Wow...A project fm hell!
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 6,314
Likes: 508
From: South-central Missouri
Wow...A project fm hell!
Just going over the litany of "things" that have had to be done or things that went wrong with this little beast my wife Ami bought. Lesseee...
From day 1 it never ran like an L46 oughta...No spunk and bogs a lot. Not a timing issue, but mebby the carb?
Bought Ami a new radio/CD and bezel and rear-panel speakers for Christmas one year. Removed the dash to find one holy-cow mess of wiring - the legacy of multiple audio system mods, I guess. I removed a wad of wiring the size of a soccer ball from behind the dash, all kinds of wiring, including some lamp cord. Took about 3 days to get it all "stock" again. Well, at least the stereo works right!
Really boggy one day (boggy getting worse) when suddenly a tap-tap-tap becomes a knock! knock! knock! The sound came "from down under". The tapping was not a rocker, but one rocker was barely moving!!
Oil pressure was about 15 at idle and there was that knock sound... The cam was wiped (turned out to be at least 4 lobes one could see with the naked eye). Too much metal removed to not consider an overhaul and new bearings.
Rod bearing on #1 missing...pieces of it in the pan. Crank = steel
, but not damaged. 
New bearings, fresh honing, new rings. Rod #1 journal ID too tight (plastic gauge) had to be honed out. "BTW", the machinist says, the compression ring is on upside down. Sure enough it was. WTF? had to pull the rest of the pistons...But! As it happens, ONLY the one piston's top ring was on upside down.
Engine back together. Had to replace the oil pressure gauge line - bought a "kit" from parts store. After breaking in the cam, took the car out for first test drive. Runs a lot better (duh!). Waited for a train to cross - car idling...and warming up some. Cheap (Chinese-made plastic line got soft above the fitting on the block, burst and sprayed oil on the headers..."POOF"! Fire in the hole!!" Luckily, only wiring and throttle cable damaged.
Re-wired all damaged wiring, but now runs like crap. Rebuild the carb? Yep...Did that. Now seems to run great for a a few minutes and then back to really running like crap. Re-set timing. Now runs good. Set idle. Great...no wait have to reset idle speed. Oh! The choke is not set right. Reset electric (key word = electric) choke. Fine. Test drive = runs like crap again, accented now with some backfiring! Sheeiiit!
No time to work on it, wife fussing about not being able to drive her toy... Take it to mechanic friend (who is not believing a SBC with points distributor is kickin' my ***!) to fix it.
After-market clamp holding distributor "F"'ed up - allowing the distributor to "wander around" even with the bolt tight...Oh, great!
connection on electric choke = intermittent (damaged by the fire) causing the choke to come on with the engine at operating temp = massive plug fouling and run like crap. Combine that with random timing and oh, yes, the PVC (rubber) tube collapsing...
Mechanic says, "Don't feel bad. It had us going a bit as well! OH! Do remove all that rubber fuel line as possible. Could cause a fire."
Replaced hose with steel, except for rubber unions between steel lines and carb input. Apparently, didn't get hose clamp at carb tight enough. Gasoline spraying on headers...you know the rest! Fortunately, I had fire extinguisher in hand (always do after fussing with fuel lines - a lesson to me from an aircraft mechanic friend of mine) and nothing but soot and a lot of white powder.
Found proper steel line to carb, installed it and except for 6" of (steel braided) rubber to the pump, it is all steel line.
Ran good for about an hour. Then back to running like crap! The bolt on the distributor clamp came loose!? Blue Lock-Tite'ed the bastard, after re-setting the timing. She runs like a "raped ape" for now... I can't wait for the next shoe to drop. But! Hopefully I got 'er whipped. We'll see. Ol Murphy (Murph's law) is no doubt looking for that next thing that can go wrong.
Thanks for letting me vent!
P.
From day 1 it never ran like an L46 oughta...No spunk and bogs a lot. Not a timing issue, but mebby the carb?
Bought Ami a new radio/CD and bezel and rear-panel speakers for Christmas one year. Removed the dash to find one holy-cow mess of wiring - the legacy of multiple audio system mods, I guess. I removed a wad of wiring the size of a soccer ball from behind the dash, all kinds of wiring, including some lamp cord. Took about 3 days to get it all "stock" again. Well, at least the stereo works right!
Really boggy one day (boggy getting worse) when suddenly a tap-tap-tap becomes a knock! knock! knock! The sound came "from down under". The tapping was not a rocker, but one rocker was barely moving!!
Oil pressure was about 15 at idle and there was that knock sound... The cam was wiped (turned out to be at least 4 lobes one could see with the naked eye). Too much metal removed to not consider an overhaul and new bearings.Rod bearing on #1 missing...pieces of it in the pan. Crank = steel
, but not damaged. New bearings, fresh honing, new rings. Rod #1 journal ID too tight (plastic gauge) had to be honed out. "BTW", the machinist says, the compression ring is on upside down. Sure enough it was. WTF? had to pull the rest of the pistons...But! As it happens, ONLY the one piston's top ring was on upside down.Engine back together. Had to replace the oil pressure gauge line - bought a "kit" from parts store. After breaking in the cam, took the car out for first test drive. Runs a lot better (duh!). Waited for a train to cross - car idling...and warming up some. Cheap (Chinese-made plastic line got soft above the fitting on the block, burst and sprayed oil on the headers..."POOF"! Fire in the hole!!" Luckily, only wiring and throttle cable damaged.
Re-wired all damaged wiring, but now runs like crap. Rebuild the carb? Yep...Did that. Now seems to run great for a a few minutes and then back to really running like crap. Re-set timing. Now runs good. Set idle. Great...no wait have to reset idle speed. Oh! The choke is not set right. Reset electric (key word = electric) choke. Fine. Test drive = runs like crap again, accented now with some backfiring! Sheeiiit!
No time to work on it, wife fussing about not being able to drive her toy... Take it to mechanic friend (who is not believing a SBC with points distributor is kickin' my ***!) to fix it.
After-market clamp holding distributor "F"'ed up - allowing the distributor to "wander around" even with the bolt tight...Oh, great!
connection on electric choke = intermittent (damaged by the fire) causing the choke to come on with the engine at operating temp = massive plug fouling and run like crap. Combine that with random timing and oh, yes, the PVC (rubber) tube collapsing...
Mechanic says, "Don't feel bad. It had us going a bit as well! OH! Do remove all that rubber fuel line as possible. Could cause a fire."
Replaced hose with steel, except for rubber unions between steel lines and carb input. Apparently, didn't get hose clamp at carb tight enough. Gasoline spraying on headers...you know the rest! Fortunately, I had fire extinguisher in hand (always do after fussing with fuel lines - a lesson to me from an aircraft mechanic friend of mine) and nothing but soot and a lot of white powder.
Found proper steel line to carb, installed it and except for 6" of (steel braided) rubber to the pump, it is all steel line.
Ran good for about an hour. Then back to running like crap! The bolt on the distributor clamp came loose!? Blue Lock-Tite'ed the bastard, after re-setting the timing. She runs like a "raped ape" for now... I can't wait for the next shoe to drop. But! Hopefully I got 'er whipped. We'll see. Ol Murphy (Murph's law) is no doubt looking for that next thing that can go wrong
.Thanks for letting me vent!
P.
Last edited by Paul Workman; Jun 5, 2009 at 06:46 AM.
