My 307 startup

[techg8]

I finally got the 307 to come alive.

I am going thru the little things now, tinkering away til its all straight.

First my ground straps were getting hot. Traced that to a bad negative cable ground, which forced the starter to pull its ground thru the sheetmetal grounds. Cleaned up the neg cable ground, fixed that.

Next it wasnt starting, cranking but not starting.....managed a backfire thru the carb then the exhaust. All the hookups checked ok, and it "should " be working, so I pulled the distributor and rotated the rotor 180 degrees. Sure enough I had put it in wrong. I must have moved the crank incorrectly when torquing the converter bolts because I thought I had left the #1 piston at TDC comperssion stroke. Anyhow the new dist position got it fired up.

Now the heater control valve is deciding to leak when the engine heats up. going to have to replace that.

I do have a check engine light but I will trace that later. one thing at a time, till everything is straight.

There were a bunch of peculiar things I had to do to adapt the 6cyl setup on this car to the 307 harnesses etc. I will write up a summary post later for any who might want the info.

pics/vid soon

 

[techg8]

The heater control valve available at Carquest is installed between two sections of hose, not screwed into the intake like the OEM. So I hacksawed the original vacuum motor off the OEM unit still in the intake, and will run hose off it like a hose barb to the new vacuum motor.

Check engine light was staying on, tracked it down to a blown 10A fuse.

Now in a Key ON EngineOFF position it flashes the proper "12" code and cycles the mix solenoid etc.

I should get the heater valve today and then be able to start it up and tune.

 

[Bowiemontecarlo86]

Good to hear it bro, how's it running tho?

 

[techg8]

Got the heater fixed just fine with the new valve.

I went thru setting the base timing and fast idle then went for a spin.

The engine is just sooooo smooth. ECM control I guess. Idles great, drives and rides really smooth. Great for a cruiser.
EDIT: another thing I notice: It starts right up, cold or hot. Just turn the key - BAM running. I love it.

I dislike the current 2.41 gearset - I need to swap in the 3.73 Monte SS posi rear, and I need to alter the WOT shift points on the built TH350 to the 4000rpm neighborhood.

Sounds great thru the 2.5" single exhaust with Magnaflow straight thru muffler.

Really pleased with the result. Lots of small things to chase down now - battery hold down, loose tilt column, bad TH350 detent cable etc

but it just runs great and no codes.

Glad to have good results thus far because it was a LOT of work (and $) to get it to where its at.

Ill grab a vid soon

 

[techg8]

Ive had time to drive and tune some more, and I am really liking the results.

I swapped in a Monte SS 3.73 posi rear end

Changed governor weights in the TH350 to bring the WOT shift points down from 5000rpm - now theyre maybe 4200-4500ish

I increased my initial timing setting to 20 degrees BTDC.

WOW what a difference these changes made. The car feels vastly more responsive.

I think carb modifications will be required to let it run out a bit stronger but for the "stock" 307 setup it feels like its moving pretty good.