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Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 12:13 pm
by jackleg
Well, no real "smoking gun" as to what the noise if from. The cam has some wear- just a slight dullness on the lobes. The crank looks good. Couple of pistons are scuffed. Time to order parts...

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 4:31 pm
by elc32955
Send it out & bore it to LS3 specs? :!: :!: :) :)

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 7:46 pm
by jackleg
Yeah, gotta know where to stop with all that performance stuff. A person can just keep going and going
I see all these high performance mods going on and think all that stuff IS REALLY COOL, but I think for me I'll go mostly stock overhaul with the upgrade cam and DOD delete- try to get another 140k+ miles out of it. I know (yawn..) right?

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Wed May 18, 2016 2:15 pm
by S13REMI
cant think of any reason why a well put together 408ci and big cam wont last another 140k........ :D

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Wed May 18, 2016 10:44 pm
by CrashTestDummy
The Ls* engine responds to, and runs well, with cam updates and long tubes and a tune that accounts for the updates. No reason why a conservative tune with such mods shouldn't reap nice rewards.

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 9:56 am
by jackleg
The block and heads are at the local machine shop. The called and it all checks out good. He said these new engines last forever. They are doing oil passage de-burring, cam bearings, re-surfacing the gasket surfaces, cylinder hone, and a valve job. I'll pick it up next week and assemble the engine myself,
The rest of the parts are either here or are ordered- I'm sure I forgot something..
Went with a Rick Crawford cam (219/223 .625/.625 112+0 -Little Lunati-2.92 gear/stock stall aggressive power)
My regular work schedule is jammed packed full with non car fixing stuff so it will be sitting for a couple of weeks.

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 7:16 am
by jackleg
looking ahead, sooner or later this will be back in one piece and I'll need a PCM/TCM tune.

I read that some have used Black Bear Performance. I contacted them to ask about it because the Caprice is not on their supported vehicles list. Originally they said "no" but after asking to double check. I got this back:

"Good news! I spoke with the tuner and even though it is not on EFILive's Supported list, he said it is an E38 so we can tune it. We can tune it with our AutoCal option.
Using the AutoCal, all tuning would be completed by email. You would collect data from the vehicle while driving around and would provide that along with your OEM tune files and a list of modifications and desired tune changes. We would then create your modified, custom tune files and would send them back to you, by email, to be installed. The hardware is yours to keep and you would be able to use it to return the vehicle to stock as needed as well as receive and install tune updates when needed. Details and ordering can be found at http://store.blackbearperformance.com/E ... m_p_8.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
AutoCal: Hardware and tune = $599"

I don't my own software, equipment, or have tuning experience so one of these seem to be the way to go.

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 10:45 am
by xcidmigs
No idea who at Blackbear told you originally couldn't do it but they did my car about 6 months ago. It did take some time back and forth and I added a cold air intake along the way which changed things but its very possible and a great modification just for drive-ability sake if nothing else. Oh and I found a used autocal unit on ebay for $150 which lowered the cost of the tuning to $300. Before doing this i looked locally and no one would touch the car for under $400 using a chassis dyno which is not as accurate way to tune and has no followup afterwards.

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 5:46 pm
by CrashTestDummy
That's good news that they actually did one of these cars. They 'should' have a tune on file to start with, then. Keep an eye on their web page, as they do travel to do tunes. They came to the Houston area, and we got a quick tune on our Tahoe PPV. I don't think that lowers the price any, but when we were getting the truck tuned, we drove around a bit, trying different things while the vehicle was being driven, sort of a 'real world dyno' tune. I love it!

Re: Need help with engine noise

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 8:02 pm
by xcidmigs
Well the caprice has the 2 tunes needed also not sure about Tahoe but I felt the one for the trans only was what was so difficult and I had to keep going back to them with my various complaints such as I wanted a higher RPM 1-2 shift etc.... the engine version seemed to get done after a few tries only and they gave me a 87 and 91 octane version I can switch out.