Emeightch

My brother and sister in-laws have an 82 that won't won't run. This goes back a few month. Basically when they started it one day the engine backfired almost inside itself and blew the valve cover almost off. They've replace that along with a solenoid that appeared to be bad and they tried it again today. It started and ran at idle for a few minutes, it ran a little rough and noticed a little smoke coming from the engine area. Shut it down, tried again a bit later and it backfired again this Time popping the Pcv valve off and pushed the oil dipstick out!

Could this be a simple bad Pcv valve? I shook it and it does rattle. Any help would be appreciated. She wants to take this for a drive for her Mothers Day present.

tak82

I don't think your going to want to drive it till you get this figures out. How many miles on motor ? pressure behind the valve cover is usually caused by excessive pressure in the block and that is usually cause by pressure getting past the piston rings , stuck or broke. Could be caused by cracks or hole in the piston also . The missing could be many things. Plugs wires in wrong position, timing issues, valves stuck. What you need to do first is a compression check of the cylinders. What was the solenoid that was replaced ?

Emeightch

Thanks tak82. Not sure about miles on motor. I do know it is the original motor and was rebuilt years ago. The motor did run fine with the plugs and wires in place until the backfire happened. Not sure what solenoid did but it's the one on top of the motor directly car rearward of the forward carb (on passenger side).

We'll have to look into the pressure tester. Good idea but not sure where to get one?

jdp6000

The solenoid you replaced is the EGR solenoid.

Hard to tell from the pictures but are you sure you have the ignition wires on right? The direction the wires run in appear to be wrong. the number one looks like it goes to the wrong side. Check the firing order.

Jim

Emeightch

We could always double check the wires. It was running fine before the big backfire.

jdp6000

Are you saying it ran fine one day and backfired the next time when they started it and nothing was replaced in between?

Jim

scorpion18z

Ignition set up (wires) do not look right.

Emeightch

I asked them and they said they haven't touched the wires. Here's another pic of the other side. Could this be an issue with the rings/pistons or timing chain skipping?

jdp6000

It could be anything. Its just guessing at this time. Its the dip stick being pushed out that got me.

You need to check the obvious. Timing is one of those things. Since the car will not start you need to bring the timing mark to zero then check and see if the rotor is pointing to the number 1 or 6. Even that is not a sure fire way to check this.

Jim