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540 EFI Build-up Thread

Kurtster said:
Well Ron, it's been a marathon but you got the finish line in sight....
:bounce::bounce::bounce:
Click to expand...
got that right.....Uphill both ways just like when you were a kid walking barefoot to school! :rof:

Saturday I had to move Stephanie's grandma to Port Huron and Sunday and tonight ended up being an emergency wheel-bearing-ectomy on her VW Beetle. I have it ready to get back together as of now so hopefully I will get a little time in my bilge to start hooking the motor to the boat as it is just sitting in there right now. Summit screwed the pooch shipping out my crank sensor and FedEx estimates Tuesday Delivery. Wednesday is looking realistic for a fire up date. I do need to modify my fuel cooler positioning as I had to unbolt it to fit engine in the boat as it was going to hit the stringer. Shouldn't be a big deal though. Then its just hook up the plugs, grounds, and power leads, bolt on the fuel filter now that I know where it will fit with engine in. After that, hopefully can start the sensor calibration procedures and fire it up. I would love to finally go for a river ride this weekend in my own boat.
 
ITS ALIVE! It has been a weekend full of trials and tribulations but it finally fired tonight! After chasing dinky issues like bad slave solenoids, blown fusable link on starter, 6 year old batteries crapping out, and a backwards coil harness it fired up and sounded mean! Stephanie has been a great help to me all weekend and got to turn the key on and off and crank it over a bazillion times before I got it figured out. Alex Haxby has awesome customer service and was on the phone with me most of today (and a Sunday evening at that). I caused most of the delays with bad wiring and such, but it is really hard to describe just how much of it there was. Im amazed I did this well. Haha. Hopefully tomorrow I will get the outdrive bolted up, the hatch on, and go for a water test and tune session.

Sound quality is crappy, better ones will be up in next few days.
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Well, made it out last night for about an hour long tuning session. Engine wouldn't idle and acted like a pig getting on plane. Got some answers on it today, apparently I need to repin two wires in the harness for the GM IAC motor and that should cure the issue. I also need to do some timing adjustments at 3500 rpm and adjust the "inductive delay" to match the commanded timing. Also, the timing curve is a little tame in the low and midrange for my large cam so we will do some adjusting there also. That was confirmed by how the computer removed a bunch of fuel in that area. I did not take any more videos or pictures on the water cause I was too preoccupied with being a nervous wreck. However the self learning did work great and it is amazing how fast it figures itself out.

According to my manual oil pressure gauge on the engine (which is in front end of oil galley), everything is ok but my electric gauge on the helm is kinda screwy. sticks at either 20 psi (idle) or 40 psi (running) and doesn't move much. I do have a small water leak from some hose somewhere, and I am getting a little oil spraying out of the area of the mechanical fuel pump block off plate. I probably just overtightened and warped it as usual for me.

Here are a few dark pics I took after I made it back to the dock and calmed down.
0820142051b_zpsrntnuuf4.jpg
0820142051a_zpsun2v4ihg.jpg
0820142050_zpsslxnvwvj.jpg
 
Did some more tinkering on it last night. As soon as I swapped the two pins in the harness for use of a Chevy Idle Air Control motor, she fired up and idled somewhat decently at 1000 rpm (cold idle setting). Once it is warm I can dial in the IAC percentage with the butterfly stop position on throttle body. I also re set the timing because I had done it improperly and ended up with total timing 2 degrees retarded (kinda like the owner). That should make a huge difference. It is amazing what 5 minutes on the phone with Alex can accomplish. We shall see tonight what impact that has on the water. According to my mechanical gauge oil pressure is rock steady and plentiful. Mechanical reads at least 10 psi higher than my electric helm gauge so I'm guessing a new sending unit is in order. I also confirmed my small oil leak was coming from the bottom of the fuel pump block off plate on the block. That will be fixed this afternoon.

Here is a facebook video of the boat idling because it must be "too hot for Photobucket" because it wont show up in my album after uploading it twice 9 hours ago and once this morning. Talk about boat porn eh? Sound is great on this one.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=769981745083&l=940794974208191951
 
Great job !!! hope you can get the TB to work, one we had would not idle down no matter what we did, put the 1000 back on worked fine...Rob
 
ezstriper said:
Great job !!! hope you can get the TB to work, one we had would not idle down no matter what we did, put the 1000 back on worked fine...Rob
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This one seems to work fine for idle. I have some more adjustments to make but sat and idled right at cold idle setting of 1000 rpm. Did stabilize at warm idle setting of 800 rpm a couple times. It won't warm up well on my hose with 55 degree well water running through it. I can tell my fuel cooler works also as the fuel rails were ice cold with condensation. No vapor lock worries there!
 
Got goose bumps listening to that beautiful mota......

Once you get all the little gremlins squared away, you'll be spinning up some kool numbers with that beast.

Ron, you've shamed me into getting mine put back together ;)
 
Made it out for another short tune session. It was better than the first but still lacking. I did hit 5700 rpm and saw 74.5 mph gps though. Came on plane much better. I took some good datalogs to send back to Alex to see where it is holding back on us. I did fix my oil leak, it was fuel pump block off plate. Unfortunately i need to pop a valve cover on the odd side. She has a squeak around cyl #8 and the valve cover is very hot to the touch right above that cylinder. Im guessing the rocker studs moved slightly changing alignment when the stud girdles were torqued down. On a good note, my gauges tell me that oil pressure and temperature are good.

Here is a good pic from last night.
IMG_20140822_200328_082_zpsrmysjkvu.jpg
 
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