hey, me again. Here is an update of whats going on. We got the rocker arms lashed correctly and everything in the valve train seems to be ok. We started it up and it still wont idle, its missing and runs rough. We took it for a short drive, and it was backfiring a little bit. So we figured it had to be in the ignition somewhere. Just to be safe, and know that i have all my bases covered, i bought a new distributor with cap and rotor, a new coil, and new plug wires. We did all that, and it seems to have cured the miss. But it still wont idle, and when you shift it from park into gear it bogs and tries to die.
I almost put this in the carb section because i thought it might have something to do with the carb not being tuned right.
What do you guys think it could be? what are your suggestions?

 

When you adjusted the valves AFTER you got it running, with the engine running, how did it go? Any surprises?

 

I wasn't there when my uncle did it, i had to work. But i dont think anything went wrong or anything. It seems to run fine, it sounds good, it just wont go below about 1200 rpm, when you shift it into gear it tried to die, but if you give it some gas, it is fine.

 

We got a timing light on it today, and the timing mark wasnt anywhere we could see it. Meaning that its off so far that the mark isnt within 50 degrees of where it should be. Is that possible? i think it runs way to good to be that far off, it should run at all if that was true. There is like 4 coolant leaks, it is still missing, just not as bad. And there was a fuel leak at the feed lines for the carb, i replaced them, and now the new one is leaking in a different spot, towards the middle.
Im done, im just gonna forget i ever had a camaro and try and mod my beretta more.

 

Just to make sure....


What are you using as number 1 cylinder?

 

The outer ring on the stock balancer can slip making it hard to time it. You could always go to summit and order some timing tape and find tdc and mark it.

 

Without "assuming" anything (since we all know where that leads!!), are you POSITIVE that your valves are PROPERLY adjusted?

"Missing" and "runs rough" are NOT going to be fixed by playing with "timing". Those are issues where cylinders are DIFFERENT FROM each other. "Timing" affects all cylinders EQUALLY. "Timing", if grossly misadjusted, will make an engine run lazy and have no power; or ping and detonate. It will [b[NOT[/b] cause "missing". Furthermore, the engine DOES NOT care what your "light" says the "timing" is; like, it doesn't whup out its own little light somewhere, and look at that little mark, and decide according to the mark, how it's going to run. Rather, all it cares, is at what point in the piston's travel the spark occurs. Meaning, if you think the "timing" is "off", all you gotta do, is adjust it some, and see if it gets better or worse; if it gets worse, go back, and then a little farther; if it gets better, go a littlefarther that way; until you get to a point where there's no further improvement. In other words, listen to what the ENGINE is telling you that IT wants, and adjust it until the ENGINE says "that's where I like it". At that point, the "timing" is no longer "off", no matter what the "light" and the "mark" do or do not say.

Leave the timing alone, and concentrate your attention on things that can cause one or more cylinders to run DIFFERENTLY from other cylinders. That would include rocker adjustment, bad spark plugs or wires, or wires swapped.