My Lean Burn Delete

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Old 05-09-2012, 09:31 PM
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Exclamation My Lean Burn Delete

I promised pics but still havent gotten the shoddy workmanship cleaned up, but will post the "how to" segment. If ya hit a bump just ask and I will try and answer.
If you are wondering why I would do this lets just say, the car was a friend of mine that passed away at an age we wont discuss, but he knew me as a car guy and always brought his broke junk to me to fix. Anyways when his wife told me he wanted me to have the car to come get it I did, and I did know it had started having drivability issues but I was not ready for what they were.
Hard to start, wouldnt idle, wouldnt hardly get out of its own way, and this is a c-body 440ci powered car, with roughly 80k actual miles. Gas milage? glad you ask, 2-3 MPG IF you were lucky. Needless to say first thought was carb, cleaned it to with-in an inch of its life, to no avail. Tried timing, nope, new plugs, wires, cap, rotor nope, still no help. Talking to a buddy of mine that is a Mopar Junkie gave me an electronic/vacuum advance style dist and said junk the lean burn and put this and an old school carb on it, and your prob will be solved.
Which lead me to another problem, the elec boxes for mopars arent 'zactly cheap, and no wiring for them to boot. So there had to be a 'cheaper' alternative.
When I first did this "Lean Burn Delete" it cost me a whole 35 bux for new parts, I had scored an old NON-Lean Burn Thermo-Quad in the need of a kit, and a friend gave me the RB Electronic Distributor, and its needed due to Lean Burn cars have no Vacuum advance. I dove in one fine day during the winter, ( think it was 36-37 degrees with a 20-30mph wind ) I do live in the Texas Panhandle.

Ok now ya have needed BIG parts, (dist, and carb) install those, hopfully on a warmer day than i did it on. I had bought the DR-100 Duralast Gm Module, and I will list others if you arent big on AutoZone. (NAPA Echlin TP-45, AC Delco D-2906, or Standard- Bluestreak LX-301.) I just mounted the module directly to the inner fender well on the passenger side with machine screws ( I think I used #8-32 with matching flat washers and lock washers and nuts) using the whole tube of dielectric grease that came in the box @ that time. (think they sell it seperate now) You will need to source either the connectors from a junk GM dist or use female spade connectors, you will need 5 normal sized (1/4") and one small sized (3/16"). On the 12v side of the ballast resistor hook one wire to it and the other end to the B+ side of module. Run a wire from the C terminal of module to the + side of coil. The last connectors goes to the distributor. If the car fails to start, or runs very poorly swap the 2 distributor wires at the module. and thats it...I also bought a different coil, and I suppose any electronic ignition coil would work, but I bought the cheapest E-coil I could find, which in turn ends up being one for a Ford, Part no C-859/ FV-55. It was 14.99 when I did all this the price is up to 23.99 now according to the A.Zone site.

I unplugged the mess of wires/vacuum lines going to the Lean Burn, stuffed em behind the fenderwell where they still reside. Took the lean burn unit it self off of air cleaner and dropped it into the dumpster, made a lightweight plate to cover the holes on the air cleaner and used the screw holes that were already there to mount it.

Oh and you maybe wondering about the fuel mileage now... 14 ish in town, will burn the right rear tire off of it if you want it to, and has that magical Thermo-Quad Growl when stood on.... It runs the way it should....
Old 05-09-2012, 09:32 PM
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Here is a real simplified 'drawing' of the wiring. Name:  HEI.jpg
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Old 05-10-2012, 03:28 AM
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What was the Lean Burn setup supposed to do when it was designed? I've
never heard anything good about it. It must have been designed for a reason, right?
Old 05-10-2012, 07:51 AM
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Originally Posted by Mr.4spd
What was the Lean Burn setup supposed to do when it was designed? I've
never heard anything good about it. It must have been designed for a reason, right?
Give you crappy mileage, low horsepower and reburn the exhaust and fumes from the gas tank.
Old 05-10-2012, 09:11 AM
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This is what I run on my Dart. My 67 had been converted to a Mopar ECU by the previous owner, mounted on the firewall beneath and to the pass side of the wiper motor. So I just mounted the HEI there, using one of the holes already punched for the Mopar unit

It is IMPORTANT to get the pickup wiring correct, otherwise "rotor phasing" will be wrong.

Also important is a flat metal surface for heat sink for the module, and it grounds through the mounting screws.

If you hook the indicated HEI terminal to the exposed MALE end of the dist. connector as shown, it will be correct You can easily get the "other half" of the connector if you need to, as all parts stores normally carry the 2 terminal "trailer style" connector

One thing you did not mention is that (at least on older cars) there is a "trick" in the ignition wiring, and that is-------------

With the key in "run" is the ONLY position that the traditional "ignition run" or "IGN 1" is hot. It is DEAD during cranking

With the key in "start" is the ONLY time that ONLY the brown bypass circuit is hot, so (at least on older cars) it is important to connect the coil bypass (brown) to the ignition run (dark blue) which does happen if you simply bypass the resistor. In that case, you can then use the original coil + wire and simply add a jumper over to the HEI + terminal.


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Last edited by 440roadrunner; 05-10-2012 at 09:17 AM.
Old 05-11-2012, 03:55 PM
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Originally Posted by 440roadrunner

It is IMPORTANT to get the pickup wiring correct, otherwise "rotor phasing" will be wrong.

I have seen you mention that a few times, in other posts/other boards, and have no clue, but then again I am by no means an elecrical engineer/guru. All I know is if it starts AND runs crappy or doesnt start swap the wires, maybe thats the out of "phase"
Old 05-11-2012, 11:36 PM
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Originally Posted by MrOldart2U
I have seen you mention that a few times, in other posts/other boards, and have no clue, but then again I am by no means an elecrical engineer/guru. All I know is if it starts AND runs crappy or doesnt start swap the wires, maybe thats the out of "phase"
Yes. What "rotor phasing" simply means is, that due to mechanical failure, wrong parts, etc, the spark is happening out of time in relation to the rotor. The spark therefore has to jump a very large gap inside the cap, and if bad enough, may misfire, or even jump to the incorrect adjacent plug wire towers.
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