Ok here goes, with the prayer that someone can figure this out without actually being here!
This 74 satellite has been an extremely reliable vehicle over the years...never so much as a hiccup and up until 3 weeks ago, the engine had never been opened to even so much as replace a valve cover gasket. Everything on her is original right down to the coil and fuel pump. It was never meant to be a daily driver but a couple layoffs and no money forced me to sell my Dakota R/T and call the Satellite into service. It performed admirably and easily made the drive from upstate NY to East Texas once the wife found a job and we were forced to relocate. I started school full time and had to take summer courses in Tyler (1 hour drive each way) to keep the GI Bill money coming in since I havent found work yet.
The problems started about 2 months ago just after it had rolled 120,000 miles, during one of the trips to Tyler the engine seemed to stumble a little bit during deceleration but nothing serious and it would quickly recover and I never gave it a second thought. It didnt happen again for a couple weeks and then on a short drive once day, it stumbled a little again and quickly recovered and I thought "that was strange" again but still wasnt alarmed. On that same drive when I got home and put it into reverse to back into the garage the engine really started to stumble and I had to feather the fuel to get it to back up. When I shut the engine off it dieseled a little and made two "tap tap" sounds and stalled letting a little smoke/steam out the air cleaner. (Dieseling wasnt uncommon on really hot days, and this one was a record 110+ day).
I didnt drive it on the weekend and Monday morning when I got in to go to school, I loaded the kids in, hit the pedal 6 times and hit the key, she roared to life as usual and idled up as normal, but as soon as it reached top idle she idled right back down and died. I was able to get her to start a second time but this time it acted like she was running on 3 cylinders and blowing all kids of grey smoke out the tailpipe and she quickly died again. I tried in vain to get it to start again, but she would spit and sputter a little and try to start a few times but wouldnt catch and then eventually would just crank over without any attempt to start. I caught a ride to school that day and wasnt able to do much to her for several weeks.
When I did get around to tinker with her, I was certain it would be something simple and performed the following troubleshooting steps:
1) Replaced the ballast resistor, still crank no fire
2) Replaced the fuel pump and ignition coil (Mainly because they were original and the fuel pump had been making noise for a while anyways), same result--crank no fire
3) Had ignition control module tested at three places...all three said it tested good
4) Took a step back, and went into diagnosing/elimination mode
5) Looked down into carb while hitting excelerator and verified fuel was squirting into the bowls
6) removed fuel line from carb and had wife crank - fuel poured into a cup...so I am getting fuel
7) Next I built a spark plug tester by getting a new plug and opening the gap up to .075 and clamping a wire to it and grounding it to the body with an aligator clip. Plugged it into the wires and had wife crank....blue spark jumping the gap...so I am getting spark
8) Ran a compression test on all 6 cylinders with the throttle propped wide open and all plugs removed. Two cylinders were over 140 with the other 4 below 90 and 2 at 40. Thinking with compression that low the engine wouldnt start.
9) Checking oil (still clean with no signs of water in the oil,checked the cap and it was clean as well. Popped the radiator cap and there was some white foam in it but not much and the coolant looked real murky.
10) Had wife crank engine while i looked through the oil fill cap to verify the chain hadnt broken by watching the rockers move...they did.
At this point Im thinking I have a blown head gasket, so I ordered a full gasket set, new water pump, thermostat, timing chain and gear set, choke thermostat, plugs, wires, dist cap, rotor, upper and lower rad hose, and new heater hoses.
I tear the engine down completely and the head gasket is in 1 piece and looks fantastic with little to no discoloration. Then Im thinking ok, maybe I have a cracked head and take a magnifying glass and go over every inch of the head top and bottom and see no cracks.
Then I tap the valves with a rubber mallet to get a good seal and flip the head over...level it, out the old plugs back in, and fill the combustion depressions with mineral spirits to see if the valves are not sealing....none of them leaked a drop.
Since I had the head off I went ahead and replaced all the valve stem seals.
Im now thinking that it may have jumped time so I tear down the front of the engine and pull off the timing cover. I rotated the engine over until the #1 slug was a TDC and verfied that the ignition rotor was pointing at dizzy tower #1 which it was. OnceI got the cover off, both dots on the gears were at the 12 o-clock position, the book shows they should be pointing at each other with the dizzy pointing at 1 so I am relieved thinking I found the problem (Plus the chain was very stretched and practicaly laying down on the gears.
1) Removed the cam gear and chain
2) pulled off the crank gear
3) Reinstalled crank gear
4) Rotated cam gear till the dots were pointing at each other
5) Reinstalled the chain
6) Pulled the distributor and rotated the rotor to face #1 and reinstalled
7) Posted this thread
8) Decided to put it back together
9) Put everything back on up to the harmonic balancer
10) After speaking with Meep Meep on the phone I rotated the crank 1 complete revolution, repulled the distributor, rotated the rotor again and reinstalled.
11) Finished installing all the accessories, fan, radiator, belts, etc
12. Manually pumped the carb linkage till I got fuel into the carb and said a prayer...hit the key, and its still just cranking...not even attempting to start.
I dont know what else to do. All gaskets were replaced all torc specs were done correctly with a torque wrench, I labeled and bagged everthing so I know everything went back on in the right place. I just know it has to be something simple that I am missing or I just didnt get the timing right.
I hope this helps and I am sorry it is so long. Sharing one vehicle with 4 kids is hard on the family and it is starting to affect my wifes job and we cant afford a new car or to pay $80+ an hour for a mechanic to look at it. I can fix it if I know the problem...I just cant find the problem.
