OK checked everything over a couple times. Firing order is right, plugs all burning the same at least they are all the same colour. I have the No.1 wire at around 5 O'Clock on the dist cap. But I can' get it to idle nice. Tried 10 then 12 degrees (stock timing guide so only goes to 12)advance with the vacum of the dist. Still idles real rough, like almost stalling in gear. I even put my dial indicator on the rocker to try and see if I could figure cam lift but the hydraulic lifters relax so I'm not getting an acurate reading while turning the engine by hand. I'm going to change the intake so I'll check the lift from the lifter..at some point. Could it be I need to get a rebuild kit for the HEI dist? I recently put on an edelbrock carb, that cured the hesitation/blowback on accelleration.
I've had the distributor our may times, taken the cover of and found TDC. The magnet trigger is rusty, will this cause problems? Do chevy engines have cams that alter firing order? Ford does, 302 HO uses 351 windsor firing order while normal 302 does not. I'm taking compression #'s now and I'm thinking about going to Lordco to get new gaskets and installing the Edelbrock RPM intake I got for $50 from a club member. When I run the engine first this spring it looked like the intake was leaking coolant, but the next time I fired it it didn't. That makes me suspicious of the gaskets.
lets keep this simple - it only takes 3 things for the engine to run: 1. Air, 2. Spark, 3. Fuel.
- At this point, there seems to be some suspicion about the distributor, so maybe try another one. - there also seems to be some suspicion about the carb and intake gaskets.
If it were me, I'd try another distributor as I see the note "The magnet trigger is rusty". This will easily prove that part out. If still problems, leave that distributor in, and change your gaskets, and try a known good carb.
There are a handful of aftermarket chevy cam's that exchange a couple cylinders (#4 & 7 cylinders if I recall), but I don't think that's your problem.
Pull the valve covers and make sure cylinder #1 is at to dead center. Basically on it's compression stroke. Pull the spark plugs and gently turn turn the motor over with battery disconnected by hand with a screw driver in the spark plug hole to ensure the the piston is high on the compression stroke. You will here a woosh of air that comes out of that cylinder. Check the distributer and whereever the rotor is pointing to is #1 piston.
Well since I have the performer intake already I wnet out and bought a new intake gasket kit. I may hve to wait till tomorrow to try to run the motor, I don't have a plug for the coolant passage on the intake where a temp sender would go. I think I might try to see if I can comfirm fireing order with covers off turning engine by hand. And I'll check the TDC manually and compare it to the balancer. Thanks for the input guys.
Well I have a heck of a time trying to get my dial indicator to a postion that it would stay on the lifter to get a reading. So I gave up on that and just installed the performer intake and gasket kit. I found that my vacum line fitting for the transmission seemed to be a little loose. May explain the rough idle, also one intake bolt wasn't up to torque. So I rolled over the engine till #1 was @TDC threw in the dist. and fired it up. Runs real nice now, so a rusty magnetic trigger don't matter much. Thanks for the input gang, tomorrow I'll take her for a cruise.... I think.
What cam is in it? I'm about 1 inch past the scale on my 350, but I have a TON of camshaft in the small block. (Probably 34 degrees) Let us know how she goes this weekend.
