so I thought I'd post an update.
Put it on the road in late April so I'd have plenty of time to dial it in for the Bash trip. Well, so much for that great plan. The Heap runs a Ford EEC-IV EFI and the engine has AFR 165 heads with a Comp cam. I had an XE 266 in it and it ran okay but I got to thinking that I really didn't need .560 lift and I thought a little less duration would also make the EFI happier. So when the engine ate all of its main bearings I decided to go with an XE 264 in the new engine.
Right from the first start I knew there was something wrong. It wouldn't idle correctly no matter what I did. Only pulled 7.5 to 8 inches of vacuum. I had done some harness work while it was down so first thing I thought of was a hosed up harness. Tested it every way I know how but no joy. Occasionally it would drop a code or two and I went though all the sensor replacement stuff knowing it would do no good...and I was right.
A few weeks ago Coupedaddy recommended I call Delta Cams (the grinder) and get their opinion. I parked it for about three weeks and did other stuff but about a week ago I called Ken at Delta...good guy and pretty knowledgeable. He suggested that I should loosen the rockers until it had .005 lash at the valves and see if the vacuum came up.
Sure enough it started like an EFI engine is supposed to, idled right at a solid 650, pulled 12 inches of vacuum. Called Ken and apparently they sometimes get a little run-out that causes a high spot on the heel of the lobes which will hold the valve open a bit and cause what I was dealing with.
So Delta Cams will fix this cam but one thing I noticed when it was idling ok was that it stank. The XE 266 also always stank at idle. This is a pretty common issue with aftermarket cams, especially on EFI engines. So a hard decision was made. One that I know I'll catch a lot of flack about from a few guys. I decided to take it back to where it made me the happiest. I'm keeping the AFR heads but I rounded up a stock 93 HO cam from brother BB2 and that's what it going to run. There are just too many activities I enjoy and trying to learn how to properly tune EFI, I have discovered, is not one of them. This car gets most of it's miles on the highway so street light to street light performance really isn't a big deal for me.
So that's the story. Soon as a new set of shorter pushrods get here I'll be putting it back together and with luck, it'll be seeing a road trip to MS's mini-Bash in Sept.
You can ask me at a Bash why I modified it in the first place.
BB1
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Nos681 wrote:
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