[Diy_efi] 305/350 Swap 10-month Progress Report...

[Mike Frels]

I thought I'd drop my favourite lists a quick report on well overdue progress on my TPI 350 of significance. The last time I spoke up it was with the results of my failed 15mph treadmill smog test and how my NOx levels were too high. Suggestions were made regarding timing reduction to pull the NOx down. Well I reduced my initial from 6BTC to zero and the only thing that came down was my gas mileage. I put the 6 back in and finally broke down and installed a new cat. Car passed 15mph with NOx 10% below max allowable. Strange though that the 25mph test remained virtally unchanged from when I had it tested with the gutted cat. The good thing about all this testing was that the tests confirmed the idle/low speed 160 BLM's I was getting.

Moving on I remembered from tuning my motorcyle years ago how I though I would pick up some power by installing some high zoot coils. Installing a set of Accel coils suddenly made my bike run incredibly lean. I was on my third or fourth set of *significantly* oversize jets when I thought to myself how counterproductive for a street driven bike what I was doing was. I was probably gonna get more power but at a significant loss in mpg. I removed the Accels and went back to stock and the performance I was used to returned. When I pitched the well worn coil-in-cap dizzy on my motor and installed a newer remote coil unit I installed an Accel coil instead of OEM. A week ago I swapped the Accel coil for a correct GM coil. BLMS dropped slightly in all ranges. Now I the only place I got 160 was at idle. 

This past weekend I finally received from my cleaning servuce and re-installed my #24 LT1 injectors that when I installed the motor I plugged with vaseline via my stupidity. Remember that mistake? I have always heard bad vibes and stories about the #24 Accels that I put in couple of months ago and now I think there is something to those stories. With the LT1 injectors back in my idle BLM dropped to 140. BLMs in all other ranges dropped 10 to 20. In some places I was seeing 119. Previous VE changes have made it obviously too fat in some places. Idle is smooth and general response at all rpm changes has improved greatly. 

I feel like I can finally do some serious tuning. 10 monts later!!!... Now those SLP headers are calling me. "Put us one. Put us on"...

Mike