85 60 full desmog, sniper, & tuned headers - questions and progress (1 Viewer)

[Skreddy]

If there’s less than 5 gallons in the tank, I’d add gas for sure.
The pump should pull the fuel from the tank, even with dry lines, but the farther the pump is from the tank the harder it’ll work to do so. Cracking the fitting at the sniper or just past the pump will help this because then it’s not trying to vacuum the fluid from tank as well as compress the air against the regulator side.

 

[brownjeans]

I disconnected the line by the sniper and cycled the pump a couple times, no gas is making it to the sniper. I'll put some more gas in the tank and try again.

I really, really don't want to have to climb under the car, disconnect the line to the pump, and syphon (by mouth) fuel to the pump and then try to re-connect that line while gas goes everywhere. That will make me sad - but I'll do it if I have to.

 

[Skreddy]

I’d bet more gas and you’ll be good. You can see it give a little prime shot down the throat of the throttle body when it’s getting gas to it. If you have a helper, they can cycle the key while you watch for that. If after 3-4 cycles you don’t see the prime shot, try cracking the line fitting at the sniper unit.

 

[brownjeans]

Okay.

I put in more gas. Didn't work. I pulled the line between the tank and the pump and drew gas through it and it won't hold a syphon. So... when I was connecting the new fuel lines to the tank, the metal draw side seemed to move more freely than the return side. I think there's a break in it and it's allowing air to enter the line and disrupt the flow of fuel out of the tank. Cruisermatts.com has a replacement part for $45 (seems like a good deal) 60 Series Fuel Suction / Pickup Tube - https://cruisermatts.com/products/60-series-fuel-suction-pickup-tube.

Cruiser matt is a different person than the toyotamatt from vintageteqparts - right? Not the same?
I suppose I'll have to drop the gas tank to replace the tank's hard lines for draw and return, or am I lucky enough to have access?

 

[brownjeans]

Okay.

I put in more gas. Didn't work. I pulled the line between the tank and the pump and drew gas through it and it won't hold a syphon. So... when I was connecting the new fuel lines to the tank, the metal draw side seemed to move more freely than the return side. I think there's a break in it and it's allowing air to enter the line and disrupt the flow of fuel out of the tank. Cruisermatts.com has a replacement part for $45 (seems like a good deal) 60 Series Fuel Suction / Pickup Tube - https://cruisermatts.com/products/60-series-fuel-suction-pickup-tube.

Cruiser matt is a different person than the toyotamatt from vintageteqparts - right? Not the same?
I suppose I'll have to drop the gas tank to replace the tank's hard lines for draw and return, or am I lucky enough to have access?

Well, I'm pretty sure Cruiser Matt is NOT Toyota Matt - Cruiser Matt actually responded to my email in under an hour with details and suggestions. Seems like a good source for things.

 

[brownjeans]

Okay, I got the new draw and return part for my fuel tank from cruisermatts.com and Installed it today. It's definitely drawing fuel from the tank now. But... I have a leak on the AN fitting that holds the line flowing fuel into the Corvette filter/pressure regulator.
Going to mess with that for a minute and try again.

In other news - with the tank dropped I got a better look at the rust on the rear of my frame. The rear is a C within a C. The outer C runs the length of the truck and get's boxed near the rear axl. The C within a C is only only in the rear of the frame. The major compromized rust on my truck looks to be isolated to the inner C metal, not the outer C. AND, good news, Trail-Tailor.com makes a replacement for this inner C on the rear of the 60 frame. I think I'll give that a go since it's way cheaper and less work than totally swapping out the entire frame. But I'm not going to address the frame right now. I'm kinda worn out with this sniper thing. So frame fix will go on the list for later.

 

[brownjeans]

Okay... no more leaks, but sniper still not getting fuel like it should.
A couple shots of the sniper screen. Here it is after initializing and before engaging the starter motor:

This is what it looks like while the starter is cranking:

Any thoughts?

 

[brownjeans]

I disconnected the output line from the Corvette filter/regulator - there is gas in that line. I disconnected the line from the sniper and gas does come out while the pump is running but is just burbles out. All the lines seem to be clear. But I'm still not getting good flow. Bad pump? Bad Corvette filter/regulator?

Maybe I've got the connections on the filter/regulator reversed. Is the center one the inlet and the offcenter one the return, or vice versa?

 

[icrashalot]

Admittedly I've never installed a sniper kit, but I have been dealing with fluid pumps and whatnot for years. If the output line of the pump is disconnected, there should be a lot of fuel coming out while running. Def should not be a burble. Hell, when I barely pushed the old mech pump by hand it shot fuel about 6'. If it's just trickling out, you either have a suction leak or a bad pump from the factory. In my opinion. Or it could be getting low voltage and running at half mast.

 

[BurntToast]

Okay, I got the new draw and return part for my fuel tank from cruisermatts.com and Installed it today. It's definitely drawing fuel from the tank now. But... I have a leak on the AN fitting that holds the line flowing fuel into the Corvette filter/pressure regulator.
Going to mess with that for a minute and try again.

In other news - with the tank dropped I got a better look at the rust on the rear of my frame. The rear is a C within a C. The outer C runs the length of the truck and get's boxed near the rear axl. The C within a C is only only in the rear of the frame. The major compromized rust on my truck looks to be isolated to the inner C metal, not the outer C. AND, good news, Trail-Tailor.com makes a replacement for this inner C on the rear of the 60 frame. I think I'll give that a go since it's way cheaper and less work than totally swapping out the entire frame. But I'm not going to address the frame right now. I'm kinda worn out with this sniper thing. So frame fix will go on the list for later

Matt will tell you and online forums will too, the corvette filter regulator is hard to find OEM and ones on the market are poor quality replicas. A discrete filter and regulator is recommended

 

[brownjeans]

Well, I'll tell you what... after looking at diagrams of Corvette filter/regulators on Amazon, I think the fuel input is the off-center port and the return is the center port (opposite of what I thought). If mine is the same as all the diagrams I'm looking at on Amazon, I've had it backwards. But my line from pump to filter/regulator is too short to make the switch tonight. I'll have new fuel line tomorrow and try again.

Seriously would be nice if the $1,500 kit came with some basic instructions.

 

[brownjeans]

Yep. That was it. SMH...

Okay. So now I got to put the hood back on, take it to the muffler shop to get the Y-pipe connected to the cat, muffler, and tailpipe. Then drive it for a while.

 

[brownjeans]

Okay, it runs but not great yet. Going to take it to the muffler shop Monday to get the exhaust finished. Then I'll troubleshoot to get it runnig better.

It doesn't want to idle well. Runs okay above 1500 RPMs, really good at 2000. Maybe it just needs the timing advanced? I'll figure it out after I get the exhaust completed.

 

[Skreddy]

No exhaust is going to impact the sniper’s limited brain for sure.

These are pretty plug and play but to really make them great requires a bit of tuning. What did you use for the setup wizard for displacement? The Holley tech told me to reduce by 10-15%. They are made to run rich because lean kills engines.

Anyhow, once you get the exhaust done, set a conservative timing like 8* before TDC and rerun the setup wizard like it’s a new install. Otherwise, it has to relearn the bad habits it learned these last few miles. Also, try to let it warm up as much as you can before driving. The system won’t correct if it’s under 160* coolant temp. I setup a custom gauge dashboard to see what matters to me: coolant temp, iac position, tps%, volts, MAP, rpm, AFR. You can understand a lot of what’s going on in the engine when you start knowing what’s normal and what the reading means.

Sorry, that got long.

 

[DrRock]

Are you sure the distributor is inserted correctly? I run my sniper right on the BB as i have a recurved JimC distributor. I would also confirm your valves are adjusted correctly and you have good vacuum. My vacuum at idle is 19mm/Hg at idle. I just drove my truck from NYC to AZ and all through the Rockies and the sniper performed flawlessly. This is how my install looks like. I would also recommend doing the in tank fuel pump with the pressure regulator like you have. This saves extra fuel running to the engine bay and getting heated up.

 

[brownjeans]

I've got the stock distributor and I've never removed it - so I assume it's installed correctly. I adjusted the valves so they're good. New plugs. Not sure about the vacuum.
I set the sniper for 260 cubic inches so maybe I should drop that. What do you recommend?

 

[brownjeans]

Are you sure the distributor is inserted correctly? I run my sniper right on the BB as i have a recurved JimC distributor. I would also confirm your valves are adjusted correctly and you have good vacuum. My vacuum at idle is 19mm/Hg at idle. I just drove my truck from NYC to AZ and all through the Rockies and the sniper performed flawlessly. This is how my install looks like. I would also recommend doing the in tank fuel pump with the pressure regulator like you have. This saves extra fuel running to the engine bay and getting heated up.

View attachment 4004536

I see you have a vacuum line to the intake valve thing on the air cleaner? How do you have your vacuum lines routed?

 

[onemanarmy]

Okay, I got the new draw and return part for my fuel tank from cruisermatts.com and Installed it today. It's definitely drawing fuel from the tank now. But... I have a leak on the AN fitting that holds the line flowing fuel into the Corvette filter/pressure regulator.
Going to mess with that for a minute and try again.

In other news - with the tank dropped I got a better look at the rust on the rear of my frame. The rear is a C within a C. The outer C runs the length of the truck and get's boxed near the rear axl. The C within a C is only only in the rear of the frame. The major compromized rust on my truck looks to be isolated to the inner C metal, not the outer C. AND, good news, Trail-Tailor.com makes a replacement for this inner C on the rear of the 60 frame. I think I'll give that a go since it's way cheaper and less work than totally swapping out the entire frame. But I'm not going to address the frame right now. I'm kinda worn out with this sniper thing. So frame fix will go on the list for later.

I'm glad you saw the inner C fix. Many of us suffer from the inner C rusting.

It's a dirty and loud and long job, but very straight forward.

 

[Skreddy]

I've got the stock distributor and I've never removed it - so I assume it's installed correctly. I adjusted the valves so they're good. New plugs. Not sure about the vacuum.
I set the sniper for 260 cubic inches so maybe I should drop that. What do you recommend?

I think I set mine at 220 cubic inches or somewhere around there.

 

[DrRock]

I see you have a vacuum line to the intake valve thing on the air cleaner? How do you have your vacuum lines routed?

I have the vac line coming out of the intake with a man a fre smog delete going to the PCV valve
I have the distributor advance going to the port specified by Holley on the throttle body. I have the vacuum from the passenger side of the air filter going to the distributor.
Lastly the vacuum for the brake booster is in the stock location on the rear of the intake manifold with the other smaller tube on that fitting capped off.
I’ve also got the AC Delco charcoal canister installed but my truck isn’t near me so I can’t remember exactly how I plumbed that in but if you search for this here you will find some common solutions.
All other lines to the air filter housing and intake manifold are capped off.

Also, where do you have your o2 sensor mounted?