I seriously doubt your plug wires are the issue. I just took off a set of plug wires that were on my BBC, and one was broken in two, and two others shorting to the headers, and it still started great, and ran with a low speed miss. Takes a lot to just not run at all, and I think you've got fuel issues keeping yours from starting.

 

Damon, the Korea stamping is underneath one side of the "OUT" ports. I guarantee that one says it too.


I'm completely confident that this engine still has fuel down in it. It however, is on it's second carb and second regulator now. Not sure what could still be causing a fuel problem at this point. I'm also not saying that plug wires are definitely causing the starting problem but it could be a reason why it's not wanting to stay running. You took your wires off an engine that was properly timed but had a miss. If I had a wire that the terminal pulled away from the resistor/core, that wire wouldn't be working at all would it? I know what an engine sounds/feels like with a bad wire. Ford charged me $317 to replace the #3 wire on my 2 year old SHO back in the day. I know I don't have shorted wires, but I did find my new speedo cable already melted from being too close to the header! Anyway, I'm still going to check them, only things that haven't been checked over a half dozen times now.

 

If the wire separated at the snap connector. It would still fire in most cases. Remember your jumping a gap at the plug too. The wire would do the same. Less energy will reach the plug but I doubt it would be a dead miss.

I completely overlooked verifying the cylinders were empty in all the talks we had. A good start right there. Could be hard to roll over by hand when trying to compress gas! I would have thought it would drain past the rings but maybe not?

 

Understand what you're saying about the wires, didn't think about it that way. I had my son help me check all 8 for gas and didn't get a drop out on the towel. I pulled the plugs on one side at a time and held a thick shop towel over each hole with my hand (one at a time, my hands aren't THAT big) and he cranked it over. I dumped gas out of plugs 1,3,7 and 4 when I took them out though. I felt the compression push against my finger at least 3 times on each cylinder, again, no gas on the towel.


Think it's about time I put the original carb back on there as I haven't had much of any success with the old one. I left the plugs out again for the night to let them dry out and will go for it again tomorrow after I swap carbs again.


One thing I did want to mention however, is the fuel pressure gauge. When I installed the Korean regulator I knew it was preset at 6.5psi out of the box. I turned it down about a turn and a half initially and was right around 5.5psi. I look tonight after turning it over with the plugs out and it's now showing just over 6. Don't like that it has changed but wasn't sure if I should be concerned about that.

 

Have you taken the MSD box out of the equation yet? Or maybe you did and I missed that chapter?

 

Yes, not only will a broken center core on a plug wire fire, but if your MSD box is working well, even a high resistance break will jump across and fire. The one broken wire I had was holding together by about 1/3 of the outer insulation, and I could see the burnt insulation from trying to jump the arc. The other two were just cracked, and jumping through the crack to the header, so they were probably more of an issue going to ground than the broken wire. A good MSD box, and good wires will be harder to discover a bad wire, or plug than stock ignition and stock wires.
I can't remember if you did the MSD test as it shows in their instructions, but you did say you have a good spark, so I'd assume the MSD and wires are good, unless something changed.
PS-Don't EVER buy Accel plug wires! I know I wont ever buy them again! The ones I just replaced with all the issues were only a month old, and already went bad. I replaced them with 40 ohm Moroso Race wires, which are so much better!

 

I have the exact same Moroso wires Vall, but Accel spark plugs.


I never did mention disconnecting the ignition box in any of the previous chapters, but I did try to start the engine with just the distributor wired. Probably should've mentioned it, sorry. Still did the exact same thing as it was doing with it connected. I had checked spark on 2,4 and 6 with my son so yes it is getting spark. I reconnected the ignition box right away when I realized it wasn't doing anything different with it disconnected. Never tested the actual box like it shows in the instrux. I was trying to get the wiring together and organized inside and get the console ready to go back in. I also managed to get the neutral safety micro switch working properly on the shifter. Only had the reverse lights figured out before but they're both working properly now.


So, here I am currently with the plugs out, the cylinders checked for residual fuel build up and the original carb back together and ready to go back on tomorrow. I left the plugs out to help dry anything out that might be left in there. Can't imagine how I could've not gotten any fuel that was in there "pushed" out by holding a thick paper towel against the spark plug hole while the engine turned over. I pulled the 4 plugs out on one side, held the towel up to each individual hole while my son turned the engine over for 3-4 revolutions each. I was thoroughly surprised to not get any gas on the towel however. Think I'll run and get a can of starting fluid so I don't have to pump the throttle at all initially and see if I can get it running that way first.

 

Pressurized vapor knuckle...yup thats what it is. Sorry man, just out of ideas.

 

I changed those too Damon. Both of 'em.

 

Upper and the lower??