My 1986 Grand National (re) Build Thread

[TexasT]

Yeah, good call to shut her down and verify.
What about the "plugs" behind the upper timing gear? Did you thread em and such or use driven plugs? Could be restricting flow.

 But if you are getting a low oil light that sender is right at the pump is that where yours is?

How much clearance did that pump/gears have? Might have to pull it apart and plastigauge it to see.

[Steve Wood]

the light comes on at 4 psi so, along with noisy lifters, you definitely have a problem, it would seem.  Did it go out when you primed it with the drill?

[GavinHunyady]

It's been over a year since I've been in there... but don't think I touch those plugs, shortblock stayed together. I did put a new set of pump gears in and resurface the oil filter adapter. I forget the measured clearance. I dont recall the pressure relief spring setting either... so I might have to look into that.


Yeah sender is right at the block near the pump, on the T to the turbo. I'm going to pull the sender out and screw in a fitting to run a mechanical gauge. I'll run it with a drill motor and check pressure before I fire it back up.

[GavinHunyady]

It did lose prime, ran it with a drill and it wasnt picking up any load. So I pulled the oil cooler lines, filled them by hand, and ran it again. After a good 30sec or so it finally started to pump. And I confirmed that the light goes out when I key up the ignition.


SO that is all good, I suspect that what happened is that it lost prime when I installed the oil cooler adapter. I had it primed on the engine stand, but never verified once it went into the car.


I also found a leak at the oil cooler adapter to the oil pump, so I ordered a new o-ring for that. I'll pull the driver's side valve cover and look for oil while running the pump by hand before I put the cam sensor back in.


Getting closer though, wish I had more time to work on it, dang roundy round car hasn't been allowing that.

[GavinHunyady]

Alrighty, leak at oil cooler solved with a new o-ring. Then re-primed the system and re-installed the cam sensor. Fired right up, lifters quieted down... 'tsallgood now. I ran it for 30minutes, the fans cycled on and off, idle seemed ok for a first run, fuel pressure stayed constant. It's time to start tuning, w00t!

[Steve Wood]

 

[Steve Wood]

 

[GavinHunyady]

decided to install the A/C parts that I bought: dryer, o-rings, orifice tube and fake R-12. I need to do some reading, but at first glance the mityvac doesnt seem to be able to really pull any vacuum on the system from the high pressure port. Maybe I'm not patient enough to pump long enough?


I dunno, I'm nervous, its my first time. Gathering reading materials.

[TexasT]

What kind of fake r12 did you get?
I'm kinda working on my ac too. What about hoses, using the originals?

[GavinHunyady]

original hoses, I found the tell tale stain from the leak on the condenser.

[good2win22]

Glad for you that she's running with no oil leaks....

[GavinHunyady]

anyone know where the latest powerlogger download is? The one on FTS website is like 5years old... is it right?

EDIT: just found a lot newer one on turbotweak forum


my PC doesnt have a CD rom drive, so the version that came with my powerlogger is useless.

[TexasT]

Can you swing it over to a thumb drive or does your computer not have a USB, what about one of those small chips like goes in your phone. Download on phone on micro chip and move to you device , or Maybe on your desktop or at a friends desktop that has a cdrom.

[Steve Wood]

All he has to do is download it to his computer from TT or whereever and execute the file.  The program resides on his computer and he can reflash the PL unit in the car by connecting the usb cable to his computer

[GavinHunyady]

Giggity, made the first test drive today. Running the turbotweak axis, I wanted to keep it simple and get the thing running while sorting out what the new combo wants. So far I'm pretty happy, it seems to be doing ok with the low load driving. I'll be getting the alky up and running next since everything seemed to be working correctly.


Now there was 1 little problem... after driving around for about 20minutes... the voltage light started to flicker. Measured with a voltmeter and got the same 11.6-11.8V at the battery and alternator as the powerlogger was seeing. It seems like the fans would have killed the battery if the alternator completely crapped out. I have another alternator I can swap out, and I also have an external regulator that I can put on the alternator to try it out. Does anyone know what signal I should look for out of the brown wire that goes to the alt?


It was really, really nice to have this car back on the road and driving, I cant believe how much time had passed.