SkinnyG's 1977 Chevy Silverado

I had reason to question the integrity of the used MSD-brand spark plug wires I had put on the Chevy when I built the motor.

My price for new MSD 8.8mm wires: $160.

So, I took the MSD ignition off the truck, went back to good ol' HEI, and ran some $60 wires that (theoretically) won't melt off on the headers.

The MSD box came in the '88 Firebird I bought and cut up for the '87 Firefly, and I figured I'd run in on the Chevy since the compression ratio was kinda high. Honestly, it made zero difference, and required me purchasing a tach adapter as well.

Removing it made zero difference to the performance of the engine at all.

Ladies and gentlemen - save your money.

I may install it on the Firefly if and when I do some eBay turbos on it. "They Say" MSD is a good thing under boost...

Today I did an oil change in the truck. I do so on every month that is divisible by three. Keeps it easy.

Half liter of Lucas ZDDP additive (for the flat tappet cam), and 4.5L of Shell Rotella T 15W40 Diesel oil.

Also took the inch of shims out of the transmission mount that I added chasing a driveline vibration which I’m not so sure anymore was driveshaft universal joint operating angle. I shimmed the axle every which way this side of Sunday, nothing helped. I SWEAR the vibration was NOT in the engine. cough And yet....

Also swapped out the polyurethane “last forever” engine mounts for OEM style rubber. Apparently I’m not as young as driveline vibration wants me to be. What I thought was a vibration in the driveLINE, seems to be a significant engine vibration around 2200rpm, which is a total PITA driving the truck, with poly motor mounts, poly trans mounts, poly cab mounts, poly suspension bushings, and 1-ton springs. Ugh.

I’ll find out on Monday if it's better.

I guess "pics or id didn't happen."

Parked back in the house garage. Super 7 #2 hanging from the ceiling, with fenders from V8 Firefly. Orange thing bottom left is a 1973 Ariens snow thrower.

Tremclad paint is holding up ok. Rust is coming through anyways, which is why I painted it with a roller.

I don't think I ever followed up on the awful left-turn only "SNAPPITY-SNAP-SNAP" sound that had be frazzled.

The parking pawl holder-out-of-the-way-inator spring was missing, so centrifugal force was trying to shift into part while turning left.

New spring, boom. Fixed.

Found that when I was rebuilding the transmission last year.

Less vibration on my commute today with rubber motor mounts instead of the poly. Certainly less vibration felt up front. Some from the back of the trans, so....

Trans mount went back to rubber. We'll see if it's better tomorrow.

Good deal! I've used poly stuff on past projects, and wasn't unhappy, but I've also not found it important enough anymore to justify in the budget. Same with your MSD story- Sometimes the racecar parts aren't exactly what you need.

Funny story on this one- I built a "racecar" (i use the term loosely here, it ran 12.80's so it wasn't terribly fast) once thinking that I would have the most durable, stout parts. In hindsight I think what I wanted was just a driver, but I got sucked into racecar parts because all my friends said they were better/stronger. Ripped a set of stock motor mounts of unknown age, So I bought poly. Couldn't make the car run right with points so I got MSD, etc. Went down a long rabbit hole, had a lot of fun, but I think I've learned that path isn't necessarily for me, nor is it the way to make a durable daily driven car.

Anyways, enough with the rambling, I hope the rubber trans mount helps your vibrations!

Well, with a rubber trans mount back in, the cyclic vibration is GONE. The motor mounts back to rubber was ~some~ improvement, but rubber trans mount was HUGE improvement.

Go figure.

Truck is a whole lot more comfortable now. Amazing I put up with it so long.

This truck is awesome.

Suspecting I may have found my "high-rpm running out of fuel issue."

A previous owner put a fuel filter ~before~ the fuel pump. Research is indicating that said filter should be ~after~ the fuel pump.

Will move the filter this weekend and see what works.

Well, moving the filter didn't work at all.

So instead, I blew my 15cfm compressor through the fuel line back into the tank. We'll see what that does once I'm running off that tank (and blow out the current tank).

Fabricated a surge tank in prep for switching to EFI.

Dropped the trans pan to retrieve the end of the dipstick that broke off.

This truck is putting the F U into FUN.

Most of today was spent plumbing the surge tank and pumps and mounting the TBI unit. 

I neglected to take a picture of the pumps et al before I lowered the hoist, and it's midnight now, so I'll take a picture next time it's up in the air. Keeping the old-school HEI just to get it running. The dizzy is properly curved for this engine. I have an EFI unit to go in once fuel is sorted. Will be Running Megasquirt II. If I'm super lucky, it will be running be the end of Saturday. If not, I have until Tuesday morning on the way to work. Though I ~did~ re-insure The Lethal Locost for another year, so I'm not totally hooped if it doesn't run.

Throttle bracket, as promised:

Day 2 I finished up the fuel pumps and stuff on the frame, adding a filter after the EFI pump. Ran the lines up along the firewall, and connected to the pressure gauge and TBI unit. Pressure tested fine with no leaks, and set the regulator to 20psi.

Redneck butchery, eh? This would have been a WHOLE LOT EASIER if I was willing to cough up the money for new tanks and two pumps. Stupid me. Today was mostly wiring. The ECU got placed, all the sensors got wired, O2 bung got welded in but it shrank so I had to run into town in the Geriatric Buick to get an 18x1.5 tap. That will get threaded tomorrow, and the wideband will finally be installed. The relay box is from a Nissan Pickup. It's quite modular, so you can fit resistor packs, or relays, or what-have-you.

The bundled wires near it on the left are all for a heated O2. For now, I want to get it all tuned on the W/B, and then throw in a basic O2 for everyday driving. I had to get a swivel-able thermostat housing, as the only temperature bung on this older Performer intake is pretty much under the hose itself. The hole is 1/2" NPT, and the sensor is 3/8" NPT. And no, the parts store didn't have that adapter. Instead of wasting more time running around, I bought a 1/2"-1/4" adapter that they did have, as well as a 3/8" pipe tap, and made my own. I tried to organize wires and make it all pretty like, but dang that's work, and I pretty much need this truck up and running by Tuesday. If it all goes wrong, I can probably still throw the carb back on and drive it.

Coincidentally, I'm also working on a C10 TBI swap this weekend. My truck is a 74 model though. I've had this thing sitting in my shop floor for over a year now just waiting for me to build up the ambition.

Day 3 I'm getting pretty sore folding myself into the engine bay all day. Today I completed the wiring to the cooling fan (having MegaSquirt switch the fan relay), as well as get the wires ready to do the HEI-8 swap. For initial start, I wanted the old school original HEI in there - a "known good" quantity. I had nicked an extra snorkel for the air filter, so I took the time to attach it. Looks mean!

I went to re-calibrate the wide-band O2 I nicked from The Lethal Locost, only to discover the sensor itself was dead. I matched the Bosch part number to a 2000-2009 Audi A4. I need to pick up another.

Once all the electrical and everything was done, I fired it up. It coughed, and chugged, and blew enough black smoke to set the smoke detector off in the shop, even with the 18' door open. I opened up the barn fan and turned it on "expel."

Once I got the VE bins sorted, and figured out the Idle Air Stepper Controller, it just ran inconsistent. Tach was everywhere, and none of it made sense. I suspect the VR signal. As a test, I swapped in the TBI distributor I picked up at the wreckers (looked super good condition), but got less than nothing. No spark. I tested the pickup and module, and determined that the module was likely faulty. I pulled the known good distributor out of The V8 Firefly, and got it to pop once or twice, but only two sparks while cranking and then nothing. Not enough tach signal to the ECU to even keep the fuel pumps running.

So.... Tomorrow I return it back to carb so I can still drive it to work. All the crap will stay in there, just minor re-routing to go back. I'm pretty pissed off about all this.

On the upside - all the really hard work is DONE, and I'll take it on again in the Summer.

SkinnyG...this PU rocks, not sure why you still sport all those leaves out back? going to EFI I applaud you, alotta folks talk megasquirt smack, is that system the be all to end all.....guess I should go the interwebb and check it...would love to be 16 and in your 'shop' class....

Went back to the old Q-jet and HEI just to get back to work on Tuesday.

Picked up some killer shielded wire for the VR signal to Megasquirt.

Truck finally left me stranded on the drive home from the electronics store - ran out of gas with a half-full tank. This was my aforementioned "high-rpm running out of fuel" issue with the carb.

I think I narrowed it down to plugged lines.

It used to be: engine bogs half-way through 2nd on a full-throttle run.

• Tanks are breathing fine; removing the gas can improved nothing.

• New fuel pickup and sock, and even back-blown with air to make sure they were not plugged.

• New pump.

• New filter.

Then it became also hot-restart it would run for about a block, and then run out of fuel. It would fire up and keep going, but it ~always~ stalled once moving after a hot restart.

Then it became a fuel starvation issue in the past few weeks just cruising. I was thinking maybe more volatile winter grade fuel and header-heat-soak.

After getting back home from being stranded (merely walk to gas station so I could prime the carb), I re-plumbed part of the EFI fuel lines to run the electric low-pressure pump through all new lines all the way up to the carb.

Low and behold, this things picks up and HAULS. Wow. WAY more power than I've had in a while!

Strange how the LAST thing on my list of suspicions was clogged fuel lines. MAybe I should replace the brake lines while I'm at it? Hmmmmm...

(Still going to go EFI though, worry not, my friends).

Finished the driveway to my Workshop, which is the last large hurdle to completion. Means I'll be back at the V8 Pontiac Firefly soon. I installed some bumpstops so I could feel more comfortable carrying heavy loads with the suspension fully bottomed (and not have the bed sitting on the pumpkin). Fifteen pickup loads of 3/4 minus road crush, three pickup loads of fine sand, ten pallets of pavers (10,000lbs) delivered, and 22 hours of grunt later....

The driveway looks great. And it's a great finish for the workshop.

Guy loading soil into my truck: "What would you do without a truck?"

Me: "Less."

Megasquirt came back. I discovered something. Through the variety of inconsistent and confusing wiring diagrams for Megasquirt wiring, it seems I had not ~wired~ the VR input properly. I re-wired it, and lo and behold - it worked! Now to calibrate and install the new Wideband O2 sensor, and start tuning!

Dude, those pavers had to take for-berkeleying-ever! I helps a buddy do a 4.5' X 10' section next to his house and HATED IT! Looks like yours came out quite level too.

How much tuning experience do you have? All this MS talk on the forum is probably giving me a false sense of hope about my ability to set it up on something someday.

10,000lbs of pavers took me 22 hours to put down myself. Did them over a long weekend. 10 pallets.

Also about 3500lbs of sand screeded 1/2" beneath.

And about 18,000lbs of road crush compacted beneath that, all brought in one pickup load at a time, and placed via wheel barrow.

The money I save doing it myself pays for my physio and chiropractor.

I converted my Lethal Locost from OEM EFI to Megasquirt II and ITB's and EDIS. I tried tuning it Speed-Density, but gave up and went Alpha-N and never went back.

I setup a customer's Myers Manx running MSI, when his first ECU fried. I got to keep the fried ECU for my time.

I repaired the MSI ECU, and swapped it into the Lethal Locost, and re-tuned the motor with MSnSE on MSI.

I have now converted my Q-Jet/HEI truck to Megasquirt II (the ECU from the Lethal Locost), and will spend more time tuning it soon.

I really really like Megasquirt, but I know no other. It's really pretty easy, and HUGE support and fan base. DIY Auto Tune is my favourite store to buy from.

You must be one of those French-Canadians, because I'm pretty sure that wasn't in English. LOL

SkinnyG, yours and the other cool old truck threads on here are making me want a cool old truck with EFI and Overdrive. I'm not sure whether I should thank you or curse you. Either way, this thread has been great to read.

For the most part, the truck drove fine. There was a strange herky-jerky that happened under medium throttle. The best I could figure by the end of today was the high pressure fuel pump was going out. However, full throttle pulls were ~not~bad~, but I didn't get as many of those in. Whenever the herky-jerky happened, the AFR went WAY lean.

VERY driveable, otherwise. Light and part throttle was awesome. Smooth.

I figured maybe the herky-jerky was because I was using the large cap HEI and fuel only. So (again) I swapped in the HEI-8 small cap dizzy. Zero spark. Zero tach signal. I had followed some online re-wiring of the PCB for HEI, but nothing worked. I went back to the Megamanual instructions, nothing. I went through HEI diagnostics which condemned the module, but a new module didn't work. I went back to the large cap HEI and it worked.

Drove nice, except the herky-jerky. I did a wack of tuning, got it really well sorted out. I ran a wack of errands, including picking up two loads of dirt for the yard. I stopped at a parts store on the way home and picked up a new fuel pump. Truck's battery was dead. I got a jump, but no spark, no fuel pumps on, no tach signal to the ECU. I jumped the fuel pump relay and got pressure, but still no tach signal. Without my tools, I gave up and called the hook.

My shop isn't easy to access with a towtruck, so I had it dropped on the street in front of my house. I pulled the TBI off, and re-installed the Q-jet. I re-installed the mechanical pump off the motor, and fed it from a small Jerry Can under the hood to get it running and into the shop and on the lift, where I started pulling the rest of the Frankenstein fuel lines and pumps. I'll finish that tomorrow.

All this EFI stuff is going into a box and left on a shelf until I can spend a much less stressful time of it. I need more success in the small windows of opportunity I have to muck with my daily like this.

I need a sticker on my dashbaord to remind me: "Leave The Toaster Alone"