Bluestripe67

Thur. of last week I did a 154 mile drive in the '67. During that drive I ragged on the motor once to clear some creeping traffic. That's no big deal, done it before. Fri evening I went to start the car and there was complete silence. Shook my head, scratched my, oh never mind. Hooked it to the trickle charger to be ready for a car show Sat. Sat AM, hit the key and got lots of rapid clicking. Went through all the checks and tests with multi meter…DOA battery. No amp draw etc. I apparently drove home Thur on the battery. The battery was 4.6 yrs old. Good friend comes over with his big wheeled charger. I wanted to jump it to have the car out side. It started and I notice my Tuff Stuff 100 Amp alternator shaking on the ProForm mount…not a good sign. I throttled it a couple of time and I heard the belt squeal. That was a new sound. Looked closely and found the rear mount cracked. Put the car back in the garage until Mon. Monday Am purchased new battery w/700CCA and had the mount welded. Tues I put everything back. You know how much fun it is to change out a battery in our basic cars. Turned the key and she spun and spun and spun. NO fire, I thought I had flooded the it. At this point I'm tired and just quite for the day. :toe tap: Wed AM I hit the key and she came too life, but ran horribly, smoking exhaust, set the smoke alarm off in the garage, I'm coughing, WTH? Carb float stuck? Took the top half off of the carb, didn't find thing obvious. Knowing how fouled the plugs would be, I decided to pull 'em and clean 'em. I used the vise grips to hold each plug against the wire wheel. I get the first four done and go to the fifth. As I turn right toward the bench grinder for the fifth time, the inside of my left middle finger brushed the grinder wheel. It did not get caught, as there is a shield over the wheel, but it happened in a mili-second. I still have my finger minus a few ounces of flesh. What a scare I walk in the house and wife see the blood and starts going toward freaking out, but I held her in check, I'm a former EMT. First aide rendered.
The first pic shows the weld repair. Second shows the new battery, Third shows all 8 plugs with left side cleaned, Fourth show the blurred 5th plug. The sixth is the meat grinder and last is is my salute finger.
This was a little scary knowing how bad it could have been. I do my best to stay safe whenever working, but s__t happens. Be safe out there! Dennis

66jack

Just don' wave at a cop...


So, Does the car run now or not...

Bluestripe67

Not yet, plugs are on the work bench. Get too it tomorrow or Fri. for show on Sat. Dennis

Tom Austin

Whoa, Dennis . . . sorry to hear your bad luck. Hope you get it running great for the show this weekend!

Tom

SW Vette

Thoughts
#1) sounds like some crud got shook loose on the drive and lodged in your carb
#2) time for a new set of plugs and/or a plug blaster (basically a small bag with blasting media hooked to compressed air)
#3) where's the blood spatter?

Bluestripe67

The carb issue happened in the driveway/garage.
The first 4 plugs cleaned up like new.
I made it to the sink.
Finishing this up, especially putting the plugs back in is not simple since I really can't use my left hand/finger. Bending the finger is out since the ripped area covers both joints. It's a PIA! Dennis

tbarb

Dennis,

What heat range are the spark plugs, I am using heat range 5 in my 67 300hp car.

Frankie the Fink

I use nothing now but NGK-XR4 plugs, cheap, widely available and cross over to the 5-6 heat range and burn perfectly.

I use a manual wire brush to clean my plugs if needed and that's VERY seldom, if they foul badly enough they won't come clean with a few swipes of the stiff-bristled steel brush then I just swap in a new set...

I would never clean plugs with any kind of blast media!

Tampa Jerry

At least the grinder made it out alive! Glad that there was no serious damage to your hand. Sometimes it's better to put things aside and go have a beer. Jerry

capevettes

Glad your finger wasn't hurt more seriously. You're lucky. I just don't clean spark plugs. If I go to the trouble of pulling them, I just put new ones in.

Bluestripe67

tbarb, Plugs are AC R45S. Running that range for years with the Jacobs CDI gaped at .050. Couldn't ask for a better running engine, in both power and milage.
Jerry, Thats exactly what I did and will probably continue resting, but not drinking the beer for 2-3 days.
Frankie, The plugs were not real bad, just enough to make me do more work.
Capevettes, Yes, I was very lucky Dennis

Plasticman

Dennis,

Recommend you don't use a wire brush on spark plug ceramic insulators (especially the combustion side). The wires leave minute conductive particles embedded in the ceramic, which are now an "arc path" across the insulator, rather than jumping at the gap. And it only takes one swipe with a wire brush.

Get new plugs......

You will heal, but be careful!

Plasticman

Bluestripe67

John, That's a bit of useful info. Now, who has the equivalent plug of a AC R45S if I can't get AC's. Dennis

65tripleblack

Dennis,

If you're using a CD ignition, I assume its secondary voltage is on the order of 50 kV to fire across a 0.050" gap. Am I in the ballpark? If that's near true, then I don't understand why your plugs are so black even given the fact that it flooded and cranked. Looks like they've been very rich for a long time.

Frankie the Fink

Uh! Good point and as I said above NGK-XR4s are the best plug I've found; if not the Autolite 86s will serve...

domenic tallarita

Frankie,
I have a champion plug tester and cleaner that I stopped using because the blasting compound would get stuck between the insulator and plug body. Also I felt that it removed material. We clean plugs almost weekly here and the thing that doesn't take any material or gets stuck in the tight areas is my bead blaster. Does them in a few seconds and a blast with the air hose when done and a wire wheel on the threads makes them look new. I agree that the plugs are cheap enough to replace once they are out, but some of the plugs we clean & gap cost more than 100.00 each. If I do a compression test on a car with good plugs I give them a blast because it only takes a few seconds for each one. I couldn't do without the bead blaster. problem is it actually ends up being a dust blast and a bunch of it gets sucked out thru the vacuum filter.

Dom

Bluestripe67

Your in the ballpark. If you could have seen and heard how bad it ran for 15 sec, and the amount of fuel dumped, it's directly related to the overall mess. And that was preceeded by the fact when I initially got it running after the big jump, it idled for ten min in the driveway. It does have a rich idle. That is my secondary issue I will deal with after I did a jet change last month. Dennis

65tripleblack

That sounds OK for the left bank, but the right bank has a problem. 2,4,6,8 look like they are oil fouled as well as being too rich.

Once you clean or change your plugs, get the car at a steady cruise for 30 miles or so, put in the clutch, shut it off, coast and pull off to a safe spot, pull the plugs (especially the passenger side) and shoot new pictures, I (we) can't tell you anything.

Joe

PS: Before I installed the MSD 6AL, I was cleaning plugs every 500 miles and I used a wire wheel on electrodes and insulators. No problem. The car would run at the track until they fouled again. Now I haven't replaced plugs in 2 years......maybe 5000 miles...............and engine runs beautifully to 7500 RPM when the rev limiter kicks in. No hiccups, no farts. I use NGK plugs as well. I was using NGK XR4 plugs when my engine was still sporting double humps.

Bluestripe67

Joe, The 2, 3, 5, 7 are just as I pulled them. Wet with gas and sooted. NO oil fouling. I'll get bck on this in 3-4 days. I'm afraid to bump or bend my finger so it won't start bleeding gain. This stop action is driving me crazy. Dennis

SW Vette

Really? You should try it sometime. The spark plug cleaner I had mounted to my work bench served me very well in my 2 stroke racing/engine building days. A shot of brake cleaner and a blast of compressed air afterwards and you're good to go: