Team Rush Upgrade and Beyond...

[Fugly78]

Got the wires, coil, cap and rotor for the 'Team Rush' Upgrade for my Chief, going to get the CDI module in the next week. Any tips and/or advice from others that have done this upgrade?

The only thing out of ALL the multitudes of forums and websites that I wasn't 100% clear on was whether or not I needed to make that modified GM HEI module. None of the information was completely clear to me about that.

Anyone?

[Stuka]

I have never used any of their stuff. Is this a TFI style upgrade?

[Fugly78]

I still haven't found why they call it the "Team Rush Upgrade", but Jeephammer from the Jeep forum talks about it on numerous forums and his own site, but the details is here on this forum link: http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/ignit ... st12702667

It is a TFI upgrade with a CDI unit along with the plugs, cap and wires.

Just wanted to see if anyone else had any experience with doing this.

I just started today on my lunch break at work (my Chief is up at my workplace where there is cover from the rain). Taking pics of everything I take off and sorting the wires. Got half of the spark plugs out today, especially the one in the passenger left corner which is a royal pain if you have headers!

My CDI unit will be in next week so I will continue to work at it on my lunch breaks slowly and surely...

This is what I started with:

and the original ignition:

Passenger side view:

[68glad]

[quote="Fugly78"
The only thing out of ALL the multitudes of forums and websites that I wasn't 100% clear on was whether or not I needed to make that modified GM HEI module.
Anyone?[/quote]


Nope. Just grab yourself a msd ignition box and wire it in.

edit: and welcome to the forum. I'm just up the road in stayton.

[Fugly78]

Thanks for the info you guys. 68glad - We'll have to meetup sometime since you are so close.

So, got pretty much all my stuff ordered and/or here already. Started tearing into things. Man what a mess! Started with figuring out which wires go where and then doing the disconnections. Pulled the spark plugs and the only issue I found was the rear two plugs were really rich with gas, all the rest were tan and fairly good shape.

Then I started in on replacing the plugs - this time making sure they had some anti-seize, and since this upgrade is supposed to produce bigger, better spark, I gapped them all at .42.

I also noticed when I set my engine to TDC (verified from timing mark and from #1 piston), that my distributor rotor was pointing nowhere near the #1 cylinder plug. It got me wondering what other problems I may be finding...

Got the old ignition stuff off and cleaned the fenderwell off a little:

I then started on cleaning up the engine bay of vacuum hoses that I don't need anymore. Half of them weren't even hooked to anything!

I then took off the valve covers. I don't think the things had been off in 20 years! There is some major nasty sludge buildup all over these heads. I can tell someone removed them at one time from the RTV around the edges, but it is a total mess inside. I think I need a high pressure shop vac to clean it out - but then, I might end up having more oil leaks...

Covers off:

I was also having a tap on the passenger side for quite while, so I thought I would investigate that. Looks like a couple of my rocker arms are really loose. I don't know if my two push rods are shot or what since this is the first time I have dove this far into this engine. When I push down onto the back of the rocker (pushing on the rod side) it feels "squishy" for lack of a better word. It has at least 1/4" play in it. The other one has less play, but it feels more solid when I push on it. Does anyone have advice about this?

Me checking the play in the rocker arm:

All in all, this is becoming a bigger project than just upgrading the ignition, but then, I hate to leave so many problems left unattended.

Of course it is becoming more expensive too, I thought I would clean the valve covers and paint them, but I broke down and bought some cheapos. I also thought I might as well replace the distributor while I have all these clean and new parts to my ignition system. Oh well, at least all this will transfer to my other engine when this one is completely shot!

Any advice or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!

[Fugly78]

Been a while since I gave an update, but have been waiting for parts here and there.

I decided to mount my new ignition and coil here: I'm going to have to fab a mount for the coil to make it easier to swap if there is a problem.

New starter relay:

Some of the wiring run:

Pre-fitting the plug wires:

Worked again on this engine ignition system last week and tonight. Last week I apparently got the MSD module and coil hooked up properly because when I did a quick little crank of the starter (and forgot I still had the coil hooked up) I got a nice 3-inch long, bright blue spark from the coil! That was cool to watch.

Tonight I got all the spark plug wires cut and placed properly. Dizzy set at TDC. Moment of truth... fired right up with the best sound I have ever had from this $600 hunk of AMC metal! I still need to replace a lifter and clean up things, but this was well worth the cost of making this thing run so well!

[Stuka]

Good to hear it worked out well!


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[lkmarsh]

What did you do about the cam and lifters? Enquiring minds want to know!

[Fugly78]

I'm going to get it home here this next week (it's up at my work). I will be off work for a couple weeks and plan on pulling the intake at that point.

I know it's not the best thing to do, but I plan on just replacing the one lifter and seeing how far I get with doing that. I really don't want to dig too far into this engine since I have another one that is in better shape sitting in my J10 parts truck.

I opted for the ignition upgrade to try and help this dying engine by for the time being, but I also knew I would be swapping the engine out at some point and knew the ignition upgrade wouldn't get in the way of that.

I'll get some pics posted once I spend the time to shrink them to the required size on this site.

[Fugly78]

Got my pics figured out! Stuka can you bump this whole thread to the "Build" section?

[Fugly78]

Got the Chief home a week ago and was waiting for a day to pull the intake and work on those lifters. In the process of all I did the previous weeks, I also pulled the old cruise control box off. I was going to get a new one-piece cable, but was able to use the bottom half of the cable and attach to the speedo.

I went to start it up and drive it and test it out... No start. Cranks over just fine. Power to the MSD module, just no start. So I started checking all my wires. Everything is connected. Checked for spark. No spark. Rigged up my old coil, still no spark. Only thing I can guess if that the module is bad. I'll do a few more checks, but I think I need to send it back. Sounds like there have been issues with brand new units crapping out for no reason. I will go with a temporary measure of rolling with the HEI ignition module setup until I get the MSD back, but still, what a pai n.

[68glad]

Before sending it back double check the ground and do the test for the magnetic pickup.
http://www.msdignition.com/page.aspx?id=3206

[Fugly78]

Just as a double-check and since most of the wiring was done anyway, I tried just hooking up a standard, GM HEI ignition module to see if I could get it to fire that way. Still no dice. It was a bit too bright out to see a spark, but I think I heard one.

The next thing I am wondering is if maybe I accidentally unhooked something when I took the instrument cluster out and hooked up the speedometer. Since driving it home, that was the only thing I did. Is there something back behind the dash that could have come loose to prevent it from starting?

I know I get 12v when key is "on", get power when starting (starter cranks), magnetic pickup seems to be working, wiring checked and double-checked. I know I must be missing something, but what?

[letank]

12v from battery + to coil + terminal, ok for hei, not too long for conventional systems as they have the ballast resistor to drop the voltage after start up as your circuit is 14.4 v or about. Disconnect after test/run.

[roddiaz1]

Just curious....did you ever find out what was wrong? This seems to happen to so many of us. There has to be a sure-fire procedure to follow to track down the error. One thing that Team Rush would usually advise is to keep the stock system in place, that way you could switch back to it as a limp-home-mode. Doing this saved my bacon at least once.