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If your alternator is only a stocker 35 or 45 amp one, it would be marginal to run 2 fans flat out for a long period. I'm running a stock alternator in my 302 and i'm running those EF fans too. I've wired mine in series so they run at half speed and so draw half the power. So far it hasn't cooked in traffic, but if you've got A/C that's a different story. I'd definitely run a relay for the fans in any case.

Wow the stocks manifolds really are rubbish!

In my experience (and I've made plenty of mistakes), the muffler placement has much more impact on the sound than any other aspect of the system. Example: my TF Corty had 6-2-1 headers into a 2-1/2" system with only a small resonator just after the crossmember and then a straight-through muffler after the diff. It was surprisingly quiet, especially at highway speeds (very important). My EF however had 6-3-1 pacemakers, a 3" resonator pipe, then 2-1/2" to the stock muffler before the diff and a hotdog after. It was a boomy, barky bloody thing and had a horrible drone between 90-110km/h. So one car with more mufflers than the other somehow was louder. I put it purely down to system design. It's a black art and something near impossible to achieve just welding bits together in your shed. A rule of thumb: Large, interference type mufflers take away boom but keep a bit of rasp. Hotdogs take out rasp but keep the boom.

With the cross-flow being a very similar design to the Clevo in the ports (except entry chape), could a 2V benefit from a blend and short-turn tidy up? Would it be worthwhile? Anyone got flow figures for both stock and tidied-up 2V heads? I've wondered about biasing the porting to one side of the port to promote swirl - now i have to wonder no more. This is a great thread... Keep it up!

Sounds pretty cranky there mate

Looks like a Bosch number. There are charts online to look up colour and flow rates for all the brands out there. Your answer is only a google away.

I'd be hesitant playing with different injector sizes on a stock setup. I've stuffed around with them myself trying to help economy on a 2.6 Courier, adapting Toyota 4A-GE injectors and came to the conclusion that I should have left it alone. The 4.0 engines got great economy if driven properly so that says that the engineers got it right. I understand that there's a fair amount of headroom in the stock injector flow of the 6 (maybe only at 70% of maximum), but the V8s are marginal, around 90%.

If you have some time to do it, brake fluid takes paint off pretty well, and doesn't corrode the alloy like paint stripper will. Also, glycol will do it gradually too. My Clevo has a leak out of the thermostat gasket and the engine enamel has peeled back to bare iron in the places that the coolant has touched.

Well fuck my horse.

It could also be a vacuum leak. These are notorious for it. Stuck throttle plate? It's obviously getting air from somewhere. If it was coolant temp sensor, then the computer would be opening the ISC valve so disconnecting it would drop the rpm.

Relays can be a headfuck. There are so many combinations you can use just with one type, and there are many. The pin positions/numbers can vary even with the standard "horn relay" pin layout. The numbers always stay the same for the given function though: 30: supply (batt) 85: trigger in 86: earth 87: switched output (normally open) 87a: sometimes it's a second NO output terminal, otherwise (if it's a changeover relay) it's a "normally closed" output: ie it puts out power when the relay is off. The relays often have a circuit diagram on the side of them so there's no confusion as to what they are. Crazy I know nothing about Haltechs, so if you reckon it could get power via a backfeed through that earth trigger, I believe you.

Assuming that the Haltech only grounds out that circuit when it's powered up and running, you could just run a single, large fused wire from battery straight to the 30 terminal on the relay, then loop a small wire over to 85. Run 86 back to the Haltech earth trigger and 87 to your pump. No need to run an ignition wire as well, as the Haltech will tell the fuel pump when to run anyway.

Ok minor update: box is in and running, but map sensor and run retard not hooked up yet. It's just hooked up to my old Bosch dizzy like an old 6A for now. Looking for a shitty laptop to run it all with. Will run my HEI-style MSD dizzy locked when it's all ready to go. I got a GM (cough) 1-bar MAP sensor from a European Barina, as I looked at all the Commodores in the lot and the sensors were all gone! I certainly hope the reason isn't because they fuck up all the time. The Barina one has the same part number so it's all good. The MSD gear uses GM style MAP sensors that have a linear output of 0-5v over the scale of the sensor; ie a 1-bar one will have that range of output but a 3-bar one will also have 0-5v output, but over a wider absolute pressure range. This is why you should closely match the MAP sensor to you application. You wouldn't use a 3-bar one on an atmo engine, as there would be insufficient resolution for good, accurate tuning. So far, even with just the multiple spark function, the performance improvement is great over the stock setup. Starts without throttle, idles very smoothly, and torque is improved. While before, if running a little lean on the cruise, it would surge and hesitate, now it just powers through. I could even back the mixture off half a turn from before. I can't wait to get the programmable part happening and fully go to town on the timing as well to get the most out of it.

Bitches.

Yep , 4" is for a 400, which is a taller block anyway. If it's an undisturbed, original head engine, you can tell externally if it's open (351) or closed (302) chamber by the casting lumps at the end of the head as it meets the block. On pulling the sump, the 302 crank will have "302" cast into it, whereas the 351 will have "4M", "4MA" or "4MA-B". (edit) you beat me to it Thom.

Sounds like TPS is out, computer maybe thinks it's in acc pump mode all the time. There's a bypass screw on the air meter, lets you adjust idle mixture much like an Impco gas mixer. That might be another option

So what are you doing about brakes now?

If going for a compact one, why not go with a crank trigger, 6AL-2 programmable, and a Bosch dizzy just for spark handling/oil pump drive? A turbo setup demands the best. I wouldn't skimp on ignition when it's so critical on a boosted engine.

Has to be rubbish quality for that price. Needs a $250 6AL box to go with it (says on ad) The repro Bosch ones are procomp too, with an interchangeable lower half to suit Ford, Holden, 6-cyl, 8-cyl etc. I'm running one in mine now. It has too much mech advance (which means you cant wind up base timing too much) and the vac diaphragm pood itself within weeks of use. Otherwise, it's ok I guess. Like everything procomp, it's a copy. They all vary in quality, none as good as the original they have ripped off. My advice is save your money and buy a decent brand one.

Thanks mate, no rush, I have a week or two before it arrives on the mail.

Just bought one!

Thanks Ando, good info there. I'm on top of the backwards timing thing, say you want 15 initial and 35 total, you'd install the dizzy 35 advanced and bring it back 20... That i can grasp. But the help file says you can have a total of 30 deg range, and the graph only goes to 25, same as the load ("boost retard") map. I was wondering if they added the two, or all timin was capped at 30... Say If i was to run a nice amount of vac advance (say 20 deg) and on top of that dial in 20 "mechanical", would that add the two, (40 deg) or just stop at the prescribed 30 max? Or does that 30 degree total count for the graphs stopping at 25 plus any step retards you might dial in? It doesn't explain that at all in the help file, but could be important on a street car running max timing for economy. The reason why i want more range than that is i want a bit of start retard, as if you have the base timing wound up to where it likes to cruise, it smacks itself in the head when you hot start it. If hooking a laptop up to an XF speeway car looks weird, imagine one hooked up to a Clark Griswald brown XE wagon! I'm mostly after tuning the curve for either E10 or Premium, maybe run the retard trigger off a switch to allow for shit fuel if i come across it, instead of having to pop the hood and bump the dizzy back a bee's penis to stop it pinging. This is all hypothetical of course, as I haven't got one yet!

If it's idling high, it's getting air from somewhere. The AFM only tells the computer how much air is going in, it doesn't control it. I'd keep looking at throttle body, PCV and ISC valve. These are all things that let air into the engine. I can't remember if these were vacuum sealed engines, but if they are, you could have a dud seal somewhere on the engine: another potential cause of getting unwanted air. Have you completely isolated the ISC? They have a habit of sticking/seizing.

As long as my arse points to the ground, they'll never, ever go backwards on emissions standards. Instead, the engineers carefully worked on combustion chamber design, cam profile, ignition and fuel maps to achieve the acceptable level of NOx emissions. Using EFI has helped a lot, with being able to do things like cut fuel on over-run, greatly advance timing under light-loads/lean mixture, and richen mixture when needed. By far the biggest advance was for EFI engines to be able to run oxygen sensors (once unleaded came along) for closed-loop operation, which keeps cruise mixture at an optimal ratio. Modern, variable cam timed engines use different inlet/exhaust overlap on cruise/over-run to achieve an EGR effect when needed. They're pretty smart. I haven't seen a petrol engine with an EGR valve for decades now, but most diesels still have them, and are very complicated with multiple coolers and electronic control, etc. In this case it's very much a vital part of the engine.

EGRs are to cool down combustion temps under lean conditions, (ie cruise/overun) which would otherwise produce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and this produces smog. Perhaps the retarded puss-box cam they ran in later black Clevos was in effect a built-in EGR device. Also the inlet manifold seemed to have a passage drilled from the crossover to the carby flange that may have conveyed exhaust gas under vacuum. Notice also that no e-series had them, so not every engine absolutely needs them. If they can pass without, then so be it.