i know it's a lot of advance, it's mindbending even...
problem is, this morning it worked for a quarter of an hour, even did a test spin, working fine then... so i take a break for half an hour, crank it again and what do you think? right, same **** again....
i don't believe in ghosts, but if ever there was one, it's inside my engine right now.
i don't know what could cause it to work sometimes, and then stop it working the next minute. carb problem or distributor?
will check the balancer like you said, i didn't know that they could slip. thx for the suggestions clutch.
This probably WON'T help, but the chrome hold-downs have been known to let the dist spin inside the block after tightening it down to what you think would be snug enough. Might check it for gits and shiggles. PEACE
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William 68 Coupe Stock 289 Edelbrock600/Perfomer289Intake PertronixIgnitor/FlamethrowerCoil Headers/X-Pipe/Flowmaster30's C4 8"rear/279 gears Restomod in Progress
Good friends are hard to find, even harder to leave, and impossible to
the engine was shaking a bit today after the test run, but i thought nothing of it, figured it was all part of the problem. but now it got a bit worse and i didn't change anything in particular so i checked the plugs, and guess what, it was running on 5 cylinders so i guess two were broken this morning after the test run and another one went a few hours ago so that's why it got worse i suppose. so got two problems now: were do i find NGK WR5IX plugs in belgium? nowhere so gotta order 'em from the states again, and problem number two, why is it eating spark plugs?
pfffffff, getting a bit fed up with this now, just wanna play with it, not spend days bending over the engine compartment....
but the fact that it's eating spark plugs points to ignition again i suppose, so gotta be something seriously off there. any recommendations for spark plugs in a 69 302 with a few mods?
i must really be boring you guys to death with this...
I know at least 50 Mustang owners that run nothing but Autolite 45's gapped at .034, and NEVER have a problem with them. Try those once, and see the difference.
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William 68 Coupe Stock 289 Edelbrock600/Perfomer289Intake PertronixIgnitor/FlamethrowerCoil Headers/X-Pipe/Flowmaster30's C4 8"rear/279 gears Restomod in Progress
Good friends are hard to find, even harder to leave, and impossible to
i checked around a few shops today, no autolite 45's to be found. motorcraft BF42C is what they're suggesting put somehow that doesn't seem right to me... will order 32 plugs from the states again, so autolite 45's it is.
and the gas in the tank is only a about a month old, still smells like normal fuel to me. except off course that it is premium unleaded with a lead replacement, since leaded fuel is banned here, but i suppose that's the same over at your end.
so anyway it will take at least a week i think before the plugs arrive, so if i don't post anything concerning this thread don't think i lost interest huh.
but i could ask you guys another question in the meanwhile: what if i were to switch the distributor to one of those HEI distributors? are they soooo much better then a stock one with an ignitor? i don't know what HEI distributors do differently, so if someone 's got some info on that its always welcome.
so scott, coop, clutch, markrazz thx for all the help up till now (hope i didn't forget anyone) and as soon as i'm back in business with plugs i'll post back ...
good news, got autolite 45's so about to get going in the garage again. had to drive 150 km, or about a hundred miles, to find the nearest shop that had em in stock and didn't have to order em as well... europe for ya i suppose.
clutch, the plugs are not smacked or melted, they just don't work anymore for some reason. with the engine running, but behaving erratic, i pulled all the plugwires one by one and the ones that didn't worsen the engines behaviour are not working off course. so took em out, cleaned them and dried them, and put them back, but nothing changed. tested them outside the engine, against the block, and they don't spark... and for some reason this happens a lot actually, and it starts to look like it's always the same ones, too, number 3 and 4 and 7 and 8. but that could just be an impression of mine, need to remember wich ones broke this time so that i can check this next time round.
anyhoo, will post back when it's up and running... or not in wich case i will post back also hehe.
aaaaaaaaaaaah, really weird this, new plugs, same problem....
so i guess ther old plugs were wet beyond drying or something, or maybe just foooked for some reason, but i've got the exact same problem, nothing exploding in the last 4 cyls. why i wonder...
mpaybe valves not so good as i thought they were, so can somebody tell me the best way to set valve lash?
haynes says one way, tdc and then do both at the same time i.e.: intake and exhaust, but comp cams says something entirely different: haynes recommends a gap between rocker and valve stem of (in mm ): 1.7 tot 4 mm!!!!! how is that possible when comp cams recommends thightening the rockers until the pushrod can no longer be moved between two fingers... then you have absolutely no gap...
guess like always i'm trusting you guys...
please let me know if and wich gap, and please tell me how you guys do it,j i'll go along with that any day.
Just for fun you may want to swap plugs with cylinders that are working to see if the plugs are working ok there.
I'm thinking you may have bad wires and/or a bad dist cap. Have you checked inside the cap for carbon tracks and/or cracks? Sometimes even the rotor will go bad but at this point, if compression is ok, I would think the cap or wires. Even if there was a problem with the cam timing and/or valve adjustments you should still get spark with cranking the engine with the key on and grounding the plug to the block. Try that before installing the new plugs.
hi 73, cap, rotor and wires are new, changed them only about a week ago. i haven't tested the new plugs if they are firing when i ground them on the block, so will do that tonight. i am also resetting valve lash again, the comp cams way, but what seems odd to me is that some lifters feel soft, while others feel bone-hard. its almost as if on the soft ones i can set a pre-load, and the hard ones are either loose or blocked.
i know what you're gonna ask, and yes, the lifters were new comp cams lifters installed at the same time as the cam. still, i suppose that if i set the preload wrong last time, the lifters might have been damaged by now...
will see what happens tonight when i put it back together.... hope for the best
hi 69, i just put the block back together, still stalling in gear, but i was watching the vacuum gauge from start up and it seems as if the vacuum drops after about a minute or so with the engine running, from 0.6 to 0.5... so i'm starting to wonder about the lifters now. i did pre fill them and let them soak in clean oil for 24 hours before putting 'em in. however, that has been a few weeks ago now. i suppose you read my last post on harder and softer-feeling lifters, so what do you think? is it possible that some lifters have been damaged by to big preload initially? another thing that i never thought about but what seems to matter now is that i set the pre load with an old oil pump, but i nchanged that oil pump to a high volume oil pump now, and on the gauge that meant an oil pressure increase of about tenfold... so is it possible that the preload was way to much then and that i forced the lifters into their completely closed position? i really hope not, but it would explain a lot no? is there a way to check the oil flow to the lifters?
and oh yes, the sparks are all firing now, and i get a difference in engine behaviour when i pull the wires of 3,4,7 and 8 so maybe resetting valve lash is bringing me closer to the problem.
i wonder what would happen if i really set the lash way loose, would the oil pressure pump up the hard lifters, thus making them soft again? so many questions...
sorry but hope you can shine some light on the matter....
69 is on the right track about the oil flow. You need to make sure all lifters are getting oil. You can check that by running the car with one valve cover off at a time to see if oil is getting to all the rockers evenly. If it isn't, it could be a bad lifter(s) or possibly a cam bearing installed incorrectly where the oil hole in the bearing is not aligned with the oil galley in the block.
The way I always did it was just one side at a time.
Make sure you have the fender covered just in case oil does squirt that far. Make sure you do wash the car as soon as you're done.
After you take the cover off, take a piece of cardboard about 8" wide and long enough to reach around the inside of the valve cover. Then put some tape on the ends to help it keep it's shape. Once you have that cut & taped, put it on the cylinder head along the inside of the valve cover gasket surface. This will at least help keep some of the oil from getting on anything it shouldnt. By having it on the inside of the gasket surface, it will help any squirting oil drain back in.
The oil flow out the rockers should be about the same for all the valves. The biggest problem would be seeing very little oil on any rockers. Dont rev it too much or there will be oil everywhere!
Printable Version
RE: 69 fastback stalls in any gear... HELP - 
PEACE
RE: 69 fastback stalls in any gear... HELP - 
. 
) and as soon as i'm back in business with plugs i'll post back ... 
