Wasn't aware you did that. That puts that one to bed eh. Is there aaaaaany way you could have gotten the crank/cam timing marks off by a tooth? I'm sure you don't want to go ripping into it to check, neither would I.

 

I installed a gear drive timing set. If you look at the pic, the cam gear mark is right on a tooth and the crank is in between 2 teeth. I believe I installed it correctly.

 

Good thing you took pics. Yeah, those marks line up correctly.

 

Lots of pics indeed. Tried to photo document everything for a multitude of reasons, verification being one of them. I'm confident that timing is getting very close to being where it should be/needs to be. Only thing that bothers me still is the spitting out of the carb. It's pretty violent sometimes. I hate to start messing with plug wires or the distributor again but I'm thinking about moving the wires one terminal over from where they're at now. That way I can move the distributor back a little bit and free up some additional space for advancing as I'm sure it needs to go a bit more. Either that or I've gotta pull it again and I'd rather not do that again right now. I'll just say that the clear cap has one distinct advantage and that being the ability to see where the rotor is pointing when I bump it over and try to line things up.

 

It does look like TDC is correct, but I agree that you need to sort of forget about those things for now, and get the distributor set where it wants to run well. It will most likely take a few minutes of keeping the rpm up until it's warmed up a bit. Then you can use a remote start switch to fire it up while you're at the engine, and you can hold the throttle while you adjust the distributor until it sounds good and stays running.
I've done the dance where I fired an engine, and tried to jump out quickly and grab the throttle to keep it running, while trying to adjust the timing by ear. It's a PITA, and it all gets simpler if I'm already out under the hood when it fires, and I can make adjustments while keeping it running by hand.

 

Got the timing tape today already and put that on the balancer. I lined the rotor back up with #1 to see where I was at by the tape instead of the pointer (thought I was around 12) and it was right at 20 btdc by the tape. I realize it's not being read with a light but this is what has gotten me this far at least. I backed the distributor off a bit and did get it to fire right up and could keep it at 2500 rpm without it stalling. Still no idling. It was popping through the exhaust pretty good, but not terrible. I could rev without spitting through the carb while it was running. I'll get some video a little later, have to run to town for kid retrieval now.

 

Now's the time to start cranking on the distributor while it's running, until you can let off on the throttle and it stays running! Pick up a pushbutton switch while you're in town!

 

Forgot that my "luck" only comes in very brief intervals. I got it to start again this evening, but this time it took a while to get it to fire again. Fuel pressure hadn't budged on the gauge from this afternoon where I left off. Not too worried about that as it did start again, but stalled after 10 seconds. Guess that was a blessing in disguise though. I knew the water was starting to circulate through the engine pretty well as every time it starts I can see the heater hoses kind of move around a little bit. I just happened to stick my head out and look at the engine after it stalled and saw that the top of the intake was floating in water. Those darn stainless hoses with the rubber couplers are a real PITA I tell ya! The rubber sleeve that the clamp(s) slide over between hose and fitting on the intake was split in two and the water was coming out of there in full force. That stopped the evenings timing festivities for me. They don't send extra rubber pieces in the kits so I had to dig out a leftover heater hose and cut a piece to use as a coupler. Just have to tighten the clamps on it and hope none of the others decide to do the same thing. Sucks that it's getting dark so much earlier now already, quarter after 8 and it's almost completely dark. Had to wrap it up for the night and get the kids geared up for school tomorrow. Bummed too, last real warm day we'll probably see up here until next year by the looks of the weather forecast.

 

Those hoses are a pain. And the leaking is just the beginning of the problems ahead. Just think how little it's run and they already leak. Wonder how they'll hold up under more running and driving?

 

The leaking was the result of me over tightening the clamp and splitting the rubber piece in half. Not sure what other problems there could be besides leaking though? I'm actually glad that I used pieces of heater hose as the couplers now, I re-did them all. The rubber pieces included in the kits were the weak link and now those are gone. So if they leak now it'll be because of the heater hose and If that hose leaks, then it would've leaked if only they were used. A little extra work doing 2 clamps on each end but well worth it for the better appearance in my opinion. Hopefully that'll be the last time I even need to think about those until I need to remove them for another reason. Moving on.


Miserable rainy day today, over 2" already and still pouring down. I decided to get underneath and start getting the exhaust laid out again. It's become apparent that I will not be able to run the pipes out in front of the rear tires using this X pipe. Mufflers won't fit before the X pipe and that's the only place I could put them and not have them hanging down way too low. They won't fit right off the header because of the cross member in the way so the only place they could go is right under the rear floor pans and that won't work either. Also, is it common to have the header collector on the pass. side right up tight to the trans cross member? Once I slide the X-pipe piece over the collector it pretty much rests on the cross member. Aside from the ruined paint (already) on it, it's going to rattle like crazy if it's not secured extremely well I imagine. I would really like to get the exhaust done so it's not so loud when I keep trying to start it and immediately rev it to almost 3k. Never thought I'd be saying that as I love how it sounds but the noise makes it impossible to hear anything else.


Anyone using an X-pipe setup that would be willing to share some pics of how they have it ran with the mufflers? I sure would appreciate seeing how others have it ran and where they put the mufflers and hangers, etc. That would actually be a big help if I could see some pics. Thanks in advance!