first fire up

i just started my 518 kb alcohol hemi for the first time and have some q's that more experienced guys may be able to answer.

1.do i need to prime to prime the fuel pump,as it took a long time to come up

2.it ran very lopey,3000 then 0 then 3000 etc.i thought lean as i saw no fuel out the pipes.turned out to be too rich.4 flats leaner and it smoothed out.how do i know when its too lean?

3.the plug ground straps were discolored to the bend.sound ok???

4.it idled for a 4 minutes with a few whacks of the throttle and i used 4 gallons.seems a lot to me???

all in all it went well and sounded and smelled great thanks for any info

 

I always hate those first start ups

4 flats is alot to change on a barrel valve, did you leak the barrel valve down before you started to get a base line? also how are you idle popets set up?
We have only been running Alcohol in Australia for a year some great help but there are so many basic variables that need to be set up, and the relevance of any small change on onepart of the system as to how if affects the rest of the fuel system is mind boggling. I am sure you have read it a million times but speak to the gurus (gore etc)and pay the money.

 

Great job Miles. We just started mine a couple of weeks ago. You caught up to me pretty quickly!
Congrats!
[/URL][/IMG]

 

Like Mike said about priming the pump, watching the fuel through the hat is hard on stuff, including humans! I would strongly recommend NEVER to watch the fuel come up through the hat. Just make sure your squirt bottle is full, give it a decent squirt into the blower before turning the motor over, then turn it over and keep dribbling fuel in there until it runs on it's own.

We were racing our TAD down in Denver in the early 90's and the team beside us in the other lane were doing the "look in the hat for fuel" procedure and oops! the car fired, he ran over a couple guys, cut one of the guy's head with the rear wing, and that was that. Don't remember who it was, nor is that important. The thing that IS important is to take that example and learn from it. Believe it or not, I have seen it happen more than a couple times and every season I still see several teams looking in the hat...

It'll be pretty clean out of the pipes, unless it is a screw blower - even then it depends on the tuneup that you're aiming for.

 

Pump Priming

When we start ours for the first time we crank the motor for oil pressure with the spark plugs out, the motor spins easier with no load on the cylinders and the bearings. Once oil pressure comes up, then we'll look in the hat for fuel, still with the plugs removed. Once we get some fuel up top, the plugs get reinstalled, a little squirt of gas in the hat, a couple of cranks with the starter and VAROOM!
4 gallons during a 4 minute warm-up is about the norm. We run a screw blower and it will wet the headers but will clean up when the cylinder temps come up. And if you Benol the fuel system during storage be prepared to get a little smoke from the exhaust on the first start until the Benol burns off.

 

thanks

thanks guys for the replys,so its not that bad then??

i had my system set up by jim at enderle.he was super nice,and had a laid back attitude to it all which was very refreshing.he would say things like"it's not that complicated,its not nuclear physics" which made me feel better.

he leaked it to 68% not sure on the poppet pressure.i'll call him to see what he thinks also.

i have a 14/71 hh littlefield blower.should it have made boost.my gauge read 35 psi which i thought odd??

you are right,like everything it was a nervous experience the first time.i stood there having no idea what to look for or do so yeah 4 flats may have been too much

hi bill,i have a pic just like the one you posted!where did you take it to fire up.i used the marina launch ramp thinking they have loud powerboats around and lots of water to put out the fire but it still attracted attention...