I've been driving the Firebird to work and back everyday over the last few weeks.
A few updates. I've got the Raspberry Pi and a 7" screen working, but have not yet made a power supply for the screen that will work in the car, so in car testing hasn't happened. Plus I still need to do the programming to auto start Tuner Studio.
Did some minor work to the Firebird last weekend. The cam housing seal behind the sprocket had been leaking for a while. It would also whistle when crankcase vacuum got above 10inHg**, so I decided to change out the seal yesterday. The old one was pretty crudded up.
I also dropped the trans pan and pulled the pressure regulator apart to check which spring I had in there. I "think" I may of had the reverse boost valve in backwards (it all falls out so fast when the clip is removed), but I now get a significant pressure jump in reverse, D2 and D1 that I didn't see before. It already has the "green" spring in it, which with the .500 boost valve should be getting me over 200psi. On my test drives it did spike up to 200psi a couple times, but generally hung around 140-160psi while driving (and 75psi at idle). The only other spring available is a "pink" spring that diesel 700-r4's got. I may go looking for one, I'm getting real good at dropping the pan and not spilling any fluid, but I have a feeling this trans is just on borrowed time. Time to start saving for a built 4L60e. I did install an electronic pressure sensor good to 300psi in the test port, so I'll wire that into the MegaSquirt so I can check the pressure via the laptop or when I get the Rpi installed I can have it displayed. Perhaps that'll give me some warning if the average pressures start trending downwards.
Here is the mess the seal was creating. The good news is it appears to be the only oil leak the engine has.
And a fresh seal installed. Simple job, only took about 15 minutes from pulling the car into the garage, pull the front apart, chisel a hole into the seal, pry it out, tap a new one in.
**I installed a check valve between the intake vacuum and crankcase and it seems to have kept the vacuum in the crankcase down to around 8inHg most the time, which was below the whistling threshold.
I worked on the intake manifold some as well. A welder I ain't =/ I need more practice for sure. It likely needed more heat, but it seemed anything higher than what I had it set at and it'd blow through the metal. Oh well, at least most the welds are on the bottom =D I'm going to run either some radiator solder or braze material over the welds to try and ensure they are air tight. I now need to figure out how I'm going to attach the plenum. I have a few ideas, but not settled on any particular one yet.
Needed more heat, but hopefully will get the job done.
