I've been having log in problems again =/ And I don't think the pictures will show up, but they can be clicked on.
From Oct. 17th.
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Last weekend I drove the car to California and who ever called bad fuel pump wins. Despite it being purchased new earlier this year and only having three or so thousand miles on it, it is junk.
Made it 70 miles before it quit on me. Hot wiring the pumps on and looking at the clear filters, it was obvious the feed to the pump had fuel and the low pressure pump was circulating fuel as I expected it to be. Pinching the return line to the gas tank still caused it to pressure up to 43psi, and de-pressurize when I let go. Strange. So I zip tied the known good pump from the Skylark (been on there since 2011 and has probably 25,000+ miles on it (2 Drag Weeks even at 4,000 miles round trip each), and moved the lines over and it fired up and made the next ~1,200 miles without any fueling issues.
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/h...7943f62ff3d860d[/img] (Oh, and always remember to put the car in park or set the parking brake! I pulled over there after coasting in neutral. I was under the car and it started to roll backwards on me! Yikes!)
The crankcase vacuum behaved weirdly, it seemed to have a tough time pulling/maintaining vacuum below 3inHg, but as soon as it hits that 3inHg it'd pull up to 6-10inHg fairly quickly and hang onto that vacuum through a variety of driving conditions. What had confused me the most though is, it'd pull nice vacuum climbing a hill, but as soon as I start coasting down the other side the vacuum completely goes away. The intake manifold vacuum (pcv valve) is double digits and it doesn't seem to be able to pull a vacuum on the unloaded or nearly unloaded engine. Just seemed strange. It pulls plenty of crankcase vacuum at idle, yet looses vacuum cresting and going down a hill. Then a friend told me that a pcv valve only passes vaccum at mid-level vacuum, not at high or low vacuum conditions, and suddenly what I had been seeing made sense.
So I stopped by the local Home Depot and picked up a brass fitting with the same dimensions as the PCV valve and swapped it in. Now vacuum in the crankcase mimic's manifold vacuum to a tee (is there a pun in there?). I have not noticed any drivability or idle changes with the swap.
I pull the vacuum through my catch can, so any oil drawn in should drop in the catch can's copper mesh "filter" I have in there, as well as using several baffles in the crank case to try and keep most the oil down. In the mean time though, I'm going to be closely watching my oil level for any changes. In "theory", under vacuum mist should drop out of suspension in the crankcase and overall mass transfer to the catch can should drop as well. I've noticed before, the more often the crankcase stayed under vacuum conditions the less oil and such accumulated in the catch can, the more often it was at atmospheric or pressure conditions the more oil would accumulate in the catch can.
It also takes about 4 seconds after shut down for the crankcase vacuum to bleed off. I may start looking for a high flow check valve and look at possibly attempting making my own vacuum relief valve to keep vacuum below 6-8inHg. It does make me a tad nervous seeing 15+inHg in the crankcase. I keep waiting for it to suck the oil pan gasket in =P
Also the dang electrical plug on the transmission has come loose. I'm not sure what even holds it into place, but it is dripping fluid and has a ton of play in the hole. So I guess I get to drop the trans pan and inspect/replace the plug.
It made the trip like a champ since the fuel pump swap. The oil consumption driving home was even acceptably low. I didn't add any in the 475 mile drive home, which the engine was sitting at basically 3,000rpm for the whole trip.
The next round of changes after I fix the trans electrical plug is a small update to the exhaust evac setup and then swapping out the rear axle for a 8.5" with a true limited slip differential. For now it's parked in the garage until I have time to fix the trans leak.
And yesterday:
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I also forgot to mention the trans started shifting soft about the time I noticed it started leaking (or maybe the soft shifting is why I noticed it was leaking?). It wasn't much difference initially, but the drive home and since (I haven't driven it more than 5 miles since I got home from CA) the gear engagement and shifting had gotten quite soft. So I figured when I dropped the pan to change out the plug I may drop the valvebody as well to check it out. It was suggested a check ball may have debris keeping it from sealing, etc. But as soon as I dropped the pan and saw a bolt and washer in it, I figured I probably found the culprit.
Yup, the TCC solenoid was missing one bolt and the other was fairly loose. Guess I forgot to torque them down when I last messed with the valvebody. It was probably hemorrhaging fluid and pressure there. Or at least that is what I am hoping and that by bolting it back up and tightening the bolts the shift firmness comes back. There was a fair amount of black material coating the pan, but the fluid doesn't smell burnt. [img]https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...amp;oe=54F75F25[/img]
I've ordered a new plug thing to stop the leak (I broke two tabs removing it, it's crunchy) and a filter/gasket set. I think after I get it back together, if it is shifting well I'll swap out the rear axle for the 8.5" with 3.42 gears and a limited slip carrier. I'll probably be looking for a set of 4.56's for the 8.5" soon after =P
I was browsing E-bay and craigslist for a used but good 4L60e (as I was getting pessimistic about the 200-4r) and I may attempt to pick up a used one next time I leave town. We'll see.
