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Got a problem.
You guys know I just tore down my engine and did a ring job and updated all the stuff on it. During the process I put in new points, condenser, capacitor, coil, rotor and cleaned up the cap. I also cleaned the tips of the plug wires, blasted the plugs clean and freshened up the distributor/ignitor cover.
Well, after only 8 miles of moving it around the yard and 3 trips around the neighborhood it developed a miss. Today I decided to try an experiment by starting the engine and letting it run for about 2 minutes. I then shut it down and felt the exhaust maniflod. #'s 1,2 and 4 were hottt but 3,5 and 6 were dead cold.
Just thought I'd ask if anyone has had this problem before or has any ideas before I spend several hours freezing to death chasing my tail.
Am I wrong to suspect the distrib/points first?
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I know alot of you are saying "DUH!" But my real question is what would make three cyl's misfire at once? I can see one maybe two but three is wierd, and for it to happen all at once?
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The first time I drove my truck, I could not get more than 25 mph out of it. It popped a lot and I was thinking valves. The next day I started it up for a few minutes and did the same thing you did, felt the exhasut manifold very lightly...3 were cold. I replaced all the spark plugs and that took care of it. So, 3 dead/fouled plugs but thought it best to change all of them since it had most likely been years since changed. I lucked out, simple fix.
Least expensive plugs I found, $8.85.
http://www.eriksmilitarysurplus.com/spplsetform7.html
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Great link. They will be on order Monday!
I re-cleaned the old ones since this prob and I guess they must be bad, not just fouled.
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Tracy, spark plugs do wear out. I don't know what kind of blaster you used on the plugs. But, most of the commercial blasters also have a little pressure chamber attached to test the plugs. A plug that works great at 130 psi might not fire at all at 85 psi. A cold engine at idle might not be making much psi inside with the wopping 6.5:1 compression ratio these engines have or whatever it is.
My point is that you need to get it out and drive the thing, get it good and hot and put a load on it. My M35 Gasser runs awfull if I let it sit more than 2 weeks without a road run. Like 30 mph top speed. I have found that if I let it run down a certain hill wide open and gravity assist up to 50, then hold it on the floor for about 5 miles afterwards. I can turn around and climb that same hill at 50 going up. They were meant to be used, use it. Or, change plugs and let the same thing happen in another 6 months of idle around the yard duty.
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If you have the time, you might switch the 3 bad with the 3 good and see if the problem moves with them...
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Your firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4.
Could possibly be a cap issue if 5, 3 and 6 were cold as they do follow each other in the firing order.
I'd pull the plugs and definitely have a look. I've had little luck blasting spark plugs, particularly when they've been flooded in the past. Seems the fuel will soak into the insulators around the electrodes, providing a shorter path to ground and not allowing the spark to jump the gap on the plugs.
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Get the plugs Tracy. If they have been fouled even once it will change the resistance value of the plugs. I have a bud who is a nutjob on todays technology for cars. He always has something interesting to say about stuff you and I would not bat an eye at. He won't hesitate to change out plugs where I might think they were still fine. Good luck with it. I'm sure you will get it dialed.
Cheers...
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My first thoughts would be mis-adjusted points, bad cap or rotor, or bad bearings in the distributer... three in a row like that sounds like some part of the dist is out of round or something.
--Randy
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Tisk, tisk. All that engine work and you put in the old plugs again:~(
Hope that's it for you. It's nice to see someone rebuild/restore stock. We're the minority on here....
Scott