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This car was running fine when I parked it this time last fall. I replaced the fuel sending unit O-ring and it sat, without fuel, until today. I put fuel in the tank, filled the carburetor fuel bowl and gave it a couple good shots of gas from a bottle and tried to start it.....NOTHING. Ok , next I checked for spark on number one plug....Good. Couple more pumps of fuel at the carburetor... hit the bump starter...Nothing. Maybe the plugs are fouled...New plugs ,correctly gaped and try it again,....NOTHING. Next I ran a wire straight from the battery directly to the bat terminal of the distributor thinking maybe poor voltage and tried to start it once more....NOTHING WTF, NOTHING. What am I missing here? It was running perfect and doesn't have more than two hours on it since installation. 035
Check the carb and make sure it’s squirting. If all the old fuel was left in it, there could be varnish or junk clogging it up. Especially, if you
have spark.
He says he has spark. If he has poured fuel directly down the carb and its still not firing, the only possibilities are the timing is way off or there is no compression. Hard to imagine how either of those could happen if it was running fine before it was put away, but there is nothing else.
Checked for spark on all cylinders...100% good. The old paper towel trick over driver side header... Got compression. bare in mind this engine has only run a total of maybe 2 hours. I'm still finishing this car out. I've still got to throw the interior in before I drive it. My point is that everything is brand new. I've gone through the gears with it running on stands...But that is it.
I didn't know that about running the car on the stands,Thanks. Now I'm spraying lube in the cylinders and checking the compression. sprayed the driver side and checked compression on 2 of 4 on that side. Two checks I did on driver side were 175 Lbs. I'll do the pass side in the a.m. and try to pressure ck as many as i can get to. Thanks everybody for the help.
I don't think you can loose compression with it sitting for a year.
Did you do any other work to the car, especially the engine or drivetrain, since you parked it?
Don't start tearing things apart and thinking the worst.
This is probably something simple.
You have spark, but you could have low voltage at the coil.
You should see 12vdc at the coil with the ignition switch in the on position and while cranking.
Anything less than 12vdc while cranking, with an HEI ignition and it won't fire.
Are you running the oem pink resister wire to the coil or did you run a new dedicated 12vdc source to the coil?
The resistor wire was put in to protect the points and during cranking would place resistance on the voltage going to the coil down to about 11vdc which is not enough for an HEI.
You may have been lucky the first few times you fired the engine but not now.
Check your battery voltage, a low battery or dead cell will compound this.
As stated above, make sure you have fuel squirting into the carb.
Could be the fuel has gone bad, pump gone bad or the tank sock collapsed.
Good luck.
Last edited by OldCarBum; Oct 29, 2020 at 07:00 PM.
From: Loud, Raw and Dangerous 1968 327 4S in Southern California
You mentioned you replaced the fuel sending unit O-ring just before putting it away....could something have gone wrong in re-assembly and you are not getting fuel now?
Hi Keith,
Thanks for the PM.
I am not a engine guru and can only offer help with any issues I've experienced over the years.
Search for forum members like, Lars, Gkull, or PM some of the members who have responded in you thread here.
I believe, sigforty, forman, MelWff and bikespace can better answer your questions.
I can only guess at what might be the cause.
Sorry, Greg
ZZ502 Won't start
