• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

427 engine (part 2) - RHS block

Whoa, I leave town for a week and this thread goes nuts. Congrats on getting the car back, sucks you've still got work to do. Good luck Rich!
 
The fuel pressure will bleed itself off if you let it sit over night. I think it bleeds back into the fuel tank through the pump but, it goes somewhere. Then removing the fuel rails is actually quite simple. Remove a few bolts, elec. connectors and fuel line and the whole rail and injector assembly lifts out. Just be careful not to damage the o-rings on the injectors. As you have already noticed, they can leak if not treated well or if pinched during assembly.
 
The fuel pressure will bleed itself off if you let it sit over night. I think it bleeds back into the fuel tank through the pump but, it goes somewhere. Then removing the fuel rails is actually quite simple. Remove a few bolts, elec. connectors and fuel line and the whole rail and injector assembly lifts out. Just be careful not to damage the o-rings on the injectors. As you have already noticed, they can leak if not treated well or if pinched during assembly.

Remember that I don't have a stock fuel system. This is all driven by an external Aeromotive pump.

Plus this is not a stock intake manifold, and I can't recall how those bolts holding the fuel rails in place are attached. The bolts hold the top half of the manifold to the bottom, and it seems to me that the bolts were fastened with nuts and washers underneath the manifold. Matter of fact, I believe it was one of these washers that found itself into on of the cylinders a while back. I'll have to check FAST's website to see if they show a diagram.
 
I took a pic of that MAP sensor so I can see what I am up against....

map_sensor_01.jpg


Yeah. Pretty tight quarters in there. And, of course, the locking latch I need to get loose is on the OTHER side....
 
Was digging the stuff out of the trunk in the C5Z that had been accumulating over the last two years. First from my parts I could find at Harwood's shop before having it towed out of there, and then at Aaron's shop as things that broke got stored in there.

Here's the piston that was in the cylinder that ate a washer.

piston_001.jpg


piston_002.jpg


piston_003.jpg


piston_004.jpg


piston_005.jpg


Lovely, eh?
 
And here's another part that I found in a ziploc bag. This is the Jesel rocker arm shaft that just snapped in two....

Jesel_01.jpg
 
Remember that I don't have a stock fuel system. This is all driven by an external Aeromotive pump.

Plus this is not a stock intake manifold, and I can't recall how those bolts holding the fuel rails in place are attached. The bolts hold the top half of the manifold to the bottom, and it seems to me that the bolts were fastened with nuts and washers underneath the manifold. Matter of fact, I believe it was one of these washers that found itself into on of the cylinders a while back. I'll have to check FAST's website to see if they show a diagram.

I'm also running a FAST manifold on my car and it comes off the same as the OE part. Removing it as an assembly is quite easy. That way you don't even need to mess with removing the fuel rails. You would only need to disconnect the fuel line and electrical connections plus the other ancillary hoses and such, of course. I've actually completely removed the FAST intake and separated the two halves to replace the all the inner runner gaskets on my car. Takes some time but, not difficult.

I can't speak to the FAST fuel rails though. Never messed with those or know anyone near me that owns them to see how they are attached.
 
I'm also running a FAST manifold on my car and it comes off the same as the OE part. Removing it as an assembly is quite easy. That way you don't even need to mess with removing the fuel rails. You would only need to disconnect the fuel line and electrical connections plus the other ancillary hoses and such, of course. I've actually completely removed the FAST intake and separated the two halves to replace the all the inner runner gaskets on my car. Takes some time but, not difficult.

I can't speak to the FAST fuel rails though. Never messed with those or know anyone near me that owns them to see how they are attached.

I looked over some pics on FAST's site and it appears that there are brass inserts in the manifold that the fuel rail bolts mount onto. So that's a good thing. I didn't want to loosen up one of those bolts and then find out that there was a nut underneath the manifold that is now loose. I'm thinking I could just pull the power wire off of the fuel pump and start the car to let it drain any gasoline in the line and take off the pressure there. I'm not real keen on having gasoline squirting around under pressure.
 
I'm thinking I could just pull the power wire off of the fuel pump and start the car to let it drain any gasoline in the line and take off the pressure there. I'm not real keen on having gasoline squirting around under pressure.

Yep, typically you pull the pump fuse and try to start the car to relive the pressure. :thumbsup:
 
That was the way Harwood did it, and Aaron did not change it.

Sad thing is, it really isn't much more effort to put it on a relay and have it only come on with ignition power. I had a shop run my electric fans like your fuel pump...and they pull 35-40amps. Now that'll kill a battery in no time flat. Took me a whopping twenty minutes to fix their hack job and hook up a proper relay and fuse for the fans, and I suck at wiring (color blind). :toetap05: I scratch my head all the time wondering why I paid them to do that.
 
Sad thing is, it really isn't much more effort to put it on a relay and have it only come on with ignition power. I had a shop run my electric fans like your fuel pump...and they pull 35-40amps. Now that'll kill a battery in no time flat. Took me a whopping twenty minutes to fix their hack job and hook up a proper relay and fuse for the fans, and I suck at wiring (color blind). :toetap05: I scratch my head all the time wondering why I paid them to do that.

:iagree: easy to do. I did the relays on my old pickup when I had it.
 
Broken shaft. I remember reading about the washer debackle.

At this point, I don't think anyone really knows HOW it happened. Aaron was just returning from a test drive when the engine started making a racket. At first he thought a rod had gotten thrown. He talked to Jesel about this, and they said that if the holes in those aftermarket heads were not deep enough, and the bolts holding down the shafts were not seating tightly against the shafts, that could certainly cause it to snap like that. Apparently those shafts are very hard, but also rather brittle. Aaron said he pulled them all out and checked the hold depths. So hopefully this was just a fluke thing.
 
Sad thing is, it really isn't much more effort to put it on a relay and have it only come on with ignition power. I had a shop run my electric fans like your fuel pump...and they pull 35-40amps. Now that'll kill a battery in no time flat. Took me a whopping twenty minutes to fix their hack job and hook up a proper relay and fuse for the fans, and I suck at wiring (color blind). :toetap05: I scratch my head all the time wondering why I paid them to do that.

The circuitry already exists in the car. Unless the current draw for that pump exceeds what that current circuitry could handle, simply tying into it would have been the reasnable way to handle it. Quite honestly, that Aeromotive monstrosity is going to be gone before I consider the car finished anyway. It's a kluge of a setup, and I can't imagine why Harwood would have put it on a car designed for the street. Heck, he didn't even put in the controller and timing module that it is supposed to be hooked up with on the street. My guess is that he didn't want to put in the extra $300 for the parts.

Both Aaron and Ed say that I could have in tank pumps that would easily handle what my car needs for fuel delivery.
 
I spent some time last night reading about spark plugs. I had NGK TR6 plugs in my LS6 when I took it into Harwood's shop, but I have no idea what is in this new engine. Haven't looked... But what I found interesting in my reading is how many people told accounts of their engines not liking one brand or another of spark plugs, and one of the indicators was an apparent misfire condition in the same approximate range (~1400 to ~1800 rpm) that I am feeling with my own car when I drove it home. So I guess I need to see what plugs are in there, and consider just changing them to another brand or even just change the heat range, so see if that makes any difference.

Seems to be taking it's sweet old time getting that parts and tools I ordered in. The main thing is that 2 BAR MAP sensor, which apparently isn't stocked by the place I ordered it from. Would be my luck that the only supplier is in Japan and they still aren't functioning after the tsunami and power plant disaster. From what I understand, that's what put the crimp on TAC modules drying up when I needed one of them.

Got the coils in and the new spark plug wires came in today. Picked up a bunch of funky tools that look like they might help me get that connector loose on the old MAP sensor.
 
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