Many Thanks

[James OLC]

I wanted to take a quick minute to publicly thank David Pozzi for his incredible help and effort over the last couple of weeks (or months).

Sometimes simple projects snowball and what should be easy turns out to be far more complicated and involved. As pretty much everybody knows, David and Mary have been helping me with the ’67 since spring and the last couple of steps we’ve taken haven’t gone exactly as planned. Not to say that they did not go right – far from it, they have turned out better than I think we hoped – but they took the long route. A couple of times, when we thought we were going to make things easier, they wound up being harder… a couple of other times, one thing turned into another, and then another. Ultimately everything came together but nothing seems to have been easy lately. Through it all, David was there – seeing that it was done, done right, and ensuring that it came together.

To give you some idea how much work has gone into the OLC lately, we’ve got a revamped rear sway bar on the car now with a custom bar coming down the pipe, the entire front steering assembly has been modified; from steering arms to center link to tie rods – nothing has gone untouched. The car has been on a chassis dyno three different times. We have a new T-56 Magnum transmission in the car which required a new shifter and driveshaft. The charging system has gone from barely adequate to better than you could hope for. Every step of the way, David was there and made it happen.

I’ve said many times that projects like ours would not be possible with the help of great people and great companies and I have been very fortunate over the last while to have benefitted from both – Steve Rupp, D*ck, Jon, and Chris at Best of Show Coachworks, Kory and Turn Key Engine Supply, Inland Empire Driveshaft, Classic Chevy 5-speed and Tremec, Jay Harris and Mike at ISIS, David at Hellwig – have all played a part in this and I have to thank them as well.

David (and Mary and Ruby) thank you so much. I hope that one day I have the opportunity to pay this forward.

[dogz67chevelle]

James,

Congrats on getting it all worked out with OLC. That is awesome! You have one great car there.

In regards to the Pozzi's... I couldn't have said it better myself.

deanna

[David Pozzi]

Thanks James. There were a few times I was ready to throw in the towel and make a break for home! The guys at Best of Show did all they could to get us ready for the dyno and I had to make and break several appointments with Kory at Turn Key Engines for dyno sessions. I hate bringing a car to a dyno that has "issues" we thought they were all put to bed but a short pull showed up some flaws in the electrical system. After upsizing power wires and figuring out anodized alternator brackets don't conduct electricity well at all, we uncovered even more small issues that held us back.
The engine now runs like a dream, just reach in the window and hit the start button and OLC fires right up and idles!!! What a difference from the way it started and ran before! It would quit repeatedly when hot, and "idled" at 1500 rpm's! Now it purrs at 800.

Kory is a true wizard with EFI and really knows the MEFI system inside and out, he didn't give up when we ran into a problem and finally solved it. Their facility in Oceanside is fantastic, with a huge stock of engines and engine parts, machinery and engine dyno in addition to a chassis dyno, I was wishing I could take one home with me.

We would have been lost without the ability to get knowledgeable people on the phone for advice. Inland Driveline Service in Ontario did a quick driveshaft job that helped get the trans finished. Best Of Show does great mechanical, Fabrication & electrical work in addition to their great paint. After hanging around their shop for almost a week, including Saturday and Sunday, I felt right at home. I ran out of clean clothes and had to bum some silkscreened T shirts from them, and Steve Rupp dropped by and donated a couple of GM performance parts shirts to get me by. Steve has always been willing to help out any way he can, (more than just shirts) - I can't thank him enough.

Still more to be done before leaving for Silver State...
David

[James OLC]

Your patience is something that is going to become legendary. Not only in seeing this through but in bridging the 2000 mile gap between us; sometimes it's tough to communicate over that kind of distance - especially when you're getting frustrated - but you got it (kept it) together.

One of the biggest issues that we had with the engine was the MSD MEFI4B harness and ECU - there just are not that many people who use it and even fewer who want to tune it. Turn Key Engines is one of the few that I found who not only understood the system but were comfortable with some of its ins and outs. We really had two issues with tune - one was low voltage (especially under load) and the other was an erratic TPS signal that was hampering the idle calibration. The low voltage issue was blamed for the engine shut down on our mile passes at the NORC in May and was resolved by upsizing the alternator power wire, adding a ground on the alternator, and adding a relay for the ECM power circuit (seems simple now). The erratic TPS signal was eventually tracked down to 'noise' from the wideband O2 sensors - we'll need to do some rewiring before we can run closed loop but nothing major.

We have one major hurdle before the Silver State Classic in two weeks but I'm confident that we'll be ready.

Thanks again David!

[CarlC]

Excellent James! I hope to see you and the Pozzi's again on Oct. 2.

So the high idle problem was due to interference from the wideband O2's causing the TPS to flutter or hang up?

[68fusion]

please tell me that your not using a turn key mefi harness....

[406 Q-ship]

I can say in my time at Willow Springs and out at El Toro with David and Mary that they are just great people. I am thankful that we are lucky enough to have them as part of our community. I wrote this before David reminds me of my one boss that taught me all I know about suspension development.......Dyck Guldstrand.

James has one awesome car and better yet we all have great friends with David, Mary, and James.......not that the rest of you out there are so bad.

[James OLC]

I have to talk to David and Mary but I hope to be there at Buttonwillow.

The high idle was a combination of things - first and foremost there was no map for anything below 1500 rpm so it was on it's own there but yeah... the O2s were causing the TPS signal to flutter every second or second and a half - I have a video of it i'll try to post this afternoon.

The way that the MEFI4B works with the O2 sensors it a bit (a lot) strange. It can only use wideband but it is not able to use a wideband style signal - it needs to be converted to analog so you have to go through a third party device - the NGK AFX stuff. MSD gives you very specific instruction on how to wire them - through the ECM harness. When I called MSD/Painless about the TPS issue the first thing they said was wideband and then told me that the power and grounds had to be removed from the ECM harness. We disconnected the AFX's from the system and the pulse went away. When I told them that we had solved it by removing the wideband their reponse was "yeah... we should add that to the faq page... I seem to see that problem a lot". Thanks guys...

Anyways we're limited to open loop until I can do some rewiring for the AFX boxes but we have the calibration installed, it just needs to be turned on. Until then we'll remove the sensors and run as is.

[CarlC]

"yeah... we should add that to the faq page... I seem to see that problem a lot". Thanks guys...

Welcome to aftermarket parts.

I wonder if the Pozzi's ever found that message I left for them in the trailer.........