Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

[mcleaves]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

I verified it was not the other firing order as it ra like crap when I changed it. I mean it ran, but not good.

I am going to water test tonight with new cap rotor and distributor assembly. I have to believe it was in there someplace with all the arcing and carbon dust.

Wish me luck

M

 

[mcleaves]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

Water tested last night. Ran like a top. I about broke my neck when I throttled up! Was prepared for another slow boat to China hole shot . Boy was I surprised!!

So, I changed was the distributor assembly, dist cap and rotor. Not sure which one did the trick, but the old cap (which was new a few weeks ago) was black on the inside with carbon dust and looked like a welder had been off on a bender to the electrodes. A mystery as to what caused that.

Thanks for all the help in getting her back in the game!

The final question is what is the PROPER timing for this engine?? The stamp on the side of the ECU says 5 deg BTDC. The genuine Volvo Ignition manual says 5 Deg. The Volvo ENGINE manual addresses the carbed 5.0 engine in a chart with others, but not the FI and says 10 deg. Someone else in this thread (I think) also said they had never seen a Ford lower than 10.

Any thoughts before I tighten down all the screws and bolts for good?

 

[intrepidvoyager]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

if the engine runs fine other than out of the hole ....sounds like you got a low end torque problem ....if you are using oil you may still be in the break in ....sure check compression but also check what happened re the cam ....sometimes cams are cleaned up resulting in a lower max lift ....or the rebuilt shop put in a diff cam with not enough low end.

if nothing else works ..try an MDS multispark ignition ..... used this on twin merc 454's ....performance increase and better fuel economy !

intrepid from Toad Hall

 

[mcleaves]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

Thanks for the input Intrepid. The problem is cleared up now. It was certainly in the ignition.

The cam is original (at least previous to this rebuild). The shop remarked bout how good the shape was and that it didn't need any machining.

Not burning any oil. Compression is good. I was in 3 foot seas last night and blasted onto plane as fast as I ever have, so I am feeling confident it was an ignition problem somewhere in the distributor area. with all the carbon dust etc (read back in the thread) something was certainly wrong there.

M

 

[intrepidvoyager]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

make sure nothing is restricting air flow ...had a sit in Hawaii where salt spray had clogged the engine compartment ventilators so the engine couldn't get enough air ..actually sucked the hatch shut !!! .a big block can need up to 800 cu ft per minute.

 

[intrepidvoyager]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

Well done Mcleaves ...... will send you a Toad Hall patch ...so maybe crud in the advance eh what ??

Anyway if you like the way she runs now ....well I can put you in touch with the guy that installed the MDS on his Trojan ...... we were amazed at the performance inhancement and much better fuel economy ...I'm at (EDIT email address removed, use PM function) if you want to connect with an actual MDS user.

Cheers

 

[intrepidvoyager]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

oops .....just saw on another post that I should not have used my email address so please ignore ..... am sure you can find lots of happy MDS users on the web anyway.

Cheers

 

[jy118lfd]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

If it is fixed now and you had the distributor out, It was installed incorrectly the first time. It can be off by a certian amount and you will get the timing right but the rotor phasing is off. So the coil fires and the spark must jump to get to the right terminal. It will also jump to the teminal behind it, causing a crossfire and robbing power. I have seen this many times. The inside of the cap was the clue to this. Carbon tracking and spatter show there was alot of arcing going on in there.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Rebuilt engine is a dog out of the hole

Since you are apparently a Ford guy and are working on a Chevy engine, are you aware that looking at the front of the engine, #1 plug is the front right on a Chevy and front left on a Ford (at least it used to be). While spark "advance" has been explained to you, are you sure you have the cam timing correct. Spark timing may be ok but when you (or whoever) assembled the engine they may have not installed the timing chain to achieve proper cam timing. And while we are on the topic of proper assembly, whoever adjusted the valves may not have done that correctly either. And lastly, since you seem to feel timing is the issue, have you actually tried to determine if the harmonic balancer has slipped (as in the outer part of the balancer slipping on the hub) due to the breakage of the rubber isolator bond).