New Parts, New PROBLEMS!!!

[bitchin85]

this has me stumped and its probably something stupid i overlooked. anywho i had an ancient edelbrock streetmaster intakeon my truck and i ditched it for an edelbrock performer eps. seems like a straight forward swap right? well thats what i thought... i get it all done and she fires right up but runs like shat.. so i tweak it a little, it warms up, smoothes out a little, and i take it for a spin.. i get not a half mile form my house and it starts heatin up so i go back change the thermostat to a 160, top it off with water and try again.. still overheating.. and when i get on it at all under a load it misses real bad but in paark or nuetral it sounds awesome when i rev it.. i used fel pro gaskets and blue silicone if that means anything... PLEASE HELP ME

[54Caddy]

make sure your timing is right. blow the number 1 cylinder up by taking out the spark plug, then holding your finger over the hole of the plug and have some one bump the engine over once you feel the air push your finger up you should be on number 1 tdc. pull off the cap and check to see if the rotor is pointing towards the number 1 wire. if its not than you can move you wires around so it does or pull the distributor out and realign it.

[bitchin85]

before i pulled the distributor i marked where the rotor was pointing and where the vac adv was to make my timing close.. but no matter what i do with the timing it still missed bad..

[54Caddy]

you make sure of no vacuum leaks around the carb or the intake?? make sure you have the firing order right also going in the right direction. hell ive done that before get too excited and wire it wrong. 18436572. did you make sure the gaskets had the water passage cut out. could be missing because its hot and not cooling down properly.

[bitchin85]

yea i thought about both of those. i tripple checked the firing order, and for the water passages, i thought i put the gaskets on the wrong side or something and covered up the water passage but i looked up a pic of them and they have a water passage on both sides..

[bitchin85]

also it was smoking out the exhaust and it smelled like gas strong...

[54Caddy]

damn thats crazy.. timing is fine, thermostat is fine. Try taking out the thermostat out and turn on your stove and hold it over the flame with some pliers and see if it opens up at all. Ive put a few new ones before that were bad try that and running it with out the thermostat and see how your trucks acts. Heres a link for a good thermostat gasket that needs no silicon and reusable be a good idea to use one.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/cat...questid=581501

[bitchin85]

thats why im so stumped.. what are the chances that two brand new thermostats are bad right in a row... could the miss in it be making it run hot? or with my luck the water pump is screwing up.. how do i check it..

[cableguy0]

Few things. Did you let the system burp by letting it run with the cap off until it pushed all the air out? Changing to a cooler thermostat does nothing but mask another problem. You should never run a 160 degree thermostat. The engine needs to come up to temp to burn off moisture and work efficiently. Secondly all of the issues your describing are classic symptoms of timing being off. Are you using a timing light or just guessing? You also need to verify you dont have any vacuum leaks. But start with the timing.

[bitchin85]

i left the cap off with t running and kept filling it as the water went down till it was full and it would still heat up.. i do have a timing light but this time i just marked the rotor and possition of the distributor and put it back in the same spot. ill check the timing first thing in the morning.. would the timing being off make it miss while under a load but rev fine?

[cableguy0]

Originally Posted by *****in85

i do have a timing light but this time i just marked the rotor and possition of the distributor and put it back in the same spot. ill check the timing first thing in the morning.. would the timing being off make it miss while under a load but rev fine?

100% and will also make it run hot. You cant base anything off how an engine runs when its not under load.

[bitchin85]

so pretty much my distributors off a tooth? how do i set it? put number 1 cly on tdc compression and point that at the number one on my cap.. correct? and i did not know that timing off can make it run hot..

[cableguy0]

First thing is to just put a light on it and see where its at. If its running theres probably no need to pull the distributor. Just turn it until timing is correct.Without getting terribly in depth on explaining timing just set it at 8btdc for the time being. Once you get that dealt with go to engine and drivetrain and read this http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=290498 to properly set your advance curve.

[bitchin85]

thanks. i just read all that im going to go through it all first thing in the morning

[hotrod_991]

yea sounds like timing to me also. I had a cutlass with a 305 in it in high school and it would rev like a beast in park and neutral but soon at i put it in gear and gave it some load it would fall on its face and start missing. turns out the dist was off by one tooth when i put it in.

[bitchin85]

it that is the case and its off a tooth, couldnt i just turn the distributor base to compensate for it? if i find out that is what it is, im going to fix it the right way but wouldnt playling with the distributor make itgoaway

[54Caddy]

timing is easy man. do like i sayed and if you notice the rotor isnt facing number 1 which the rotor should point towards number 1 cylinder and the back of the carb. if it isnt pointing there you might be off then just pull up the distributor turn it back till its right and sets in in the correct spot. then put the cap and wires back on and fire it up then adjust your advance.

[bitchin85]

well i had tochange the water pump.. i think thats y it was overheating and i set my timing but it looked way off and wouldnt start.. so while i had the front of the motor off, i turned the crank by hand with my finger over the number 1 spark plug hole and this is where the harmonic ballancer stopped when it stopped burping out air. and trust me i checked it and rechecked it.. do i have the wrong timingtab? or wrong ballancer

[cableguy0]

Thats not an accurate way to check tdc. you need a piston stop to find tdc. Your definately close enough. Set the timing with a light and go from there. Set the balancer so the balancer mark lines up with 0 on the tab. draw a line on the outside of the distributor body at the terminal on the cap you have the #1 terminal hooked to. The truck should at least start at that point. Now set you timing at 8btdc and lock down the distributor.

[FLEET72]

Looks like a mismatched tab/balancer to me. You could use a bolt on tab like this one.

[54Caddy]

that looks like the wrong tab man. go down and get you a bolt on tab. then set your timing from there

[piecesparts]

My turn! First of all, is this engine the factory installed engine? I take it, that you have an 85 truck, so the factory timing tab is behind the water pump and you can only see it, if you look down behind the water pump from the top of the engine. Now, if that is the fact, then as stated by others, to find the TDC of the #1 cylinder---pull the plug (at this point I would remove them all to make it easy to turn the engine over and find exactly what I wanted) and feel for the air pressure of the piston coming up on a compression stroke, next--if you don't have a piston stop, put short piece of small rod in through the hole and feel for the piston ( I have used metal welding rod for a tool). you will feel it raise up and then start to go downward. That is the "Break over" point of TDC. Locate your timing tab and see where the notch is pointing at and then look at your dizzy to see where the rotor is pointing. Associate the rotor to the #1 cylinder (You may have to rotate wires or even restab the dizzy) and also the rest of the plug wires to make sure that they are all aligned properly. When you are convinced the timing is close to #1 TDC, then re-assemble, start engine and set timing somewhere around 8 degrees to 12 degrees. I personally like some extra advance in my timing---everyone has a different idea. The high running temps could be that you are really running the engine in a retarded timing setting and that it is working hard to keep up.

[bitchin85]

I think it is a different timing tab.. I know that's exactally tdc I had a piece of welding rod in there and I know its at the top.. And no that is not the origolal motor. The block is out of an 83 and god knows who rebuilt it and what parts they used so its probably a different ballancer because that one don't look too old. I'm going to pick up a timing tab after work tonight. And I set the timing according to the ballancer and tab the way it is and it wouldn't even run.. At all.. With a light on it, the mark on my ballancer way all the way over by where it is in that picture.. So after work comes a new water pump, timing tab, and clean everything up and paint it while its all apart. I hope its just the tab

[bitchin85]

went to get a timing tab and they dont have one.... so immaking a run tothe local speed shop sometime to get one, in the meantime i got a new water pump for her and im pretty sure that took care of the overheating.. i let itidle for ten minutes and it didnt get real hot.. i had to shut it off cuz m[y shi**y chrome water neck started leaking... go figure, i have another one for it already. now i just have to figure out why its running so ad. iknow i need to tune the carb and guessing on the timing isnt helping me at all, but it barely idles and wantsto stall and it puffs a gas cloud out of the exhaust that chokes you..

[bitchin85]

took care of the heat problem.. but its still missing. i put a new cap on and checked all my plug wire connections. could it be too big ofa plug gap? .045? i dont know what to check next and i know its not the timing.. thats set right where it was before and it didnt miss before.. what else could make it miss under a load? andit has brand new msd street fire wires on it so i dont think theyre arcing or anything