New here, but 3rd probe for me

[60ratrod]

What kind of retainer stoker100?

[stoker100]

What kind of retainer stoker100?

Usually an appropriate sized and thickness coin is jammed between the engine mount lifting point and the cam cap on the front bank and a small plate is made for the rear. Ill take pics of mine at some stage to show you if you need more info then that.

[60ratrod]

So seals are replaced, work and weather held me up. And found some fun things. First was a broken alternator bracket, the second was a broken cam cap bolt(was dreading it being stripped and having to run a helicoil), and third was apparently the cams were out of time. It runs way better now, idle still hangs before returning, but it doesn't idle as high, and still idles a little rough, but steps in the right direction. Hopefully the cam seals vanquished the oil leak.

Now the next thing to tackle will be the header to downpipe leak, hoping i can use the mls gasket i got with my head set i got, otherwise I got some gasket stock to make the replacement. And then hunt down the rough idle causes, thinking it might be in the cap and rotor, but will be cleaning the iac too, but those will come later.

After i fix the exhaust leak, i'll be doing a jank install on the radio i picked up from work since the dash is hacked all to isht from a non-exsistant double din radio that's been mia since before i got the car. Question on wire colors, is back/purple a ground, and what color is the panel light wire that's connected to the dimmer switch? My radio has an illumination wire, and it'd be nice to have it not blind me at night.

[60ratrod]

So latest and greatest update, OK not greatest, but still an update. I've fixed the downpipe leak, which was caused by the last guy not using anti-sieze, which best guess caused the threads to get all galled up since Stainless loves to gall without any lubrication, and subsequently caused me to break one bolt when taking it a part, also making me have to yank the header completely out to drill, grind, and punch the remaining bolt out of the hole, then tap clean the threads of all 3 bolt holes. Now no leaks from there, and I don't think I'm gonna chase the rest of the system for a bit.

And I got the radio working and figured out with a bit of braining. But this radio is just as janky as the rest of the car, only working on either CD or FM, and the volume knob just does whatever it wants when I try turning it up or down, oh and the screen will always go back into demo mode. But I think I kinda actually like it, since it fits in with the rest of the car LMAO.

But there is one thing that I've noticed since fixing the cam seals on this fs motor. When I did the head, I had the camera timing off, where they were probably 5ish degrees from being pointed directly at each other, parallel with the valve cover seal surface, thinking that's where it was supposed to be. The idle was way high, at around 1200, which would been great if this was a ujm vintage jap bike(i miss my vintage bikes). But the power was WAY better. So I've been thinking of adjusting my intake Cam just a bit, like maybe one or two teeth back to where it was when I first put it back together. I know these motors like a bit more timing advance in the cams as I've been able to read. But how far can I take it without having my valves high five my pistons? All I really want is to get back some of the power I had without having a high idle.

Oh and I haven't done the cap and rotor yet, or clean the iac. I've been too busy enjoying driving this car. There's just something about driving a beater that I've missed so hard. And I think all the plans I had for making this thing nice went out the window the more I drive this janky rig. At this point, I just wanna keep it in mechanically sound state, and just drive the wheels off of it

[60ratrod]

So i spent some quality time with speedracer yesterday. I basically took the throttle body off and cleaned it and completely disassembled the iac(all 8 screws) and cleaned the snot out of it too. I also did the penny block off of the egr on the header, had to grind it down to fit. And i figured while i was there i should clean the iat sensor and maf sensor. And just for funsies i adjusted the idle at the throttle body and timing by best idle/throttle blipping. And since i opened the cooling system for the iac/throttle body, i did a bleed and top off.

And all i gotta say is WOW. This car is completely different now. The cold start is better, idle is smoother, and now my CEL doesn't come on during the cold start(it would go away if i shut it off and started it back up). It even sounds a lot quieter. So happy i spent the couple of hours i did on it

I think about all i gotta do now is either clean the cap/rotor contacts or replace cap and rotor, and adjust the iac for just a bit smoother idle. I did have to advance the timing just a bit, since where i had set it the motor seemed a bit strangled, but not by a whole lot.

I think once i get those things done i'll get back into the cams and advance the intake cam just a bit to get back some of that pep it had when i first got it back together when i did the head, and i may do the exhaust cam too.