Finding overfueling problems :D

[Wintermute]

Well, I've been tracking down issues with overfueling on my truck. One of them was obvious, the o-ring on the inlet into the carb was disintegrated. This pretty much meant that the float in the fuel bowl wasn't shutting off the fill to the fuel bowl ever...basically, it was filled to the brim all the time and heavily overfueling because of it. This was an easy fix with the carb rebuild.

Now here's a fun find though. I went to replace the spark plugs and wires today and I thought the truck still had mil wires on it until I looked again. The wires were some wierd bubba'd up setup using a mil wire spliced with a civvy wire. This allowed them to screw the wire onto the mil distributor but use civvy plugs. Well, apparently their design isn't well thought out. It meant that at least one plug was never firing because it wasn't in contact with the distributor, and the others would mis-fire intermittently because they would jiggle around and not get a connection

Here's the plug wires for your entertainment:







I then decided to drain the oil...that was fun. I figure it was about 2 quarts over filled...with gasoline. I don't know how long it had been run with the plugs mis-firing and the carb overfueling, but my guess is that it was a while. The oil was pretty thinned out and stunk of fuel. Hopefully my main bearings aren't shot because of it. I know the compression on the engine is still good (tested that before I bought it)...but I don't know if the main bearings are damaged because of running with very thinned out oil. The top-end is fine, broke that down and checked it, no bad wearing and the carrier, valves, rockers, etc... are all in good shape.

Well, I guess we'll see how the main bearings are in a while...hopefully I don't find out that they're damaged through catastrophic failure

--Wintermute

[kwai]

The usual cause for the gasoline in the crankcase is a bad fuel pump. Unless you are absolutely certain the fuel pump is good it should be rebuilt as well.

[Wintermute]

Thanks for the tip. I was going to order in a kit from Then and Now Automotive to rebuild the pump anyways (good insurance even if nothing was wrong with it). I'll make sure to do that before I start running the truck again

--Wintermute

[brute4c]

Agreed on the fuel in the pan...

Weird on the plugs...thas a different approach I hadnt seen before.

It is hard to run civvy type wires with any of the mil stuff...even with civvy plug ends and civvy plugs, the cap end is not absolutely going to be connected without vibrating loose at times...