383 ez-efi and overdrive

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Somehow, the throttle body linkage was never makin it to WOT in the past(it was in my old monte before...) and the factory v8 throttle cabling works well for rochesters and 1406 carb, I needed to whip up a throttle shaft plate extender to achieve WOT... when I think of it, I never seemed to notice that deficiency in the

past.

 

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those three wires are for the lockup... one is for 2/3/4 lockup, another is for 4 only, and the last is for lockup any speed... not sure when that function 'll come into play, however, I did have a hydraulically operated lockup(no wiring req'd) and it was rather enjoyable that way behind a 327 with performer camshaft... move the throttle, and it would disengage... and as I remember, that one could run in overdrive at full throttle. Due in part from something called a "bootstrap eliminator". I never really did test it out much, for too long at least. It was rathe pleasurable to feed some throttle beyond 3/4 opening without that pesky 4-3-4 gear change...

 

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the computer will read the "closed" position of the throttle plates rather well, even when using the uh... "valet" throttle position hole that is on the factory throttle lever... but hey... even with that "valet" condition, the mechanical fuses i affectionately call tires are no match for the output of this engine... i tell people i know that this not the kind of car you can drive easily if you're in a bad mood... especially if your regular M-F commuter car has 1/3 of this one's power... i've heard of one fella retelling a story of his big block chevelle... that he let his wife drive. well after the 1/2 throttle launch momma did with it from the advanced green light, he said he was relieved that after all the smoke cleared, there was no damages to anyone, while he was looking at the car that was behind him through the windshield of his chevelle...
i saw a cartoon in an old street rod magazine long ago, where two young boys are walking down a sidewalk, with a sparkly T-Bucket in a driveway they were approaching, complete with just two legs sticking out from underneath it, from it was a clouded caption coming out of it that read something like this: "@@%$^$# &*@#! %$@GERABBLE^&**#%&"

the next picture has one boy telling the other (with big rounded eyes) " uhhh... i think it's like a temper tantrum, only organized"

 

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A few posts back, I mentioned being over at my technical advisor buddy's place for some wobble diagnostics and performance tune-up(ignition timing mostly)... he knows a thing or two about performance timing since his mechanical roller cammed 406 had a conservative 7800 RPM Rev limiter setpoint... and now since this motor hasn't run for very long in either car it was ever run in... i'd like to take a moment to discuss careful shopping and reference checking when finding an assembler for your new project's powerplant... i've run this motor, and brand spankin' built-up overdrive down to a "thunder in the valley" event shortly after checking all bolt torques and applying witness marks as an easy verification follow-up... within 20 minutes of run time to seat piston rings, my exhaust system began to rumble much louder than previously, so... pulled over for a peek, and discovered the back of a brand new muffler had divorced itself from the muffler casing.

 

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As mentioned earlier... i'm not fond of bashing the crush bend guys, they do some nice work, and their welds are very good! But to see the back of that muffler falling off with 2 hrs of run time leaves a fella with questions... so twenty minutes later swing by the muffler shop for some remedial work... we'll just say he was not exactly happy to see me there without an appointment. without cell phone service(when i discovered the freshly broken muffler) , it's difficult to make appointments... we both agreed shortly after that the failure to communicate was hard to avoid and he agreed to fix me up. pretty happy now...i carry on with my trip to to races... while fluctuating eng load and RPM for for next while... new noises began to materialize. Being a fresh build, one tends to meld with his new ride swiftly while keepin keepin watchful eye on his instruments.
Stop a while later; stop to visit the pals and course show off a bit... found some... shall I say... "odd" new noises from the firewall area...
after takin' a peek here and there to discover loose alternator, loose bolts at the bellhousing... and more loosening of exhaust components,followed by a puzzled look from "the pals"... was really awkward to say say least... considering I work with high voltage professionals and inspection service types (i like painted witness marks. Do them for yourselves too!!!).
Raise car up, dig out appropriate tools from my "good samaritan" road tool box(es) re-tighten bolts and go to the "burnout box" over by BP and CT.
seeing lots of people with striped yellow-strioed pants walking around, there were to be no burnouts... a good evening chill with other car folks; followed by a run home for fact finding. No racing, no burnouts, no spirited accelerations,NADA!!!!
Puzzled that my stuff was wigglng it's way loose, I ask the engine builder if he forgot to balance that engine, his reply was I must have forgotten something(s) an of course that engine was balanced. I didnt get a damper or flexplate with it so it must be internally balanced...

 

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Since the motor wasn't making me happy I didn't drive it much...if at all. the next time I did drive it... on the way to the builder, to see if he can diagnose what of so many things i could have forgotten and "crunched" something badly in the driveline. Turns out I snapped the bellhousing apart on maybe a 6 hour old hot rod transmission. spill transmission fluid for 3 miles til i could park it in a safe spot(windy mountain road!) Things happen right? 500$ in towing fees to get home, rent the shop again tear down the drivetrain, lift motor out with torque coverter and half bellhousing still attached, and amazed at the power this thing has!!!
wwWWOWEE!!! came to blame the trans builder... it couldn't be that engine builder...

 

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While my monte is outside and motor being transplanted to buick inside... I head out for a bite to eat. Put another trans in there just to have things at rest since I was getting ready to head out to another job, not enough time to source another hot rod transmission, i decide to leave it as-is and go to work... with a plain old impala ltz. Not quite a fuel injected monte or buick regal or anything like that... but hey, cruise control and a/c is hardly worth sneezing at. I do have a diesel truck to run around in too,and since i'll be away for a bit, I figure i'll head to town for a car trailer, load up the monte and drop it off at bros' house in Kootenays

Get back to shop, and notice that the front of the monte has shove marks in it with approx 8" of sideways drag marks under front wheels...

 

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Landlord had made surprise visit the night before, didn't see the black car in his mirror,then smucked it bad. I s'pose we'd played tag all night we couldn't meet up to discuss things. i go to his house, knock at the door...when he looked freightened to see me when he opened the door, i realized right then and there it had to be a mistake or at least an accident. i was kinda wondering when i was going to wake-up. it wasn't a bad dream after all...

after a quick and easy talk, a peaceful settlement was reached and all was good. too bad more people weren't as honorable in times like these...the milk was spilt already...

 

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2 years later, start work on the buick again, It isn't the only thing going on in my life... get to the point of ready to drive her again with with fresh transmission, brand new dual x-piped exhaust and foggy details of the last time it ran.

Drive 'er for a while, reclock the air cleaner every ten minutes or so, tighten the alternator 3 times in next hour, an the foggy details become clearer an clearer... I put internal balance hardware on this thing! That builder told me it w balanced! From Eagle! Didn't come with a balancer and/or flexplate, so review their website, and sure enough, they only ship those Items for external... pretty disappointing!!!

 

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Over past few days in a tug-o-war with engine builder/supplier, and some presidential campaign conversion later, 3 4hr return trips, he will send me a proper damper and flexplate. it just doesn't seem that a guy needs a 40k$ balancing machine to see that this mill is not balanced... i saw that mill sitting beside another 383 he was building at the same time. I still think he's knowledgeable and all, but come-on man! does a guy have to weigh his torque converter bolts too? what does it take to convince a guy something isn't right?