Cascade Crew

[Al Hasse]

I found a nice set to work with my center bolt valve covers. A little spendy, but appear to be very good quality. I might put them on this weekend after playing at Aaron's place. That also means I might need new wires, the ones I have are cut to length and routed under the headers. I don't t think I can cut them again if they're too long, and for sure can't use them if they're too short.

These should look nice along the top of the valve covers. A pair each of two, three and four wire separators for the top of the valve covers and another pair of four wire separators for between the covers and distributor.

[aaron_sK]

You can shorten custom wires. The issue is that the copper doesn't like to be bent too many times around the area where it's crimped. I've had bad luck doing them more than a couple of times.

Also, it's kinda hard to uncrimp them, you have to get a small blade or pick in there then open it up enough for a needlenose.

[Al Hasse]

New wires in today to go with the new guides. Fitment was nice, but routing #8 was a bit tricky with the A.I.R. stuff





The yellow ones look OK, but I need to change them out. After installing, I couldn't get the car to fire. It would crank all day, I could smell the fuel, but no start. I checked these against my old ones, and they have 8 - 10 times the resistance of the old ones. These ohm out at about 10-12K where the old ones average about 1K.

Next pics will be with the dark gray Street Fire wires since I have some spares now

[Alphius]

Looking good Al!

Wonder why those wires are so resistive? That's a little odd.

[chevymad]

It all depends on how they're built. I had some Crane wires that were only 25ohms per foot.

[Al Hasse]

I noticed on the last wire I did that the center conductor has an insulator that needs to come off prior to crimping the distributor connector on After trying to start the car, I ended up going though all of them and correcting all but about 2. On the first attempt, the car fired momentarily, then died and wouldn't restart. Cranks all day but doesn't fire.

[chevymad]

If the wires were all insulated its possible you burnt something out. Check that you have spark at the coil.. and work your way from there to the plugs. Insulating things like that will cause the voltage to spike way up there and then it will burn though or jump where its not supposed to.. Like through the rotor, or carbon track the coil.. or even burn out the module.

[Al Hasse]

I need to replace the cap and rotor anyway, I already replaced the coil with a spare I had. One of the terminals on the cap had a bit of rust on it. May as well see if I can get a module while I'm at it, if for nothing else, just to have a spare.

[chevymad]

Al take a test light and hook it between the coil - post and ground. Then crank the engine. If all of the primary ignition is working the light will flash. If it does then that just leaves coil, cap, rotor, wires, and plugs. If it doesnt it should be the module or the pickup(99% probability its the module in that case)

[Al Hasse]

Will do, but still replacing cap and rotor as they need it. #2 terminal is all corroded and IIRC, that wire read infinity when I checked its resistance (I had them labeled).

[QwkTrip]

I am going through boxes on my shelves and I found one of them full of ignition accessories. The wires are a set of MSD 8mm Heli-Core solid suppression that I ran on my El Camino with the ZZ4 and HEI. The ZZ4 has center bolt valve covers and I cut these to length with a set of Hooker SuperComp headers on the engine. The wire separators are still on the wires. I don't know what I did with the tie down clips. Still looking for them. I drove the car maybe a couple thousand miles at best.

Let me know if you need these. The cat is not for sale.

[chevymad]

Now I'm hungry for chinese food..

[Al Hasse]

I might like that coil and ignition box. I'll let you know after I figure out what's wrong with my system.

[QwkTrip]

I made a post in the for sale section where you can see prices.

The ignition box might be a little fancier then you need. It's a 6AL BTM (boost timing master) with multiple rev limiter chips and in-cab timing retard knob. Unless you want all that stuff it will be cheaper to buy a basic box.

[Al Hasse]

I did the test light check after replacing cap, rotor and ICM. Looks like I got the 1% where it's the pickup as the light doesn't light.

[Al Hasse]

OK, none of the above. I'm stumped for now. Everything in the underhood part of the ignition system, except for the plugs, is new. Still the motor wont fire.

[Twilightoptics]

Coolant temp sensor for the ECM?


Use an old spark plug, and hook it to the coil wire, do you have spark?

[Al Hasse]

It was trying to throw a code Saturday when monitoring my EBL, as was the IAT. I have a new CTS to install. I tried the spark plug trick, I do have spark, I know fuel is there because I could smell it. I know the timing is out, I stabbed in a new dizzy and got the shaft lined up the same as the old one, but it's anyone's guess as to where the base settled. I don't know which way the timing is out at the moment.

[Al Hasse]

Maybe a combination of CTS and timing. Installed a new CTS and brought the timing back to a base of 0* after I got it started. Took a short spin around the block only making it to 3rd gear without any hitches. Feels good to have it going again, just in time for my B-day tomorrow

[aaron_sK]