225 ci wont start

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71dust

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Well I keep having the same problem and am running out of ideas. I have a 1971 duster that has the 225 slant six. One day it is up and running the next it cranks but thats it. I have replaced the starter, carb, points, plugs and wires, distributor cap and rotor, timing chain and sprockets, timed it back to TDC and still nothing. I have a spark and the cylinders are getting fuel. I am not sure what I am missing? I also know that I have good compression. I have changed or checked everything I could is there any ideas?

Neil
 
Something is loose and not grounded maybe
 
How EXACTLY did you check spark?

That is, did you crank the engine with the key or by jumpering the starter relay?

HOW GOOD is the spark at the coil? Use a grounded clip or otherwise 'rig' a gap so you can see it when operating the KEY

You should have at least a 3/8" and more like 1/2" long nice fat blue spark

MEASURE cranking coil + voltage. Hook your multimeter to coil+ and battery + That's right, that IS what I said. Read the meter while cranking WITH THE KEY. You are hoping for a very low reading the lower the better. More than a very few tenths on one volt means you are not getting good coil voltage.

Now move one meter probe to ground, and coil +. Crank again and measure while cranking. You are hoping for AT LEAST 10V or more.

FUEL. Is it fresh? Look down the carb throat and work the throttle. You should see an instant stream of fuel from the accelerator pump.

Check the PLUGS. Are they oil / fuel fouled, worn?

Run a compression / leakdown test. You can buy a leakdown tester from Horrid Freight for about 40 bucks, and a compression gauge cheaper than that

What SHAPE do you think the engine is in? How many miles? Does it "use oil?"
 
You only need 3 things: fuel, spark and squeeze. Jump ballast resistor,12v straight to coil and use screwdriver on starter solenoid. Find tdc. It will start straight up. Have you checked valve clearance?
 
Thanks pishta, and I've posted this before

COMPRESSION. I don't know what the minimum is, for a worn engine, I'd guess much less than 80 PSI, it hain't gonna run or not very well. Maybe we can start a contest, LOL, to see who's got the "worst" engine that still starts and runs........without pushing it at 40 mph

FUEL. Good clean fuel, not contaminated, and MUST actually be GASOLINE, IE not JP-4, kerosene, etc. Don't laugh.......it happens

SPARK. Good hot spark at the right TIME

"Back in the day," early '70's I used to have a Chubby friend, put a 396 into a 57 Chev. I had a part time job at the NAS Miramar hobby shop, and one Sat, he was trying to get it to fire. I'd helped him install the cam and do a prelim valve adjust, so I KNEW that was OK.

He bothered me several times during the morning, asking for advice, a spare coil, this and that. I was busy otherwise.

Finally he came in, "HELP" I canNOT get this to fire. So I go out there. Here's the "admiring crowd," none of them helpful, of course. Everybody was drinking sodas. He hands me a soda can. "We are priming it from this," he says, "it doesn't have fuel from the pump yet."

I smelled the can to make sure it wasn't SODA.

"Take this can and go get me some GAS I said."

I don't know where they got it, but they managed to get jet fuel in that soda can. NO!!! It would not FIRE!!! on JP-? LOL

An unrelated side note: This "friend" turned out to be a real traiter. One weekend I caught him with several of MY wrenches in HIS toolbox. That was the END of that friendship.
 
Slant six's have a plastic gear on the bottom of the dist. They get brittle with age. I have had them to break off before. Maybe yours is broken or maybe just a couple of teeth are broken. I would pull the dist. and check.
 
Thanks for the advice and yes I have a previous thread about this same engine. I keep having issues. I know it is getting fuel I can see that and smell it. I know it is getting spark by pulling the number one plug and laying it across the engine while a friend cranked it. It does appear to be a decent spark, I will try the mutlimeter to the coil to see what readings I can get. Although I have pulled the distributor and the teeth look great. When I replaced the timing chain the cam gear looked good to the naked eye but the chain had at least 1/2 of slack so I replaced everything in there sprockets and chain. The engine while I don't have a compression checker seemed to have good compression when I manually turned the balancer back to TDC that was quite a work out. The engine only has 29000 miles on it and only has 400 miles since Dec 1991 according to the oil change sticker it was my grandfather car and in 27 years I only seen it out of the garage once. I am going to try fresh gas straight in the carb with some starting fluid and check it on the mutli meter thanks again.
 
If u have spark and gas, you must be out of timing. Ground is ok, or no spark! Is it possible u are 180 deg off of TDC? Both valves closed etc.
 
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