Finished my LIM job. (Pics)

[Barry]

Well, I got my flow matched injectors back from Spud Miller at Fuel Injection Enterprises today so I thought I would finish my LIM gasket replacement job. (Highly recommed FIE, Spud is a great guy). I got her running and everything seems to be fine. I had a bit of anxiety when I noticed some coolant was leaking out of the new tensioner elbow that goes into the block, but it quit leaking later on. Some comments.
--As stated by some others, I would recommend removing the tensioner before installing the LIM, especially if you are doing the job alone. It makes the elbow connection very simple.
--My 1999 LIM would not take any of the egr pipes supplied with the APN UIM. I used my original, which still left air gap around the metal sleeve in the UIM hole.
--If you have never done this before, take pictures of the entire engine from all angles. It will help you greatly when you put things back together.
-- The engine runs between 195 and 205 with the drilled 180 stat. It also warms up much faster than when I had the 195 stat with the hole. Also, I think the 195 ran cooler. It never got to 205 before. Maybe it is because I still have some air in the system.
--It is hard to tell what gains I have from the P and P of the LIM. I have heard it takes 100 miles for the PCM to adjust.. However, nonetheless, I think it already pulls stronger mid range. I think I will try an Intense FWI. I just wish their tubing was high gloss black! I don't care for the looks of the stuff as it is.

Here are some pics. Looks like I got the gaskets just in time. This car has 107,800 miles on it. The gaskets are about to go. There's a lesson here folks. Wren has been preaching the evils of Dex for some time now, as have others.



The valley was really nice and clean. Nice to get at this before the gaskets let go completely.


And, here she is all buttoned up. I think she looks pretty good.

[Roadtech195]

Looks good

[harofreak00]

Did you clean up the gasket surfaces on the head after that pic, before you installed the LIM?

[Barry]

Of course. Took the pic right after I pulled the LIM and had not touched the heads yet.

[harofreak00]

Very good.. had me worried

[wjcollier07]

*dang* clean lifter valley! What kinda oil filter do you use?

Looks excellent. Always good when things go perfectly.

[Barry]

NAPA Gold and Mobil 1, but can't take credit for the cleanliness, I've only had the car for little over a year and only put about a thousand miles on it. (It's a toy, not a DD). Previous owner took great care of it.

[myfirstbonnie]

Looks good, another one saved.

Those gaskets look good compared to the ones we took off my 95. I had a lot of fun doing mine and I am glad I did it before it let go. I don't know how the P & P is on mine. I drove it home from Bill's place and haven't drove it since (daughters daily driver), but I did notice a lot better throttle response with it.

[azu]

Me love pics. Looks nice!!!

[laxmangl]

car looks great, I just did my uim too. What are flow matched injectors?

[bill buttermore]

...
--My 1999 LIM would not take any of the egr pipes supplied with the APN UIM. I used my original, which still left air gap around the metal sleeve in the UIM hole.

Your 99 should have a 5/8" bore in the LIM for the stock stovepipe. This is the first time I have heard of a problem installing one of the reduced diameter pipes supplied by APN. When you removed the stock stovepipe, did you clean out the bore? Sometimes they will get a coating of carbon that makes for a tight (or impossible) fit. Did you try tapping the new pipe in with a deep socket that just fit around the 1/2" pipe and would bear against the 5/8" shoulder?

[willwren]

car looks great, I just did my uim too. What are flow matched injectors?

Chris Miller (Spud) owns FIE (fuel injection enterprises). You can find him on our LINKS page.

He works at HP here in Corvallis, and I've known him for quite some time. He offers a discount to our members. The business started as a hobby to go along with his other hobby:

http://www.onehotchilipepper.com/

I've done most of the bonneville sets with him (typically when there's more than one set to be done) but missed this particular set (sorry Barry! But I knew he had them).

Flowmatched injectors will help in efficiency and power. All of your injectors are running either lean or rich in varying degrees. The O2 sensor is only reading an average of all of them. So if 3 are lean, and 3 are rich, the O2 thinks things are great. If you had 6 O2 sensors (one in each EM runner) it wouldn't be a problem, but since you don't, flowmatching them very close to each other by a professional (after cleaning and rebuilding) is the next best option.

[Barry]

I did clean the EGR hole very well. I had another LIM that the pipe from APN fit in and had worked on during the winter to P and P (got it from a JY). However, the porting was to .9 and 1.9, and slightly over ported. When I took my LIM off the car (it had been away in storage over the winter) it was so unbelievably nice, and I had some time waiting on the injectorws, I decided to put it back on after porting to .8 and 1.8. I considered grinding the EGR pipe from APN to make it fit, but just decided to go with the original. There was no point in hammering with the socket. It was not that close that it would have gone in. I think I calipered the hole size and wrote it down somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and I'll check the size on the JY one also and report back. Car is still running like a champ, got 71 miles on it now.

[Barry]

OK. My LIM EGR hole=.610
JY LIM EGR hole =.749

Tube 1 from APN =.749
Tube 2 from APN =.624
(Both tubes were measured at the shoulder)

[bill buttermore]

OK. My LIM EGR hole=.610
JY LIM EGR hole =.749

Tube 1 from APN =.749
Tube 2 from APN =.624
(Both tubes were measured at the shoulder)

!!! That LIM bore should have been .625" The pipes are good, it's that bore that is too small.

[Barry]

I have no clue what is up with that. I thought it strange also, as you said, first you heard of it. I had never seen it mentioned in this forum. It has to be the original LIM based on the gaskets I took off. I do know that the UIM was replaced at 36,000 miles. The one I took off is the one they put on at 36,000, and is in perfect shape. There was plenty of space around the EGR pipe and the hole in the UIM, but it did not have the metal liner in there like the APN has. Just finished putting in the NGK TR55s. Only had 1,000 on the iridium ones I had in there. I must be nuts.

[bill buttermore]

Well, that is something new. The LIM changeover from a .750 EGR pipe bore to .625 occurred in 99. Maybe this was some sort of prototype or something. What is the build date on the car - maybe early in the model year? So the stock pipe must be .610 too. Maybe that's what they wanted originally but couldn't resist the lower cost of more widely available 5/8" OD stainless tubing.

In any case, you are wise to have chosen the APN with the heat shield. With a smaller air gap around the pipe, that little steel sleeve is even more important for you.

[Barry]

Do you know how I can find the build date?

[bill buttermore]

Build date should be on the sticker on the driver's door or door jamb - month and year.

[Barry]

Bill: Fogot about checking the build date until I washed and dried the car. It is 5/99. Doesn't seem like that is very early.