Argh!

[King_V]

Ok, you know, maybe this isn't much of a thing for most people.

I've had my 1979 Calais for most of about 10 years. Wait, is it 11 years?

In that time, I may have put about 1000 miles on the car. My own fault. Time and no money, money and no time, or, more often, no money or time. On the plus side, that means there's still only 47,500 original miles on the car.

Well, ok, this summer, I vowed to at least drive it regularly, even if the engine-swap is perpetually on hold. So I recharged the AC a bit (it's still running R12), and started driving it.

Huh, well, it does ping, but interestingly, fresh gas seems to have reduced that somewhat (though why the hell a 7.5:1 compression motor should have any excuse to ping is beyond me).


I figured I might drive it to work one day. The tires are old and mismatched, but in the past month I've put 100 miles on them, and since the car's always been in a garage, they're not dry-rotting.

So, today it was actually nice and cool - I'd've been able to drive without using the AC (the compressor clatters quite a bit, so I guess I need to add oil). Only it was heavily overcast. I figured it would rain, and I wasn't going to drive my baby in the rain.

Nope, heavy clouds, but I'm only NOW finding out, late in the day, that there was almost NO chance of rain whatsoever.

Dammit, missed opportunity. May not seem like much, but I really want to drive it twice a month, or maybe even once a week, if possible. I neglected it for too long...

 

[Fox80]

Any motor can "ping", lower comp. ratio motors ping, higher comp. ratio motors blow up when things are not right. The new gas lessened the "ping" because the octane rating of the old stale gas had dropped time. Many things could have happened while it sat, condensation could have rusted up the advance system in the dist., junk could have formed in the carb. leaning out the motor. If it ran fine when you parked it you could try filling it up with premium gas and start putting miles on it to see if it will correct itself, I would at least look inside the dist. make sure nothing looks off, maybe spray the advance plate with WD-40 (a VERY small amount) let it sit for a bit and put the cap back on. A set of plugs wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[J3]

I've had my 1979 Calais for most of about 10 years. Wait, is it 11 years?

In that time, I may have put about 1000 miles on the car. My own fault. Time and no money, money and no time, or, more often, no money or time. On the plus side, that means there's still only 47,500 original miles on the car.

Sounds kind of like mine. I've had it for 7 years and put less than 4k miles on it. Should be back on the road soon though, so I can start adding some...

 

[olds307 and 403]

I would see where your Timing is set, might be very advanced, don't run more than 22 base. If it is fine, maybe try an adjustable vacuum advance canister. The stock ones can have 30 degrees. I have run 50-60 degrees off idle with no pinging on a few low compression Olds V8's. I would maybe look at a can of intake cleaner. The few different brands I have used were a similar product that disolved carbon pretty well. You can spray down the carb running or unscrew the plugs and spray into each cylinder and soak overnight.

 

[Blake442]

Just drive it, it's not gonna melt if it gets wet... :lol:

 

[King_V]

Thanks all for the info.

I'm going to check the base timing, check for no binding up of the advance mechanism in the distributor, and probably spray carb/intake cleaner as well.... plus a little fuel-system cleaner couldn't hurt.

Ah, the years have flown by, it's been over a decade since I last used spray-in carb cleaner!

Gotta check the vacuum controllers/etc for the EGR as well. I know the EGR works (tried directly with a vacuum pump), but not sure if the various items in between the intake and the EGR that wait for certain temperatures before letting vacuum through are up to snuff.....

Oh, and then drive it more!

 

[Poncho61]

Its sat long enough for time and or critters to do a number on the vac hoses too. Might check them as well. A cracked/chewed hose could be leaning out the mixture and adding to the pinging.