Installed B6 engine, now speedo will not work

[cortezit]

I just installed a totally rebuilt B6 into my 1995 Aspire but now my speedometer will not work. I am having trouble with the shifting of my automatic transmission. Has anyone else had a similar problem? Iif so how did you fix it? Any suggestions?

I am told that the shifting of the transmission is electronic in nature and the the computer receives its "up shift signal" from the speedometer head. Is this correct or have I simply missed connecting something??

We tried an electric drill on the cable to the speedometer head but it registers nothing. However it worked just fine when I pulled the B3 engine out of the car.

Cortezit

[TominMO]

Make absolutely sure that the speedo cable is actually connected to the speedo, for starters. A couple of times I thought it was connected on my Aspire, but it came loose. Once I finally got it to go on completely and heard the click, it was fine.

[Safety Guy]

What Tom said. I bet that's the issue.

There should be no electronic controlling of your 3 speed auto transaxle. If it is not shifting right, make sure you have all the vacuum lines hooked up to it. I suppose another thing that could go wrong is if you messed up the shifter cable somehow, putting it out of whack, so check that as well.

Let us know when you fix it and what it was.

Karl

[cortezit]

We pulled the water/vacuum tube setup off of the B6 and used it on the new installation which still had the transmission from the B3 which has its vacuum modulator on the opposite side of the engine( it is toward the radiator on the drivers side and not towards the fire wall as it was installed in a 1989 Mercury Trace (donor car for B). In short we missed connecting the vacuum up.

The speedometer cable had accidentally been pulled from the back of the speedo head.

Both problems corrected.

I ported and polished the head on the rebuild of the B6 and am running the roller lifter and cam set up off of the B3 with the B3 injectors. They do not seem to be too lean at this point. I am waiting for the "street cam" that I ordered from Festiva Motor sports. I am also going to use one of their headers and call it good.
thanks for the help.

Cortezit

[TominMO]

Cool!

[Safety Guy]

Cortizit wrote:

"...the roller lifter and cam set up off of the B3 with the B3 injectors."

Are you saying you are using "roller lifters" with your new cam?" Aren't these from Aspire engines? Isn't there something about roller lifters messing up cams that aren't hardened properly?

I could be totally wrong about this--maybe I'm thinking about something else--but you'd better check!

Karl

[Festiva_Fred]

Do not use aspire roller rockers with the FMS cam!!!! Use festiva rockers only.

[91mcnasty]

Explanation?

[cortezit]

I understood that the street cam that is advertised with FMS was for the Aspire and Festiva. If there is going to be an issue I am glad that the board members gave me a proper heads up. I may not use the performance street cam in a case like that. I am content with the Aspire B3 roller lifter and roller camshaft combination that I am currently running. It is well known fact that a roller cam set up creates much less engine cam resistance than does the conventional cam set up.

A header may be the only other modification that I will do to the engine. I have "tweeked" the suspension and added KYB- Festiva Fronts and Aspire rears to the setup

Cortezit

[Safety Guy]

Yup. I thought I was remembering right.

Explanation? I believe the FMS cam is not hardened in a certain way. I wonder if there is some way to get it hardened to withstand the rollers?

Karl

[Movin]

The grinds are different because of the change in geometry. Other engines even
more so because the grind has to provide rotation with the non-roller cam. The
festy is the same either way so the engine may run but hydraulic lifter tolerance
may be off and the valve opening and closing specs would not match what was
written on the box making an extra step for dialing the engine in with the degree
wheel.

[Safety Guy]

Movin, so it's not so much the heat treat as it is a different grind, which the rollers are not set up to handle? Then they will wear down faster that way?

Karl

[blkfordsedan]

Because of the different geometry associated with a roller follower, the loading forces on the cam lobe are different. Usually they are much higher in a roller design than a flat tappet design. I'm not sure of the actual differences in the case of the Festiva, since they do not have an actual lifter that rotates (which helps reduce said load), but it's safe to say they are still different. Because the loading forces are higher on a roller cam, the camshaft is made of cast or billet steel. The typical flat tappet cam is cast iron. I've never seen an Aspire cam, but I would bet it's steel (?)

In reference to the decreased friction, the Aspire set up will have less. However, the performance gain from switching to the FMS grind will more than offset it. IMO, the thing that the Aspire roller set-up has going for it is the compatibility with modern oil. With the serious lack of zinc & phospherous in today's oil, I would convert to the Aspire design (no question) if I was building a stock motor. Personally, I am willing to commit to the use of ZDDP additives in exchange for the added performance of the FMS camshaft.

[cortezit]

That is absolutely rational. Thank you. I am running an automatic transmission so I may not realize a significant performance gain over the Aspire set up with the roller? Is this logical assumption. I suppose that there will be some noticeable performance gains in the upper end/

Cortezit

[blkfordsedan]

Just to be clear; the Aspire set up is the "roller" cam. The FMS cam uses the standard style rockers like the Festiva. The Aspire roller setup will provide reduced friction, complete compatibility with modern oil and stock performance. The FMS cam will provide a significant increase in power from around 2500 or 3000 RPM on up. It may however be a little less "zippy" in the low RPM range with hthe automatic. It will most certainly be less fuel efficient. It all depends on what you want.