To set the base timing, do you disconnect the 4 wire connector at the distributor or just one wire (bypass) in the bundle? If just the one wire, which color is it and what's the easiest way to un-do and the re-do?

Thanks and glad to see the site healthy again. Good work!

Bill

Hi Bill.

To set the timing, you pull the plug on the EST bypass wire. It's a brown wire with a single-pin connector near the brake booster area. The Check Engine light should come on with this wire disconnected. After disconnecting the EST bypass the stock base timing spec is 6 deg BTDC. Reconnect the EST bypass once you're done and the CEL should turn off.

_________________
Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts
Gone, but not forgotten

Thanks Dawg. Was beginning to wonder where all the "helpers" went! Believe it or not, the factory manual does not say exactly how to set the timing. It alludes to the timing going to base when the EST is disconnected, but there is not a direct to the wire you need to pull-unless I missed it somewhere. I find the manual lacking i9n several important areas and too detailed in others.

On another note, I am situated now in Denver at a new steel company where we stock almost every imaginable type of metal. Did we ever come up with a back glass hinge to make a re-po from? I can make some damn sturdy hinges, but they wouldn't be "pretty". I might be able to get a mold made if a had a straight prototype.

On a third note, when setting the tranny TV cable, when you push the "set" button in at the cable slider, can you describe how to get the slider to reverse such that you can then mash the pedal to WOT to reset?
I'm not sure whether you just push in the d-shaped set button and push the center cable back in toward the tranny or whether you try to push the center black tip itself back in. Hope I am making my question anywhere close to clear! Clear as mud, right?

Bill
Centennial, Co

Glad it helped Bill,
You can find just about every answer about our crossfire setups on the CFI forum. http://www.crossfire.homeip.net, Plus the guys on there are very helpful when you have a problem.

The problem with the hinges is still at a standstill, the guy on the Corvetteforum that said he has a brand new set of hinges has stopped talking to me, I think he might have been full of BS.
About the best thing I can think of right now, is that Mark told me after he got moved, that there is a guy with a complete rear window where he lives now. Maybe we can get the hinges off of that one for now to make some molds from. I don't think anyone wants to take theirs off for this project, it would just about leave your vette useless until they were returned...

I will talk to a guy here about how to set the TV cable, it's one of the things I haven't had to deal with yet....Stay tuned.

_________________
Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts
Gone, but not forgotten

Thanks to Bryan (Bseery from the CF) here is his instructions for the TV cable adjustment.

Push the "D" shaped metal button in, sometimes this is very hard to press. While holding it in, try to push the center black plastic part back toward the transmission. It should slide all the way back into the housing. Release the button and then press the gas pedal to the floor. Do not set this by using your hand to open the throttle. Many times by using your hand at the linkage you actually pull it further than using the gas pedal and you end up pulling it further than you need to.

Let me know if this helps...

Got it set! Thanks Dawg. I often post to the C/F forum as well as this site and all the help is great. I love my '82 which I am fixing up for my wife. I bought my CE on Ebay aboutn 8 moths ago and got re-hook on cars again. Last fun car was a lS7 equipped 68 chevelle. Owned firehawk, 97 anniversary camaro SS, a supercharged 95 T/A, but love the vette. Enough so that I bought a '99 and modded it to 441 RWHP, but it sucked a valve into #6 piston about 3 weeks ago-so, back to playing with the 82 until the builder fixes his mistake(s).

I have changed nearly everything on the '82 motor without going inside. It has 68,000 miles on it, but it is a total dog. I don't expect it to run like the 99, but it won't hardly bark the tires! New fuel pump, filter, wires, plugs, EGR, injectors, rotor, cap, pcv, K&N's, timing set, etc to no avail.

Tranny upshifts too soon (4500 rpm) and won't kickdown to 1st (ever). Will start in first, but once the 1-2 shift has happened--forget it! I'm ready to chuck the motor for a ZZ4 crate. I'll try to free up the exhaust first in case a Cat is clogged, but short o0f that I can't hardly see investing in the C/F set-up. My Chrysler 300 would beat this thing! any ideas?

Bill

_________________
Bill
2" TB's, X-Ram, rollers, comp cams 262HR, hedman headers, 3.73's, prominator w/ 8746

Bill,

I can light up my rear tires without power braking. The CFI isn't all that bad, it just needs some work. Not unlike the 99 you built. It needed work to get to 441 HP...

So far I have ported the stock intake, gutted the cat. Installed Borla mufflers. and now I have the LT1 fuel pump.
Mine is stock on the inside, with 123,000 showing..

I hate to see anyone give up on the CFI, but if you do, let me know if you want to get rid of what you take off...I am always looking for parts to modify...



It sounds like you are still having tranny problems, and I'm not sure what it's doing. Once again, let me see if I can find someone to help out here.

Dawg,

Thanks for the encouragement! I don't think that no matter what I do power-wise, I'll let my stock CF go anywhere. I'm frustrated because I set my fuel pressure at 12 pounds at the TB's, installed new injectors, replaced everything in the ignition, installed new O2 sensor, plugs, wires, EGR, etc and the enginwe is just not responsive. It acts like an engine with MINUS 6 degrees timing rather than 6 degrees BTDC. Maybe I'll bump it to 8-10 BTDC and see if it likes that better.

I'm just at a loss where to take it to see what's up with the motor. I'll do a compression check and I do have access to a dyno, but with a fairly small brain box driving this thing I don't know what I can check other than A/F ratio and RWHP. I'd just like to have a solid mid-14's car. I don't need it to light the world on fire.

I did change the rear to 3.73's and that helped quite a bit, but not enough!
I think I'll very likely work on heads and exhaust first. I'd like to find a set of headers and xpipe, free-flow cats and mufflers. Do you know who makes a "stock sounding" free exhaust system fairly reasonable for these cars? Also looking for a sets of decent heads complete. Keep an eye out for me please!

Bill

_________________
Bill
2" TB's, X-Ram, rollers, comp cams 262HR, hedman headers, 3.73's, prominator w/ 8746

Bill,

There is also the possibility that your cam has bit the dust, there has been quite a few documented case's of the stock cam rounding off lobes. This will really kill your horse power.

As for the upgrades, and this is just my opinion. You can upgrade a lot of stuff with the stock ECM, for heads you can use L98 heads, they flow decent for a factory head, if you have enough money to afford it, go with some aluminum heads, The Trick Flow heads are really nice 195CC intake runners is all you need 64 to 72 CC.:
http://www.trickflow.com/product/chevycylinderheads/23degree/pr_23degree.asp
Or a set of AFR heads will work really good.
Also Edelbrock heads have work with great too.

I would recommend the Dynomax Ceramic coated headers. Unless you go with true duals exhaust pipes, you won't need an X pipe.

The Chevy L79 cam has a lsa of 114, 222/222 and lift of .447/.447 with 1.5 rockers. 1.6 rockers will get ya .477/.477 lift. This shouldn't need any ECM tuning either.

For a high flow cat it depends on your wallet again...I hollowed mine out, but if you have emissions to deal with, look at these two for the stock 2-1-2 setup...
http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?dept%5Fid=157&pf%5Fid=30712&mscssid=07Q3MHMKP6GM9N00NPWCPF4H25GT09XF

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?dept%5Fid=157&pf%5Fid=41192&mscssid=07Q3MHMKP6GM9N00NPWCPF4H25GT09XF

And for mufflers, I went with a set of Stainless Steel Borla's. They have a little more rumble that stock, no resonance in the cab. and if you get on it, they just rumble louder, No where near as loud as flowmasters. Just a mean growl...

You can find all of this info, and lots more on the CFI forum:
http://www.crossfire.homeip.net

Dawg,

You are a wealth of information! Now we are getting to the meat of the issue. I was looking at trick flow and AFR 180"s. I want to get the low end grunt in favor of top end ultimate HP. would rather build a stop light to stop light motor. Are the 180's too small? My thought was to start with AFR 180's and polish and gasket match. Is that a waste with the O/E intake? Other than the Xram, what are my options? I know the stock intake can be cleaned up and made much better, but will it ever be good enough if I go with new heads and a mild cam? What cam would you suggest for excellent off idle to say 5500? I guess I'm looking at keeping the stock ratio 1.5's and a slightly biggerv cam rather than smaller cam and 1.6's. Thatta way I can always go to 1.6's if I decide I want more later. Hydraulic roller lifters and roller rockers?

Lastly, with headers and a freer flowing cat will a 2-1-2 exhaust leave much on the table vs. a true dual set-up? That would certainly make things easier.

Oh, one last question....does anyone sell re-worked L98 heads with cleaned up bowls, runners, etc. that you know of? Any issues mating up to the stock intake? Mounting of assys such as A/C??

I'll owe you a prototype set of CE hinges for this one!

Bill

_________________
Bill
2" TB's, X-Ram, rollers, comp cams 262HR, hedman headers, 3.73's, prominator w/ 8746

For some pre-machined heads, look at Sallee Cheverolet:
http://www.sallee-chevrolet.com/index.html

If money is no a problem, and you are willing to learn how to tune your ECM, this is the best setup so far. It is the specs that a guy in Australia is running now, and at the drag strip he has run 12.81 in the 1/4 mile. Thats the fastest Naturally Aspirated Crossfire so far to date.

Ben's motor:
Eagle 383, 4340 forged steel int. balance crank
ARP windage tray studs
Milodon diamond stripper
Mellings oil pump, ARP drive shaft
Eagle 'SIR' I-beam 5.7" bushed conrods
Speed Pro coated hyper pistons giving 10.1 cr
Hyd roller 216/220 @ .050", ~.500 lift, 112LSA
Torrington bearing type timing set and comp cams roller bearing thrust button and heavy cast alloy cover
Roller lifter retrofit
AFR195 heads, springs changed to match cam, ARP 12 pt. head bolts
Comp Cams 1.6:1 roller magnum rockers
Custom tri-y headers, full 2-1/2" mandrel bent exhaust, x-pipe, no cat
X-Ram
2"TB's
90lb 454 truck injectors @ 14.5psi
All the other usual crap like cold air, K&N etc..
7747 ecm
2800rpm converter, Trans-go kit.

With this setup, you WILL have to get the prominator so you can hook up a laptop, and tune the computer to run everything correctly. But this will also get you a CE that will run with the C5's.

Going with the X-Ram is not all roses either, first it does cost you some torque, and there is the pesky cold weather flooding problem that is worse than the stock intake. The stoke intake will support up to about 320 horsepower, this has been the best posted so far on the CFI forum. So don't completely rule it out for a good street warrior.

Other head choices are the AFR, Trick Flow, or the Edelbrock. Try to stay with 195cc heads with 74cc or 68cc combustion chamber, any larger and you will lose torque.

If you really want my best suggestion, I would port the stock intake, go with 2 inch throttle bodies,(bored by Dan). 65# injectors with an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, and an upgraded fuel pump.
I like the trick flow 23 degree heads (Kenny Duetwieller version) Dynomax coated headers, and a true dual exhaust (if you run both pipes where the cat is now, you have to use an Xpipe, or find a 68 to 79 W/auto tranny cross member(modify it) and go duals down both sides with an Hpipe) then use either high flow cats, or no cats. and the Borla mufflers.
Of course this is just the topend, if you have a high mileage motor, it might be smart to rebuild the bottom end while its apart. Note that the stock motor should be fine up to about 350 HP.
I was thinking of using the comp cams 2050, but right now I now of a guy that just put in the Chevy L79 cam mentioned above, he is also using Trick Flow heads ans a few other goodies, he fired it up last week, and said it was running real strong without tuning...He is going to report back this week how his road trip went, this may be to best cam for the street yet. I'll post on it when I hear from him.


Wow! I have typed more in this one thread than I have all year...LOL
I sure hope someone is reading all of this. And I'm not boring you all to death...

Of course you can use anything suggested above, or use what I posted to dream up your own combo.

Yeah, I'm back... Big surprise huh???

As for the problem with your tranny shifting. You could have a stretched TV cable, or more than likely someting is wrong with the valve body.
If you know how to setup a 700R4 with a pressure gauge, this will tell you a lot of info about whats going on inside.

Or you could just find a good transmission shop, and let them diagnose it for you.

Dawg,

you're not boring me! I love it! I got the tranny shifting much better now that the TV cable was adjusted a couple clicks. I think the reason it is difficult to get the trans to do an "automatic" 2-1 downshift is that 1st gear is so tall that you run out of gear early. The only "problem" I still have is that the tranny upshifts at about 4500 under full throttle. When does your upshift by itself?

On the L79 cam, I read that post by the guy you were referring to. I had an L79 and there was no cam "lope" you could hear. Why would this cam in our motor have an audible cammy lope when it idles smooth in a stock LT1 car?

Thanks for all the scoop. It will save me a lot of trial and error.

Bill

I think he is getting a lope because he is using Trick Flow heads, and 1.6 roller rockers. The rockers are increasing the valve lift enough to cause a lope.

If I run wide open throttle, mine runs up to about 5900 rpm before it shifts 1 to 2. then about 5700 rpm for 2 to 3. Maybe your TV cable is still out of adjustment????

Please let me know what go fast goodies you use, and how they work together. This is the only way we will ever figure out how to go fast.