Okay! I need some help here AGAIN.
Let me start by saying this has been a long road of
discovery as to why my car has been acting up the past
few months. By acting up, I mean there has been a lack
of power except way up in the RPM range and the
following symptoms.
Several problems so far have been:
1) Sputter at 3000 rpms (turns out it was a loose
exhaust manifold or a leaky gasket: figured this one
out when items around the leaky area started turning
black).
Resolution: replaced manifold gasket. Retorqued
correctly. Sputter at 3000 is gone.
2) Spark plug in #2 position non-operational. I blamed
this on a SPLITFIRE brand spark plug, because
initially the engine RPMS didn't change when I pulled
the plug. So I thought "AH! The wire or the plug is
dead." Swapped the wire around with #1. No change.
Then I had a second person holding the plug to the
engine block and I was taking his word that it wasn't
firing while I turned the key sitting in the
cab/cockpit. so I replaced the plug and sped on my
way.
Resolution: The reason the car died is that the FUEL
pump had slowly been giving up the ghost (an US made
bellows style electric fuel pump that I've had on for
about 2 years I think). It just stops for no apparent
reason after a while of running. Turning the car off
and turnning it back on again makes it start right up.
I replaced the wiring, and made sure the ground to the
chassis was good, installed a fuel pressure gauge to
make sure I wasn't flooding the engine. I just got
another one in the mail today. I'm sure that the #2
plug disconnection not causing an idle change is also
problematic, but wasn't the direct cause of the car
dieing.
3) I had advanced the dizzy to try and get rid of the
sputter at 3000 rpms (which it seems to have done).
After retuning, I was getting a pretty steady idle,
but I'd forgotten to turn the idle back to 10 deg
BTDC.
Diagnosis as of Today:
-I fixed the advance back to 10 deg btdc.
-I checked cleaned and adjusted the points gap.
-I've swapped the plugs around
-I installed new wires.
-I inspected the dizzy cap for burns, streaks, dirt
any other problems. (I don't have a spare to swap it
with, but I just bought this one back in April or
May).
-I inspected the rotor arm. I don't have a spare at
the moment to swap it out with again. But it looks
fine.
After each of the above steps I tried disconnecting
the #2 plug wire and it STILL doesn't change the
engine speed. (It does change the idle when I
disconnect any of the other wires). The idle is okay,
but when I drop down to the 700-800 rpm range it gets
an occastional "puff" sort of sound. Not a pop like a
back fire. Just like it's missing a cylinder.
All of the other plugs (1,3 &4) were a nutty brown to
a tan color. So I tried enriching the mixture (a half
a rotation or 3 flats) and ran the car for about 15
minutes. ALl of the other plugs turned black. #2 is
still white as a sheet.
I ran up stairs and got my compression tester. All
cylinders are testing in the 120-130 psi. (2 and 3
were on the low side of 120. 1 and 4 were on the high
side).
My question is...
Could my valves need adjusting, e.g. a misadjusted
rocker not fully pressing down on the #2 intake valve,
and that's why I'm not getting any fuel to that plug?
Or are there any other suggestions? Maybe a bent plug
not closing on the compression stroke (but would I get
good compression in that instance)?
Also, I realize that there is documentation in my
Workshop manual on how to adjust the valves (something
I haven't done yet personally), but I realize that you
need the cylinders at TDC to make this adjustment. Is
there any way to tell if the cylinder is at TDC
without using a borascope? Like the position of the
Timing marker on the crank pulley?
Thanks!
-Terry
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