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It seems like a simple enough problem. Where to put the IAT sensor. I was planning to mount the thing originally in the air box, but decided against that in favor of having it hooked up when/if I remove the airbox for tuning. I think that It is pretty likely that i'll have to run the engine initially w/o the airbox on it to get idle adjustments made. Now instead of one, there are six of those little idle speed adjusting screws to adjust, and they all have to be in sync with each other. Additionally, even after getting the idle adjusted, I assumed that I may have to put a vacuum gauge on each TB individually to get as even a vacuum reading from each cylinder as possible, and figured that I'd get that by tweaking each idle speed screw respectively.

All this to ask that if the airbox has an IAT sensor in it, and I have to remove the airbox to do all of that initial adjusting,....wont the ECU have a problem w/ a disconnected sensor?

I'd be kidding myself if I thought that I would make the wires long enough to be able to remove the airbox, and sit it on top of the valvecover so It could be hooked up while doing this...what will I do with all of that loose wire? (The Monster dont take too kindly to having all his wires hangin' and snaggly, and sht)
or
What If I just buy another stupid sensor, plug it in, and just set the "dummy sensor" some place out of the way while I do these tuning tweaks?
or
What If I leave the IAT sensor in the #1 transition tube just until I get that accomplished, then move that thing to the airbox? How essential to the engine running will that be initially, if all we're talking about here is a cold start, and hot idle adjustments?

It's a thermistor,..it's looking for temp changes, and I'm sure that the air speed probably wouldn't be too much of a consideration, but. I'm sure that it'll get pissed off when it gets sprayed by a flood of gas since its potentially right in the path of the injector...I'd think the gas should be considerably cooler than the incoming air???:shrug:

So,...what the hell to do? Now I've got this big assed hole in the #1 transition tube that I went ahead and added a bung to so that I'd have a more secure mount for the sensor. Fortunately, that makes it that much easier to screw a pipe plug into if I have to abandon this ship.
 
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Just build an extension pigtail. Say a 2 foot pigtail that would go between the existing harness and the sensor to lengthen it when need be.

Joe
I like this plan. Keep the sensor in the airbox, and add the extension pigtail and set the things aside when i have to adjust things under it.
 
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I think I had a Dodge Dakota or maybe something else, but its IAT was stuck in a grommet in the air tube. Just put a grommet in the air box, find a IAT that fits snuggly and just pull it out and let it hang to tune. When you're doing your initial sync and tuning I don't think IAT is a big deal to worry wtih.
 
The IAT in the newer HEMI cars do actually read IATs pretty well they make CAIs that move the IAT further down the intake track you see nice ambient change over the stock position ...it affects Timing in these cars so it works well....throwing it in the engine bay affects performance dont know how it works on other computer cars tho just throwing that out there.
 
The machine shop called me a couple of days ago......Exactly one day AFTER my day off MOF. No matter, I woulda had to wait till I got paid to pick the stuff up regardless, and that's today. When I came back to BMW, I thought that I'd negotiated some sort of guarantee....Not only did I not see anything additional in this check however, I actually got less. Significantly less. Since the GM left, however he was figuring out our commissions went with him. They shorted me 500.00.

I'm sure that it'll get worked out, but take 500.00 out of my bi-weekly check, and I feel it. So, spending the 250.00 on the stuff that is sitting at the machine shop will take a little creativity on my part...

Anybody that knows me, knows I’m creative.

I
 
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I called the machinist all day yesterday, trying to be sure that he would be there when I got off work. (30 miles north of me).Despite getting no answer, I still set out to make the trip up there to pick up my stuff. Fortunately when I get there, and pull into his drive way, the door to the shop is open, and he pop's his head out to see who just pulled up. I asked this guy where the hell he'd been all day, and that I had been calling him numerous times....He whips out his flip phone to check his missed calls...." Sorry,....I don't get any reception in this metal building"......That he works in......all day long....

Wonder how much business this guy loses daily...

I've known Albert Moore since the early 90's. Back then he was a Jefferson County Sheriff deputy. He was also a visitor of the machine shop that I was patronizing back then when I was building the Hurricane. (The black and white Zep in my avatar, and the subject of one of my "stupid stories"....)
https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-fo...-hurricane-a-really-long-stupid-story.840855/
Despite working as a Sheriff's deputy, This guy has been a member of Nascar race teams dating back to the late 70's working for people like Hendricks racing, and Bill Elliott in their engine shops...If there was anybody that I guess I can trust as a machinist, it'd be this guy...(It's just he's so far out in the sticks).

He, gives me my stuff and I ask him if he takes credit cards,....."Nope"
" Damn Albert!, I don't carry cash,....How in the hell can you do business and not accept credit cards?" I ask.
"Mail me a check" He replies...
" Do you at least have an email address?" I ask back.
"yep"
"I know this is a stretch, but do you have a paypal account?"
"Yeah, I've bought stuff with it, But I've never been paid with it before..."
"Well there's a first time for everything Albert" I say, and proceed to open my paypal account on my phone.
I send him the money, and we make some small talk till about 6PM. His wife lets him know that he has an email, and wants to know when he was gonna be ready for supper.

"In about 5-10 minutes, soon as aI finish up w/ Mr. Mike here" he tells his wife.

I tell him that I was gonna go, thank him for the speedy service in a pre-race season, and leave.
Needless to say,....Albert Moore was pretty impressed when he went into the house and checked his email.
 
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Ok then,....

One week back at BMW as a saleman, and I've got 4 cars sold. It's all too easy. You really aren't "selling" anything. Most know what they want, you're just finding it for them.

The Average BMW salesman makes around 70k. They do this w/o really knowing anything about the car more than is required to get it sold.

I know everything about these cars........and I'm not an average salesman. I could potentially make twice what I made as a genius.

Anyway,....I digress.

I pulled the block back out of the car so that I could clean it up, and assemble the shortblock. I had to do some errands this morning, so I really didn't get started on the thing till about noon,...but I got the pistons back in the engine regardless. I decided to use 302 rod bearings..they are markedly narrower than the 250 bearing.
IMAG0082_zpsjnjknysr.jpg

Significantly narrower.
The old bearings were riding on the crank journal radius. Not supposed to be a good thing. These will never do that.

I fixed my ring compressor. I bought one of the custom sized "sleeve style" compressor that fits my bore. When these things are right, the piston just slips into the bore. Mine was adjustable, and fit bore sizes between 3.860, and 3.700. My bore size is 3.68, and that .020 was letting the ring hang out before it went into the cylinder. So I filed the gap down to allow the thing to shrink down to 3.650, and I was able to literally push the pistons in with my thumbs after that..

( I may take them all back out just cause it's so easy to put them in)............:rolleyes:

I installed the cam and lifters, then went about the task of trying to understand the degree-ing in process. I put the cam back in exactly where it was when the car was last running,...Back then I used some process from Comp cams, and determined that the cam is in at like 110.5...which makes it in at 3.5 degrees advanced..This time around I used Lunati's process......It's completely confused the snot out of me.
IMAG0085_zps2emymdz9.jpg

According to the Lunati instructions, I'm supposed to determine TDC and set a pointer wire so that the degree wheel reflects TDC.
Position my dial indicator so that it is vertical so as not to get a false reading, and zero it out. The rotate the engine in a clockwise rotation until the dial indicator reads .050. Then take a reading on the degree wheel. (This is where it all stopped). After I take that reading, I'm supposed to compare that number to what's on my cam card...

So,....The degree wheel says 13.5
The cam card says that at .050 checking height, it's supposed to read .39 13.5-.39 = 13.11

Does this mean that the cam is over 13 degrees advanced? :shrug: Does that in turn mean that the cam is in at 100.9 instead of 114?:shrug::shrug:

When I put it in the last time IIRC I was somehow considering centerline instead of advance...I've only done this process once in my whole lifetime before this, and that was done when the Monster's engine was installed the last time. Because we drilled the cam to allow a SBF timing gear to fit, I think it may be off a little. IIRC, I had to put the cam gear in one whole tooth backwards, and then advance the crank gear 8 degrees to get the thing to come into spec. But I marked the timing set before I took the engine apart to be sure to get it back to where it was, and that is where it is. And when I look at all of this,..It looks like the dots are all perfectly aligned....

So,...I guess I'll be dicking with this tomorow.
 
When you get the .050 lift on the intake lobe you compare that to the intake opens degrees on your cam card. Their example on their website is 8* BTDC. There's no way to be accurate enough to see .39*.
The way I've always understood it, is you find the exact TDC, then rotate the engine till the intake opens .050, compare that to the intake open degrees. If your intake opens at 13* BTDC and the degree wheel is pointing at 13 +- 1 degree you're pretty good. Otherwise you have to figure out if you're advanced or retarded (this is a hanging curveball I fear) and proceed to adjust from there.
 
Ok...It all came back to me after messing with the thing again today.

When I got the cam from Australia, it was fitted for the stock 250 timing chain. There are no aftermarket 250 timing chains. So that meant that I would have to either use a crap, non-adjustable, non-roller, single row timing chain, or modify the cam to accept a SBF piece. Had I known that I'd have no options when it came time to buy a timing chain, I would've had the cam guy in Australia modify the snout to let me use a SBF gear. But I didn't.
That meant that I'd have to modify the cam myself. The problem with doing that is that a billet cam is hardened after grinding, and that hardening process makes any future machining, or drilling next to impossible.
I took the cam to a machinist friend of mine, and a brand new 8 position timing gear set. He chucked up the cam in his lathe and we started.
1521509457502.png

turning down the nose of the cam so that the SBF gear would slide on was no problem. The hardening process hadn't gotten that close to the center.
But trying to drill the face for the the dowel pin,........no fckin way.

We had to drill two smaller dowel pins much closer to the center, and abandon the dowel pin hole that was in the cam gear. It was here where I got things a little wonky.

I found this out when I tried to degree the cam when I first put the engine together. I couldn't even get the thing close to the spec on the cam card. (Just like yesterday) When I did this the first time, I had to call the guy at one of the 6 cylinder US cam grinders to find out what my options were.

He told me to try backing the cam up one whole tooth on the cam gear, and advancing the crank gear as far as I could (8 degrees). Doing that netted a 110.5* C/L, It was all I could do. I cannot advance the cam anymore than it is, there is nothing left to adjust. I spent several hours trying different combo's, moving the cam gear this way or that would swing wildly. The thing is where it is,...my only option to get it closer to 108* would be to have a new cam ground using a SBF gear in the first place...I cannot change the gear set because it has to fit the two dowels drilled in the cam...

So,....All of the above to say that the cam is in and degreed. The specs match the cam card.

I'm ordering the pan and T/C gaskets so I can button the engine up and put the thing back in the car..
 
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