L18 Firing Order/Spark Wire Hookup?

[banzai510(hainz)]

you try the mixture screw at base of carb? You never said if you did this.

[atkinson40]

you try the mixture screw at base of carb? You never said if you did this.

 

I just tried it without results. Whatever the problem is, its not static. The engine is improving ever time I start it without me doing anything except starting it and running it for a little while. This morning I hooked up a vacuum gauge to the intake manifold, but don't know how to interprete the readings. I can now rev the engine and keep it running smoothly at high RPM.(couldn't do this before). The vacuum gauge reads steady at high RPM and jumps up when I rev the engine. Thanks Kevin

[Cuts metal like mad]

gaining compression maybe? :confused:

[HRH]

You know, I wonder if you sucked some water into the fuel line somehow. Did you maybe spill some in it when you had it disconnected, if you did? Either that or one of your jets just passed a kidney stone.

[Buzzbomb]

I think I do have a vacuum gauge. I can put it on. I wonder if me needing to continually feather the gas pedal and the engine running rough will cause it to read wrong. :confused:

 

Will the truck idle at all now? You say it's getting better. How tight did you put the intake bolts on? When I had the exact same problem, I thought I tightened mine up enough, and when I put the torque wrench on the bolts, I was surprised how "loose" they were. It only takes a few minutes to recheck the intake bolts, and if they are tight enough, that eliminates a massive vacuum leak from intake to head. With that out of the way, it's probably valve lash (had that problem too :P ), timing, or carb.

 

A VG is also a helpful tool for adjusting idle mixture screws as Hainz suggested. Here is a great link for reading a vacuum gauge:

 

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm

[banzai510(hainz)]

if it starts up ,i say timming is good.

How about put your hand over the 2nd barrel of carb and try to get the vacuum up.

 

ck to make sure the 2ndary plate is closed. or put hand over and see what happens.

 

I had this happen to a stock carb I adjusted the mixture and it was fixed. Could only run by pushing /cycling the acell pump

[atkinson40]

or put hand over and see what happens.

 

I can get the engine to idle by putting my hand over the carburator intake and carefully controlling the amount of air going in the carb. I think this means I have a vacuum leak on the intake manifold? TIA Kevin

[banzai510(hainz)]

my Banzai beater 510 I went to put my weber DGV back on cause gas was 4.50 a gal.

But I swapped out 3 DGVs and 2 stock intakes of questionable condition and could never get it to idle. unless the enrichment circut was still on*hit gas then the linkage closed and goes to idle mode) but it never worked

I put my sidedrafts back on and was fine.

 

I couldnt figure it out for 3 days!!!!!!!! Then I relized I was not the L motor God people think I am

[HRH]

Everyone has that. I chased a loose battery wire for three days on the 510. It was loose where it went into the terminal, the terminal was tight. Kept checking the terminal. :D

[atkinson40]

I sealed off every vacuum line to the intake manifold and retightened the intake manifold bolts. I started the truck at each step to try and pinpoint a cause for the poor performance, but can't point to any one thing that made the truck run better, but it does run better. It runs strong and hard at high RPMs. It now at least idles(Although very roughly and only after warming up), so I can begin to ferret out issues standing over the motor rather than needing to be in the cab feathering the accelerator to keep it running.

 

Things I've noted so far:

 

1. I hooked up a timing light at idle and its 15 BTDC.

 

2. Removing the vacuum to the dizzy doesn't affect the timing at idle. (Will see today if it affects the timing as I rev the engine)

 

3. Unhooking a couple of the spark plug wires, one at a time, doesn't seem to have great affect on the engine at idle. At first I thought maybe plugs because I can move the timing light to each plug wire and it will fire the light, but then thought maybe the gas mixture is so messed up at idle that maybe those cylinders arn't getting enough gas to cause them to fire correctly.

 

4. The temp gauge goes up about 80% of the scale and then falls back, telling me the thermostat is working.

 

I bought some carb cleaner and new plugs so today will use the carb cleaner to see if I have vacuum leaks and clean the carb. If I remember right, spraying the carb cleaner around where a leak could be will cause the engine to bog if there's a leak.

 

I'll also change the plugs.

[banzai510(hainz)]

try 7-10 degressBTDC on the timming

then adjust the mixture again. do this togeter till it come out better .or well it should.

 

You ever ck the lash pads specs???????

[atkinson40]

ck to make sure the 2ndary plate is closed.

 

What is this?

 

 

 

You ever ck the lash pads specs???????

 

I need to retorque the head now that it's gotten hot a couple of times so I'll check them while I have the valve cover off.

[banzai510(hainz)]

the secondary plate in the carb.

 

look inside the carb. when you cycle the gas youll see the main plate open up. if you have a stock carb the 2nd barrel plate should be fully closed. Push it with your finger open/close it.

 

another thing I do is I rev it up high enough and put my hand over the main barrel and see if the second barrel/plate opens up as it will work on vaccum.

 

so rev it and put hand over and the 2nd plate should opne up monintarily

[bonvo]

grab onto the carb and try moving it if it moves the screws that hold the base of the carb to the rest of it have backed out this causes a HUGE vacume leak take the carb off and tighten the screws if they dont tighten its time to helicoil it or get a new carb

 

this may not be the issue but i chased a vacume leak for a while and i couldnt find it till i rested my hand on the carb to look at somthing and the fucker moved its worth checking and i havent seen anyone mention it yet

[atkinson40]

Today I sprayed some cleaner around and inside the carb. No change in rough idle. I then pulled the plugs and noticed that two were wet with gas and two were dry. The wet ones are the cylinders that have little effect when I pull the plug wires to them. I changed the plugs and still get little difference in engine performance when I pull these plug wires with the engine idleing. I think I have spark to the plugs because I can put a timing light on the wires and it fires the timing light. Tommorrow I'm gong to buy cap, rotor, plug wires, points and condenser and see if it helps.

 

PS: Also retorqued the head bolts and checked the valve lash. All OK

Edited August 20, 2009 by atkinson40

[Cuts metal like mad]

better do a compression test

[atkinson40]

better do a compression test

 

I know. But I don't have easy access to compression gauge. Also I don't want to think about what bad compression means:( I'm hoping that the plugs being wet with gas means poor spark. If the compression was bad, I think the plugs would still fire and not be wet. Thanks Kevin

[Buzzbomb]

I'm hoping that the plugs being wet with gas means poor spark. If the compression was bad, I think the plugs would still fire and not be wet. Thanks Kevin

 

Did you check the float level? Maybe it's too high and flooding out the truck.. What is the vaccum gauge doing now that truck can idle?

[atkinson40]

Did you check the float level? Maybe it's too high and flooding out the truck.. What is the vaccum gauge doing now that truck can idle?

 

When it was running and I held the idle a bit high to keep it smooth, the VG read steady above 18. Last night I changed wires, points, condenser, cap and rotor and it wouldn't start. Didn't get much farther than moving the timing light to all the plug wires and see that they fired the light. Also watched the points spark as wifey cranked the engine. Noticed that most of the time I saw a baby wuss spark and every once in a while I'd see a spark with some heuvos. Today's another day and I'll try and figure out why its not starting. Thanks Kevin

[banzai510(hainz)]

commom

swap back to old points and see if spark.usually loose connection

 

got fire order correct?

[atkinson40]

commom

swap back to old points and see if spark.usually loose connection

 

got fire order correct?

 

I have spark:confused: At least I think I do.:confused: If I move the timing light to each wire near the plug and it fires the timing light, doesn't this mean I have spark at that plug?:confused: But does it mean I have a strong spark?? Maybe enough to fire the light but not fire the cycinder??

 

The difference in stregnth of the spark at the points doesn't seem normal to me. Sometimes strong, sometimes weak. I'll check the connections.

 

PS: Got firing order correct

[banzai510(hainz)]

spark at points is common but less spark is better at points.

Thats what the condensor is there for to catch AC part of the spark arching across the points.

 

ck for gas in carb now

[atkinson40]

ck for gas in carb now

 

Today I cleaned all the electrical connections to the points. Seems all OK. I noticed the fuel filter only half full so pulled it an shook out a massive amount of rust, paint flakes, dirt, etc from it. Bought a new fuel filter and installed. Now once again as I pump the throttle, I can only see a small dribble of gas going in the carb. This happened before but for awhile became a strong squirt. Nows it's back to a dribble. The carb is an old Hitachi that came on the L16. Even before the DAF 328. What carbs will fit on as a swap to check if that's the problem? Thanks Kevin

 

PS: The glass window in front shows the bowl full of gas.

[banzai510(hainz)]

plugged?

accell pump?

[atkinson40]

plugged?

accell pump?

 

Maybe. I pulled the fuel filter and shook out a massive amount of crap in my hand. I've been trying to ID my carb to find out what rebuild kit to look for. Any ideas what carb I have. I think its the original. Truck was manufactured in May of 1972. The carb has no anti-deiseling valve. I cant find any markings on it anywhere.

 

 

 

Also where can I find a rebuild kit once I ID the carb? Thanks Kevin