Mixed Bag

Post date: Jun 6, 2012 10:57:05 PM

My father in law was visiting last weekend, so I put him to work! We got the engine out and poked around. The distributor parts got returned to me with insufficient postage, so I put the new dizzy back on and checked it out. Turns out it gets good spark until it gets warm, then #4 and #7 start missing randomly. So, back in the mail they go.

Swapped back to the old dist and went back to work on the idle. It still isn't happy below 1000 rpm, with lots of sputtering and surging, and dies if it goes below 800. Dennis suggested it is a vacuum leak, but poking around with starting fluid didn't show anything. We took a look at the plugs, but I don't think there's enough oil to point at a leak in the valley. There was also an occasional miss at higher RPMs, but looked like it was getting good spark. Did a compression test, and the cylinders range between 150 and 160. The PowerMaster starter turns pretty slowly, and the rings haven't seated at all, so I was really just making sure there wasn't something completely strange. Also re-adjusted the valve lash, just in case.

Since this still isn't the final carb, I didn't mess around too much. Did put in new plugs just in case.

BTW, speaking of the final carb, I got an update from Sparky:

Hopefully I'll see it in person soon!

In other news, I did the sealing on the gas tank, and ran the hard lines for fuel and return. Lots of stuff left before this build can be really enjoyed....