So much for my own stuff. It rained all morning and it's so late now I don't want to work on it. Plus I'm pretty sure it's cam timing and I'm absolutely sick of taking that car apart and putting it back together only to not fix it. It's going to be 3 or 4 weeks before I have a weekend to work on it again because I still need to do the machinists truck and the 2 ford's to pay for Lexi's Camaro tomorrow night I'm hanging doors on a Ford truck with new hinges to pay for the repairs on the Camaro. So here we go again anything of mine takes a back seat to everyone else and I still don't even have a daily driver. Sometimes I wish I could just drop my sh*t off to someone and pay them to fix it but that's obviously not an option that's why I don't have my daily driver because I did try that. Besides I don't think there's any local mechanics that know what an olds motor is
78 cutlass W-31 build
- Thread starter Clutch
- Start date
Unfortunately it has to do with crappy quality timing sets for the most part. My Cloyes timing set was accurate, even being the floppy chain street roller set, it was spot on. This unknown double roller that came in the 73 was also accurate. My custom mild Erson cam was within half a degree in the non advanced slot. It didn't matter when it went flat and wasted the motor. The Edelbrock 204/214 cam also was also accurate. All checked with a degree wheel. Again it didn't matter, The carb flooding over 1/2 throttle and the Mallory distributor ****ing up soon had that worn out 73 bottom end knocking. Degreeing a cam hurts my head but I will be doing it in a couple of weeks as I want to make sure this million dollar engine is right. Trust me, I know how you feel. I am driving around with a badly knocking motor in my 70S. sh*t like the 2 year old radiator leaking as fast as I put water in drives me nuts! I had to put the new expensive aluminum 2 core I wanted to put in with completely new coolant in the new motor. Unfortunately these motors are at 45+ years old for good Olds 350's. The sbc from that era was not as good from what I saw. Were you 100% sure on which cam this was? Have you checked engine vacuum? What brand timing set did you use? The Comp cam sets have been way off, as much as 8 degrees on Olds V8's. Good luck, it may just need a different timing set to fix it. Try the distributor and I say the carb needs some tuning. I am betting it is ridiculously lean part throttle. Too bad I wasn't closer. I would get it running right in exchange for body work. It is dam expensive up here for a paint job, let a lone panel replacement.
I think I'm just fed up with my current vehicle situation and running out of patience. Some people tell me I need a vacation. Well if I can't drive my own vehicle how am I doing that? I may tell the owners at work I'm only going to work as hard as the diesel shop is working on my truck I bet they don't like that. I put the car on the concrete driveway in front of the house so I can mess with it whenever I get a minute. From here out progress is going to be slow small dribs and drabs.
Well, at least it's together and mobile.
Duramax still isn't done yet? What the hell is taking so long?
Duramax still isn't done yet? What the hell is taking so long?
I couldn't agree more. I just left a note for my boss on the office wall about it I'd post a picture of it but this is a family friendly sight. I will say it's only 6 words and 2 !
I here you. I have my Challenger GT, as much as I hate making payments, it only needs oil changes and tire rotations. My Dakota is mostly trouble free now that I fixed a couple of things on it. I also have to do all my Daughter's maintenance, including annoyances like shitty to do power steering hose on her Edge and my cost. Get the carb and timing sorted out before tearing the front cover off. Those two things can make a huge difference. An advance timing light is your friend. You want 36 to 40 in by 3000 rpm with the vacuum advance disconnected. Where the initial ends up is fine. Leave the vacuum at the max and use manifold vacuum for it's source. The carb, get a vacuum gauge. Start with adjusting the mixture screws for the highest vacuum. Check the accelerator function, those two streams out the primary boosters, not running. The next step is pulling the top off the carb and try adjusting the APT out a turn or two. Make sure the choke pull off is functioning. Also make sure the secondary air door isn't set too loose or two tight. That will make it doggy if too tight and boggy when too loose. Good luck.
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The idea of reliability is why I bought the Duramax and I'm making payments on it and Janet's Subaru. As far as the car goes it's going to take a back seat to the deals I made with the work for The Machinist that pays for the block and crank. The same goes for the deals I made to get Lexi the Camaro I've got to paint the pickup bed and a door for another truck. That's at least 3 weekends there so if anything gets done on the car it will be during the week after work. It's just tough to do after working all day to come home and work in the sun outside on a hot motor because I'm getting old I guess.
Well I threw the new distributor in last night. It's kinda better ish. Not really I put the Machinists S/10 in my bey tonight I'm going to get that done this weekend got to straighten the tailgate quarter and replace the cab corner. It was just supposed to be the bed side and he just kept adding more tonight I put my foot down and he got a harsh hell no! He was trying to get me to do the hole truck for free blatantly trying to take advantage. One of the many reasons I don't do side work for people they have no clue or they think I'm stupid. One of the main reasons I hate people in general. All good though he will be out of my life by Monday
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