67 383 Dart
They couldn't have reused the old timing chain....could they?
OK this is getting interesting now, collective efforts of all members getting to the bottom of the problem.
Starting to sound familiar, someone has a car or a part they want to sell you and will tell you anything to get it sold and turn it into money for them. Trust no one until proven trust worthy!
Here is the deal, previous owner had a burnt exhaust valve on his original 67 383 GTS with the 516 heads, so he rounds up a set of reworked 915 open chambered heads and swaps them on to this original engine and that is it. So then he tells the next buyer that he just overhauled the engine and it's been built with a purple cam. Unfortunatly not true, just put on a different set of heads as he did not open up the front of the engine and change the timing chain set and gears and did not change the cam either. The original timing chain and gears totally wore out, 50 years old. Timing chain was probably gone 10,000 miles ago when he swapped to the 915 heads, that's why it never ran right.
There is always a silver lining to every cloud. Hopefully the unique 67 383 Split Grind camshaft is still in there that is designed to work with the original 516 heads small exhaust valves for good performance. Please do not throw that original 67 383 cam away, I for one would like to have it on my Parts shelf.
The old saying goes: This is in my opinion . . I will be the first one to take a shot at this as to what really happened to this engine and why it is not making any power.
Have fun with the diagnostics, we will see what he finds when he opens up the timing cover next.
