Something isn't right..

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I remember breaking this engine in and suggested a street demons 750.. it has dual AF gauges and I think I had to turn the air fuel screws in a half a turn...
It runs absolutely perfect...

PXL_20210707_203633059.jpg
 
j par said:
Yes some brand new coil that has to be paired with the 7al...
Again it really makes me wonder why someone would sell a set of Edelbrock heads for $400... Think they may have had problems with them?...
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You should be able to see the pushrods rotate while cranking.
If you dont find the cam flat I would suspect the MSD box, would not be the first one that was bad out of the box.
 
512Stroker said:
You should be able to see the pushrods rotate while cranking.
If you dont find the cam flat I would suspect the MSD box, would not be the first one that was bad out of the box.
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Oh now the MSD "box" that's a whole nother cheap eBay or Craigslist find of his...
Now you see what I'm having to work with here... A mix of brand new parts and great Craigslist and eBay finds...
 
j par said:
Oh now the MSD "box" that's a whole nother cheap eBay or Craigslist find of his...
Now you see what I'm having to work with here... A mix of brand new parts and great Craigslist and eBay finds...
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Oh Boy that's a mess.
Ya get what ya pay for$.
 
512Stroker said:
Oh Boy that's a mess.
Ya get what ya pay for$.
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Again I was just hoping for an aha moment...
I remember on my car when I put the new heads on I had this clattering noise on the driver side and for the life of me I thought something had went terribly wrong. I checked through the rockers twice on that driver side and seen nothing and then the third time I pulled the valve cover off and looked and felt the rockers I finally found the number five exhaust was completely loose... Somehow it must have been jumping on and off of the lifter and I finally got that in order and thank goodness it didn't do any serious damage.. Ran perfect after that and has since. It was an aha moment...
 
j par said:
Again I was just hoping for an aha moment...
I remember on my car when I put the new heads on I had this clattering noise on the driver side and for the life of me I thought something had went terribly wrong. I checked through the rockers twice on that driver side and seen nothing and then the third time I pulled the valve cover off and looked and felt the rockers I finally found the number five exhaust was completely loose... Somehow it must have been jumping on and off of the lifter and I finally got that in order and thank goodness it didn't do any serious damage.. Ran perfect after that and has since. It was an aha moment...
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You probably have some counterfeit Chineseium going on. One dyno session would have it sorted and you'd have more information other than it just running "good". J.Rob
 
Not sure it happens with 7’s but 6’s get counterfeited a bunch.
 
Did you do a compression check that should tell you if the heads are the issue next I would be real suspect of that distributor plunk a old good distributor in it see where you're at my guess is it's in the ignition system somewhere.
 
RAMM said:
You probably have some counterfeit Chineseium going on. One dyno session would have it sorted and you'd have more information other than it just running "good". J.Rob
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LOL I don't care who you are that there's funny! LOL...
Honestly do you think someone who buys $400 eBay Edelbrock heads and Craigslist 7al's and won't even buy a timing light going to yank the motor out and have a Dino session?.. and here's the big one and pay for it!?... Lol...
Dino session LOL that's a good one...
 
j par said:
LOL I don't care who you are that there's funny! LOL...
Honestly do you think someone who buys $400 eBay Edelbrock heads and Craigslist 7al's and won't even buy a timing light going to yank the motor out and have a Dino session?.. and here's the big one and pay for it!?... Lol...
Dino session LOL that's a good one...
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Was just a suggestion albeit a crazy one. J.Rob
 
RAMM said:
Was just a suggestion albeit a crazy one. J.Rob
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I would say about 90% of my customers wouldn't even have their cars running unless I offered my services at rock bottom prices.. so guess who I'm dealing with and no offense but the really tightest people in town.. the people who think $20 an hour is a high paid mechanic LOL.. remember in the first post this guy had let this whole entire project go on a four year hiatus... Every last one of my customers says "was gonna"... I motivate them and encourage them and come over at dirt cheap rates to get their projects from sitting for 4 years or 20 years or 18 years in some cases to on the road and running...
The 63 Ford falcon headset in his shop for 20 years and his teenage sons had never even seen it run and now it's restored and driving. The guy with the 40 Dodge truck had had it for 18 years and just a few sessions with me it was out on the road going up and down the block for the first time since he owned it... Sometimes I just can't win them all but again this mismatch of cheap parts is giving me a little bit of a challenge and I was just reaching out here to the community for maybe some kind of aha thing that I hadn't thought of yet.. and possibly to reiterate some of the stuff I already knew..
 
  • Charge them 50 bucks an hour.
  • For 20 bucks they can afford to argue with you, at 50 bucks an hour they can't afford to.....
  • For 20 bucks an hour, they figure you know about as much as a parts store counter clerk. For 50 bucks and hour they give your advice doctor's heed!
 
318willrun said:
  • Charge them 50 bucks an hour.
  • For 20 bucks they can afford to argue with you, at 50 bucks an hour they can't afford to.....
  • For 20 bucks an hour, they figure you know about as much as a parts store counter clerk. For 50 bucks and hour they give your advice doctor's heed!
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I was just going to reply with something similar--@j par Charging so little is actually suppressing the very market you are trying to raise. I understand being fair but $20/hr is not fair to YOU. J.Rob
 
Oh and if your problem is not electronic in nature than you probably have a dead camshaft or something funky with the valvetrain. Good luck. J.Rob
 
318willrun said:
  • Charge them 50 bucks an hour.
  • For 20 bucks they can afford to argue with you, at 50 bucks an hour they can't afford to.....
  • For 20 bucks an hour, they figure you know about as much as a parts store counter clerk. For 50 bucks and hour they give your advice doctor's heed!
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RAMM said:
I was just going to reply with something similar--@j par Charging so little is actually suppressing the very market you are trying to raise. I understand being fair but $20/hr is not fair to YOU. J.Rob
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LOL I do charge more than $20 an hour...
And of course drive time...
Also it's not all assholes and elbows it's more of a casual help... I mean I get down and dirty but the person there has to be working just as much as me or more.. I'm not a mechanic for hire as in point at what needs to be fixed and go mow the lawn and drink lemonade...
I pick and choose what I want to work on and it's generally stuff that's mid 70s or older... Also with the people I want to work with... Out of 20 calls I might take one or two.. as opposed to like my son who is a mechanic at a shop and has to take on every Hyundai that comes with bad brakes...
 
My rates are extremely reasonable but I'm expecting the person to do a lot of the dirty work in between our sessions. I tell them that I don't necessarily want to get paid to clean parts but help put the good clean parts on the correct way...
This also saves them money as they can get some of the dirty work which is usually simple and mindless done during the week and I can help them put it together on the weekend.. this inexpensive way of going about it has gotten so many cars out on our local roads that I could probably fill half of a car show with just the cars that would have still been sitting in their garage had I not put my ad up and given these people help at a reasonable rate..
 
If the engine is still assembled, I would check the CrankCase for vacuum/pressure. And I would defeat the Vcan. Then I would start pulling in timing, irrespective of the numbers. But I would NOT go WOT until the Power-Timing is verified.
And, for testing purposes, I would back the rockers off to zero preload plus just enough to shut them up, max 1/2 turn. No adjustable rockers? That's a bad sign on a build of this caliber right away.

You mentioned big cam several times but offered no specs. How big is it? and does the car have headers?

I would be doing a compression test pronto, and since I have the tool, probably do a LeakDown test as well. One or both might lead to checking the Cam's split overlap, which I would do anyway.

I would not try to diagnose until I knew the basics. I charge more because I'm worth it. If the guy doesn't like it, move along; there's a cheaper guy in every garage. Keep notes. Blackball the losers and creeps.
I'd rather be known as the guy who fixed it, but it cost a lot;
than the guy who worked on it for hours and hours, charged cheap, but the customer had to go back several times, and in the end, he never did get to the bottom of it. Thatchit gets around in a worse light than the former. If you fix it, the customer soon forgets how much it cost; but he never forgets that you fixed it.
 
Check the valves, make sure they are not too tight.
Bought a really nice looking 70 Nova one time, but it kinda ran ok, but not right.
Bought is really cheap, to drive while my 71 Challenger was getting painted.

The guy painting my challenger, asked me one time, did I ever get that Nova to run right, I said yes the valves were too tight, he gave me the deer in the headlight look... He owned the car lot where I bought the Nova, and his mechanics could not figure out what was wrong with the car.
I did not know he owned the car lot, but that little Nova would scream after loosening the valves up around 3/4 of a turn.
 
how was the lifter preload set ? was it set.
 
I just tossed in the junk the guy had...
I do have some shims and Lord knows what's going to happen... I won't see him for another 2 weeks...
 
j par said:
I just tossed in the junk the guy had...
I do have some shims and Lord knows what's going to happen... I won't see him for another 2 weeks...
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We used shims , but it was to reduce preload so it would rev higher.
I was getting 6500 rpm without float before I switched to adjustable and a solid cam. that was a long time ago.
 
fishmens67 said:
We used shims , but it was to reduce preload so it would rev higher.
I was getting 6500 rpm without float before I switched to adjustable and a solid cam. that was a long time ago.
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I was really starting this thread to see if there was anything that I was not thinking about and I've definitely thought about all these different things. (Except pulling the motor for a Dyno session...lol) Now it's a matter if my customer wants to pay for my time and the parts to experiment with all these different ideas..
 
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