[Shotimes] Valve lash done.....but car seems weaker now.

[Bruce Malachuk]

Ok so after winning records for being the slowest mechanic in the world and
nearly killing my father with flying shims of anger I got the valve lash done.
Everything is in spec now, or tightened up to the low end of the spec. Most
were at the high middle to end of the specs.

My valve covers are back on, everything is tq'd to waht the helm's book says,
I RTV'd the plug wells, and I fixed my leaking valve cover bolts with some RTV
as well. BUT there is just one problem...The car seems weak now, like no push
you back into the seat kind of acceleration like it had prior to this endevor.
Now I know the secondaries are closing when I start the car, and i'm fairly
sure that they ar opening ontime, but something just feels weak. There is no
oil in the plugwells now, and the little that was there wasn't even up to the
bottom of the sparkplug boot. The wires are the original ones, just cause I
don't have the cash for new, but at 73k I really don't NEED to have them yet.
Plugs were new 2k ago and I pilled them to check the gap and to see the
condition of them. My intake was fairly clean but I still used maybe 1/3 a can
of berrymans on the runners and the chambers on the heads. Now I know that 4
of the 6 sets of valves were closed and I had a little b12 on each valve to
help breakup the cone of carbon on the back of the valve. but the car started
up with minimal sputtering. Oil is flowing like it should and the engine
sounds normal. I did clean the coil pack and put a little dielectic grease on
all the ends, I'm wondering if that might be causing spark problems.

Tomorrow in the rain/sleet/snow I'm gonna reset the comp. Clean any extra
dielectric greas I can off the coil pack. Make sure the secondaries are
opening @ 4k by bliping the TB linkage. If none of those things fix it, I'm
thinkign I'm gonna have to pull the intake off again and double check the
plugs. The car dosen't buck, skip or misfire, it just feels like someone put a
rubberband around it's nuts. I did notice that there is a sizeable gap in on
the rear exhaust manifold where it meats the y-pipe. I can stick my finger
into it, and there is a plate there rattling around. but I knew there was a
leak back there for a while.

Anyhow I need any thoughts, suggestions, whatever as to what I might be
missing. The engine feels like it runs fine, albeit quieter, but there is no
push you into the seat acceleration like before. Is there any way to reset the
computer without losing power to the rest of the car? I thought there was some
kind of wire that ran from the batt to the comp?

Bruce
94 Opal Frost MTX
60k 1/2 done @ 73k