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Need someone to replace head gasket


old521

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As I recall the distributor is a single points version, I could not tell you if it was timed properly as it had a sawtooth timing plate and an L16 front pulley with several grooves/notches in it, I am not familiar with the L16 pulley so I had no idea which notch was 0 degrees, it was very sunny out and could hardly see down in that timing plate area, mostly I used the timing light to see if all wires had spark, at first #2 had none and the engine was missing bad, but as the engine warmed up #2 hit more and more, by the time I left it was hitting every time it was supposed to, I have no idea why it did not have spark when we first started it, I changed out the wire another wire and it made no difference, it did a lot of stuff that did not make sense to me.

 

I have mentioned before that I hate 320 points distributors, they have done nothing but aggravate me and cause issues with my 320 engines, I get the thing working properly where it starts and runs great and the next day it will not start again, I put any other distributor in it and it starts right up, but since the 1963 Datsun 320 is a positive ground truck it limited me on what I could use until I found out an MG Midget distributor I had with a Crane ignition system in it would bolt right in and could be wired positive ground, I have never had an issue with it starting since, I suppose that his distributor could be causing these issues but I am skeptical, I do remember touching the coil and it being very hot, at first I pulled my hand away as I thought I would get burned, but I was able to hold my palm on it a few minutes later without getting burned, but it was very hot, Glenn said the ignition had been left on and that is why it got hot, I don't recall if it had a ballast resister, it was 5pm and very hot outside and I was not thinking clearly, I was drinking water like crazy by then.

 

Thinking about it now, I suppose when I removed and installed the intake manifold dirt in the Weber carb bowl could have been disturbed and gotten where it was not supposed to be and when it was started it messed stuff up, but I had it idling semi smooth at round 800rpms at one point using the fuel mixture screw, but the engine was still making a lot of noise, when he started driving it more dirt in the Weber carb bowl could have been disturbed and caused more issues, that carb was adjustable when I was there as I adjusted the idle down to around 800rpms using the fuel mixture screw, the idle could not be adjusted with the idle adjustment screw, it was backed off and not touching, I used my finger on the throttle arm and was not able to force it to a lower rpm, I had to use the fuel adjustment screw.

 

I think both the distributor and carb are suspect here, if the everything could be figured out and the engine ran smoothly/dependably then the noise/racket it is making could be chased after/figured out, but until the engine runs smoothly/dependably I just don't see a reason to chase after the noise/racket.

 

As I said before when turning the crank to put it on TDC I looked at the timing chain and could see all the way to the gear on the crank and that little post that sticks out above it, if I backed up the crank the driver side chain went slack, this seemed normal to me, when I put the cam gear back on I had to get it perfect to get it to slide on, there was no fudging room, it had to be perfect to get the gear on, same when I moved it a tooth, it had to be perfect to get the gear on the cam, why it is making so much noise makes me think something in there is out of place or completely worn out, the chain didn't look abnormal like it was rubbing on metal or anything, the driver side guide had been bent out at the top from what appeared to be too long a bolt holding the thermostat housing on, but it had the right bolt in there, so after I removed the head I bent the guide back to it's proper position, it did not look like anything down there was out of position, but the engine was sure making a lot of noise somewhere, I wonder if a worn out tensioner could be the issue.

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