Hey guys, first post here, I'm gonna dump a load of info/questions on you. Any input/help is much appreciated.


I'm going to try to document this the best I can so that if any others want to try this swap/ "upgrade" they can find the info. There is literally nothing out there regarding this swap, with the kit I have chosen.

That being said,

I purchased a FAST EZ EFI 2.0 Multiport retrofit kit.

Part # 30404. I was wrong in assuming that I'd be able to use most of my sensors that I already own.

For an early TPI car, I have to adapt the TPS, IAC, and injectors. FAST makes adapters for all of these.

At this point in time, the engine is ripped out of the car, along with the ECM and wiring harness. Looking at the FAST harness, there isn't much to it, but several questions arise.


Fuel Pump -- There is a connection that is tagged "fuel pump relay" Would have been nice to know that I needed a fuel pump wiring harness. Part #30313. Haven't received this one yet. Haven't figured out how I am going to make my gas gauge work with it. Leave it plugged into the body harness of the vette and wire the power to the pump?

Throttle -- There are two of these? Have to call FAST and clarify this one. I would imagine one is for the TPS.

A/C - One grey wire. Needs to be tapped into the A/C circuit so that when it turns on the FAST ECU knows to uptick the idle speed.


The 30404 kit comes with a fuel pressure sending unit/block that needs to be plumbed into the fuel lines. I am working on that, which will work out nicely because i want to get my fuel lines away from my headers anyways.

Speed feedback for the speedo. Since I ripped out the GM harness, i no longer have a hookup to my trans for my speed. Any ideas? Buy a speed pigtail and run it to the bulkhead connector in the passenger side footwell?


On to the other part of the story, the engine. If any of you are on CorvetteForum, this is that same engine. Pwnages 383 Build aka "Pwnages 383 Build that went well for the first year then Pwnage became extraordinarily sidetracked and put the build on the back burner then bought a house which further delayed progress" LOL!

This thing has ran for about 5 minutes this year, luckily. I found coolant in the oil, but it doesn't look milky as if it had mixed up.

I'm hoping I can clean up the bottom end/heads/lifter valley and run it. Any opinions or input? Should I pull the heads?

When I disassembled, two of the intake bolts were awfully loose. So I think my problem was just a loose intake resulting in a leak.

Here's a picture of my garage before I started




The Teardown begins









Fuck.









Rolled it outside to pressure wash the engine bay





Hows that for a trans brace? Lol!!


















Painted headers with VHT flat black. They looked like shit. Still have to bake them to cure the paint.




Right now I'm at a stand still, pending input from you guys...should I yank the heads? Pop a rod cap off to look at bearings?


I'm also waiting for parts to come in...fuel pump harness, super ram gaskets, etc.



Any help/insight/insults are appreciated.


Jeremy aka pwnage1337

Jeremy,

Welcome aboard!

Lets see... if it was my engine, I would pull the heads and check everything. You have done the hard work; pulling the engine out, why go soft now?

I would also make sure that the coolant leak wasn't caused by a failing head gasket.

fuel pump... that's rather easy. Just tap in to the relay. IIRC, it's on the firewall.

I am sure you can get a pigtail for the VSS... GM I am sure still has them, or find a used one.

Problem is that my fuel pump relay was a part of the ECM harness!

You're right. I'll yank those heads off....IIRC I ran a victor reinz .026" gasket.

Resetting the lash is gonna suck a bit, but better to be safe.

What do you think of the bottom end?

Got it torn down to the shortblock, is there anything specific I should look for indicating that a headgasket was bad?

No cylinders stick out to me as a culprit, they mostly look the same.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj ... --6715011247921956267.jpg

This an excellent thread. I'll offer what I can when I can. As for your speedo question, the only options I'm able to offer are tough ones.

This is coming from what is admittedly a limited understanding of OEM electronics. If I am wrong, I invite constructive correction.

If you're able, try to reuse the OEM ECM. From my LIMITED understanding, you can tune it to not use the injectors or anything you don't want, and keep what you like.

Another option is painful as well. Auto meter makes a speedo that operates off of GPS. If you never go thru tunnels, this is a pretty good option, BUT, you'd hafta change over to analog Gage's and that's got some expense to it as well.
I hope My offerings have been of some assistance rather than a source of humor and head-shaking.

There is one thing... GM gauges are something of a standard... so many companies build to the GM standard, cause they are so damned common. I would wonder if the FAST output isn't already GM.

So let me get this straight, you lost the relay when you swapped harnesses?

The mains are easy to test... just remove one... oil it down and reinstall. You are checking the bearing for wear... they don't like coolant, it eats oil, and no oil = killed bearings.

they should be bright and shiny, not a darker colour, or sanded or grooved.

Welcome aboard! Sorry I'm late to the party.

From what I've seen, you'll often see a very clean piston or combustion area on the head where you had a coolant leak. Or you might find a trace of it somewhere on the block.

How many miles on the motor? Since you have it apart, it might make sense to have a rebuild done. You're already this far.

As far as the speedo, the 85-89 cars get their signal from the VSS directly. It's either a 2000 or 4000 pulse signal (can't remember offhand).

Is it my understanding that you removed the majority of the engine harness? I think most people use the aftermarket setup for the engine but leave the OEM to run other functions. I have no personal experience, so I'm looking forward to following along.

The car has less than 1000 miles on it. I had problems with the ECM all the time. One day it would start up and run fine, then the next day I'd fire it up and it'd run pig rich. To the point there was black smoke pouring out of the tail pipes. I'd shut it down as fast as possible and start digging around trying to find stuff.

The main reason I went to FAST is because I'm sick of the BS, and it's a more modern system.



The way I understand it, is that the VSS goes to the dash, the dash then converts it to a signal the ECM can understand and sends it to the ECM. I'm going to try to find a VSS pigtail and make a wiring harness so I don't have to chop up the one I took out of the car.

I took the heads off and no one cylinder stuck out. They all looked pretty much the same, carboned up on the top. So I'm going to assume that it didn't actually burn coolant, just leaked down into the crankcase. Again, the coolant wasn't milky as if it was mixed, it was totally green and separated from the oil, So hopefully I am alright.


Fuel pump relay has been figured out, I'm going to tap into it by the ECM connections. I'll have to get a picture. I grounded my test light out at the pump, with test light attached to 12v and touched pins until I found the one that goes to the pump. According to my FSM the pump grounds at G401 or some shit like that, in the car, in the hatch area.


Stay tuned!!

You are right on track as far as the VSS - goes to dash and the dash does the conversion, then sends it to the ECM for the related uses.

Without checking the FSM, you are probably correct as far as the ground location.

I'm somewhat curious as to your original problems. Sounds like a sensor problem that was intermittent. Hopefully it doesn't transfer over to the new setup.

Are you getting your Supper Ram gaskets from Scott. They worked perfect on mine/

I got my gaskets from LPE. Who is Scott?

As for my issues with the GM stuff, I'm real skeptical about my ostrich acting up. It was a multitude of things that made me go for the FAST, self tuning being one of them. I really just want to drive the fuck out of this car. Summer is here and I'm already late.

Right now I have the engine back in the car, just mounted my 6A box and remote coil for the FAST dual sync dizzy. Headers are on, so now I know where I can run my fuel pressure block, time to make some braided stainless lines!

Note I had to buy two sets of the Saginaw to AN adapter fittings. One set for the fuel rail, and one set for the connections by the fuel filter.

Quote:

Hi JAGC4,
I'm Scott and I have available a SuperRam gasket set that I had created because of the lack of this gasket set. LPE is often out so I had a set developed that I have been selling to those interested here at Coretteforum.guru. If you find that you want an extra set or need an new one let me know and I'll get you set-up. The SuperRam gaskets I am offering are high quality and at a real good price for the forum members. Thx, Scott

The early cars had some harness issues

You may want to take a meter and see if they all checkout.

I'd hate for you to get a new engine management system & wind up with the same issues.

The service manual is not that expensive, and will save you a lot of headaches.

You can get the FSM on CD now on ebay for under $20. It's a big PDF!

Main grounds are to the transmission... where it meets the engine.

For the pig tail, call Chris May at Superior Chevy in KS, 800.728.8267. If he can't get it, call vette2vette.com, ask for Jason.

Brian alluded to issues... here's the score: pre-91 engine harnesses SUCKED. SAE changed the standard for wire insulation and the new materials proved to be much more durable inside the hotter engine compartments of modern cars. The earlier stuff just did not survive... the wiring would chaff, crack, harden, shrink, you name it. Add some chemical exposure (oil, cleaners, coolant) and the wire was doomed to die.

I had a special retrofit harness built from Jim's performance and it was very nice, practically brand new. It was for me to run a 165 ecm instead of the 870. It ran great for like three months then I ran into all kinds of problems.

I have a FSM, sometimes it's hard to find shit in here though lol

These guys appear to sell all the pieces that you need

http://dfperformance.com/LT1_inj.html

Great link!! Thanks!

I just glanced at it quick, they have the lowest price I've seen on the kit I have (30404)

I've found everything I need in regards to getting the FAST to increase my idle speed when I engage A/C, and also figured out my speedo situation.

Looks like I'll have to get a VSS pigtail and wire it into the cabin. I identified which pins I need to wire it into in my passenger side foot well.

Same for the A/C, in my car there are three wires on the car side of the harness. Two green and one black. One green is the positive to the compressor, the other green is the positive to the ECM indicating that the A/C has been engaged. The black is the neg for the A/C compressor. So my plan is to get a pigtail from a salvage yard (the 3 pin A/C) and run my wires from there. One of the positives to the FAST ECU and the others go to my compressor.