A Fabricobbler's Guide to the Turbo Buick Galaxy- Cutlass Rehash

[64nailhead]

You carb tune is really alot better than you're giving it credit for. You're leaving some power on the table at 14-16:1 before the secondaries open, but dang, that will get you some mileage. And high 11's to 12.8 when the secondaries are open is great. You should have no concerns of blowing this thing up with that tune.

I know those AFR numbers seem on the lean side, but a blowthrough is a different beast than a multiport injection setup. The gas has a much longer time to cool the charge. And your timing retard is a bit excessive as well for maximum performance. For the street, year, I'm OK with that, maybe .75-1 degree per psi - but your 1.5/psi is safe for the street. 12:1 at 15+psi would be fine on a blow through.

It would be great fun to play with this on a dyno if I could tune a Rochacha, but I can't lol. I'll bet you're 50-100hp shy of what it could be making at 9 psi. You have 13 degree coming out at 9 psi, but you could probably get by with 3-4 and it would really giddyup. And for real fun, drain the tank and throw in 3-4 gallons of C16 and put the wood to it.

I do understand the lack of convenience for doing that though. I know I have about 5 tests for my stuff that I wish I had time to try - damn snow anyway ;(


This looks like it's going to be fun! Onto the ease of EFI!!!

 

[motorheadmike]

You carb tune is really alot better than you're giving it credit for. You're leaving some power on the table at 14-16:1 before the secondaries open, but dang, that will get you some mileage. And high 11's to 12.8 when the secondaries are open is great. You should have no concerns of blowing this thing up with that tune.

I know those AFR numbers seem on the lean side, but a blowthrough is a different beast than a multiport injection setup. The gas has a much longer time to cool the charge. And your timing retard is a bit excessive as well for maximum performance. For the street, year, I'm OK with that, maybe .75-1 degree per psi - but your 1.5/psi is safe for the street. 12:1 at 15+psi would be fine on a blow through.

It would be great fun to play with this on a dyno if I could tune a Rochacha, but I can't lol. I'll bet you're 50-100hp shy of what it could be making at 9 psi. You have 13 degree coming out at 9 psi, but you could probably get by with 3-4 and it would really giddyup. And for real fun, drain the tank and throw in 3-4 gallons of C16 and put the wood to it.

I do understand the lack of convenience for doing that though. I know I have about 5 tests for my stuff that I wish I had time to try - damn snow anyway ;(


This looks like it's going to be fun! Onto the ease of EFI!!!

Reminds me of this:

What Ever Happened To Smokey's Hot-Vapor Engine? - Hot Rod Magazine

What Ever Happened To Smokey's Hot-Vapor Engine? Well HOT ROD finally has the answers you need. Only at www.hotrod.com, the official website for Hot Rod Magazine.

www.motortrend.com

Smokey's Adiabatic Engine - Engine & fuel engineering

Somebody in another discussion thread made a mention of Smokey Yunick's adiabatic engine. I had never heard of it before, and did an internet search as well as retrieve the patent and dug up some old Popular Science magazines that discussed it. For those of you not in the know, Smokey Yunick...

www.eng-tips.com

 

[64nailhead]

Reminds me of this:

Smokey's Adiabatic Engine - Engine & fuel engineering

Somebody in another discussion thread made a mention of Smokey Yunick's adiabatic engine. I had never heard of it before, and did an internet search as well as retrieve the patent and dug up some old Popular Science magazines that discussed it. For those of you not in the know, Smokey Yunick...

www.eng-tips.com

I've never heard about that, but reading that short snipit reminded me of the Cosworth Vega debacle and how GM wound up with that piece of turd rather than a rotary. And yes, the H-body platform was supposed to be the home of the GM rotary.

No wonder an H-body engine bay is so freakin' tiny!!

 

[motorheadmike]

I've never heard about that, but reading that short snipit reminded me of the Cosworth Vega debacle and how GM wound up with that piece of turd rather than a rotary. And yes, the H-body platform was supposed to be the home of the GM rotary.

No wonder an H-body engine bay is so freakin' tiny!!

I keep a lot of UFI stuffed away in my head.

 

[81cutlass]

You carb tune is really alot better than you're giving it credit for. You're leaving some power on the table at 14-16:1 before the secondaries open, but dang, that will get you some mileage. And high 11's to 12.8 when the secondaries are open is great. You should have no concerns of blowing this thing up with that tune.

I know those AFR numbers seem on the lean side, but a blowthrough is a different beast than a multiport injection setup. The gas has a much longer time to cool the charge. And your timing retard is a bit excessive as well for maximum performance. For the street, year, I'm OK with that, maybe .75-1 degree per psi - but your 1.5/psi is safe for the street. 12:1 at 15+psi would be fine on a blow through.

It would be great fun to play with this on a dyno if I could tune a Rochacha, but I can't lol. I'll bet you're 50-100hp shy of what it could be making at 9 psi. You have 13 degree coming out at 9 psi, but you could probably get by with 3-4 and it would really giddyup. And for real fun, drain the tank and throw in 3-4 gallons of C16 and put the wood to it.

I do understand the lack of convenience for doing that though. I know I have about 5 tests for my stuff that I wish I had time to try - damn snow anyway ;(


This looks like it's going to be fun! Onto the ease of EFI!!!

Yeah I'm pretty happy with the fuel ratio in it's current state. I would love to do some more fiddling but snow, desire for progress, and an EFI engine sitting 3ft from the car makes me think otherwise.

I think the drawthrough will be staying in my collection so there's always an opportunity for it to live on in something else (open wheel 30's car or something?)

Reminds me of this:

What Ever Happened To Smokey's Hot-Vapor Engine? - Hot Rod Magazine

What Ever Happened To Smokey's Hot-Vapor Engine? Well HOT ROD finally has the answers you need. Only at www.hotrod.com, the official website for Hot Rod Magazine.

www.motortrend.com

Smokey's Adiabatic Engine - Engine & fuel engineering

Somebody in another discussion thread made a mention of Smokey Yunick's adiabatic engine. I had never heard of it before, and did an internet search as well as retrieve the patent and dug up some old Popular Science magazines that discussed it. For those of you not in the know, Smokey Yunick...

www.eng-tips.com

Totally forgot about that one, I read about it years ago and it all sorta came back.

Dad told me back in the late 70's there was a local guy that put a big arse tank of welding oxygen in the trunk of his car and somehow blew high pressure oxygen past the fuel in the carb and claimed big MPG. Something always scared me about that....

 

[81cutlass]

This thread needs more attention. I am in.

So much caring 🙂

 

[motorheadmike]

So much caring 🙂

 

[81cutlass]

Transmission disassemble time.

Nearly my entire professional career and engineering degrees have focused on power train and fluid power design and manufacturing so nothing exotic. Did some reading to know what order stuff comes apart and it's pretty straight forward.

What does strike me is how puny things are. I'm used to 400hp+ 23speed tractor transmissions with 100% duty cycle, 10k hour design life so seeing a car trans built for 200hp is comical. The clutches and shafts are so tiny.

I still have the last clutch pack in the case to pull but the snap ring is being a beotch so I called it a night and I'll re convene tomorrow.

As expected the band is worn and it looks burned a bit. I assume it's supposed to be all red and the contact surfaces are black. Some material flaking off the top.

Otherwise everything looks semi ok, but I haven't split any clutch packs yet. Waiting until I get new parts to do that.

I called CK performance and they just need to check on a few parts to see if they are in stock. Waiting on a call back. I think they said the servo and improved drum assemblies are out of stock. I'll order parts if the servos are a bit slow, but I don't want to wait on the drum as it's going to sit apart a long time otherwise and I don't want to do that. Kinda want to put it together in one shot so I can A to B replace parts.

Overall it's been pretty easy to pull apart. I dropped 4 check balls out of the valve body when I pulled it which kinda sucked but they probably get changed when I do the shift kit and I'm sure that's easy info to find.

I just need to pony up the $1000 bill to buy the rebuild kit, shift kit, pump parts, servo and HD modified drum.

 

[motorheadmike]

These supply chain issues are getting silly.

 

[81cutlass]

Well I have a case of SSP. Supplier Selection Paralysis.

I really need to get parts ordered to get the engine swap started and this trans overhaul is the bottleneck. I just can't get myself to actually order stuff.

Called CKperf again today, no answer. Never did hear back on their ETA stock date for the servo or drum from my call last week. I am not entering the 'wait on a drum' zone and become a slave to the supply chain.

Art Carr has the clutches and a birdy says CK just gets their rebuild kit from Art Carr and adds stuff. I believe it. Nobody in the aftermarket performance trans world (Ok VERY few) actually build anything. They just package and resell. The problem as I mentioned is somehow CKperf is WAY under price compared to the few other options and make them very tempting. The level of HP trans a CK perf kit gets me is above and beyond what this car needs.

The CK kit is $990 and gets you
-Seals, clutches, steels, bushings, shim kit (typical rebuild kit stuff) ~$350
-Band
-Low and OD roller clutch
-Pump vanes and higher pressure springs
-Hard stator shaft
-Hard Sun gear shell
-Fwd clutch pressure plate & piston
-Shift kit
-Big Servo
-Overrun clutch and reverse clutch return springs
-4340 hobbed forward drum shaft vs. the stock spline rolled one

Art Carr kit 'ala cate' getting what I actually need and skipping some of the overkill stuff from the CK kit is $935
-Normal rebuild kit- $390
-Big servo, same as Sonnax- $170
-Hard stator $65
-Wide band $35
-Pump vanes and higher pressure springs $72
-Trans Go shift kit $180
-Bigger TV boost valves $17

My 'ala carte' option doesn't have a few of the parts I really don't 'need' including
-$50 of return springs
-$390 4340 hobbed forward drum
-$80 Hard sun gear shell

Somehow CK charges less for a few parts I need
$140 for their shift kit vs. $180 for the Trans go
$80 for their servo vs. $170 for the sonnax
The problem is CK doesn't list their servo as available outside of their kit.

So I can have parts in my hand in a few days if I get the minimum of what I need from various suppliers, but for an extra $55 I get $520 of extra stuff from CK that takes my probably 400hp safe build to probably 550hp. Explain how that works?

I'm stuck in a pit of despair and agony (haha)