The Break Down of a '69 Pontiac OHC inline six

Thank, but I have a '69 Firebird already for the engine.

 

Some updates. I finished the wiring on the engine. I'm onto setting up the valvetrain and cam timinng now, followed by priming the oil system and making my engine stand. Going to build a valve spring removal tool similar to one I saw here on V8Buick made out of a Buick rocker.

I ended up going back to the Holley throttle body due to the throttle linkage arraignment. I can use an off the shelf 2004r TV cable bracket this way.




And of course I removed the venturi's.



The quick plugs at the back of the engine. There is room for improvement in a few places on the harness but I'll address those later. I am going to remove the whole wiring harness to do the valvetrain work, so I'll be pretty'ing it up then.

 

I haven't updated this here in a while. Got quite a bit done, was ready to fire it up last weekend but found my fuel rails just weren't up to par and became quite the set back. I'm just going to be pasting posts from an OHC forum I'm on right here, so some of the verbage might be out of context a bit. I could have summarized it plenty, but sometimes it's just as much about the journey as it is the destination.

October 19th.

October 27th

November 1

November 2

Last week

Last weekend

Yesterday

 

Very cool! Nice work!!!! Keep us posted!!!

 

Thanks. Three steps forward, two steps back.










I'm waiting on some aluminum plates so I can block off the old thermostat opening and make a water pump block off plate for the water outlet to bolt on to.

 

I need to get you Jim blacks phone number so you can send him some photos....he is the president of our Ohc chapter.....did u ever talk to jerry woodland in Utah about this build....

 

I haven't talked to Jerry since I bought the semi-blank cam from him a few years ago. Like my Buick's I seem to be pretty left field and out of most people's comfort zone with this engine.

 

Yes sir.....its going to be an awesome set up and a fun drive....can't wait to here what you have to say....don't let the ticking noise scare ya....they sound kind of funny...

 

Got the new rail installed. I have to make a rail hold down, which shouldn't be too challenging. Still waiting on some aluminum plating to block off the thermostat housing. It's going to be a tight fit.. I may remote the fuel pressure regulator after all. The aluminum plate stock showed up today so I can make water pump and water outlet block off plates. I picked up several feet of 1" heater hose today as well.









I know it's not engine stuff, but I'm excited for it. The highlight of today is I installed the 4.56 gears and the mini-spool into the Firebird. While the axles were out I checked and they fit nicely in my old 8.5" rear end with a true positraction and 3.42 gears. If things go south with the mini-spool and it doesn't take an axle out I can swap the rear end assembly if needed. I really want to run this engine with these gears! It'll be 3,000 rpm at 75mph in overdrive. You can see my two Buick's hiding out in the background.

 

Got it running! All clear to install in the car now.

Plumbed in the electric water pump. 1 1/4" inlet and two 1" outlets into the head. I hmm and hawed over how to set up the tee in the water line and decided that I'd straight line it to the front port to potentially have more flow go that way. If it does work that way then it will set the circulation up better to push the water from the front of the head rear wards where the largest opening in the deck is. As the water is heated up it'll get a second blasting of cool water from the pump. Or maybe it won't matter? I think I know how to wire in a relay so that it'll run off the controller normally but when going WOT (or some specified load) it'll go full tilt. Later I can add the condition when it see's boost.



I was looking at the water pump controller and the directions said to stick the probe where the thermostat would be for it to best control the temperature. I'm not sure how most folks install the probe, but I dug out a 230 OHC bypass spacer and reamed the hole out until it was a snug fit. But that still left the problem of seal and retention. A short length of hose would do a good job of sealing, so I did that and two hose clamps. But then I found that I could still slide the probe with some effort. With the cooling system pressuring up I figured I needed better positive retention, so I had the hose hang over the back of the probe and stuck another clamp on there to keep it from pushing outwards.


Cut and grinded out the aluminum block off plate. Drilled a 1 1/4" hole in the plate and bolted the spacer and thermostat housing too it.



And the thermostat housing block off plate with a plug to bleed the air out. This was also a fuel pressure check. Holding at 44psi.


Here is a video of it going. YouTube made it fuzzier, but you can still get an idea of what is going on. The smoke around the fill tube is mostly the oil burning off from when the return tube popped out of the side hole. I still haven't decided exactly how I'm going to affix the return line to the tube. Rev's pretty good considering there is not throttle position sensor and isn't tuned very well. The timing was retarded by 8* from what is displayed in this video so it's running a bit rough. I've calibrated the timing now and the heating issue went away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlwdRxNeyuM&feature=share&list=UUspCpZrffJo4BJ5Am4jH-sA

Here is a video of starting it up (timing corrected) and then the exhaust with the Summit universal muffler, a mystery Flowmaster muffler and then uncorked. It's not as loud as I would expect uncorked, but then again this is the small 1bbl cam in it.

Still needs some tuning work. I can't tell if the smoke is fuel, oil or condensation from it being 32*F out. I re-used the piston rings in it, so I wouldn't be entirely shocked if it's oil. I'll put a can of engine restore in it =P

[video=youtube;j4vxtb42llc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4vxtb42llc&feature=share&list=UUspCpZrffJo4BJ5Am4jH-sA[/video]


Now I'm getting the car ready for the engine and pushed it into the shop. It actually needs quite a bit before it'll be driveable. Fortunately the steering and brakes were gone through right before I got the car so don't have to worry about that. It's the climate controls and pile of questionable wiring under the dash and hood that needs some attention. Oh, and according to FedEx my new shifter is sitting on my porch waiting for me to get home!

 

To bring this thread up to speed.

 

Got some more done today. Installed the throttle cable and TV trans cable. I welded on a bracket to the throttle cable bracket to help support the throttle cable's 90* turn. There is still some play in the cable so shouldn't tug on it with engine movement. I solved the "too short" TV cable by getting some very stiff walled fuel hose (high nylon content?) that one end of the TV cable housing would slide tightly into and with a few hose clamps successfully extended the line casing. I had the pan off the transmission and adjusted the TV cable for the appropriate WOT position. I also installed a green 10-tooth speedo gear on the governor to get the speedo closer to accurate (still a ways off).


Then I installed the transmission dipstick tube, which ended up way taller than I expected. So I cut it down, which that part turned out good, then I "thought" I'd get fancy and when I cut the dipstick down I thought I'd cut the bottom off with the Fill hatch marking and then weld it to the bottom of the further trimmed dipstick so it'd read correctly. It was all good right up until the part where I welded it and the dipstick got super brittle. D'oh! So I need to pick up a new dipstick but when I modify it next time I'm going to overlap the lengths and drill two holes and rivet it. For now, the short stick will keep dust out of the tube =P And then I set the car on the ground to get a measurement for the driveshaft and by some miracle my old Skylark driveshaft is the EXACT size I needed. I picked up a new set of u-joints and will install it tomorrow which will be the real proof.


I started mocking up the exhaust as well. I still have to cut out the section of pipe where the X used to reside and do final fabricating of the collector to the rest of the system, but it's essentially in. I'm going to order up some 2.5" exhaust couplers before I go any further than I did today.




The throttle cable and TV cable hooked up and adjusted. I painted the bracket black after grinding the plating off the bracket for welding on the support. You can see one of the hose clamps and extension hose on the TV cable in the background.






The no bueno dipstick tube.



Much better. Even bolted to the bellhousing bolt.



The exhaust system. Here is the collector hanging down. The 400 engine had headers and the ball and socket coupler. I'm tempted to keep a 3-bolt flange there for quick removal. Haven't decided yet.



Looking down the car. It's up on jack stands so the axle is hanging low. You can see the hole from the X pipe.



From the side.



I put the car on the ground to measure the driveshaft, and took a picture from the rear.



Here is a picture of one of the motor mounts I ran bolts through. I used bumper bolts with the small head on the bottom and used all metal locking nuts on the top. I didn't run the nuts all the way down, they are about 1/16th of an inch from being seated to allow normal movement of the mount. I didn't have to do this to this mount since I didn't modify it, but by the time I 'thought' about it I had already drilled it. I cut half the safety catch off the other side to clear my exhaust collector, hence why I felt the need to do this.



And here are a couple shots of my saw blade trigger wheel in the car. Conveniently the bottom is protected by the cross member.






Just moving along.

 

Definitely getting away from the L6 now. Just a bunch of little things now before firing up and driving. But will probably be the last update for a few weeks. Leaving town for a week then the country for a couple weeks.

Installed the driveshaft and buttoned up the exhaust system. Still not a fan of welding upwards. I seem to have lost the clips that connect the parking brake cables. I'll pick some up later.



Next up, I put the car back on the ground and started on the interior. I pulled the Grant steering wheel off and have an okay shape OE Pontiac one to install. While it was off I have decided to change the turn signal switch. I cannot remember if the blinkers worked when I drove it home (I think it did..) but the horn piece needed to be replaced and part of the turn signal switch was cracked. I got one from the parts store, but the plug did not match, so I'll get back to it.


Pulled the dash out and removed the hacked non-OE wiring. I think the speedo cable is going out the wrong hole in the firewall, so I'll correct that before re-installation. I'm going to do some re-wiring of my own though, I'm going to wire the Temp and Gen idiot lights to the MegaSquirt to come on at specified settings (like 195*F and 12.5v). I haven't decided about the Oil light, but the MegaSquirt has a "Check Engine" like option now, and I might wire that into the Oil idiot light. I'll be running an electric oil pressure gauge to watch that manually, though I might wire in some pressure sensors into the external oil pressure system, main pressure system and fuel pressure, and program any of those to turn on the check engine light if they go outside pre-determined settings.



Check out the two old flasher relays and the OE clutch pedal neutral safety switch.



Set the dash off to the side for some clean up and modifications.



The backside. Relatively clean.



The heater control cables are trashed, so I'll have to come up with some new ones. I'll clean this up and grease it up good.



And some of my modifications. Added a switch panel and an updated radio (that was collecting dust in the corner). The switch on the left is a starterI switch, so the three switches on the left will be: Starter, high pressure fuel pump, and MegaSquirt. The remaining switches I haven't settled on but one will probably be a water pump and radiator fan ON by-pass. I'll still have the ignition key provide power and the starter switch go through the neutral safety switch. Those are circuit breakers under the switches.



That's going to be it for a good while.

 

wow, alotta work has gone into this. Very cool

 

Thanks for posting! I appreciate the engineering here. Makes a nice change from a crate motor. And I'm not hateing on crate motors.
There's more than a few I'd like to get my greasy hands on..............

 

Thanks! Back in the country and heading home today so should start back up on this soon.

 

Some updates.

1/17/2014

1/18/2014

1/23/2014

This weekend.

 

Some highlights, including finally firing it up yesterday, but it wasn't without issues. Maybe next weekend I'll back it out of the shop though.

February 1, 2014

February 8, 2014. Last Saturday.

And yesterday's bitter sweet victory.
The highlights of today are, I heard the engine run, a couple of times, but it certainly wasn't smooth sailing. Long post warning.

Started the day pretty good. Hooked the battery up and no smoke, sparks or pops. Headlights, tail lights and dome light worked, figured I'd check the stock systems first. Then tried the key. Found my trigger wire to my relay didn't power with the key. Not a big deal, found the needed power source. Then had the megasquirt and fuel pump relay power reverse. No problem, swapped plugs moving on. Things were looking good at this point. The system powered up, the megasquirt was reading the sensors, the engine cranked when pressing the start button. Though it seems the neutral safety switch is out of adjustment as it won't crank in park, but will in neutral. Won't crank in any of the gears so it somewhat works. Problem for later. Then it started to go down hill from there....

Started working on checking the fuel system and first the lift pump wouldn't prime, so I threw 7 gallons of fresh fuel in the tank (probably needed fresh fuel anyways) and used the shop vac to blow air into the filler neck and the lift pump promptly started leaking at both ends..... After tightening up the fittings, the filter, breaking at least one hose clamp, I tossed the pump and got a new one that had the fitting built in and a new filter. Only bathed in a gallon of gas in the process *blah*. Had a minor leak at the fuel rail and ended up moving the fuel pressure gauge to the regulator. By now it was mid-afternoon so I figured I'd skip filling the cooling system with water because I'd have to promptly drain it, and proceeded right to start up :tu:

Started the car up a couple times for ten or so seconds at a time and topped off the transmission fluid as well as ran it through the gears (speedo works now! Didn't when I got the car), and while doing this had no problems. The engine started reasonably well and shut off when I turned the key off like it should until......... it didn't...... The big difference between when it was working fine and when it didn't was I rev'ed it up high enough to get the alternator charging, and when I turned the key off the alternator was feeding the system, but cut off from the battery because I had the charging wire on the wrong side of my master relay and then bad things started to happen. The engine didn't shut off, but didn't sound right either, and I hit the power switch to the megasquirt to kill the engine but it was too late, the damage was done. When I key'ed back on the megasquirt did not power up. I checked and the fuse was good, it had power on the wire going into it, but nothing. Took a sniff at it and it smelled burnt =/

Dragged it into the house and opened it up and yup, a few cooked parts, some obvious and some not so obvious. Using the obvious visual cue's was easy for the damaged parts, but I hooked it back up to the JimStim and started testing the power circuit to find the two bad diodes. Started testing and replacing parts until I had power at the processor pins, and turned out just to be the two diodes.
Here is an obvious exploded capacitor

And an obvious burnt out power trace. (the copper color, it's not copper and doesn't conduct)

So I started troubleshooting. The exploded capacitor is essentially the first part that is installed when building a megasquirt and is part of the power circuit. So I started there. Fortunately I have some spare parts (not that any of them are exotic, but I was able to get it going again today). I replaced these four parts. The capacitor on the top right may not be bad, but I didn't trust the way it looked compared to the good ones. The bottom two diodes were toast, no conductivity in either direction.

New capacitors installed.

A jumper wire installed in place of the cooked trace. (it doesn't look pretty, but will work and is hidden in a case!)

So I went back out and took a video after the fact =D The phone picks up the fuel pump sound more than you can actually hear it in person.
[video=youtube_share;ljgzz8O__Ck]http://youtu.be/ljgzz8O__Ck[/video]

 

Dang, haven't updated this since before I started driving it around. Pretty much got it insured and plated a few days after the last post and have been driving it regularly since. At the end of this month I'm going to take it on a 1,200 mile round trip drive to southern California, so just been driving it to work on the EFI tune and make sure it's reliable enough for the distance.

The updates since the last one:

February 14th.

February 16.

February 21.

February 22.

February 23.

March 7.

March 12.

Yesterday.

 

Looks good man......can't believe you got it all to work....your crazy....but its bad ass....you need to call Jim black....or a Pontiac magazine....