At 11:59 PM 8/18/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Hey list, two questions/thoughts I've been thinking about that I'd like your
>comments on
>(yes, no, what are you, crazy? - that kind of thing). These ??'s are for my
>'95 318 CC - but probably apply to all the Daks.
>
>1) Replaced my plugs & wires last week (MSD Helicore's), and in the process
>got very annoyed with the thin metal tubes (towers) that protrude up around
>the plug wire from the engine. I had alot of little crap down in there
>around the old plugs, but no way to get it out! With the plugs in there is
>no way to get a tootbrush or anything in to brush it away. With the plugs
>out, well most of it would get into the engine (don't want that!).
>Has anyone tried to remove these metal protrusions? Does anyone have any
>ideas on how to clean around them w/out getting it into the engine? I was
>thinking of maybe cutting these off with a Dremel & cutting wheel, but all
>those little metal bits flying around make me a little hesitant.
Just use an air compressor to shoot some air down there. Its definitely
a good idea to clean them out before removing your plugs. As far as the
heat shields go, there's no need to cut them. If you want to remove them,
unhook the spark plug wire first, then just squeeze down near the base of
the shield and pull them out. They'll compress and come out of the machined
openings in the head that they sit in.
>
>2) I'm planning on getting the Mopar Perf. SBEC (easy enough) but was
>thinking about what it would take to have both chips installed at the same
>time, but control which one you are running through via an A/B type switch?
>I know, the change-out of the chips is pretty easy, but this way you could
>easily switch "on the fly" (go for the stock chip for normal driving/mileage
>& switch to Perf. chip when street dualing, playing around). Since it takes
>the computer a bit to reprogram, would this be worth while? From a
>theoretical view, it should work - but I have enough electronics experience
>to know that theory & reality quite often don't match up!
Right you are. :-) The problem with this is that, rather than being
a single chip, the PCM is unserviceable. You'd have to switch the entire
computer. On my '96 V8, that's 65 seperate connections. In theory, all
you need to do is keep power to both PCM's at all times (if you want to
retain their memories; otherwise you don't have to worry about it) and
switch between 120-130 lines to 60-65 common lines (depending on wether you
are suppling constant power or not). Pretty simple in theory; all you need
is about 65 relays, a switch, and a bunch of wire. :-) Even if you were
lucky enough to get the relays for $5 each, you're still looking at
$325.
Another option might be to mount the PCM in the cab and you could
physically change the plug. Still, that's a lot of wiring (to extend the
harness), and a pretty big hassle as far as actually using it goes. Another
factor that comes into play is that a few people have reported *better* gas
mileage with the performance PCM, so it might be better to just leave that
in all the time.
So, I guess its like most things... If you really want to do it and you've
got the cash, then yeah, its definitely do-able. :-)
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------------------------------.
| Affiliations: DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA. RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.85@90.72), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`----------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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