Why the engine wont run

[Bee1971]

Feb 5th 2021

One other thing I'll mention if it makes a difference. On the day I did get it running a few weeks ago, I let it high idle for 20 min for the initial break in. When I turned it off there was a single muffled backfire through the tailpipe. Could that have anything to do with the current starting problem?

I am at my wits end on this. Ready to put an ad on Craigslist.



Pull the heads for piece of mind

Have them gone through , or now is a good time for aluminum

 

[Paul_G]

I have been trying everything I can think of to free up the valves and not need to pull the heads. I still have an intake valve sticking open, #3, it wont close completely, no compression in that hole. The other cylinders range from 165 to 180.

The engine runs surprising well for having a dead hole. The cleaner in the fuel helped, but it cant work miracles. The heads need to come off. Also it does strange things when lifting plug wires off the distributer. Some cylinders have a pronounced effect, drop in idle speed, others not so much. #1 actually raises the idle speed when the plug wire is lifted off. Strange.

BTW, sour fuel is definitely a thing. There is sticky goo dripping out of the exhaust under the car. The exhaust is clamped not welded. Where condensate water would normally drip out of the joints, the sticky brown goo is coming out instead.

And, the ignition box has issues. Sometimes it would not fire the coil, then it would. That took some time to catch.

 

[Triplegreen500]

Perhaps call a priest? Sounds like the car's Christine tank is overflowing just a bit...

I agree though - heads need to come off. While off, I'd replace all the seals and guides...since you're there. And double-triple-check all the valve stems for bend and diameter.

 

[Paul_G]

I pulled the heads and went through them myself. The intake valve guide on #3 cylinder was pushed down far enough that that it would not allow the valve to fully close. The other head also had valve guides that had moved down, but not far enough to hold the valve open. I tapped the guides back up with a piece of hard wood and a hammer. Splintered the wood, but did finally get the guides back in place.

The intake ports, valves, guides and bowls were loaded with that brown tar like goo. It cleaned out fairly easy with lacquer thinner. Cleaned it off of the piston tops as well.

I spent a couple days with my die grinder and did some gasket matching and clean up inside the ports. Same for the intake manifold ports. A lot of material gets cut out, more than you would think. I had a pretty big pile of filings. Washed everything out with soap and water and the garden hose. Did a quick hand lap on all the valves, then reassemble.

Just curious here, anyone have an idea of how much HP can be gained by doing some porting work like this?

Ran the engine today. Running as smooth as swiss watch, again.

 

[Paul_G]

I have been driving the car around the neighborhood now for a few days. I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised at how well that 440 runs, that engine pulls hard. It has an Edelbrock 850 on it right now. Dont know the exact spec on the "RV cam", but from what I have found they are fairly low lift and duration cams. I did spend some time with a die grinder on those 906 heads. There was a ton if metal removed from the ports. I was surprised at how much.

 

[66Satellite47]

Ya, once you start grinding on a 906 head, you can take a lot out. My home ported 906 & 915's were about 7 pounds lighter than a virgin head. I used cylinder heads to simulate driver weight when setting up the suspension on my Arrow. So measured each head, ported and virgin. Was shocked by the difference.

 

[Bee1971]

Let’s see some pictures of the car

Thanx

 

[Paul_G]