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Old Aug 20, 2010 | 10:03 AM
  #1  
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Default Help Please!!

Hi guys:

Last night I was cruising with the Vette which has a 350 small block..

suddenly I felt it little different...giving it some gas and the motor felt laggish..not as smooth, and the explosion noise certainly changed ..it sounded more like a big block...

I stopped, put it in neutral, revved it, and again, the motor seems short of power, explosion noise just sounded different, more like a big block... so the problem it is certainly in the motor area....and I also doubt it is a carb thing as even at higher revs it feels the same.


I have a feeling maybe one cylinder went? or something with the distributor? I checked and all the plug wires were nice and tight...can a plug go?

I think -hopefully with some advise here- I can try find something on it today...is there any straight away method to do it? maybe disconnecting each plug at a time and seeing how it runs? or if the cylinder went...can this be see in the spark plug itself when removed?

I wish I had one of those gauges to check cylinder compression

PS: I never heard any bang at any point right before I felt the difference on how the motor runs

Help!!
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Old Aug 20, 2010 | 10:29 AM
  #2  
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If you have the standard boots on the wires, while engine is running you can check each cylinder by grounding a test light and poking through the boot to the plug, if engine changes that cylinder is fine, if engine doesn't change it's running habit that is the bad cylinder. Either plug wire is bad, plug, etc.
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Old Aug 20, 2010 | 10:41 AM
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Is it missing?
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Old Aug 20, 2010 | 10:46 AM
  #4  
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Could be something simple like a crack in your distributor cap.
Thats an easy check.
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Old Aug 20, 2010 | 11:26 AM
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Nice looking ride. One easy thing to check for each cylinder firing is if the header tubes are warm when You first start it. Don't run it too long or You will burn Yourself. Pull each plug and see how they compare to each other. Check Your coolant level and look for oil, also check oil and look for coolant. Thats where I would start.
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Old Aug 20, 2010 | 11:53 AM
  #6  
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From: Circleville Ohio
Default Vader Vette

Originally Posted by Rowarrior
Hi guys:

Last night I was cruising with the Vette which has a 350 small block..

suddenly I felt it little different...giving it some gas and the motor felt laggish..not as smooth, and the explosion noise certainly changed ..it sounded more like a big block...

I stopped, put it in neutral, revved it, and again, the motor seems short of power, explosion noise just sounded different, more like a big block... so the problem it is certainly in the motor area....and I also doubt it is a carb thing as even at higher revs it feels the same.


I have a feeling maybe one cylinder went? or something with the distributor? I checked and all the plug wires were nice and tight...can a plug go?

I think -hopefully with some advise here- I can try find something on it today...is there any straight away method to do it? maybe disconnecting each plug at a time and seeing how it runs? or if the cylinder went...can this be see in the spark plug itself when removed?

I wish I had one of those gauges to check cylinder compression

PS: I never heard any bang at any point right before I felt the difference on how the motor runs

Help!!
Manifold gasket blew out?? Module in the Distributor???High voltage coil??
Reply
Old Aug 20, 2010 | 09:23 PM
  #7  
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From: Saskatoon SK
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hi guys

thank you all for your suggestions, as I am trying them...

so spark plug wires are good.... distributor is good..... is there any way to check the coil is at 100%?

Also, I removed SOME plugs... I noticed one, at the base of the element shows half burned(half is white as should be and the other half has a burnt mark)...not good right? I will take a picture and post... the remainder 3 plugs I looked at looked normal...
Would that burnt mark suggest a valve is bad or something?
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Old Aug 21, 2010 | 12:08 PM
  #8  
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[QUOTE=Rowarrior;1575074396]hi guys

thank you all for your suggestions, as I am trying them...


spark plug wires are good.... distributor is good..... I checked the HEI coil, its good, I checked compression in all cylinders, they are OK,

then my friend helped me re-time the car, but before i changed the spark plugs just to be sure, the car feels better...but I know the issue is still there....lack of pick up power, sounds like a truck more than a Vette, and when I removed the new plugs just to check, I noticed couple were burnt black...

Last edited by Rowarrior; Aug 22, 2010 at 02:13 PM.
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