Aloha! from an ancient Piston Head

[Psycho_Daleic]

I have been turning wrenches since the 60's, starting with my older brother in law and his H/Gas at the Salt flats in Utah. Since then there have been a lot of street rods and imports that have been built in the driveway and in various small shops and all were pre-computer controlled (with the exception of new production cars I have owned, none of which I ever had electronic issues with). Well, that has all changed recently. Having just picked up a 89 K1500 4X4 truck, originally equipped with a V6 then threw in a 5.0 V8, prior to my buying it, now swapped a rebuilt 5.7 V8 and having a few nagging issues. The folks here seemed like a good community to get to know, so, here I am.

I also have 1988-89 Service manuals/unit repair manuals that I have acquired for the rig from which I am happy to share.

Thanks for being here.

[dave w]

Coming up to speed with TunerPro RT will be very helpful for figuring out those nagging issues with the 89 K1500.

dave w

[Psycho_Daleic]

Thank you Dave. I'll be checking in again soon, as soon as I read through some more of the forum and know at least enough to ask a understandable question. So... where are the mechanical advance weights, metering rods and jets on this thing???

Dale P.

[1project2many]

So... where are the mechanical advance weights, metering rods and jets on this thing???

I've always wanted to write tuning software for the carb/distributor generation that would allow the tuner to choose jets/rods, turn choke adjustment, change pump cam, etc and the software would attempt to adjust all appropriate variables to match the tuner's request. It just seems like it would be easier to make the jump to EFI with familiar tools available.

[dave w]

I've always wanted to write tuning software for the carb/distributor generation that would allow the tuner to choose jets/rods, turn choke adjustment, change pump cam, etc and the software would attempt to adjust all appropriate variables to match the tuner's request. It just seems like it would be easier to make the jump to EFI with familiar tools available.

I'll list a few "Conversions"
Acceleration Enrichment (AE) - Carburetor Pump Shot
Power Enrichment (PE) - When the Secondary's are Opened on a 4 barrel carburetor.
Volumetric Efficiency (VE) - Fuel Table, with nearly infinite Jet Sizes ... RPM vs Engine Load
Spark Advance (SA) - Spark Table, with nearly infinite Distributor Springs / Weights / Vacuum Advance settings ... RPM vs Engine Load

So what this really means ... program the SA / VE / AE / PE to make the engine perform, no part changes needed (Springs / Weights / Vacuum Advance / Jets / Power Valve).

dave w

[Psycho_Daleic]

I've always wanted to write tuning software for the carb/distributor generation...

Probably good you didn't or I'd still be dinkin around with the tuning and would never graduated from High School. Would have been interesting though. Hopefully this old man can figure out how to use these NEW TOOLS!!!
Dale P.

[1project2many]

I grew up with carbs and distributors, too. I was an early adopter of EFI because I kept running into deals where "this guy" had pulled an EFI system out of a car to install a carb and distributor to make it go faster. I knew enough about tuning with that stuff to make 'em go fast but when I started seeing chart after chart, table after table on the computer screen, many of them labelled in "Engineer Speak," I really had no idea where to start. For the guys that were cracking GM efi early on there were no classes, no "how-to" writeups. These days there's plenty of help available so I'm sure you'll be ok. And most people are using the same tools which helps, too. And just like the old days, you can still blow things up which always adds to the excitement. ;)