Good to hear!

It will get fixed and you will get through this. All the crap will make the victory that much sweeter.

Remember my car.. I had to pull and rebuild my brand new LS2 due to an oil pump failure.

It will get worked out, there arn't any good events this time of the year anyways. Get it sorted out and then you'll be happily behind the wheel.

the carb controls the fuel throughout the rpm range, so as long as the fuel pressure is correct and steady then the carb is the issue if it's lean. May need to be re-jetted, the metering blocks may be improperly modded for your combo, air bleed swap, boosters, and on and on.

If you had a spare $700 or so I'd say grab a 750 blow through from Scott at http://www.sd-concepts.com/

I've had two from him and they were awesome right out of the box. Although I prefer EFI for the adjustability and fuel mileage differences, a properly done carb by Scott ran as smooth as EFI for me. Maybe he can straighten out your carb also, it would be a lot less money if he could.

Jody

What carb is on there now? If it's a 750 couldn't he just have Scott re-work it.. would only be the cost of the rework in that case..

yes, I mentioned that at the end. That's assuming that there isn't something done that cannot be repaired or straightened out.

Jody

Mike in hindsight with all the shop time and carb invested to tune this thing would it have been more cost effective to go EFI? Not trying to make you feel worse, just wondering what you would have done differently?

As Steve said, it WILL get tuned and be well worth it in the end...keep your chin up!! ;)

Hell, right now I'm on my way to buy a whole freaking tensioner assembly from GM just for the freaking pulley. Why? because the pulley on there now developed a bad bearing for no apparent reason.

The point is that this hobby isn't easy.. it's downright challenging at times. Maybe that's why so many car guys have good character. The ones with bad charaters are weeded out along the way.

Get it worked out and get on the road. Just always remember that this is a high-maintanance hobby. lol

Hang in there and an offer to help
 

Mike,

Chris here. Sorry you are having difficulty getting your car back on the road. As Steve and Jody keep saying, hang in there man. It will be worth it in the end.

Also, my two-tone Camaro has a very similar motor setup to yours. Here are some relevant specs:

• Engine: Supercharged Chevy 383
• Chevy 350 4 bolt main 010/020 high nickel block bored .30 over
• Heads: Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum heads
• Intake: Edelbrock RPM Air gap dual plane
• Carburetor: Barry Grant Mighty Demon Blower Calibrated 850 CFM
• Fuel pump: Aeromotive A1000 Electric fuel pump With a Aeromotive boost referenced fuel regulator
• Ignition: MSD 6BTM Boost referenced Control box with MSD Blaster coil and a MSD Pro billet Distributor,
• Cam: Proform duration 282-292 and lift 465, intake 488, exhaust 465 with Pro Form 1.5 roller rockers
• Supercharger: Vortech V1- T-trim with Ice vex air-to-air intercooler custom intake.

Here are links to pictures of my setup:

http://www.fototime.com/C9EE38426267D4F/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/6237DB0AEA3BF7C/orig.jpg

Since I bought Tracy's (rebird) 68 the two-tone car just sits. It is completely dialed in. So, if it would help you can borrow the carb. out of my motor and drop it on your car and see if that helps. I live about 5 miles from C.A.R. so we can connect at C.A.R. and give this a shot if that would help speed things along. Just let me know. :cheers:

Chris

Hey Anthony, yeah in hind sight I should have gone with EFI, that would have been my best decision as Mark, one of the owners at CAR is really good with tuning that stuff. It will get done, at what price and time who knows.

Ill check into those carbs today. The one I have is a holly 750 built by the carb shop, and I'm not all that impressed with it at the moment. It drove really well out of the box.

There is one next week that the shop has already entered me in. The toys for tots show which is a pretty nice show right near my house. They said I WILL be at that one. The good thing is that the hydroboost system is now all good. The problem with that was there was back pressure due to using a filter, and this made the brakes deploy and make all kinds of strange noises. Plus we went to a cool looking tank for it with 2 inlets and one return making it glass smooth and quiet. Or so Im told. Also the J&S is working killer as well. Yeah I sure know all your problems, but you were able to get up in pretty fast time though. CAR does have 10 or so cars, all of which are 100k and higher in value, and a few which are 400k and higher. so I have to sort of be in line, which is understandable.

Hey Chris, that is a huge gesture of kindness, but I could not impose on something like that. I do very much appreciate the gesture. Where you able to make it to the show? My car was not ready, so I was bummed but I had to finish a job with Steve yesterday that we could not get out there, so neither of us went. Today it's been off and on rain so I don't think I would have made it to the show anyways due to the last minute work, and rain today, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise. . Are you going to the show next weekend? I have a small surgury on Friday, but I will be there for sure.

Give us an update
 

Mike,

Chris here. Hope you are well. No, I did not make the Good-Guys show this weekend. With the threat of rain I decided not to go and instead put new seats in the silver and black 68.

What is the latest with your car?

Chris

Hey Chris, the car is pretty close to being done. The car is very drivable with decent power, not nearly what I want though and I'm tired of screwing with it. There is a small water leak, and it's running a bit hot, but they should be able to fix this stuff this week. I will have it for the toys for tots show this Saturday. No threat of rain now so I WILL be there. There is a fuel tank problem, long right hand sweeping turns on power will starve it. So Rick's tanks may have to make another tank for me.

I thought it was up a lot on power?

Jody

That's what I was told as well. A little over 400 hp at the wheels is not a lot. Not for what I'm paying. But you know, what can I do at this point.

I thought you were in the 600 rwhp range. You need to have someone else look at it, there's obviously something not right. Once they've got it finished we need to take another look at it.

Jody

I wish I was in the 600hp range, and I really think I should be. Problem being Jody is that I cant spend too much more on the car, and no one works for peanuts, or free electrical work. I have thought today that maybe the air filter is hurting power, but you know, I just don't know. At 8 pounds of boost, I should be getting more then a 50-75hp gain on a 430 stock motor. Although the pistons are LC making 400hp about right for just the motor, but only 400hp at the wheels for what I have, something is weird IMHO.

that compression could drop a 430 hp engine to 375 hp or so. That would rw at about 300-325 rwhp. 8 psi should be a 50% gain or so, so it should be in the 450-500 rwhp at that boost. You also should be able to run more boost than that if it's truly 8.9:1 compression and you have water injection.

The 406 I built for Don had the same compression as you, and we ran 14 psi on pump gas and water injection, along with 28-30 degrees of timing. That engine had much better heads than you and a real blower cam, so it made 700 rwhp at that config. But yours should still be capable of 500-550 rwhp pretty easy, but you'll need more boost and a good tune.

Why are they only running 8 psi?

Jody

During the engine rebuild, the stock crank was used and new forged rods were used, but I was told that we didn't want to go over 600hp just in case, so we went with an 8 pound pully for durability. Yes, your right, I should be making 500hp at the wheels, and It's not. The water injection is in and working, and moving water into the system. I'm not sure of the timing though. I don't know enough about these things to give an educated guess as too why it's not making power. But I cannot keep sinking money into it either. At some point I have to cut my losses. I do wish I could get to the bottom of it though.

with 8 psi and water injection it should be able to run full timing, whatever a ZZ430 runs. I'd guess 28-30 degrees at least. If they're still at 15 degrees it would explain a lot.

I'm really thinking the power is in the tune. I'd also like to see 10 psi or so, that's still conservative with that combo. Get the other items repaired and then let's see what we can do tune-wise.

Jody

pm sent

bring it to jody or someone who you know will get it right, like you said you do not have the funds for anyone to be guessing whats wrong with it.
goodluck

more info
 

Mike,

Sorry to hear you are still chasing this problem. As we have discussed before, my setup is no too different from yours (that said, my motor is a 383 and your motor is a 430) so I connected with the builder \ tuner of my motor and asked about timing. Here is what I heard back:

"The total timing was set at 30 degrees and at a idle 15-16 degrees. This is pretty standard for a small block chevy... 30 degrees total timing is the mark you should shoot for at 4500-5000 rpm... I had the car on a dyno and we tuned it with the computer and it made 530 hp at the rear wheels at 29-30 degrees... As I said in my last e-mail there is a spring set in the distributor that will not allow it to time over 30 degrees and that will prevent pre detonation... If you were to run higher octane fuel you could bump up the timing and gain a few more hp... As rpm`s increase so does the timing. Keep in mind that these numbers were after we installed the air-to-air intercooler".

Sounds like with Jody's help you have some great resources available to you to help sort the car but wanted to make this information available to you.

Take care,
Chris

Hey Chris, thank for the info. Yeah the problem is there, but I can’t keep spending money to try and fix it. The car drives really well (what I'm told) and the guys are doing what they can with my funds to make it a really good car. The big problem was me. I went in a few different directions in rebuilding this car, which cost me a lot of money, if I had done this from the get go and had the car designed with this in mind, I would not be having this problem, but that's what happens when you change up during the build. 400hp at the wheels is very disappointing, but right now drivability and function is more important at this point, and they got that down other then the gas tank, which I might need another tank built because this one is faulty. The car has to go back to Jason at Gearhead for light paint touch up, and will visit Jody at that time to brain storm (his brain, not mine) :unibrow: I'm not as worried about it, because it's coming up on winter time and there is no shows around this time of year, and not a lot of driving time left, except this coming weekend. Are you going to be at the show this weekend?

How many hours does CAR have into your car?

Man,those are words to live by in this hobby Steve,couldn't have said it better myself.I think everyone has a love/hate relationship with our cars...at least I know I do.:yes:

Bottom line:If it was easy,everyone and their mother would be driving these cars...but sometimes it's not.I know this is frustrating as all hell Mike but believe me when I tell you...it's all in the tune as Jody suggested and once you get it sorted out,she'll wake up big-time!:thumbsup:

Sounds like a very conservative tune-up and a compromise of parts to me.Still,you'd think CAR would be able to get you a good baseline.Regardless,your best plan may be to get it back and let a different set of eyes and hands have at it...

Good luck to you and hang in there...

You're car is killer in so many ways, Mike. Hopefully you'll get things sorted out and be the way you want it. Yes I agree it should be functional - but with parts you have compiled should also make a killer power at the same time. Trouble shooting a problem like this no doubt will nickel and dime you to death especially when you are paying $90-100/hr. My suggestion is enjoy it for what it is - which is no doubt a bad ass car, take a breather over the winter and get it to Jody when time permits on both your schedules. He has been around this stuff for along time and has probably forgot more than most know. Good luck. By the way the new wheels will take that car yet to another level!! :thumbsup:

Brent

Hey guys, thanks Bill, John and Brent for the support. Well I got the car back this weekend and it drove pretty good, not great but not bad either. All of the problems were fixed as far as drivability. The toys for tots show was a success and all went well. Until............. Going down the freeway at a pretty high rate of speed, just sorting it out a bit on a stretch of open freeway I heard a "ting" and felt nothing wrong at that point. I didn't put on my brakes at all and coasted to an exit near my friend’s house, and I figure I would get out there and look it over. I got to his house, put the car in his driveway and checked the car over, I noticed that the blinkers were not working so I called Tom at CAR and told him the problem, he told me to check the flasher, and the flasher was not really a good fit in the painless. It's a painless led flasher, and it doesn't fit into the painless very well. Go figure. Ok so I have no signals at this point, so I decided to take the car home, so I get in and attempt to back out, but problem is, the left front wheel is locked up in reverse. The top caliper bolt came out, and moving the car backward made it lock up. Also the front A arm camber clips are lying on the front wheel. I looked inside the engine bay and my left front A arm is loose. I guess I'm lucky that the car didn't go out of control at the speed I was going, but to the guys at the shops credit, I called Tom on his cell and he and Mark came out, looked it over got it on the trailer and were off in 20 minutes of calling them. Now before anyone says anything, none of the problems were CAR's fault. The nuts used on the A arms came from the factory, the brakes were never gone though at CAR because they didn't need too. So they will fix these issues and I should have the car back this week. They are going to do another kind of lock nut as this is the second time this has happened to the A arms. Also during the winter, Hector at Rick’s hotrod shop is going to fix my tank for free, and didn't flinch at doing so. Good customer support there. So in a nutshell, that was my weekend. Oh I stayed at my friends house and drank beer the rest on the day. I had nothing else to do.

Not sure. More then they are charging for, this I do know.

wow, wow, wow, glad your ok, you need jody or someone else go over the entire car before you push it hard again. seriously

Thanks Jake. I think it will be ok though as far as the chassis. It's a flaw from the subframe maker.

WOW! Close call
 

Mike,

Chris here. Just read your thread about your trouble yesterday. Glad you are OK. Could have been much worse.

Hang in there.

Chris

Hey Chris, it was not to bad. I was laughing about it because nothing happened and the guys took care of it. I was just glad I had an excuse for my wife to drink beer all day. :thumbsup:

it could be a problem from the subframe maker, however, i doubt it came aligned and ready to go, more then likely someone aligned it, thus this is where the problem is, if the shop working on the car aligns the car, and see's there an issue you don't look past it and wait for it to loosen up and fall off then say theres a problem, i would be looking at whoever aligned the car. and the caliper bolts falling out jambing in the wheel is unacceptable also, those two things are some of the easiest to double check and make sure they do not fall out. goodluck i really hope you get your car sorted, wish i was closer, i would be more then happy to come over on a weekend.
goodluck

Mike, I'm glad nothing major happened and they were able to come get the car!

Jake, I think you have valid points! I hate to talk bad about a shop I don't even know...but this isn't the first time something has fallen off this car!! :_paranoid

lol maybe the car is jinxed.
The alignment shop may not have tightened the nuts down. The wheel coming off before was because the lugs were not fully pressed into the axle. The caliper may have been another issue.

Damn, Mike... Talk about issues!!! I hope this is the last that has to get sorted out. Best of luck with it.

Yeah I know, but honestly this is not that big a deal. They are going though it tomorrow to see if there is any other issues that they didn't address and are fixing these issues for me. It's part of the sorting out process.