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CarburetorsCarb discussion and questions. Upgrading your Third Gen's carburetor, swapping TBI to carburetor, or TPI to carburetor? Need LG4 or H.O. info? Post it here.
So I haven't been able to work on the car for a while now because I have been helping my brother work on his truck because its his daily driver and my car isn't. Also, one of our neighbors has been complaining to the hoa that my brothers truck has been on "blocks" even though its on jack stands, and the hoa emailed us about it and how it is a "unsightly" object in our driveway and that we will have to take care of it within 30 days (which we should be done next week. they have also said that commercial and business auto repairs aren't allowed to be performed in the neighborhood even though the truck is for personal use so im not sure why they are complaining. And lastly the same neighbor that complained about my brothers truck also came over to our house and complained to our mother about the noise instead of coming to my brother or i while we are working to bring it up. from what our other neighbors have told us he will complain and groan to any girls that are at the house but wont even look another man in the eye and say it to them. Personally, if he came up to us and its 10 pm or whatever and he politely asked if we could stop for the night because of the noise i would be a good person and stop but instead he comes over to our house and starts bitching to my mom for half an hour so thats also taken time dealing with that. So its leaking atf and oil, i believe the atf is leaking for the "pan" if you want to call it that I dont know the proper term so im going to snug it down and if that doesn't help replace the gasket. for the oil im not 100% sure but i definitely need valve cover gaskets and ill go from there. Also, I cant for the life of me figure out what grommet or whatever it is supposed to be that fits this type of valve covers. its the round part with the little rectangular slots in it (the left holes in the image). Now these arent the exact covers and im not sure the exact make or brand of covers that are on there, but is there any issue putting on of the round grommets in that type of hole? if anyone knows that would be great. Its also still not idling great, i think there might be a vacuum leak or fuel leak because the fuel filter that is near the block is clear and you can see in it and it looks like there is little bubbles of air coming up, but that could also just be from it shaking around while it runs. I wouldn't be surprised at either scenario because it shakes the doors in my house while its running so the car shakes a bit, but i just haven't had time to work on it
Also Im going to be doing a radiator flush. The fluid look brown and it was boiling when we had it idling one night so im also wondering if there was an air bubble in it.
Did it boil into the overflow tank or was it in the radiator? With no cap on the radiator it will boil early in there from lack of pressure in the system. If it seems to boil when cold the head gasket could be leaking and might explain more of your problems.
Also, one of our neighbors has been complaining to the hoa that my brothers truck has been on "blocks" even though its on jack stands, and the hoa emailed us about it and how it is a "unsightly" object in our driveway and that we will have to take care of it within 30 days (which we should be done next week. they have also said that commercial and business auto repairs aren't allowed to be performed in the neighborhood even though the truck is for personal use so I'm not sure why they are complaining. And lastly the same neighbor that complained about my brothers truck also came over to our house and complained to our mother about the noise instead of coming to my brother or i while we are working to bring it up. from what our other neighbors have told us he will complain and groan to any girls that are at the house but wont even look another man in the eye and say it to them. Personally, if he came up to us and its 10 pm or whatever and he politely asked if we could stop for the night because of the noise i would be a good person and stop but instead he comes over to our house and starts bitching to my mom for half an hour so that's also taken time dealing with that.
Ha ha ^^. I fix most of my neighbors cars. PITA but they cut me slack. When I bought my place the #1 request to the realtor was no HOA, I'm way to trashy.
Did it boil into the overflow tank or was it in the radiator? With no cap on the radiator it will boil early in there from lack of pressure in the system. If it seems to boil when cold the head gasket could be leaking and might explain more of your problems.
We had the car idling to get up to temp when we were about to go for a test drive and right as we were about to pull out of the driveway I heard a weird nose in the engine bay (almost like a squealing noise i dont really know how to explain it) and opened the hood didn't see anything at first glance and checked the temp and it was somewhere around 270 or 280 so i opened the over flow tank and kept the fan on and it boiled out for a good 15 minutes and i just wrapped a towel around the tank to catch everything that fell out. It wasn't boiling when it was cold (i think) but if you flush the radiator and there is a white substance that floats to the top doesn't that mean blown head gasket? I dont remember where i heard this so i could be completely wrong but still its going to get flushed. I know there are other ways to test it but have never done them. It looks a little more clear and not as brown as the picture I attached but its still pretty bad
I also said no to a HOA. My friend cannot even wash his car in his driveway. Fairly sure my forge running in the driveway would get some cops coming over.
Hello all. I know its been months since I've posted anything and I'm sure a lot of people stopped paying attention to this post but hey I figured I would come back to it. So the car runs and drives! What ended up being the problem for it not running is the distributor was off a tooth and was messing up the timing really bad and thats why it ran so bad. Also I've been told the camshaft need timed (Ive never heard of this but I also haven't worked on cars a lot so yeah). And also for some reason I cant use the vacuum advance or else it wont drive, no idea why but yeah thats a thing. It also needed a bunch of other work too. Replaced the power steering pump (the one it came with was the wrong on), needed a power steering pump bracket, the alternator was missing a bracket so when you would rev the engine it was almost being pulled off the mount it already had, shorter spark plugs so the wire wasnt rubbing on the header, the wiring needed moved because it was so close to the engine i was worried they would melt, I also put some looming over it to help with that, new thermostat and some other little things too. Yeah its been quite a project so far but im loving having to ablility to drive it. So next steps, a lot of the gauges dont work, the big ones being spedometer and odometer. I believe they are digital gauges and when the engine was swapped a bunch of wires got cut or maybe even taken out. Also the steering is kinda bad and definetly needs some work. And probably brakes too. I dont know what parts to get for everything and i need to save up for them too. So anyways, I appreciate all the help you guys have given me. Its been a crazy ride so far and I cant wait to make it better.
Hi everyone, sorry I dont post much and come back to things, Ive been busy with work and school and other issues. So it idles around 1100 out of gear and 700-750 in gear, ive been told thats high and should be closer to 900 out of gear and 600-650 in gear. If i had to guess its still a timing issue. One other thing is the distributor was off a tooth and it was set back so one question i had (if any of you know the conplete mechanical workings of an engine, im sure some of you do) js if you change the timing of the distributor (either clocking it back or forward or moving it a tooth) does that change the cam timing in any way? Im worried that there was timing put in the cam and it was either too much or too little etc. I guess thats the risk you take buying a car with an engine you didnt build, Also, it does not like to start after its warmed up. People have said that its the starter (but it should have a new high torque starter), im not sure if its necessarily new, but it has been put on in the past few months. Some other posts have suggested adding another ground and that helps or just adding a heat shield. Some people say dont add a heat shield some people do do i dont know. Thank you guys who still follow up on this, i know its been a while since ive posted or really done anything to the car so yeah. This summer i have about a 3 week break in between work nd school so im hoping to do a steering or brake rebuild then
So i talked to the guy i bought it from and heres what he said about the higer idle "I timed the cam with the distributor and tuned the idle from the carb but that carb was giving me nothing but problems.Tryed setting the idle a hair below a thousand rpms but that carb kept choking it out.So that's why it idles at about 1100 rpms. I couldn't set it any lower once u put a carb on it adjust the idle lower it will chop more with the cam. I wanted the idle lower so It would chop more but as soon as I would drop the idle it would die I had good fuel pressure it was the carb it needed a newer bigger carb I just ran out of funds that's why I sold it I was broke after I built it. I was told It could handle a 750 to 850 carb" So he buikt the engine for a 750 carb (which he thought he had but instead its actually a 600 which i didnt find out until i took the car home) so that could be causing some of the issues. Do you guys reslly think a 600 cfm carb could be causing the problem? I mean if he built it to handle a 750 then that could be part of it. Also he said the distributor might shift because the car is damn loud and also when it has that choppy idle it has that shake to it so theres that. Also he said to keep an eye out for the rockers loosening
A 750 and 600CFM carb are going to be virtually identical at idle. That being said if a 350 needs a 750 or 800CFM then your idle will be around 1000 because 600cfm will support plenty of cam. Sounds like he is full of ****
Its a 280 duration cam so i have no idea. Im new to the whole car scene so i dont know what cam you need sith what engine size sith what carb etc. I hope its not the carb because i cant afford one right now. Hes also only built 3 or 4 engines before this one. Im going to try the timing soon i just am waiting for it to not be 30° out. I dont know where the timing is at right now but its way better than when i first bought it. I just really want this car to run right and be reliable enough to go around town with. Like yesterday i went to the gas station a mile down the road and i let it warm up before and i got there, filled it up and it would just slow crank so i had to wait 10 mins for it to cool off and it started. Hopefully its an easy fix like just turning the distributor back or forward a few degrees.
Sounds like he build 3 or 4 engine shaped objects wrong before.
Step 1 should be to correctly time the motor at this point. Go to the store today and get a timing light adjustable if you need one. Then figure out your base timing and WOT timing. Otherwise your motor will NEVER run right. After you get a baseline you can later tune it by add or subtracting a degree or two.
Hard starting can be an issue of too much timing among other things. But it should like the base timing is far too advanced
You do NOT need a new carb I repeat you do NOT need a new carb. You should probably ask him for all the cam specs because 280 duration really does not tell you much. Although I would be money it is this https://www.summitracing.com/parts/c...12-2/overview/
Personally if it was me I would find out exactly what cam is in it.
Call the manufacture tear the engine down far enough to degree the cam and follow their instructions.
Then put the distributor in correctly so when cylinder 1 is TDC the rotor is pointing to it. Set the timing to the middle just so it will fire then get it started and set the timing from there.
Yeah i have no idea. When its in gear it has that choppy big block sound and definitely has a shakyness to it but idk if that would loosen the bolt
That may be by design but most likely a good chunk of it is due to bad tune or assembly. Although for some reason people do install cams with **** idle on purpose.
Sounds like he build 3 or 4 engine shaped objects wrong before.
Step 1 should be to correctly time the motor at this point. Go to the store today and get a timing light adjustable if you need one. Then figure out your base timing and WOT timing. Otherwise your motor will NEVER run right. After you get a baseline you can later tune it by add or subtracting a degree or two.
Hard starting can be an issue of too much timing among other things. But it should like the base timing is far too advanced
You do NOT need a new carb I repeat you do NOT need a new carb. You should probably ask him for all the cam specs because 280 duration really does not tell you much. Although I would be money it is this https://www.summitracing.com/parts/c...12-2/overview/
Personally if it was me I would find out exactly what cam is in it.
Call the manufacture tear the engine down far enough to degree the cam and follow their instructions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cNoVRLb73c
Then put the distributor in correctly so when cylinder 1 is TDC the rotor is pointing to it. Set the timing to the middle just so it will fire then get it started and set the timing from there.
I was told 280 duration .490 lift. And yeah ill see if i can just turn the distributor to set the timing a little better first but i have an unfortunate feeling ill have to tear it apart and degree the cam right etc.
Do you have to pull the engine to do time the cam aor can i do it while its still connected to the trans and everything? Never done anything like it before so i dont know if you do or not
You can do it with the engine in the car. but before that you really should go buy a timing light with an adjustment and fight out where your timing is set. You will not get anywhere without doing that first.
I would not touch the car, drive or even look at the distributor until I had said tool in my hand.
Ok, i have a light i just dont know if its adjustable, i have to go find it. It might be a few days before i can do it because its just so damn cold out still. Hopefully i can do it soon because i go back to school in a few weeks and wont be able to work on it for 3 months while im there unfortunately. Thank you a bunch for your help. Hopefully youll hear from me in a week or 2 at most but i know when i go back to school it will be a few months before i can even think about it unfortunately. Thank you a bunch for the help
So unfortunately i wont be able to fix it for a few months. I was hoping to have time time this weekend bjt i wont be able to and i also dont want to leave the job half done for 3 months. I looked up some videos on what to do to time the cam and it seems pretty simple. But i dont know where i should set it. I watched the viedo that was attatched and i saw the process and the kit they used. I dont have the card that comp cam gives you with the cam shaft. I might just have to call comp cams and see what they say
Well, im convinced. This car is cursed. I tried to start it today (i usually try to every other week) and it didnt want to. Slow cranked when i first tried (only for about 5 seconds), i checled the battery it was at 11.5v so i threw the jumoer on just in case, that didnt work, and then i tried some starter fluid and that didnt work. Its warmer than it usually is (50°) so i have no idea. And it sucks because i leave to go back tl school Saturday.
Have you adjusted the timing at all? Some of the hold-downs you really have to crank down to get it tight enough to keep the distributor from rotating.
Have you gone through yet and adjusted it to CYL 1 TDC on compression and checked the rotor position?
No, the mark on the harmonic balancer isnt right. From what I can tell, its about 5-10 degress before tdc. That guess was made without pulling anything and just moving the distributor. Since then I havent had the chance to work on it. Right now I have so much going on I can barely even think about the car but im just trying to get as much information as I can about whats wrong and save some money to get the proper tools to fix it. Unfortunately its going to have to wait a few months before I can do anything to it. I was hoping to get it started and warmed up one last time before I move this weekend and then it started to have the slow cranking issue.
The only things I have been able to do on it since ive had it is make an alternator bracket, change the starter and some wiring, put in the shorter spark plugs that are meant for headers because the boots where rubbing on the headers, fixed a headlight, and played with the carb a little bit. I have a 3 week break in about 3 months where I wont be at school or working so I'm hoping to get it running right then.
11.5v ain't gonna do it. Your battery is either shot, not charging, or you have an electrical drain somewhere. At least disconnect the ground cable before you leave for school, or even better, remove the battery and put it in the basement (not on concrete) on a trickle charger/maintainer.
11.5v ain't gonna do it. Your battery is either shot, not charging, or you have an electrical drain somewhere. At least disconnect the ground cable before you leave for school, or even better, remove the battery and put it in the basement (not on concrete) on a trickle charger/maintainer.
I put it on my charger overnight. I think it was at 11.6 or 11.7 when it was running but ill check it in a few hours
I have this sinking feeling that the rockers are coming loose because the flat tappet cam is slowly being worn down.
With all of the trouble you're having and from the way the previous owner's building skills have been described, my guess is that the cam was never properly broken in. That would take a few thousand RPM and several minutes of running time. Seeing as the engine barely ran at all, how could it be that the break-in procedure was done properly? (maybe I'm missing something here)
Now if that's not the case, the advice that's been offered in the previous posts is something you should follow. And you'll need some tools as mentioned. A timing light and a vacuum gauge at a minimum. Get or make a piston stop tool and determine the accuracy of you TDC mark on the balancer/pointer. Then set the timing and engine idle as described.
Now this may be a stretch, but if can you get your hands on a dial indicator, you can check the cam lobe lift at the push rod tip. If you find that the lift is as per spec, then you're good to go otherwise. While degreeing the cam isn't entirely necessary, it would be nice to know if the timing set was at least lined up. Problem is that it involves dropping the oil pan and that in itself can invite a whole pile of other problems. Mostly in the way of oil leaks.
For the record, can you describe where you're at presently. Sort of a summary of what you've done and what state the engine is in now?
Originally Posted by Gompeh
I have a 3 week break in about 3 months where I wont be at school or working so I'm hoping to get it running right then.
Plenty of time to get everything you need to take a real run at it.
So the battery was just dead, i got it up to 12v and it started right up. Now its just the timing and what not when i get that 3 week break. Thank you all for everything. You have no idea how much help all of you have been
Hey everyone. So im out of college now and i have a few weeks to work on my car. So a while ago i posted that the battery was dead and it wasnt starting. Well, im pretty sure my alternator is dead or the wiring is super janky. I wouldnt be surprised at either. I mean i know for a fact that wiring is awful and im trying to fix some of that right now. So a few quick questions. The battery had a wire going from the negative terminal to a bolt hole in the alternator (ill show which one in a picture) and from what ive seen online that is not supposed to be there at all. Also, the negative part of the battery had a wire running to the body but it only looks like a 10 or 12 gauge wire, should that be a bigger gauge? Next would be if in fact my alternator is dead, what amperage alternator should i buy? And lastly what gauge wire should i run from the alternator to the battery? Thanks a bunch!
Where does your negative battery cable go? Post a picture but in general you want a big beefy battery cable going to that bolt on the alternator / engine and one to the frame. A stock alternator will be fine. I think 4 gauge is the standard for batter lines but i cannot remember exactly. Although you can't go wrong with a nice beefy ground.
So here is whats happened so far, my alternator was dead so i got a new one, im changing the leads to be top posts right now. The 4 gauge ground went to the alternator casing that i showed in the picture and there was a small one going to the body. Should i move the ground somewhere else or add another one?
Except for the alternator being dead, it WAS working at some point.
For now, and not to add anything else into the mix, connect it as it was.
But buy something like an 18" battery cable with terminal type ends (for a bolt)
and find a good locations to connect it from a good engine block ground to the body or frame.
Or if your battery is dual terminal, then use the now unused side terminal (-) and run that to the body/frame with an appropriate battery cable.
In other words, ensure a good ground from the block to the body/frame.
08-21-2017, 12:29 PM
