Rich Running Solved Like Having a New Car
 

Celebrating with my 1000 post:
I rebuilt my engine several years ago and it has run rich ever since I put it back together. A little back ground on the my rebuild. Started out with 2 broken head studs and oil consumption indicating guides needing replacement. Full rebuild or top end? Tore the engine down and found Alusil P&C's. Great:mad: OK full rebuild was decided.
Looked at some different options for replacing my P&C's and due to budget decided on the QSC/9.5:1 JE 3.4 from Supertec. Put in DC-22 cams and performance valve springs from Camgrinder . Also ARP rod bolts and steel exhaust studs. Would have loved to do twin plug but budget just didn't allow it.

Spent many hours cleaning and prepping for the rebuild. Powder coated or painted as many parts as possible. Also need a new clutch which was done as well. Everything went well with the rebuild and finally got everything back together. Looked great and couldn't wait to get it going. Started it up without any drama and did the break in. Power seemed good but just not what I expected.
Did a dyno and showed 151 hp :eek: definitely not what I was expecting. And it ran very rich as in 9.8:1 at 6500 rpm. But the car was running great...

I worked with Steve Wong and John (camgrinder) to find the reason for this. Steve had burned a custom chip for me. After getting my AFR's with a LM-2 and showing them to be from 12:1 down as far as 9.8:1 Steve felt there was a problem that was causing this. So I started checking everything possible that can cause rich running condition. Everything checked out perfectly. Injectors, fuel pressure, sensors, throttle switches, and communication between the dme and all sensors. Even got a AFM from DFink and made no change to rich running. WTH is going on.

Doing one more test a leak down and compression check which were great as well 2-6% leak down and 193-203 on compression. I decided to check the cam timing. It was getting late and I wasn't getting for sure what I was supposed to be doing so quit for the night but the reading I had gotten was 5.71mm. Had to be doing something wrong. Fast forward after doing some research I was checking the cam timing correctly. 5.71 should only be 2.4mm. Checked the other side and it was 5.89. Just can't find a good mechanic :rolleyes:. I had timed the cams to around 12 degrees advanced.
Dropped the engine and re-timed as well as taking care of a couple of small items that were needed. The engine was dropped last Wednesday and put back in last night.

Holey **** is all I can say. Rich running problem solved and added (my guess) around 70HP will verify later. 1st gear was at red line so fast I bounced off the rev limiter with power still building and same in second. The power band is fantastic from 4000rpm to 7000 red line.

A huge thanks to Steve Wong , John (camgrinder) and Dave Fink for all their help in getting this figured out.

Just haven't been able to get the $hit eatin grin off my face yet. :D:D:D:D

Glad things worked out! I'm at a similar stage as you were: car is smoking a bit(guides) and I have one cyl that is low at 100psi. I am quite fearful of what I might find once I have the heads off.
How is the car in regular city driving? oil temps ok?

Congrats on the 1000th post....and great job writing it, I was ALMOST as excited as you must have been when "everything came together"! Valve timing can be everything! From your description the camgrinder had to be Dougherty and your right he's a great guy. Enjoy!

Congratulations and great work!

It might be a good idea to check your mixture now just to be sure.

I haven't driven it much yet but the temps never got above 220 and may have gotten to 230 with hard driving and 100 degree temps. I think that the temp will come down some now, will let you know on that. The cam's power band starts at around 3900 and pulls hard to redline. If I was using it for DD I would use a milder cam, maybe 964 or Camgrinder has one a step above that. I am happy with the results, just can't imagine what it would be like with twin plug and 10.5:1 compression.

Yes John Dougherty, his PP name is Camgrinder. Told him about it, he laughed and asked what pistons I was using. Told him JE's with deep valve pockets. He said that there would have been a lot of damage had there been something else.

I am going to check the AFR Wed. night. Get it to Steve to let him see if he can get anymore from it. Also Dynolicious is going to happen soon as well. Here is a sample of what my afr's were. Power dropped drastcally after 5200 and would not rev past 6500.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1254242302.jpg


Thanks for all the comments and for the help from this PP forum as It would have been much harder for me to do the rebuild with out this resource:cool:

Hey Michael, any updates? Did you ever get back on the dyno?