L18 8.1L swap resource thread

[BoondocK5]

What you think bout these?

View attachment 535914

I think you’re running a little rich. That’s what I think.
Regap them all and throw them back in.
Check your fuel pressure, see if you have any driveability codes, like O2, or EGR . Fix what ever you find. If you’ve got a slow start issue, that’s something else. Fuel related…

 

[BoondocK5]

I had this back fire issue on starting. Turns out it was my camshaft Position Sensor was “F”ing up. Set two codes for it. Reading low on start and high when running. Causing a giant backfire out the exhaust every start attempt.
Now, I just charge the fuel system and it fires right up, holds 1100 rpm for about 3 seconds, then, drops back to 750-775 rpm’s, nice and steady growl now.

Note to self, don’t buy any cheap, no name sensors. Napa Gold line or AC DELCO.
Fawking no name junk cam sensor!

 

[Babaganoosh]

I trust junkyard sensors more then the auto parts store sensors

 

[folkenheath]

I agree, the amount of testing cam and crank sensors go through for the OEM is crazy, been part of it in my early career. I can't imagine any aftermarket companies doing that unless they are an OEM supplier. And many of those have contracts they can only sell to the automaker. So I agree, buy OEM sensors, especially the pieces that can leave you stranded and not just missing a piece of info.

 

[ZooMad75]

The plugs do look rich. I’m few ipas in and I could see that. Plus the gap looks massive without putting a feeler gauge on it. But until the tune is right it’s probably not worth chasing until you get the tune cleaned up.

 

[RootBreaker]

What you think bout these?

View attachment 535914

The plugs do look rich. I’m few ipas in and I could see that. Plus the gap looks massive without putting a feeler gauge on it. But until the tune is right it’s probably not worth chasing until you get the tune cleaned up.

I put new plugs in and they are gapped to .060

 

[Blue85]

Unfortunately, the word "tune" gets applied to a lot of things. There's configuration, like go to a manual transmission or turn the fans on sooner. There are "canned tunes", which alter a few settings (usually just more aggressive shifts and a little more timimg), which don't know anything about how your vehicle is running. Then there's real tuning, which is either done on the vehicle or remotely using datalogs from your vehicle. This is great because you learn from looking at the data.

You can't fix a mechanical problem by changing ECM settings. It should run fine on the stock file, except where there are incompatibilities. That just requires config and/or a segment swap.