obvious problem? maybe not? investigating helps

[grumpyvette]

Have a buddy (who will go un-named) who has his 1986 vette sitting for several months in a hot florida garage, while hes been busy (most of us have done something similar at one time or another)
anyway he goes to start it and the batterys dead so he jumps it and it starts very reluctantly, but sounds like its got a rod knock, so he shuts it off,and starts freaking out!
he calls me, all excited because the car ran perfectly when he parked it.
(GOOD MOVE, never run an engine that sounds damaged)
I come over and suggest he pull the plugs and check the oil.......oils three qts HIGH and smells like fuel.......short answer, IT appears that heat in the garage where its frequently 100 plus F in temp pressurised the tank and fuel lines just enough that over several weeks time fuel leaking from a defective injector slowly drained into the engine.
there was about a table spoon of raw fuel in one cylinder when we pulled the plugs to check.
anyway, replacing the fuel in the tank, oil,in the engine, the oil filter and spark plugs and running a qt of marvel mystery oil and two cans of injector cleaner thru the full tank of new fuel seems to have cleaned up and cured it. and theres no obvious damage done at this point.
his oil pressure is steady and holds at 25 psi at idle and the car runs great and when I cut the oil filter open there was no bearing material.

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=938

in most cases your unlikely to see that because INJECTORS don,t normally lock open and fuel pumps and fuel tanks don,t normally allow fuel to reach the engine pressurized by heat building pressure in the tank as they normally vent to outside pressure, but he seems to have more (LUCK) than most and gets ODD problems on occasion

 

[grumpyvette]

I had a friend stop by, he wanted me to look at his road runner,its got a really nice 440 chrysler in it, seems its running a bit rought and smoking, some blow bye etc. a quick check by pulling each plug wire and use of my IR temp gun quickly found two cylinders were not firing, he to it home and did a compression check, and theres obvious detonation damage, he admits he got cheap and loaded the tank with the cheapest fuel he could find, knew it (PINGED) but never retarded the timing.......yeah I grinned and ask him HOW MUCH DID YOU SAVE ON THAT TANK OF GAS??? well I hope it covers the rings, bearings,gaskets, pistons, reballancing, etc.......
he looked sick, then ask me to find a stroker rotating assembly, saying if hes going thru a rebuild hes going to up the displacement a bit....I told him to wait before ordering parts, and to do the careful inspection on disassembly as the block might be trash!

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http://www.440source.com/strokerkitfaq.htm

http://www.rpmmachine.com/440-500-chrys ... oker.shtml

http://www.speedomotive.com/s-14-big-bl ... -hemi.aspx

http://www.campbellenterprises.com/eagl ... 00_440.htm

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http://chucker54.stores.yahoo.net/bigblstroas.html

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http://www.indyheads.com/headporting.html

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If a symtom comes and goes, rather at random, ID start looking at the plugs for indications of whats going on in the cylinders. ID do a compression/leak down test to verify its not mechanical in nature, Id verify the fuel pressure was consistant, Id open the carb and check internally for crud or broken parts, Id check the float levels and set the idle adjustemts and if I had a F/A meter ID be using it, to look for indications, and Id use a timing light to verify the timing curve advance runs smoothly, a VOM to do a few checks on voltage and resistance on ignition components , like plug wires and check the battery voltage bunder load,and and Id use an IR temp gun to verify the exhaust temp is reasonably consistant between cylinders as the first checks, you can,t cure the problem untill its isolated and clearly defined

BTW SUSPECT A VACUME LEAK?

get out your oxy-acetolene torch or a propane torch, don,t light it but turn it on so gas is flowing and place the tip near any suspected leak points, while a buddy watches the tach, anytime the gas gets sucked thru a crack the rpms will jump higher in direct relation to the amount of extra fuel the engines getting, no, oil, fluid,or cruds or stains are left on the intake and its simple too do process