Cascade Crew

[aaron_sK]

I've noticed that it seemed like the car was going through a hell of a lot of gas lately, so over the last week I tallied up my fuel spent and mileage. Came up with this:

15.2 gals (10.3 Plus, 4.9 Premium)
196.5 miles, mostly around town, 35~50mph 2K~3.5Krpm

For those of you without calculators, that comes out to just under 13mpg. And if you think that's bad, it gets worse: I have 3.73 gears out back, and so my odometer is off by about %10. Which puts actual mileage more in the range of 10-11mpg. I had never checked the mileage before, but I am sure it wasn't that bad.

Specs:

1987 IROC
5.7L TPI V8 (L98)
Rebuilt TH-700R4 w/2000 RPM stall and fluid cooler
4th-gen aluminum driveshaft
3.73 Borg Warner
K&N's w/Airfoil
Headers w/custom exhaust
A/C & AIR delete
Low-temp thermostat (usually around 180* less on the freeway, more around town never below 170* or above 200*)
Hypertech Chip (yeah, yeah)

I know it has a AFPR on it, but without a gauge, I can't test that. It's not throwing any codes at all, and it's running as good as it ever has. I decided to swap out all the plugs while I'm replacing the header gaskets anyway. Next day off I get I'm going through and checking all the wires and the cap/rotor.

There is another thing that's bugging me though: Lately whenever I fill up, the gas tank seems to have a lot of pressure in it when I take off the cap. It didn't do this when I first bought the car, which is making me think possibly that something is wrong with the charcoal evap canister. I know that those do tend to boost mileage a tiny bit (due to a little excess gas getting dumped in) but I can't imagine that much of a difference due to just that problem.

[iansane]

Nice to meet you today man! How much did you end up paying for that gasket? Should've waited for me to ring you up.

On topic; I know on my old 87 when the 02 started going out I ended up getting like 120 miles to a tank (on a 12 gallon fillup, never really put more than that in). Once I swapped that out mileage shot back up to 190-220 a tank.

They aren't too much, about 18 bucks.

[aaron_sK]

Gasket was $10.99. Ended up paying $30 for that and a set of Bosch Platinums. Is it possible for an O2 to go out without throwing a code? When the one on my Ford blew out it sent all kinds of codes at me.

[iansane]

My 87 never threw a code. It was just giving shitty info.

I've heard NGK plugs working well in our cars from a few guys that stop in. No idea.

[kurfbird]

Yea it possible.

Most of the time you wont get a code. They recomeded that you replace it like every 30,000 miles.

Me EGR went out on my 92 350 and never got a code just got a surge while crusing.

A buddy of mine told me that by the time you get a code the car willl just about not run.

[aaron_sK]

If it's as cheap as you say, I'll just pick one up. When I replaced the one on my Ford, it cost me over $50, plus another $15 for the damn tool to get it off, since Ford decided to put it in a place physically impossible to reach with a wrench.

Is the O2 bung in the header itself, or is it farther down in the pipe?

[iansane]

Nice iroc by the way.

It'll be driver side manifold, just above where it bolts to the y-pipe.

[aaron_sK]

Cool. If it's as cheap as you say, and you guys have it in stock, I'll swing by after work tomorrow and pick one up. I might as well kill all three birds at once when I pull off the headers.

BTW, thanks. My car needs a wash job bad though. I just cleaned it last week, but with this weather it's starting to look like an Arizona car.

[iansane]

Are you putting shorties on?

[aaron_sK]

No, pulling them back off to replace the gaskets, then I decided while I had them off I would replace my plugs (Edelbrock's, so that's the only way to get at the plugs), and now I figured I might as well do this too.

[Xophertony]

you actualy hafta yank the headers to replace the plugs? and i thought my SLPs were bad. i have to use a cut socket w/box wrench on 4 of them, box wrench on two and on the last two i can use a real spark plug socket and wratchet driver. i also run acell shorty plugs now.. which i can say made no change to the ease of plug changing. keeps the wires about a half inch farther from the headers though... think i'll run the delcos again next time.

ian i think i am going to replace my o2 sensor next time i am under the car. sounds like a plan.

[iansane]

[Xophertony]

[aaron_sK]

[aaron_sK]

Well, after swapping out the pligs (needed them bad) and the O2 sensor, the Camaro is running better than ever, but still drinking more gas than a three-ton Ford.

I belive it has an AFPR (small screw on top of the regulator between the rails, right?). Assuming it does, I was looking around TGO and eBay, and I'm thinking about picking up something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/AUTOMETER-CARBON-FIBER-FUEL-PRESSURE-GAUGE-4712_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6763QQitemZ8061047423QQrdZ1.

(Ian, I think that's something along the lines of what you're running on your HSR.)

Is it a good idea (or even possible) to just run the gauge of the valve on the rail, or am I going to need a hose and bracket to mount it?

Edit: Apparently that BBcode trick doesn't work here. Don't mind me.

[iansane]

You can't really run that style right off the fuel rail. I didn't think about that when I bought mine thougt; I was going to mount it inside but decided against having a fuel line into the cockpit.

Check this one out.
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2D800260&N=0&autoview=sku

$16.00 and you can mount that directly to the rail.

If you don't want to wait for shipping I picked up something similar at Grainger (sp?) in fife when I had TPI.

[aaron_sK]

Nice. I used to work just down the road from that place.

Is it generally a good idea to leave it on the rail permanently? Seems like it would be an easy way to snap off a Schradder (sp) valve.

[iansane]

On my old TPI unit I think I actually pulled the schrader valve out so it was an open threaded hole and just threaded the old liquid filled guage I had straight into the the fuel rail. I'm pretty sure that's how my buddy is still doing it. (He put the TPI unit on a 350 and dropped it in an 86 cherokee)

[aaron_sK]

Actually, on that intake, there are two vacuum connections dirrectly above the schrader valve (one is actually the AFPR line), so I'm going to have to go with a 90* connection no matter what gauge I use.

[iansane]

That guage is pretty small, 1.5" tall overall, I think it's got it's fitting in the back for just such an application.