Gary Lewis

The frame on Dad's truck was cracked at the back edge of the steering box. But the frame had no rust. And the truck had never been taken off the road. However, it did pull a travel trailer all over the US, so maybe that put stress on it?

Forgot to tell y'all that I had another problem yesterday. The truck wouldn't crank. I started perfectly in the shop, but when I backed out and got ready to start it again it wouldn't spin. I assumed it was the clutch switch so pulled that connector out and checked. Nope, power to there and placing power on the other side didn't crank it. But jumpering the starter relay did crank and start it - which answers that question. I checked all of the connectors on the back side of the EFI PDB and apparently that did the trick. But I'm a bit worried that there's something amiss there. And, Janey has agreed that I can borrow her laptop, which has two USB connections, when I need to write to the ECU. So I'll be setting it up with Binary Editor and all the files today so I can play with that dashpot value again.

Yep, that’s what Ben effectively said. Ok to share the dongle & wideband. Or even the Mongoose if not writing. But no sharing while writing!

Ben Head of Core Tuning got me going! He used another token to allow writing to the ECU and that fixed the problem. He said the problem is that my computer only has one USB port, so I've been running a hub with the dongle that Binary Editor requires as well as the Mongoose cable. And that is a no-no. When you are writing to the ECU and the dongle needs to communicate you may well have a glitch in the write to the ECU. Exactly like I had. Apparently it doesn't have to be all that special of a computer. Just needs to have at least two USB ports as the dongle and wide-band can share via a hub. Just don't share with the Mongoose. So I'm thinking about what I want to do here. A little laptop would be nice. But I don't need it all that long, so I wonder about getting my old laptop back from Janey just long enough to get this done. Having said that, Ben said he doesn't really think I need to come down to put it on the dyno. He's done enough big blocks that he can dial it in over the phone pretty easily, including the timing. I just need to get the wideband hooked up and he'll help me.

I think your idea of a wire wheel is best. But I'd get as much off as I can with a scraper or somesuch before hitting it with the wire wheel just to keep the mess down as bits will fly everywhere.

Nice truck, Dane. Bet you'll get that much for it. But where's our sticker? Don't you want the next guy to find us?

Beautiful car! And yes, it took me a couple of days of driving to get back in the swing of things. But it was worse when coming back home. Apparently you let your guard down when "home" and think you know it. I found myself on the wrong side of the road the first time I drove back in the States.

Close enough on the CR. I'm seeing 8.3 in the spec's.

Someone that doesn't really care to sell the vehicle.

Jonathan - I hope everything falls right into place for you on this. We've been missing you but I know you have more important things to do. Please keep us posted as to how it goes though.

Nice truck!

Well done! Yes, those things are a tight fit, so I'm glad you got it in.

When we lived there Heathrow was huge, and they've since added Terminal 5. I used it a lot back in the day, but after moving away I tended to avoid it if I could as I needed a few miles under my belt with a hire car to get my drive-on-the-left bearings again, so I liked flying into Gatwick better. Besides, my client was in Hastings so I got used to the A roads down that way - including through Tunbridge Wells As for English cars, my Yank boss took me aside early on while we were there and, knowing that I was mechanically inclined, suggested that I buy a Jaguar. They were cheap as they frequently needed the laying-on of hands. But since he worked me late each day and we wanted to explore the country on the weekends I didn't follow his lead. And I'm glad I didn't. Instead we bought a Nissan Prairie.

What is "lupper"? Smart choice eating locally....LOL! Bill - I put a new pulley on the old tensioner, but have another used pulley that I may stick in the toolbox. And another belt for that matter. John - Breakfast + lunch = "brunch". Lunch + supper = "lupper". And now for my daily report. The Reader's Digest version is I BROKE IT!!!!!! But here's the longer version. I'd written a change to the ECU setting the speed for the dashpot parameter to 128 MPH, which is the maximum. But it either did nothing or made it worse as around town the R's went to ~2000 until I got the truck down to ~15 MPH, at which point it slowed down. I found that as we went to Owasso, which is about 20 miles away, so I did a bit more looking and found the parameter shown below, which is Dashpot Maximum Based off Vehicle Speed. As you can see, it was set to increase to .4 @ 10 MPH, .6 @ 15 MPH, and 1.0 @ 20 MPH. That fit pretty nicely with what I'd been seeing, which was that at anything above 20 it had a LOT of dashpot and it dropped some between 20 and 15. So I changed that to .4 for everything from 10 to 127.5 MH and wrote it to the ECU. Sure enough the dashpot was significantly reduced, but it was still too much. So we stopped while in Owasso and I changed that to .2 from 10 MPH up and told it to write it to the ECU. But part way through the write I got an error message and from that point it refused to write to the ECU saying I needed another token. Luckily the truck would run, but it was so rich that at idle it blew black smoke. We got it home, but it bucked and jerked the whole way. Ben explained to me last week that if something like this were to ever happen he'd have to get on and help me through it. So I've sent Ben a text message, but I'd sent him one last night about something else and he hasn't responded to it. So I also emailed the other two in Core Tuning, Adam and Clint. Hopefully one of them can help me.

Right, they aren't listed but we are logging them. And we have no idea how they are calculated. In your case your IMPG is either 0 if the MPH is 0, or 60 if the MPH is other than 0. And your MPH is always in the 200's, regardless of whether the truck is moving or not. My IMPG is more realistic in that it is 0 until the truck moves, and then it gives reasonable numbers - assuming it means Instantaneous MPG, as I think it is possible to see 17 MPG at a steady speed of 45 MPH. But the MPG #'s are wonky, so I'd sure like to know how they calculate those #'s. And a search for Binary Editor and IMPG hasn't turned up anything helpful. I'm thinking that this is one of those questions I'll ask Ben when I go down for the dyno tune. Let's see if we can get a list of questions together for that day. Oh yes, when I open any of my files or your file in the chart function of BE neither IMPG or MPG is in the list of things to chart. But it is in the data. Got the new pulley and belt on and started it up. No problemo. Then I pulled and plugged the air line to the idle speed control solenoid and adjusted the idle speed down to ~600 RPM with the idle stop screw on the throttle body. Plugged the hose back in and she idles at ~650 now. And I wrote a new "tune" to it with the dashpot set to 128 MPH before it takes effect. Hopefully that will solve that problem. So we are going to take it on that trip to Owasso in a bit to see how it does. More this afternoon...

Surely not between Heathrow and Gatwick? Not too many winding roads, unless you didn't take the motorways. Maybe Stanstead? Anyway, I loved my Miata. It was as reliable as a rock and so much FUN! Watched a few episodes of The Larkins last night and saw a cool Healy, probably a 100. I know they take fiddling with as a college friend had one. As for the Mini, when we lived there in the late 80's I thought I wanted one but after testing a few, as well as a 2CV or two, I realized that I didn't have the time to work on them, and they needed it. But not long after moving back the Miata came out and I had to have one.

That's cool! And I've never found a twin for Big Blue. But your pic points out a change that was made between '84 and '85. 1980 - '84 had the color break on the side above the marker light, like your truck has, and 1985 - '86 has the paint break below the marker light, like the one on the left has.

Yep, I plan to have the tank full of 87 pure gas when he tunes, but will also ask what I need to do to optimize for 10% ethanol. But I think the main thing I have to do there is to change the desired AFR from 14.7 to 14.1. As for the Koniegsegg Freestyle, that is interesting technology. But it boggles my mind at how many more variables it would introduce in the EEC setup. I've been perusing the ones in Big Blue's EEC and that is waaaay more complex than I can get my head around. But adding the valve timing would be even more overwhelming. However, for people who understand it and have the right facilities to test and tune, the possibilities are enormous. Shut down cylinders when not needed. Advance or retard the timing as needed. Change the overlap, open/close timing awa the speed for that, etc.

Nice truck, although I don't like the exhaust in the bed. But I do like the 6BT swap.

No, not good pictures. So small of a file size that when you zoom it it gets worse! But it might be a nice truck. Just can't tell.

Another reason to have your truck dyno'd is to get the ignition timing dialed in. While the Sniper Stealth system can adjust timing, I don't think it knows what timing is best. So having the truck tuned on a dyno will let the timing map be tweaked so you get max power and max economy w/o pinging or detonation.

Mazda! MX5 = Miata in the US early years. And yes, it was somewhat underpowered. But it was a blast to drive fast as you could explore the limits and it didn't go wonky. I drove the same back roads to/from work daily from Hockessin to Wilmington, DE and knew exactly how fast I could take each corner - and some were quite sharp. A couple times I played with a BMW M5 and could stay with him in the corners, but he was GONE on a straight. A few times I played with a DeLorean - no contest as he couldn't corner and wasn't any faster than me. Later, after we moved, our son moved to Hockessin and took the same roads most of the way to his work. One day he was on the way to work and had called us. He told me where he was and said "Dad, I'm behind a slow Toyota. What do I do?" "Whichever way he goes at this corner you go the other way. And you can beat him to where they come back together." My wife looked at me like I was crazy, but he went the opposite way the Toy went and came out ahead of him at the next intersection.

I mentioned to my brother recently about the road salt and the cancer it creates. I don't think I could deal with that! So I'm glad you got things apart fairly easily. Sometimes things go a lot better when you've gotten things apart, cleaned, and ready to go back together. Let's hope that's what you are going to experience next!

Sure glad you put the tape on! But, what are you going to do about the hole?

I see factory Marchal Fog Light on the bumper. She might be loaded with options. I missed them! Well spotted. And there's the factory fog light switch in the cab. But no tach, although it does have gauges. Wonder if there's a toolbox under the hood? Or at least a light?