hey guys. well im just about done with my 302 4 door mav. but i cant realy drive it on the street yet. so i am trying to fix my 289 in the 2 door. here is the problem im having. someone took the carb off of my car one night, so i put on a spare i had around. its a holley 4 barrel 450 cfm. same thing that was on before, andi know the carb was good. i put it on and it ran like crap! smoke was billowing. so i tried another one i had around and same thing!. i thought it was the timing so i messed with that and it made things worse. after a while it wouldnt even run anymore! so does it sound like the timing chain may have sliped to you? or is there an easier solution?? thanx guys!-james
First thing I woild do is take a compression reading to verify the condition of the engine. Then take the distributor cap off and using a ratchet and 15/16th's socket on the crank balancer bolt, slowlly rotate the engine and watch the rotor. If it does not move immediately while rotating, the chain is loose. You can also remove the fuel pump and push on the chain to see if it has a lot of slack. Use of a timing light will also show the condition of the chain. Pull the valve covers and check for stuck valve etc. good luck.
just a guess The @sshole that took the carb put something down the intake. did you check that before installin the new carb?
James- At this point, I think I'd go back to the drawing board. Pull all the plugs and have a look at them to see if any are fouled out. They're cheap so pitch them over your shoulder and get new ones anyway, but leave them out for now. Manually turn the motor to about 8 degrees before TDC. Make sure it's on the number one compression stroke. with both valves closed. Get the distributor sitting so the rotor is just pointing to the number one terminal on the cap.(mark the spot on the dist. housing before you pull the cap off. While you're jockying the motor around trying to get it up to where you want it, keep an eye on the rotor to make sure there isn't too much of a delay between when you turn the crank and when it moves. You'll have to turn the engine backward a bit since the chain will take up its own slack. Once you've got the timing set this way, move on to other things. I definately agree with Dan about the fuel, and with Old Guy about doing a compression check as well. Keep pluggin'. If it ran, it'll run again.
long shot why are you letting people remove parts from your car in the 1st place? you did not state the running condition/symptoms before your "friend" removed the carb. just a rule of thumb..."leave well enough alone!" when/if you get this thing fixed, dont tinker with it unless youve got something else to drive. i'm using my ESP and determining that this wasnt that smooth of a car to begin with (very used parts). how many miles are on this motor? i was just wondering if maybe you dropped a valve. that doesnt explain everything, but once a motor gets weak, all weakend parts are effected. thus 1 problem quickly turns into 5. i dont think you've given us enough information to diagnose your problem. i think the previous info has been good, so definitely follow up on it. im just throwing in my .02
Take a sample of the gas. Slide some between your fingers and see if some one thought your car needed some oil in the gas tank as well. Sounds kind of fishy when two carbs act the same way with the engine just sitting not being run. I assume you talking about the carb as in stolen! When an engine smokes like that don't start fooling with timing. Thats not the cause.
Problems with 289 Compression check is a good idea but also do a wet check . Check compression dry for all the cylinders and record their compression. then sqirt a lite oil in all cylinders and turn over a few times N ow check each cylinder again and record the compression for each cylinder. If the compression is the same then rings and valves are ok but if compression goes up then you have bad rings in the pistons. time for a rebuild. BOth head and block
Thanx Well i pulled the plugs, checked the compression, and tried to see if the timing chain is loose. its hard to tell if the chain is loos or not. but the plugs where fairly new to begin with. they looked ok. the compression read good on all. so im going to maybe try and take a closser look at the timing chain. see if i can feel if it loos or not. thanx for your help guys. always Appreciated. - james
what kind of smoke? ("billowing smoke") blue is usually oil. white is usually water or atf. black is usually incomplete combustion. did it smell? if its whitish it might be ATF from a bad modulator on the automatic trans (if so equipped), which could also cause a vacuum leak. or you might be leaking water into a cylinder. do all the plugs look the same? all black and sooty means too rich. one or two black means those plugs not firing. just some thoughts.
The chain feels ok but its still hard to get running. it even back fired and i had flames coming out of the carb!!!!! scarry! its not smoking like it was now. i can barley see any. i dont know what could have happened. maybe the guy who took stuff off of it lifted the distributor??? if so how do i set that right?
good point! lol well i tried to start it and it just clicks and doesnt turn. i think the starter is shot too. i never tried to turn it for more than 15 sec at a time. was that too much? at this rate im starting to think about chucking the whole freaking engine! lol thanx for your help guys.
i took the battery out of my running car and it still wont work. it start my other car though. any ideas?
