it started wednesday evening when i was on my way home from work. the motor would just cut out instantly, like the
distributor was losing power or something. sometimes it would kick back on itself, or sometimes i would have to
crank it over to restart it. finally it died and wouldnt start, so i had it towed to my house. called up work and
had them order me a distributor for thursday (i had an accel blueprint HEI vac advance in there that was 1 year old)
come home from work thurs w/ the distributor and a new coil as well. put the motor at TDC on the #1 cyl. compression
stroke. remove old distributor, rotor was pointing where it should have been. drop distributor in, and start it up
but it would barely run, like i had a wire crossed or i was 180* out. so i checked the wires, ok. pop the dist out
and put it back in 180* the other way. crank, no spark. batt wire to dist has 12 volts, gotta be the distributor.
pop it out, put it in the right way again, but i advance 1 tooth this time. it starts and idles ok, i figure all is
well. test drive it and it's detonationd like no tomorrow, so i pull over and reatard the timing. repeat this a few
times, now it's so retarded that it barely runs, yet it's still detonation. i turn down the vac advance to 0* and it
still is a bitch. today i mess w/ it, line it back up at tdc and put the dist in a few teeth forward or backward,
but get no better luck. swap coils w/ another one i had (not the original or the replacement i bought yesterday) and
i'm still at square 1, but it's idling a little better. anyway, it's idling like **** yet because the timing is so
retarded, but it still detonates when i get on it.i figure i have 4 options here. 1- faulty distributor 2-timing chain
(1 year old) has managed to jump a tooth somewhere in all this bull**** 3- i have a fuel problem (dont think so
because it was fine before and the fliter is new) or 4- the evil timing goblin has decided to **** me. any
suggestions?????

------------------
85 Z28- 350, Comp 262, Edelbrock Performer intake, Edelbrock 600 cfm carb and Edelbrock cat back, Summit headers and vette servo
-JVC, Eclipse, Pioneer, MTX, Phoenix Gold, Planet Audio

 

I would run a compression check on all cylinders. If you have a blown head gasket, and water, or oil is getting in the cylinder(s), you will have detonation. And since you mention retarding your timing a lot, and the problem persists, a blown head gasket could be the problem. However, it would not explain why it kept cutting out on your way home. Something to look at....



------------------
Joshua Johnston
1991 Z-28
Flowmaster
K&N
305 / 5spd. (Temporary)
Soon to have:
350, Ported Vortec heads, Edelbrock RPM, Holley 750 D.P., HEI, 11.07:1 CR, Comp Cams Roller-.510"/.520"-282*/288* dur., Shorty Headers, Dual 2.5 Exhaust, T&R Motorsports custom air intake

 

You should stop guessing on the timing, use a light and see where you're at. Vac advance distributors are not as forgiving as an ECM controlled timing distributor.

Have you replaed the fuel filter lately?

You know what they say...90% of ingition problems are fuel related..and 90% of fuel related problems are ignition related

 

the fuel filter isnt more than a month old, but i'll replace it for the hell of it. and i forgot to mention the reason i'm guessing at timing, my balancer is slightly off cause it;s old. but i'm sure that the dist is lined up at the same exact place it was w/ the old one, i cant imagine that the housings are diffeent but who knows. anyway i'm gonna put a cover on the balancer tomorrow and start at square one, maybe that will fix things but if not it'll knock out one possibility. thanks

 

anyone else?

 

What about a clogged catalytic converter. When mine went bad the car would buck and hesitate at freeway speeds. Then it died a few times, but started back up. Finally it died and wouldn't even crank. I would turn the key and nothing would happen. Towed the car home. The next day I removed the cat, turned the key and she fired right up.

 

You weren't fiddling around with the vacuum lines? Could be you have the advance running on intake vacuum?

Unless you got some bad gas, filter should be okay then.

We're you beating on it when it went south?