cozye

I've got an electronic food scale that works well and measures to the tenth of a gram. It was spot on for me.

Thanks guys. I'm pretty pleased with it. Hopefully I can make good progress this weekend on the interior. I'm anxious to get it out for a cruise! Yes, I know what you lean... There are blemishes though, it won't be the end of the world. Its not a trailer queen. No, but I can take one once I get some seats back in it and get it out of the garage.

Just a bit more detailing on the outside needed and a good coat of wax. Working on the interior now, hopefully I'll have that wrapped up in a couple of weeks.

If you use his weights, it should calibrate it correctly. I followed that method and I was spot on. Interesting about the year of your car. Mine is a 78, and they did move the fuel pump cut off to the oil sending unit. Mine doesn't have the cut off on the AFM. That should confirm that yours is the earlier model.

No, that gap should not exist. The metal on that 1/4 window frame should be the same from top to bottom. It appears that someone has seperated the metal and bent it out in an attempt to close the gap in a leaky door seal.

Possibly PO trying to hot rod it. FWIW, this motor does like to be advanced a little. They timed it low to help with emissions. Most people are running it around 13 degrees advance, some as high as 15. Also, on the TPS, I believe it should make contact before wide open throttle, but you will have to have your foot in the gas quite a bit. I would say 60% or more throttle. That is just off memory though, not an actual measurement. You will want to make sure this is right or you could be running a bit lean under some moderate acceleration scenarios.

as I mentioned in the other thread, use carb spray or propane while running to identify an intake manifold leak. If you have one, you need to fix it asap. It's not a difficult job if you are patient with the rusty studs.

Just remember that the TPS has 3 positions. Idle enrichment (when idle contact is touching at zero throttle ), no enrichment (cruising), and full enrichment (when contact is touched during heavy acceleration). If your TPS is touching the full enrichment contact during partial throttle at crusing speeds, you will see a huge drop in your mpg. I would suggest looking at the service manual and make sure it is working correctly. It's a common hack for previous owners to bend the contacts so it richens the mixture early to overcome other issues. I also agree with Sarah. You've got vacuum leaks. I would try using carb spray or a propane torch (unlit obviously) to see if you can locate those leaks.

Good tip on the sil glyde. Thanks!

No doubt about that.

Sounds exactly right to me. If it works for you I'm not going to worry about it. While installing it this is exactly what I was thinking. Not exactly sure why a strip of rubber being glued down helps this

Yeah, the inner seal is very stiff and will require some settling down. The outer seal is so far off the sheet metal of the deck lid, that I would be surprised if it ever touched. At the top for example, where the hinges are dictating how far down the hatch comes, it's still 1/8 to 1/4 inch off. As long as it doesn't leak, I'm not going to worry about it.

I'm not even exactly sure what the point of installing the outer weatherstrip on the hatch is for. I've got the 3 piece kit that came from black dragon, which apparently only fits by placing the flat edge in the channel, since that was the way it was molded and any other variation I tried with placing it over the lip did not fit. None of it contacts the hatch lid when closed, so I could have left it off and not even bothered. I didn't realize that it wouldn't make any contact, as I had installed the outer sections while the hatch was off. It's like its not even for the same car. I did quite a bit of searches trying to find others with experience and pics on this particular kit, and couldn't. I took my best guess, glued it down and moved on. Now my worry is that I will have to pull it all up, and a bit of fresh paint with it, and use a different brand/version. Anyway, I feel better just talking about it. The rest of the kit worked out fine. The inner hatch seal was very tight, so I'm not even sure water would get in anyway.

I don't know how the Magna flow compares to the dynomax that comes with the MSA kit. I can tell you for sure that mine got quieter after a short time. It seems odd to me, however I believe it may just be the muffler packing breaking in. I did consider a resonator for a few days, but it did mellow out quite a bit. Drive it a few times, you might change your mind before you get the saw and welder out.

Also, what condition are the tune up parts? Plugs, wires, cap, rotor ?

Testing the TPS would be a real good idea. Make sure it is working properly. If it was stuck on full or idle enrichment it would cause you to run rich. The CTS sensor resistance does seem a little high. Replace it. It's cheap. You can get one from a local parts house. 100 ohms out would make a noticeable difference, I don't know if it would be enough, but it might help and it's a common failure. When they start to go bad, resistance gradually goes up on them. Follow Sarah's suggestion and run the car with the AFM cover off, and finger the wheel around a little to see if richening it up or leaning it out helps. Hook a vacuum gauge up while it's running and see what direction you have to move it in order to get vacuum up to 18 or so. I've read about plenty ECU's going bad and running lean, I've not read of any going rich. Personally I don't think it would be the ECU but its' possible I suppose.

I drove mine around for several months with the leak. I don't think it will get any worse. It doesn't leak a drop now

Yeah, everyone was telling me that I would have to pull the cap. If you look back in this thread though another guy mentioned using small needle nose to pull them out. it worked like a charm. When you first look at them, it will look like there is no way you can get at it with the needle nose, but just take a real small flat screw driver and "pick" some of the rubber out, then you will see the exposed metal nail and you will easily be able to pull it out. (this is assuming it has the OEM style seals). The slid right out like butter. Once I had the oil pan off, it was literally a 5 minute job.

damn that sucks. It would be driving me crazy for the root cause.

also, when you pull the old ones out, pay attention to the orientation. The nail is not exactly in the center and the seals have some groves in that are directional. There is a correct orientation.

Yes, you will have to pull the oil pan. The side seals are on the back part of the block, pushed into 2 square slots in the rear main cap. You can probably dig out a little of the rubber, and grap ahold of the "nail" with some needle nose pliers and they should slide right out. If you fail to get them out that way, you have to pull the rear main cap off which may require a puller or some ingenuity. It's pressed in pretty tight but has two bolt holes that you can thread into and use a home made puller. I obtained some OEM style side seals from MSA. I would recommend these as they are made with the rubber molded to the nail. The nail is a small piece of steel that runs the center of the seal to hold it's shape while you tap it in. The Felpro oil pan gaskets come with side seals, but they are a flimsy rubber seal that comes with a separate flat piece of metal that you have to wedge in. It would be much harder and possibly not work correctly if you tried to install these. They may work ok, but I was real glad I had the OEM style once I got in there and figured it out. I've been able to remove my oil pan twice without raising the motor. It may not be the same on the 240, but on the 280 if you put #1 piston a TDC to get the crank out of the way, you can loosen the oil pan and turn it sideways slightly and drop it right out. The oil pan gasket sticks to the block like glue, so once you remove all of the bolts, it will take some patience with a putty knife to break the seal loose and work the pan off. Both times I've put my oil pan gasket back on "dry" without any cement. I think the primary purpose for the cement is to hold the gasket in place while you put the pan back on, but it's not really necessary IMO if you just make sure you line up all the bolt holes and put the bolts in loose until everything is lined up. It's a 2 hour job total including cleaning the old gasket off, etc..

I wonder if the max setting is close to the factory location? Perhaps the the previous owner cut down the tie rod ends where they screw in to provide more adjustment when the camber was adjusted the other way ? Did you measure the old tie rod ends against the new ones ?

As zed suggested, the glob of silicon could be normal. They did that from the factory. If it's a bunch though it could have been previously broken, then someone adjusted it, then put more silicon back down. You will have to look and use your own judgement to see if it has been tampered with. Was the seal for the black cover broken ? If you are up to it and want to rule out tampering of the AFM, on Blues website there is a way to "test" or calibrate your AFM. You could follow those directions with the weight, very carefully and see if the AFM is where it should be from the factory. I did this, and his method had my AFM spot on. I am doubting your AFM has been adjusted to the point that you are running that rich though. You are using almost twice as much fuel as you should be. Zed has a good tip on checking the cold start valve. And yes, the WTS and the Air sensor should not read the same. The Air temp sensor only changes the fueling at a certain tempature cut off, I cant remember what it is but it's like 62 degrees or something. Above 62, it leans out the mixture slowly. Below 62 it adds a bit of fuel to the curve. Thats it. Also, if this is a california car, perform the check on the altitude switch. Here is a helpful page on blues website about vacuum http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/vacuum/

Mine did this as well. The oil pump sending unit was the culprit. It was leaking, and when I replaced it, the fuel pump cutoff started working again. Our year 280 has the fuel pump safety cut off activated by lack of oil pressure.

Yes, it makes perfect sense. I wouldn't mess with the AFM or anything on fuel metering until I've thoroughly checked out everything else. On the WTS, just because you are getting a signal doesn't mean that its working. 300 ohm difference can make a huge change in your fuel metering. You should check it and make sure it's giving an accurate resistance for a given temp. I would get the car hot, up to full temp, then take the measurement. When they go bad, they don't break completely, they start giving higher resistance which makes the car run rich. Do Sarah's yogurt cup test. Also you can hook a propane torch up to a small piece of hose, and blow propane all around the intake and vacuum lines and listen for a rise in rpm. The yogurt cup test will find small leaks pretty well though I think. Are you sure no one has messed with the AFM in the past ?