This has been a very stressful 7-8 year adventure. I've broken the 50k mark and still have a product that I can't drive.
I'll start at the beginning. I bought this 363 as a long block from a local performance shop that was supposed to be built for "another customer" apparently that deal went south so that's where I came in "That was probably a bad decision". So it was thrown in the car and was set up as a NA for now "low compression" fund's didn't allow me to boost it at the time. At the beginning the car pulled strong, no hesitation's... eventually that became an issue. I hadn't even broke the 1k miles mark and I had excessive blow by "decent amount's of oil getting past the breathers, also pushing up the dipstick". At this time I wasn't very knowledgeable and didn't fully understand blowby. I may have been a sucker for shit online information. I found a thread where guy's were putting less than 7 quart's of oil, no less than 6 quart's to limit the amount of oil being thrown around in the top end lol. So it got to the point where I reached out to the shop where I purchased the motor, told him everything that was happening and the stupid thing I did with the oil. Right off the bat he told me I needed a rebuild. Didn't do a compression test or leak down test, nothing said he didn't need too.
Now this is where thing's get fun and interesting. So when this motor was purchased... that shop doesn't actually build motor's, I was told something like the shortblock was purchased from the states "I'm from Canada eh lol" and rest of the part's were put together up here via this "buddy" company. I end up taking the motor to this guy to have new piston's and ring's put in along with some other miscellaneous work while motor is apart. The one day I went to see the progress and mentioned to him about having originally put this motor together... his word's were "Ive never had this motor in my possession before". And this is where I start getting upset. I had already pre purchased 30k worth of part's that were on their way "from the original shop". Fast forward months and months, everything was in the car... fresh motor, tko trans, blower, entire fuel system from tank too injectors, full maximum motorsport front end kit etc. During that process I received multiple call's saying they're having trouble tuning my car and that it won't be leaving until they figure it out. " Made me feel good at the time". Guess what, I get a call to come to the shop.. I arrive and hear the word's "We're giving up... we can't figure it out, can't spend anymore time on it". Here I'am dropping 36k with this batch of goodies to hear that. All my problem's were supposed to be solved.
So now I'm speaking to my engine builder, he recommended his tuner and he'd do it for a cheap price for the first shot to help out. Car goes there, within 30 minute's he's under the car and you'll never guess it! It was the fucking mass air sensor unplugged!!! The car was idling at the time, obviously a massive difference when plugged in lol. I thought all my prayer's were answered! I was finally gunna be able to enjoy my car! The tuner did his thing with the sniffer tool to tune, on the screen it said was running perfectly on 14.7 at idle and richened up when under load. My engine builder was also present to make sure the tuner wasn't doing any shady stuff and noticed that the pig tail for my mass air was the unreliable brand and wanted me to have the original shop replace that. I also have a innovate motorsport gauge that read's both banks for AFR, they were still reading super lean! maxing out on driver side, pass side wasn't to far behind. Tuner told me not to trust it lol. So you think this is where the story end's? Wrong! I actually drove the car home that day, I barely made it to the corner from the tuner's shop and the engine light come's on. There was just a safe tune on it for the break in period. While on the highway their was some slight jerking in 5th, figured it was just the tune. Every weekend I'd take the car out and that jerking would become 4th, 3rd and become more aggressive. Sometime during this period a had taken the car back to the original shop to have that pigtail swapped. Out of curiosity they wanted to hook the sniffer up to check the AFR, sure enough still reading super lean!!! The owner lost his mind over it. Come to find out they had heard about what happened and the sensor being unplugged via drama on fb over it.. apparently these two people have a past and myself and my car were stuck in the middle lol.
Car is back home, at this point I refused to take it anywhere else because my trust has completely been broken. I don't know who to believe, at this point I truly felt like I had be taken advantage of. So I started studying myself, also enlisted the help of a good buddy that has a similar build to me. We ended up finding 1 vacuum leak.. a very very small one where the EGR bolts up to the throttle body. Also found 3 exhausts leak's upstream from the widebands!!! 1 pin hole leak on both bung's for the wideband's and another leak on pass side where X pipe connect's to header. Luckily I have a mig on hand and fixed the issue with the bungs and used a bit of RTV for the other. At this point I'am really feeling good about it, I also did the proper procedure to reset the AFR gauge. Start the car and gauge was pretty much reading 14.7, problem was.... as car warmed up the gauge would slowly lean out near max at idle. Under load It mostly certainly wasn't getting where it should have been. Hopefully I haven't done any damage, haven't gone into boost once since the rebuild.
If you guy's have read this far, thank you very much! So after all that, based of my last paragraph about finding the leak's.. From what I've gathered, when the car was taken back for the pigtail swap and they checked the AFR, it would make sense for the super lean reading because of atleast 3 exhaust leak's?.. all they did was put in the sniffer at the tail pipe. As far as the actual tune job, with the tuner not knowing about all these leak's.... how does this effect the tune? How the fuck does his computer show 14.7 at idle and richens appropriately under load but my gauge says otherwise after fixing the leak's? Also a good thing to mention, when I place my hand at the tailpipe... the fumes are extremely hot. Comparing it to my buddies car with similar motor... its much cooler.. I'm I on to something?
I truly believe this jerking/hesitation is the same issue I had pre rebuild and may not be a tune issue.
Once again thank you to those that take the time to read this and respond! Hope everyone is doing well with quarantine lol
I'll start at the beginning. I bought this 363 as a long block from a local performance shop that was supposed to be built for "another customer" apparently that deal went south so that's where I came in "That was probably a bad decision". So it was thrown in the car and was set up as a NA for now "low compression" fund's didn't allow me to boost it at the time. At the beginning the car pulled strong, no hesitation's... eventually that became an issue. I hadn't even broke the 1k miles mark and I had excessive blow by "decent amount's of oil getting past the breathers, also pushing up the dipstick". At this time I wasn't very knowledgeable and didn't fully understand blowby. I may have been a sucker for shit online information. I found a thread where guy's were putting less than 7 quart's of oil, no less than 6 quart's to limit the amount of oil being thrown around in the top end lol. So it got to the point where I reached out to the shop where I purchased the motor, told him everything that was happening and the stupid thing I did with the oil. Right off the bat he told me I needed a rebuild. Didn't do a compression test or leak down test, nothing said he didn't need too.
Now this is where thing's get fun and interesting. So when this motor was purchased... that shop doesn't actually build motor's, I was told something like the shortblock was purchased from the states "I'm from Canada eh lol" and rest of the part's were put together up here via this "buddy" company. I end up taking the motor to this guy to have new piston's and ring's put in along with some other miscellaneous work while motor is apart. The one day I went to see the progress and mentioned to him about having originally put this motor together... his word's were "Ive never had this motor in my possession before". And this is where I start getting upset. I had already pre purchased 30k worth of part's that were on their way "from the original shop". Fast forward months and months, everything was in the car... fresh motor, tko trans, blower, entire fuel system from tank too injectors, full maximum motorsport front end kit etc. During that process I received multiple call's saying they're having trouble tuning my car and that it won't be leaving until they figure it out. " Made me feel good at the time". Guess what, I get a call to come to the shop.. I arrive and hear the word's "We're giving up... we can't figure it out, can't spend anymore time on it". Here I'am dropping 36k with this batch of goodies to hear that. All my problem's were supposed to be solved.
So now I'm speaking to my engine builder, he recommended his tuner and he'd do it for a cheap price for the first shot to help out. Car goes there, within 30 minute's he's under the car and you'll never guess it! It was the fucking mass air sensor unplugged!!! The car was idling at the time, obviously a massive difference when plugged in lol. I thought all my prayer's were answered! I was finally gunna be able to enjoy my car! The tuner did his thing with the sniffer tool to tune, on the screen it said was running perfectly on 14.7 at idle and richened up when under load. My engine builder was also present to make sure the tuner wasn't doing any shady stuff and noticed that the pig tail for my mass air was the unreliable brand and wanted me to have the original shop replace that. I also have a innovate motorsport gauge that read's both banks for AFR, they were still reading super lean! maxing out on driver side, pass side wasn't to far behind. Tuner told me not to trust it lol. So you think this is where the story end's? Wrong! I actually drove the car home that day, I barely made it to the corner from the tuner's shop and the engine light come's on. There was just a safe tune on it for the break in period. While on the highway their was some slight jerking in 5th, figured it was just the tune. Every weekend I'd take the car out and that jerking would become 4th, 3rd and become more aggressive. Sometime during this period a had taken the car back to the original shop to have that pigtail swapped. Out of curiosity they wanted to hook the sniffer up to check the AFR, sure enough still reading super lean!!! The owner lost his mind over it. Come to find out they had heard about what happened and the sensor being unplugged via drama on fb over it.. apparently these two people have a past and myself and my car were stuck in the middle lol.
Car is back home, at this point I refused to take it anywhere else because my trust has completely been broken. I don't know who to believe, at this point I truly felt like I had be taken advantage of. So I started studying myself, also enlisted the help of a good buddy that has a similar build to me. We ended up finding 1 vacuum leak.. a very very small one where the EGR bolts up to the throttle body. Also found 3 exhausts leak's upstream from the widebands!!! 1 pin hole leak on both bung's for the wideband's and another leak on pass side where X pipe connect's to header. Luckily I have a mig on hand and fixed the issue with the bungs and used a bit of RTV for the other. At this point I'am really feeling good about it, I also did the proper procedure to reset the AFR gauge. Start the car and gauge was pretty much reading 14.7, problem was.... as car warmed up the gauge would slowly lean out near max at idle. Under load It mostly certainly wasn't getting where it should have been. Hopefully I haven't done any damage, haven't gone into boost once since the rebuild.
If you guy's have read this far, thank you very much! So after all that, based of my last paragraph about finding the leak's.. From what I've gathered, when the car was taken back for the pigtail swap and they checked the AFR, it would make sense for the super lean reading because of atleast 3 exhaust leak's?.. all they did was put in the sniffer at the tail pipe. As far as the actual tune job, with the tuner not knowing about all these leak's.... how does this effect the tune? How the fuck does his computer show 14.7 at idle and richens appropriately under load but my gauge says otherwise after fixing the leak's? Also a good thing to mention, when I place my hand at the tailpipe... the fumes are extremely hot. Comparing it to my buddies car with similar motor... its much cooler.. I'm I on to something?
I truly believe this jerking/hesitation is the same issue I had pre rebuild and may not be a tune issue.
Once again thank you to those that take the time to read this and respond! Hope everyone is doing well with quarantine lol