Sniper

You know, I just read this so ....

Here it is

I feel the need, the need for speed. Sorry I'll always be a lead foot. I put about 50k miles a year on the work truck, company owned, GPS tracked, so I abide. But when I am in my own ride it's A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty "Hi-yo, Silver, away!" Now I need to practice the best launch techniques, lol.

Glad you got it working. 13.2 volts is not an uncommon voltage to see.

Yes, just so you know I drove up to Amarillo and back yesterday thinking about this the whole way and when I got home I dug up that paper and figured out what was going on. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

You are a scallywag. 😄 You made me dig up the paper on the GM 10DN charging system and read thru it, bottom of the page. Some archaic terminology was used, but hey that's ok the Navy taught me electronics and it's tech was even more archaic in some cases (AN/SPS-10 radar). So I understood it, I think, lol. You have what Delco calls a Two-unit regulator with indicator lamp. This drawing shows how to wire it, EXCEPT #4 needs to go thru an idiot light and parallel resistor (no value given for the resistor) if you want an idiot light, otherwise nothing gets connected there and 2 gets the switched 12v. Number three should be wired to as close to the battery as possible. This is the wire that controls battery charge voltage and taking it off the BATT terminal at the alternator is less than ideal. Although an engineer or a theorist will tell you that both points are "electrically identical" reality says any connection or splice between the two will create resistance and cause an effect. Since this charging scheme is fairly primitive in reality I don't think it matters enough, in other words it's likely to be within the regulator's margin of error anyway. Unless it's a really crappy connection. 10DN with ammeter wiring (you can run this sans ammeter and no light) 10DN with light

I'm glad you have time to Tinker. Work has been kicking my butt since before Thanksgiving. So whenever I have time off I'm either driving 5 hours East to visit family or recuperating from work. Last week I had to install and wire up 4,000 pounds worth of batteries all by myself. So needless to say I spent a lot of time recuperating this weekend. Getting old sucks

The major difference between a fuse and a fusible link is that a fusible link will tolerate an overload for longer than a fuse will. So if you have the occasional spike it won't blow. Since I do not know exactly how the GM charging system works I can't really say how much current that voltage sensing line uses. But I do not think it is directly involved in the field current necessary for the alternator to charge. I kind of suspect it's the on-off switch and something else handles the current the alternator requires to start charging

Nice work

With the understanding that I don't do GM charging systems, I don't see a problem with that. Where are you going to put the fusible link?

the fusible link protects everything connected to the splice, not just the regulator and you want the link as close to the battery as possible to protect the wiring as well. 10 ga. seems overkill for the regulator, heck that's the same size as the feed to the battery.

Trust me, a head gasket blown between two cylinders will show a lot more than a 10psi drop in compression and it will knock.

What gear box fluid are you using? A lot of shift issues can be caused by that.

Going to be interesting

I just watched a very interesting YouTube video by Lake speed Jr. He's a oil expert. He tested Havoline conventional 10w30 versus Walmart super tech synthetic 10 w30 and Valvoline VR1 10w30. They were all pretty close however the super tech brand held up to thermal oxidation the best. The VR1 had the least amount of friction however Lake was pretty clear to say you don't want to use racing oil in your daily driver. In any case all of these differences were fairly small and any one of the three would be perfectly fine in our rides. So as Sam said today's oil is so much better than what they had back then it doesn't really matter

That would be my first choice. It's relatively cheap and might be the solution. Especially if it's a new to you engine that you have no idea what it's maintenance has been like (too long oil change intervals come to mind). Some Marvel Mystery oil in the crankcase would probably help after you change the oil.

The yoke holds the bearing in place, not the seal. Typically, the seal is driven in flush to the housing.

Might see how hot the coil is during these no starts compared to times it starts fine. Had an issue years ago with my 87 Diplomat dying when hot, let it cool and it started/ran fine. In this case the coil was located fairly close to the pre cat on the fender well. A new coil, relocated to the more traditional spot on the intake of the 360 and no more issues.

With a pull in voltage of 8 and a drop out voltage of 1.2-5 the cited relay would be iffy in a "6v" system. Somewhere, someone posted the pn for a Bosch 6 relay, 0332204001

You know what also works good to hold a pan gasket in place? Thread, tie the gasket to the pan using sewing thread at each hole. These days though, I just use copper spray to glue it in place. Several ways to keep the gasket from moving around on you.

Yes, LED means Light Emitting Diode. Diodes are polarity sensitive. Now it might be possible the bulb assembly has a circuit in it to ensure the diode portion of the bulb assembly only gets the proper polarity regardless of how you wire the socket. In which case, it does not matter. But I don't know that they do, or don't, for a fact. As a real quick check, don't assume it's universal to all, I looked up the specs on an LED 1157 bulb. This particular bulb is polarity sensitive.

Yes, arcing, back EMF, etc are simply two ways of saying noise on the line. Probably not a real issue with most of our rides, after all we have virtually no electronics in the car, But nonetheless, if you have that style relay polarity is important on the 85 and 86 terminals. Since those terminals are isolated from the chassis ground it shouldn't be a problem regardless of chassis ground polarity.

Lots of DC relays have a diode in them to prevent back EMF. Those are polarity sensitive and generally have a diode inked on the case. You can see it in the pic, between 85 and 86, the triangle and line pic. positive had better be on the 86 terminal.

Might help if we knew what engine we were looking at? Some engines have certain idiosyncrasies, such as the SBC and it's OEM valve stem seals failing early. It could be any number of things, like an intake leak allowing the engine to suck oil into the cylinder, assuming that;s applicable here.

Like I told my son Porsches are expensive whether it's the girl or the car.