440 engine help

[shovelluv]

friend of mine stopped over yesterday with his charger he picked up a few years back with a 440 in it, its been in storage for about 4 years, heres the problem with the engine and we have not done any tests for him yet but not looking good. Oil pressure is good. Stars fine but has a slight up and down erratic idle. throttle response is NOT good from idle. heres what happend when i drove it about 4 miles after warm up.... You can feel the power of the engine come and go at a steady 2000 rpm, pulled back in and it wanted to die but as i feathered the throttled it picked back up. Shut the engine off with a burnt oil smell, pulled off the oil fill cap and blow by just floating out of the valve cover. I realize the easy thing to say is just have it rebuilt but im trying to figure out where to start to see exactly whats going on and find the problem and make sure im not missing anything simple also, appears the heat riser internals were removed and holes welded up. Im planning on doing a compression test to it sometime this week.

 

[eric383]

I would also look for vacuum leaks and make sure the carb is good. I assume the 4 year old fuel is gone and it's good gas now. I would replace the fuel filter also. Good luck.

 

[furryfrog]

I would second eric383. Don't get too worried yet, especially about having to rebuild it. Burnt oil smell can be from a variety of things, one being oil dripping onto the headers from a leaky valve cover. And blow by "floating" out of an opened oil filler cap is not uncommon on a good motor. You have some issues to work out from being in storage so long and not being run regularly, but the symptoms you describe are not indicative of major engine damage IMHO. I would recomend fresh oil if not already changed. Carb problems are common once a motor has been sitting for a while without periodic attention, and especially if prepared improperly before storage.
If it does start to burn oil and it did not before it was put into storage I would suspect dried out valve stem seals. If that is the case they should be replaced because the oil getting by the seals will wear out the valve guides rather quickly.

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Just going to add, on my 440 I have had to change my plugs after it was sitting for 4 month once. Everything fine when parked, not running quite right 4 months later, just changed plugs and problem solved. This was before I changed to msd, and the ignition system was on the weak side.

 

[shovelluv]

Well, finally got a chance yesterday afternoon and here's what i found, inspected each plug, 3 of the 8 were finger tight, #5 ground electrode was bent slightly and has heavy residue built up on it. Cylinders Compression, cold engine... #2,130 #4,120 #6,120 #8,130 #1,130 #3, 130 #5, 140 #7,115. Replaced plugs, cap, fuel filter and rotor. Ran better but still had a initial bog and a loud whistle off of idle. Carb is a 750 edelbrock that has been sitting so easy fix, i went out to my 455 buick gs project and stole the 770 holley street avenger off it. A little more responsive but but still had the whistle when id give it some gas off idle. It has a stock 4 hole dual plane intake. One of the previous owners, at one time, put a 3/8 aluminum spacer on it, when i changed the carb i noticed it was a open spacer not a 4 hole. Installed a 4 hole 1/2 phenolic and what a difference. NO WHISTLE!!! and the response is incredible motor runs excellent and a ton of power. The excessive blow by stopped out of the valve cover also. Only issue i have left is at about a steady 2500 rpm there is a rattling/ticking sound when i give it a slight bit of gas but as i push on the pedal more it goes away. Im hoping for the fuel pump push rod on that one. Any input would be great. Anyway thought id share what i found for others with the same issues. Thanks for the replys.

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[Cranky]

Squirt some oil into the cylinders and see if the PSI numbers come up. If they don't, valves are probably leaking. If they do, rings are weak. Does it smoke on start up and then cleans up? If so, valve stem seals are shot but the plugs like rings are probably going away. Bad stem seals can contribute to that look too. Do you any other history of this engine? Original to this car?

 

[Garys1969RR]

Seems to me that these motors run better with use, Especially after sitting for awhile. Just keep clean oil and filter in it all the time, and open it up once in awhile.

 

[miller]

Sitting for that long, could be a chance of varnish build-up off the old gas, in the tank and lines.

What Cranky said on oil in the cylinders, then re-check the numbers. Should also have the carb throttle plates fully open, when you do the compression check. Let each hole hit three times.