1973 Dart Sport
Spent the weekend working on the motor. Was hoping to fire it up without much issue on Saturday but that didn't happen. The fuel pump was bad for some reason but that was an $18 fix. Burned up a few wires in the process of figuring that out. Never could get it to fire even though the spark plugs were getting spark and the cylinders were getting gas in em. Thing is: it wasn't even trying. There was 0 detonation going on in any of the cylinders and we couldn't think of anything that would be so off. We worked til about 7 and then gave up for the day. I decided I was just gonna take the motor anyways. I got a quote from a shop off 33 to take a look and it was only $100-200 but a friend said "**** that, bring it over in that truck you just bought".
So Sunday I bring it to my friend's garage. First thing we noticed was the starter was moving at like half speed due to a redundant starter solenoid and shitty jumper cable wires. After some really weird behavior from the wiring and few runaways we got things fairly sorted out. I say we but really I know nothing about that tangled mess of wiring on the stand at the moment, so he is really saving my *** here. Despite this we're still not getting anything. It's been in the back of my mind the whole time but I didn't wanna consider it a possibility. But something confirms what I've been thinking since Saturday evening: there's air coming OUT of the carb while it's cranking. The few times I've seen gas fly out of it, I just blamed it on the choke plate. Nah my camshaft timing is definitely off. We place a grocery bag over it and cranked. It didn't even try to suck it in. Not sure how, but that's definitely it and solves all the mysteries. Even though it had only been 2 hours or so with that news I was done for the weekend.
The good news is it's not leaking anything anymore. The $80 water neck not only looks sexy but I had 0 issue getting it to seal. I pulled the oil filter plate as well and replaced it with a billet aluminum piece with an O-ring seal to replace the shitty paper one just in case that **** was gonna leak under pressure. Jeff also let me keep the engine there. I wasn't sure how I was going to fit it in the garage but now I don't really have to worry about that.
Loading it was pretty scary. Had to get it up pretty high and it was basically sitting at the top of a 45 degree incline. Only had one oh **** moment but I was able to stop it before it could get any momentum.
RIP my garage and gym space
Spent the weekend working on the motor. Was hoping to fire it up without much issue on Saturday but that didn't happen. The fuel pump was bad for some reason but that was an $18 fix. Burned up a few wires in the process of figuring that out. Never could get it to fire even though the spark plugs were getting spark and the cylinders were getting gas in em. Thing is: it wasn't even trying. There was 0 detonation going on in any of the cylinders and we couldn't think of anything that would be so off. We worked til about 7 and then gave up for the day. I decided I was just gonna take the motor anyways. I got a quote from a shop off 33 to take a look and it was only $100-200 but a friend said "**** that, bring it over in that truck you just bought".
So Sunday I bring it to my friend's garage. First thing we noticed was the starter was moving at like half speed due to a redundant starter solenoid and shitty jumper cable wires. After some really weird behavior from the wiring and few runaways we got things fairly sorted out. I say we but really I know nothing about that tangled mess of wiring on the stand at the moment, so he is really saving my *** here. Despite this we're still not getting anything. It's been in the back of my mind the whole time but I didn't wanna consider it a possibility. But something confirms what I've been thinking since Saturday evening: there's air coming OUT of the carb while it's cranking. The few times I've seen gas fly out of it, I just blamed it on the choke plate. Nah my camshaft timing is definitely off. We place a grocery bag over it and cranked. It didn't even try to suck it in. Not sure how, but that's definitely it and solves all the mysteries. Even though it had only been 2 hours or so with that news I was done for the weekend.
The good news is it's not leaking anything anymore. The $80 water neck not only looks sexy but I had 0 issue getting it to seal. I pulled the oil filter plate as well and replaced it with a billet aluminum piece with an O-ring seal to replace the shitty paper one just in case that **** was gonna leak under pressure. Jeff also let me keep the engine there. I wasn't sure how I was going to fit it in the garage but now I don't really have to worry about that.
Loading it was pretty scary. Had to get it up pretty high and it was basically sitting at the top of a 45 degree incline. Only had one oh **** moment but I was able to stop it before it could get any momentum.
RIP my garage and gym space
