409 in a 1935 chevy

[jwhotrod]

Well, once again it lives, since I last posted after we spun 2 rod bearings going to Galena back in July we have replaced the crank, and decided to switch engine management systems from Accel to Holley HP and go to crank trigger timing, which lets me go back to a distributor that fits the block and eliminate the oil adapter sleeve (distributor). We are going to Borowski's tomorrow afternoon to watch the dyno run, learn the new software, and hopefully bring said home and reassemble the car. The cool part about the new Holley HP system is that it is self learning and will 95% tune itself. So this time when the 09 goes back in the car it is pretty much plug and play. Below are the last dyno runs they did today
Big Jim

https://vimeo.com/75305712
https://vimeo.com/75305713

 

[Phil Reed]

Looks great Jim!! Man...this has been a long haul for you..................hope all goes well for the install!!! Just in time for Great Bend!!!!

 

[Ronnie Russell]

Looks wicked, sounds great !!

 

[jim_ss409]

Yep, sounds real nice!

 

[blkblk63ss]

Jim, you must have a lot of patience, i would have been mighty teed off if all that would have happened to me .but persistence eventually get's it done but cost's a little more in the end . Sound's like your ready to fly. Sound's healthy,good going!!!!!!!!!

 

[tripower]

Sounds and looks great... Hope you have all the bugs worked out this time around...

 

[droptop62ss]

Jim the fuel injection forum on Chevy Talk is full of great info and people that are willing to help if you have any problems .
Doug Flynn from Holley is in charge of the efi forum he has done alot of R&D for the new Holley system .
I have a HP setup that I'm going to run on my 454 when the car is done .

Andy

 

[jwhotrod]

We went and watched it run this afternoon, I am tickled with how well it runs with the Holley HP system, all we changed was the ecm and wiring harness. Did not change the injectors or sensors except this system runs with a Bosch Wide Band O2 sensor that I could not even hook up to the accel system without an external translator box. I am retrieving it in the morning and will reset it in the car over the weekend. I will let you know how that goes, as to the oil pressure and retention problem, they ran it twice for over 1.5 hrs under part load with no problems so it seems finally all is well, we hope!!!!
Big Jim

 

[Phil Reed]

We went and watched it run this afternoon, I am tickled with how well it runs with the Holley HP system, all we changed was the ecm and wiring harness. Did not change the injectors or sensors except this system runs with a Bosch Wide Band O2 sensor that I could not even hook up to the accel system without an external translator box. I am retrieving it in the morning and will reset it in the car over the weekend. I will let you know how that goes, as to the oil pressure and retention problem, they ran it twice for over 1.5 hrs under part load with no problems so it seems finally all is well, we hope!!!!
Big Jim

 

[neilswheels]

Hi Jim, I haven't been on here for a loooong time, but I thought I'd look for inspiration in getting my 348 in my 40, and the first build post i saw was yours. Good to see the huge lump can fit in an old car without butchering the firewall. Looks like you've had more than your fair share of headaches with it all, but hopefully your on the right road now.

 

[61BUBBLE348]

Hey Neil,

Get that 40 going.

Cheers

 

[jwhotrod]

I had decided since I am 6'4 that I did not want to go into the firewall, at least that is the story and I am sticking to it. This car started out as a 350/350 combo and when I got the 409 it looked like it would drop right down into the 350 mounts, which it did, perfect spacing to the firewall I'm in like Flint!!!!! Well, the other shoe dropped when we went to put the radiator and grill shell on. The fan with no spacer or shims wanted to occupy the same space as the radiator. So, we moved the radiator forward in the grill shell approximately 1.5" and now the fan is exactly 1/2" off the back of the radiator. Perfect, except now where do I put the AC condenser? (front of radiator now 3/8" behind grill in shell) behind the rear seat is where, works good and I can use a much larger condenser now 22h 28w cross flow. So it works but do not let anyone tell you that when the rolling chassis is done the hard work is over. Like I said above, I am panning on starting it tomorrow now that I finally got it all back together, wired, etc. I will be back in a couple of days with an update.
I did NOT want to discourage you, and if I can be of any help please yell, I am an American Autowire dealer, and can help with that as well.

Big Jim

 

[buildit]

I had decided since I am 6'4 that I did not want to go into the firewall, at least that is the story and I am sticking to it. This car started out as a 350/350 combo and when I got the 409 it looked like it would drop right down into the 350 mounts, which it did, perfect spacing to the firewall I'm in like Flint!!!!! Well, the other shoe dropped when we went to put the radiator and grill shell on. The fan with no spacer or shims wanted to occupy the same space as the radiator. So, we moved the radiator forward in the grill shell approximately 1.5" and now the fan is exactly 1/2" off the back of the radiator. Perfect, except now where do I put the AC condenser? (front of radiator now 3/8" behind grill in shell) behind the rear seat is where, works good and I can use a much larger condenser now 22h 28w cross flow. So it works but do not let anyone tell you that when the rolling chassis is done the hard work is over. Like I said above, I am panning on starting it tomorrow now that I finally got it all back together, wired, etc. I will be back in a couple of days with an update.
I did NOT want to discourage you, and if I can be of any help please yell, I am an American Autowire dealer, and can help with that as well.

Big Jim

I have a 409 in my 37 Chev pickup project. Seems I have a little more room but I did notch the firewall about 1 1/4" deep on each side for valve cover clearance. There is room for the Walker radiator with AC condenser, but I think the 37 may have more space behind the grill. It has a 1 1/2" narrowed 2nd gen Camaro ft clip and I'm using 2" fenderwell exit BBC headers modified to fit Bob's heads that have the raised center exhaust ports.

 

[1961BelAir427]

I have a 409 in my 37 Chev pickup project. Seems I have a little more room but I did notch the firewall about 1 1/4" deep on each side for valve cover clearance. There is room for the Walker radiator with AC condenser, but I think the 37 may have more space behind the grill. It has a 1 1/2" narrowed 2nd gen Camaro ft clip and I'm using 2" fenderwell exit BBC headers modified to fit Bob's heads that have the raised center exhaust ports.

I'd love to see pics of those headers if you get a chance to post them.

 

[dq409]

GREAT RUN !!!! Sounds badass! Just have a question about the setup. Seems there is a lag in the climb of the RPM`s after the throttle bodies are pulled in. Is that just the sound/video off?

 

[jwhotrod]

Those videos were early in the last set of runs, I asked the same thing when we went to listen to the motor and go thru the software. They were having a problem with a "sag or flat spot at about 2800 rpms and were tuning with the transitional fuel table trying to get it out, Holley said to revise the scaling in the VE table (main fuel), it is a little confusing but the table is setup with rpm boxes ranging from 0 to 7000 across bottom and map setting up side. With 3500 in the middle of the table the rpm increments are 100 rpms per box. At that scale it was missing this flat spot they were trying to tune out, but by moving 3500rpms up to 3/4 of the width of the table it revised the scaling of the rpm boxes below 3500 to be about 50 -60 rpms and which allowed the O2 sensor and the software to "see" the flat spot and fix it in the main table. Then go back to the transitional table set it back to stock. and the sag went away. It really boils down to the idea that the ECM and software stock out of the box does not know if you are street driven, drag raced, boat mounted or what. So that is where the self learning comes in you drive it how you drive it and it learns from you. These guys on the dyno, needed some help getting that level of customization into the initial tune, the rest of it will come in the car. Anyway that is the long answer, by the time we got there the throttle response was and is awesome and does not have the lag you saw!!! I'm very excited about this Holley HP setup it is slick and easy to work with.
More to come

 

[jwhotrod]

I seeit has been 6 months since I posted here about the car, I finally got everything sorted out, it would run but not support idle in gear. Thru a bunch of messing around and screwing with the thing finally came to the conclusion the 2000 rpm torque convertor was too tight. Put a 2800 stall convertor in it and the problem went away. Had the car in DEs Moines over the weekend, car runs great and SCOOTS!!!! A friend said he could see the smile on my face from Illinois.

I did have a little problem with the brakes though, coming out of the fairgrounds Sat night, stepped on the brake pedal, it went down about 3/4" and got rock solid, I couldn't move it, let up stepped on it again, no problem. My front end guy seems to think I have a pin hole in the diaphragm of the booster, so I ordered another 7" dbbl dia booster and going to change it this weekend. I am planning to drive it out to Galena the following weekeknd if I can get this brake thing worked out, it was SCARY!!!!

 

[63 dream'n]

I'm glad to hear those brakes didn't cause you a big set back.motor looks fantastic,hope all's well.....

 

[61BUBBLE348]

 

[jwhotrod]

It turned out that there was a pin hole in the diaphragm of the power brake booster that made the pedal go hard at part travel and not let the brakes work right. Booster changed, brakes re bled and all is well. Had the car in Sycamore last weekend for the show, runs and drives great, NO tendency to heat stays rock solid at 183degrees, and SCOOTS.