have installed one of Tyler's +1mm G heads and Taft S2 cam in this current teardown. It had a stock G head on it before the swap as well.

Also, before this current tear down I had the boost controller set to give me about 19PSI. I installed Tylers head and my rebuilt tranny (with gremlins) and on the initial test run, the boost shot way back past the B in BOOST Must have been 30 PSI or so. So I backed it down to 10PSI for tuning purposes. Is that normal for ported heads to do that? The van feels faster now at 10 PSI with Tylers head than it did with the stocker at 19 PSI. I cant wait to get this thing ironed out.

[minigts]

A couple of things. First if you timed the car prior to starting it, it should be close enough to 12* so that it won't stall so maybe it's off a lot? My car did that when I was off by about oh, 20 degrees of timing. The other thing is what cal are you running? One you did, FWDP, etc? That may have some impact.

For the boost controller, did you move it by chance? I moved mine from the vacuum block to the turbo and it change it significantly.


That's all I have.

[Juggy]

if you went from a swirl head to a G head then your going to need a new cal with butt loads more timing.


and the "20 or so" degrees of timing jon refers too, is pretty much the amount of extra timing needed when UPGRADING (haha yes i said it) from a swirl head

[My96z]

Thanks for the reply guys!

Well its a cal done by Moparzrule. I had a G head on it prior to the new Tyler unit I have now. The cal was done for the G head. I tried moving the distributer around to find the spot where it would stay running, but no luck so far.

Boost controller was in same spot I never touched it. Car was sitting for just over a year while I was deployed.

[My96z]

Maybe its cause the Taft S2 cam is on the stock sproket?

[minigts]

if you went from a swirl head to a G head then your going to need a new cal with butt loads more timing.


and the "20 or so" degrees of timing jon refers too, is pretty much the amount of extra timing needed when UPGRADING (haha yes i said it) from a swirl head

I'm running a G head too. And my issue was due to messing with the distributor without a timing light. :$

Thanks for the reply guys!

Well its a cal done by Moparzrule. I had a G head on it prior to the new Tyler unit I have now. The cal was done for the G head. I tried moving the distributer around to find the spot where it would stay running, but no luck so far.

Boost controller was in same spot I never touched it. Car was sitting for just over a year while I was deployed.

Well the cal should work if it was calculated using the method most everyone uses, so that probably isn't the problem. It's best to try more than one though to confirm. We had some issues with my cal running rich and could NOT figure it out. We ended up trying another cal burning software and that solved the rich issue. That may be a possibility.

For the boost controller, I don't know what to tell you. If you have it where you can set it now, I'd just start from there and keep the boost low until you tune it. I wouldn't go all out with 20 psi. The cal may work, but as I am learning you need to tune it whenever you change any variable.

[Juggy]

Maybe its cause the Taft S2 cam is on the stock sproket?

matt knows his stuff about the G head cals. was it done for a stock head?? im sure he can hook you up with something more aggressive now.

i was working with him to get my car running and gave up because i couldnt get the car to rev over 5K. it turned out to be a bad wire to the speedo sensor and the car wasnt allowing the built in 2 step to function properly but i did not figure this out until after i had gave up on his cals.

slapped in a TU dyno tuned cal for big valve ported G head and ported mannies (stock turbo) and car ran even better and i could actually rev to 6K now (no 2 step built in). but have since sold that cal and now running one straight from paul V that is more geared towards my setup


now i am forced to take the 2.2 out and go 2.5 next season due to some knock. ill have to give matts cals another try then

edit: btw im running a taft S3 cam. i can say that the cal did run a little rich from me (smoking out the tailpipe). the first one was really bad, but we were playing it safe!!! 2nd cal was much nicer with just a touch of blackness. i bet ya he would have had right on the 3rd try but i gave up because of the 5K limiter thing

[Juggy]

That's all I have.

did you do that detailed write up yet for the fuse/relay box install???
i only asked you like 6 months ago

hahah just thought id ask and bust your balls a lil

[My96z]

Yes Matt is the man on the G head cals. My G headed 2.5 ran great with his tunes, especially doing them through the mail. The tune in it now is for a stock G head. The two variables now are the ported, +1mm valve head and the Taft S2. I think I will pull the Taft cam out and put the stocker back in until I can get a set of cam keys or a sprocket.

Its hard for me to get good runs in as the tranny I rebuilt doesnt want to shift in WOT.

[Juggy]

well when my car stalls when unplugging the CTS, i just rev it up some. sometimes just the fan kicking on is enuff of a power surge to weaken spark and stall the motor.

do u have a timing light??? id keep it plugged in, whack the dist around till u find that nice idle, if u need bump it up a couple extra degrees, it may help the bogging.

i can keep my car running anywhere from prolly -10 degrees, to +30. theres a big window to work with, but a very small window in which the motor will actually run good lol.

if i had a guess your timing is way out too lunch, howz the cam? off a tooth???

i dont think the port job and cam are going to be that much of a variable to keep the engine running decent. altho the cal will need some tweaking.

[minigts]

did you do that detailed write up yet for the fuse/relay box install???
i only asked you like 6 months ago

hahah just thought id ask and bust your balls a lil

Man...I need to get the replacement to do it. Maybe I'll run by the yard today and get the one I saw along with a different coil.

[My96z]

Cam timing is on. I used the Gary D. method of setting it. I have bumped it around quite a bit..I dont know, maybe I have a sensor on the fritz.

I can keep it running by bumping the throttle by hand under the hood. I just dont know how to set the base timing when the RPMs are higher than normal or if the RPM's are going up and down.

[Juggy]

have u tried bumping up the idle with the TB screw??
that may help with the surging if idle is too low.

or maybe u do have a bad sensor

[My96z]

I havent tried that. Whats confusing me is that it was fine before I tore everything apart.

[turbovanman²]

Swapping over heads etc can affect the boost settings.

As for the timing, it could take awhile for the computer to learn, so try to hold the idle with you hand to stabilize it or it could need the throttle blade opened up more. Check the cam timing using the timing light.

[badandy]

With better flow boost pressure should actually reduce if anything...as PSI is a measure of restriction. It's my bet that your cam timing is off a tooth.

[My96z]

Juggy is the winner! I dickered with the TB stop screw and got it to run at a high idle, it went to like 2600 rpm then I tapped the distributer to get the idle down some and set it balls on 12*.

Plugged the CTS back in, idled it down to 1000 rpm via the stop screw and rechecked the timing. Its good now. I then checked the cam timing via timing light and the small hole lines up with the second rib of the valve cover. Thats where it is supposed to be right?

Now I need some major tuning. The EGT gauge sky rockets past 1600*. But my narrow band A/F gauge reads about 9-10th light (10 light guage). I think that the new head and cam is flowing a ton more air making the EGT's go way up. Plus I think this Taft cam needs some adjustment in the first place.

I think I will stick the stock 89' tubo cam back in and go from there.

Plus, I need to get this damn transmission to shift....

Thank you for all your help guys! If it wasnt for this site and the people on here, the van would have been parted out along time ago.

Badandy- I dont know whats up with the boost, I had set it to 10PSI yesterday, now its back up past 15PSI... only thing I changed since yesterday was the timing. I think I need to clean out the G vavle...

[My96z]

Well now its doing the stalling again and has no top end. Its also pulling less vacuum.

I am going to swap the stock cam in tomorrow and check all timing again... this thing is starting to get to me...

[Aries_Turbo]

hopefully you had the rpm's down alot more than 2600 when setting the timing. rpm changes it.

you might have needed a touch more fuel (or less... who knows) at idle to keep it running to. adjusting the fuel pressure regulator (if you have an adj one) will affect idle rpm too.

yeah, clean the boost controller. they get dirty. you can use a small fuel filter before the controller to keep it cleaner.

EGT's with a G-head are going to be higher as the fuel is still burning a little on the way out cause the combustion chamber isnt as efficient as the swirl head.

not enough timing advance will make the EGT's hot too but with a G-head, its going to appear a little hotter than it might be because of the above effect.

sounds like you need to go over the overall setup with a fine toothed comb to check for leaks/wierd stuff before hammering it.

with the stalling... the idle RPM is an adaptive value in the ecu. it will adjust stuff to achieve a specific idle. playing with the idle screw might have made the system a little angry.

lack of vac can be a cam timing setting. take a look again at it.

good luck. changing a setup always involves goofing around fixing bugs.

Brian

[turbovanman²]

good luck. changing a setup always involves goofing around fixing bugs.

Brian

+2.

If you've lost power, check cam timing and do a compression test.