Chebby 350 V8

B

budpytko

Registered
Here's one for ya...and I do NOT know the answer to it.....yet!

Son has a Chev 350 he's installing into his 86 or 87 Fiero...actually, he already has it in but has this problem. It has an ignition miss, at least we THINK it's an ignition miss. Using a timing light, (we can hear it too) it will miss a beat (light will actually not come on) occasionally and at random. It'll do this on ANY of the 8 spark plug wires. Replaced the cap, rotor and coil and it STILL does it. Anyone have any other ideas?
 
Does it have the HEI ignition (large distributor cap with the coil inside it)? If so, I'd check the module and small coil in the distributor. Sorry, I forgot the exact names of these.:)

If it's got a points distributor, I'd replace the points and condensor.
 
Did you change the small pick up coil that's in the distributor and connected to the module?

The reason I ask is, I had one of the small wires (going to the pick up coil, from the module) break internally once but, depending on where the vacuum advance was, the wire would touch inside, and the car would run fine sometimes.
 
The HEI ignitions are intolerant of borderline spark plug wires. You can test the theory by closing the plug gap down 0.010" or so.
 
Wires are brand new premium wires, but I'm not sure of the brand, but my son usually buys the best of everything. He did screw up a number of years ago and bought BetaMax tho..... hehe...it sure lasted a long time too! In fact, he MAY still have it!

I WILL mention this to him. It is sure strange that the timing light will show the skip on every wire!
 
Actually MID-engine....rear-wheel drive. Engine sits left-right, just like a front wheel drive.

And we finally figured out the problem....anyone care to guess? It was nothing anyone already posted.
 
12V + wire from ignition switch to the input to the coil was touching the hot manifold!! It was never a direct short, just bouncing every so often. We pulled all the wires up and out from the manifold closest to the firewall (back wall??) and tied them up....no more problem ...and you can not take back electrical parts. He now has a spare cap-rotor-coil-vaccumm advance kit made by MSD. Not cheap!
 
Sure isn't something you run into every day. But as this is a major modification, he/we should have caught it. Good thing we did when we did tho....There was a good sized bundle of wires down there my son had thought was out of the way, but wasn't. Had to remove the engine cover (trunk lid?) to get to them all. Tell ya what, the 350 really moves that little car forward in a hurry!!! Can't wait to get him to a track to let him run thru the lights! I want to see what the 1/4 mile times are! Oh yeah, it's an automatic..not manual tranny.
 
I was close, it was caused by a moving wire.:D

:ttiwwp:

It's not really worthess, but I shure would like to see some photos of this installation.:)
 
This thing is STILL not running right.... Now, voltage is still not up to par at the coil NOR at the output from alternator. Removed alt. and had it tested...checked good. At idle, voltage dropped from 12.1-12.4 v key off to 11.5-11.8. Increase RPM and voltage does comeup to about 12.8-13.1. Guess we have a key on short somewhere, but no blown fuses. The more load we put on alt. (ie. headlights, fan etc) lower the voltage goes.

I did get some pics of the engine in the car...hopefully I can figure out how to include them here....
 
Talk about 2lb of sausage in a 1 lb bag, that thing is going to fly when you get it dialed in.
 
Wow! Talk about shoehorn! How did he get that to fit in there?:)

Did he have to do any major cutting?

What about the heat of the engine? Didn't the original engines have trouble with that?

Thanks for the photos Bud.
 
He bought the engine as a kit from an outfit that provides many things for Fieros. He could have put a 'vette LT-1 engine in there but it was MUCH more work. This small block 350 did not require TOO much modifying to the frame/body. As the engine comes out the bottom (much like ours), the only problem is getting the car high enough to do it. As the car is much shorter than ours, he didn't have to go TOO high.

Thias same place he bought the engine and plans also builds/sells body kits in a number of different styles...Ferrari...Lambro etc. kits. ...take a look. http://www.v8archie.com/
 
We got it running right today. Had to switch a number of wires around and install some new bigger gauge wires from battery to alternator. It was mostly a matter of not using a large enough gauge wiring to key components that was causing a low voltage.

Now all he has to do is figure the correct timing , spark advance, spark plug gap. It seems to idle and it runs like a raped ape but I don't think it is running as fast as it should yet. Oh yeah, he's gotta either install a new tach or send his out to switch the innerds to be able to be used in an 8 instead of a 6. It's running way high now.

When he gets on it now, the front lifts up enough to make the steering REAL loose!! It gets quite squirrelly.....It's quite amazin' that the tires that came on the car hold traction as well as they do!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top