Ready to test engine start

[_Ogre]

your mechanic is correct, squirt some oil in the cylinders to lube the rings
an engine that sat that long all the oil has drained into the pan
dry rings will give little compression

[pvienneau]

I took out all plugs and got better than 30 but not much on 5 and on 1 I got up to 60. I will continue the oil treatment on each piston. Stay tuned. If determined to be bad engine I will plan to go with a later pressure 235 from mid to late 50's.

[solidaxel]

Did you have the valve cover off when you were turning the engine over?

The valves that were "open" when the truck was setting are most likely rusted on the seat, or stuck in the guide, just like some of the piston rings, so soak the cylinders with transmission "oil" fluid and let it set.

Every day or so just turn the engine over a bit to distribute the oil in the cylinders, and let it soak in. watch the action of all the valves and see that they are even

If you can get it to start as it is running dribble trans. fluid down the carb as it is running as this will lube the upper cylinders and the rings.

The longer it will run the more it "should" free things up and the compression "should" increase as the rust is worn off things.

I have done this method many times and it will work IF you have spark and a good carb

[pvienneau]

Solidaxel - how do I know if the carb is good? I rebuilt it from scratch with a rebuild kit. It seems to be working OK. Can I send it to you for eval?

Pat

[OrrieG]

solid axle beat it to me, but a little trans fluid in the cylinders and valve train will help loosen up old stuck rings, valve, etc and not significantly reduce the oil viscosity.

[solidaxel]

You could, but I do not have any 6 cylinders to test it out on!

If you rebuilt it, and all of the passages were cleaned (forced fluid/air) and the accelerator pump is squirting, call it "good", and the fuel pump is putting out FRESH gas to the carb call it good.
30# of compression should be good enough to start a engine, but there will be NO power but it should run and free up the rings and valves.

Keep working on it its a Chevy it will run !!

[pvienneau]

Guys, I just tested again and all cylinders are up to 60 now. We are getting there. I will test start again this week end. Stay tuned. Thanks for the help.

Pat

[pvienneau]

All, the Engine start isn't going so well - I have spark, compression, good gas going to carb, Carb seems fine. When I turn it over it sounds good at 30 Degree compression. Any suggestions? Maybe the TDC is not TDC but 180?

Pat

[OrrieG]

Even 180 degrees out it will try and start; will pop, snort and back fire thru the intake valves, but will try. Did you mean 30 degrees advance or lower compression number?

[pvienneau]

30 was the number the compression was hitting

[pvienneau]

OK, I did the following steps and when I turn it over I get loud pop out of the top of the carberator

1- removed #1 spark plug
2- turned engine over by hand ,put feather over the hole when it blew out
3- flash light at timing hole in bell housing and
4- turned engine SLOWLY until I could see the triangle on the fly wheel
5- lined up triangle to the pointer on bell housing
6- install disy so that rotor is pointed in a 12 o'clock position - moved oil pump a little with a screw driver to get it closer to 12
7- installed disy cap and installed #1 plug wire at the 12 o'clock position
8- installed all the other spark plug wires in a clock wise order
1-5-3-6-2-4 1 being front and 6 being the last one

[nvrdone]

which way does the distributor rotate - clock wise or counter clock wise ?
The wires may be in the correct order - just wrong rotation.
I'm nor familiar with the I6's - just thinking out loud

[pvienneau]

Rotates Clock Wise. I just went out and tried to start it again and now I am getting some popping and smoke out of the carb AND the exhaust hole. I think I saw a blue flame shoot out the exhaust hole. Is it 180 degrees off?

[OrrieG]

Based on what you did it sounds like it was at TDC with rotor to #1. You wired it CW in the right order. How did you adjust the valves? If they are just a little tight valves can be held open hence bang out the top and bottom. Try advancing the dist a little bit as you crank it over. Also assume you are closing the choke when trying to get it started.

[nvrdone]

If you have proper rotation & the wires are in the right position, I would think the timing is off by 180 deg
Have you verified that when the #1 piston is at tdc, both valves are closed/ Removed the valve cover to look ?
Or try the down & dirty test - just rotate the distributor 180 & see what happens

[pvienneau]

Valves - Same as when I got the engine. I never broke the main engine in 2 so no piston or valve job. I did adjust the rockers to spec. How do I Advance the disy while I crank it over? Close choke when starting. I will add that one. Be right back.

[pvienneau]

Battery dead, charging it now. Back to it tomorrow. I think we are close.

[OrrieG]

Need a friend to hit the starter and goose the throttle while you turn the dist by hand, does not take much 1/8 - 1/4" dist rotation is about 6-10 degrees on the crank.

[DransportGarage]

You may know all this, but I'll put it here anyway. If you'd like to see if your timing is close or if it is 180 degrees out, try this:
1) Remove coil wire so you don't zap yourself.
2) Remove #1 spark plug.
3) With finger in the #1 spark plug hole, have a friend "bump" the engine with the starter.
4) When the air wooshes out of the #1 spark plug hole, stop.
5) Verify that the timing mark is near the timing pointer.
6) Remove the distributor cap. If the rotor has just passed the #1 spark plug terminal, you're close to proper timing. If the rotor is pointing to the other side of the distributor you're 180 degrees out.

If you're not close to proper timing, Pull the entire distributor up about 2", turn the rotor until it's near #1, then drop the distributor back in place. It may take some jiggling to get the distributor to go all the way back down on the oil pump shaft. If you can't get the distributor to go all the way back into place you may have to remove it and turn the oil pump shaft a little bit with a long screwdriver so the distributor can slide back into place.

[pvienneau]

DransportG, I followed your instructions and the rotor was opposite the number 1 Spark plug. I pulled out disy and turned engine 1 full revolution to the pointer and put the disy back in. Will this give me the TDC I need?

[solidaxel]

I think you should have turned the distributor 180* and left the engine at TDC!
Before you put the plug back in rotate the engine until your are on a compression stroke (finger on plug hole) re check the position of the rotor and cap and #1 spark plug wire all matching +/- 1/2"

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by pvienneau

DransportG, I followed your instructions and the rotor was opposite the number 1 Spark plug. I pulled out disy and turned engine 1 full revolution to the pointer and put the disy back in. Will this give me the TDC I need?

Nope. Sorry. Turning the engine was not one of the steps. You were supposed to lift the distributor and turn the rotor and distributor shaft. Repeat the procedure.

[pvienneau]

No Luck. New battery and charger for it. I put on a W1 Carter carb and it is definitely squirting gas into the carb. Great spark with new points. I adjusted the timing as described. Not even getting the backfire now. Would the spark plugs be soaked with gasoline? When I remove the spark plugs after attempting to start smoke is escaping but the spark plugs are bone dry. Maybe time to buy a running 235??

[Hogger54]

Doesn't he want the timing mark on the BB instead of the triangle? I had similar issues trying to set it to the triangle, until I figured out what the BB was, and set it on it.
And compression at 30psi... Not real good.

[pvienneau]

Talked to my mechanic and he says needs 70 on compression to start. I put some Marvel Mystery Oil down the spark plug holes and got it spinning better. 1 at 51, 2 at 49, 3 at 51, 4 at 44, 5 at 40 and 6 at 55. When I replaced the spark plugs the compression goes back to 30 on each. Does anyone know the going rates to restore the block or should I be looking for a 235?