99 problems and a Ford ain't one.

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take a bar magnet and go over the heads around the valves and the lifter valley
spin your rocker rollers and see how they spin blow them out
same with your roller lifters
find any gray stuff?
 
Wyrmrider said:
take a bar magnet and go over the heads around the valves and the lifter valley
spin your rocker rollers and see how they spin blow them out
same with your roller lifters
find any gray stuff?
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I will do that. Thanks!
 
The fast then almost stopping is common for systems where there is some decent compression in the cylinders and the starting system is weak. And too much base advance in the ignition timing can make that worse. Retard the ignition timing 4-5 degrees and see if it wants to start better when hot. If it does, then you have found a limit on base timing. If not, then it is the starting system and/or the cylinder pressure... which could be made worse by valve issues.

What do have for a negative connection to the battery and from the chassis to the engine?
 
pishta said:
when you pull the heads, you be able to see the lifter bar interference as fresh metal in an otherwise painted or blackened valley. IIRC your link bars need to be V notched for an LA as straight bars wont work due block casting .As for the sticking valves, you should be able to notice them when you pop the covers on a hot motor and remove the rocker shaft, 5 bolts. All valves should be level and I mean level on new heads! could even take a brass mallet and tap each valve stem to see if it gives. When was the last time you looked at your distributor? Seems the only thing ignition that wasnt addressed in your list of new stuff. reluctor gap can change on a hot motor. very small but maybe enough if your already on the extreme. Should be .008 with a brass feeler to not mask any magnetic draw.
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I never even considered that. It is one of those Chinese distributor ignition box combos from eBay. I already ditched the cheap orange box and switched to the blue one from local auto parts.
My cousin had a brand new MSD distributor completely rust out under his distributor cap. It literally looked like it was soaked in saltwater. Wasn't even a year old. MSD blamed him for not drilling a vent hole in cap! No lie.
 
nm9stheham said:
The fast then almost stopping is common for systems where there is some decent compression in the cylinders and the starting system is weak. And too much base advance in the ignition timing can make that worse. Retard the ignition timing 4-5 degrees and see if it wants to start better when hot. If it does, then you have found a limit on base timing. If not, then it is the starting system and/or the cylinder pressure... which could be made worse by valve issues.

What do have for a negative connection to the battery and from the chassis to the engine?
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I used 4 gauge on ground and ran it from battery to transmission bellhousing by starter. Positive is also 4 from battery to starter. I can hear compression leaving the cylinder during slow cranking. That's normal though right?
 
no you should not hear compression leaking during slow cranking. you shoul dbe able to hear compression leaking during a turn of the crank with a breaker bar, PSSSssssss.....but not during a crank session unless your starter is really laboring and your start RPM is like <100...even that is > 1 rev a second..not enough to bleed out I would say. Man, pull those valve covers and check the lash and then valves heights across with no rocker shaft.
 
FYI, you got still got lash on your solid rollers, right? .010/.020 to start if you dont have the specs in front of you.
 
pishta said:
when you pull the heads, you be able to see the lifter bar interference as fresh metal in an otherwise painted or blackened valley. IIRC your link bars need to be V notched for an LA as straight bars wont work due block casting .As for the sticking valves, you should be able to notice them when you pop the covers on a hot motor and remove the rocker shaft, 5 bolts. All valves should be level and I mean level on new heads! could even take a brass mallet and tap each valve stem to see if it gives. When was the last time you looked at your distributor? Seems the only thing ignition that wasnt addressed in your list of new stuff. reluctor gap can change on a hot motor. very small but maybe enough if your already on the extreme. Should be .008 with a brass feeler to not mask any magnetic drag. Plugs still operational, not all fouled from this, clean them for another test with a wire brush or wheel.

solid rollers should not degrade lift if oil starved (slants will run on no oil for hours at idle, ie Slick50 commercial) but your not as you still have 5psi at idle. do you have a vacuum guage? it will vibrate on a stuck valve. and a slow wander of the needle is a vacuum leak. vacuum leak Can show up on a hot motor as opposed to a cold one especially with Aluminum heads and intake on an iron block. lots of different heat coefficencies (sp?). Get spray bottle of water and start spraying sealing faces and see if idle picks up if motor is still together.
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Wyrmrider said:
get the right year 383
you need to do an autopsey on the 340 or it's sale value will suck
cut the oil filter open, compression check, do the lifter oil loss check with electric drill and hex while having someone pulling crank around slowly, starter can be too fast
get the fuel pressure under control as 383's need love too
but no reason to risk spun bearings or throwing a rod with micro grit in the oil
actually you may be lucky it won't run
cheers
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pishta said:
FYI, you got still got lash on your solid rollers, right? .010/.020 to start if you dont have the specs in front of you.
Click to expand...
 
I remember being told zero lash but I went with .010 because I know with heat metal expands. I did a compression check a while back ago on driver's bank. I want to say 170 psi was average. Haven't done passenger bank yet. I will say that #1 exhaust and #4, and #6 exhaust will at sometimes stay cold and other times function normally at operating temperature. That is why I am pretty sure there are valve issues.
 
Would the correct year be a 69 engine then, or would it be a 68 model block? Does it matter if it came out of a Coronet?
 
pishta said:
no you should not hear compression leaking during slow cranking. you shoul dbe able to hear compression leaking during a turn of the crank with a breaker bar, PSSSssssss.....but not during a crank session unless your starter is really laboring and your start RPM is like <100...even that is > 1 rev a second..not enough to bleed out I would say. Man, pull those valve covers and check the lash and then valves heights across with no rocker shaft.
Click to expand...
Yes the compression noise is only during extreme slow cranking.
I plan on pulling heads and getting valves, seats and springs examined by Owens Racing Engines in Pearland. If these heads are junk I have a back up set of X-heads with adjustable rockers.
 
nm9stheham said:
You have to put in a fuel return system for a Sniper installation LOL
Click to expand...
Yes I am aware of that. My point is that if I am going to route another fuel line underneath car and back to tank then I am going the extra mile and buy a Sniper unit. Also, I do not need a return line at the moment because my electric pump isn't set at enough pressure to warrant one. What I am experiencing is a false reading from a crappy fuel gauge. I believed the reading at first because of the multitude of issues I was experiencing at the same time. Now that I am beginning to sort them out, I understand the snowball effect from the issues I've experienced.
 
VonCramp said:
Yes I am aware of that. My point is that if I am going to route another fuel line underneath car and back to tank then I am going the extra mile and buy a Sniper unit. Also, I do not need a return line at the moment because my electric pump isn't set at enough pressure to warrant one. What I am experiencing is a false reading from a crappy fuel gauge. I believed the reading at first because of the multitude of issues I was experiencing at the same time. Now that I am beginning to sort them out, I understand the snowball effect from the issues I've experienced.
Click to expand...

Needing a return line on a carb fuel system isn't based on how much pressure you have; it's a means to keep the fuel cool and prevent vapor lock by having a constant flow of fuel from the tank to the carb and back instead of dead-heading at the carb and potentially heating up and causing vapor issues.

I watched a YouTube video recently about tuning carbs with modern gas and the guy (Thunderhead289) explained that without a working fuel pressure regulator and accurate fuel pressure gauge your carb tune will change pretty drastically as the engine goes from cold to warm to hot. And also adding a fuel return to any carb fuel system will make it run more consistently. Now that doesn't mean that's the cause of your issues but it may be one of those things where it's just bad enough that it's making things run worse than they should be.

Like others have said, overall I think you should try your best just taking things nice and slow. You mentioned being more of a body guy and not being as into the mechanic stuff, I'm the opposite. And for that reason if I ever decided to take on a bodywork-related project I would spend TONS of time reading, watching videos, asking questions etc. before I start doing anything because I don't have the money or patience to ruin my car and have to start all over again. Same goes with engine stuff. A person can do one seemingly insignificant thing wrong simply from an innocent lack of knowledge and his entire engine is destroyed. It takes a lot of time, patience and careful detective work to really do a proper autopsy on a broken engine and if you skip a step (like you already did by changing the oil twice and throwing out the old filters without cutting them open to look) it just puts you 3 steps back.

It might be painful and frustrating to slowly pull the engine apart bit-by-bit as opposed to just pulling it, selling it and dropping in a 383 but I guarantee you will see things that will make you go "Holy Sh** THAT'S what happened?!" and you will only gain knowledge that will help you in working on old Mopar V8s in the future.
 
MopaR&D said:
Needing a return line on a carb fuel system isn't based on how much pressure you have; it's a means to keep the fuel cool and prevent vapor lock by having a constant flow of fuel from the tank to the carb and back instead of dead-heading at the carb and potentially heating up and causing vapor issues.

I watched a YouTube video recently about tuning carbs with modern gas and the guy (Thunderhead289) explained that without a working fuel pressure regulator and accurate fuel pressure gauge your carb tune will change pretty drastically as the engine goes from cold to warm to hot. And also adding a fuel return to any carb fuel system will make it run more consistently. Now that doesn't mean that's the cause of your issues but it may be one of those things where it's just bad enough that it's making things run worse than they should be.

Like others have said, overall I think you should try your best just taking things nice and slow. You mentioned being more of a body guy and not being as into the mechanic stuff, I'm the opposite. And for that reason if I ever decided to take on a bodywork-related project I would spend TONS of time reading, watching videos, asking questions etc. before I start doing anything because I don't have the money or patience to ruin my car and have to start all over again. Same goes with engine stuff. A person can do one seemingly insignificant thing wrong simply from an innocent lack of knowledge and his entire engine is destroyed. It takes a lot of time, patience and careful detective work to really do a proper autopsy on a broken engine and if you skip a step (like you already did by changing the oil twice and throwing out the old filters without cutting them open to look) it just puts you 3 steps back.

It might be painful and frustrating to slowly pull the engine apart bit-by-bit as opposed to just pulling it, selling it and dropping in a 383 but I guarantee you will see things that will make you go "Holy Sh** THAT'S what happened?!" and you will only gain knowledge that will help you in working on old Mopar V8s in the future.
Click to expand...
I am a 100% in agreement with you. Awesome response! Does it matter if my return line is rated for high pressure for future install of Sniper?
 
VonCramp said:
I am a 100% in agreement with you. Awesome response! Does it matter if my return line is rated for high pressure for future install of Sniper?
Click to expand...

Sure thing! I know the struggle from having started with zero knowledge about how to work on cars myself, didn't have a dad or uncle or someone to show me the ropes. In fact probably the majority of what I learned about how to work on Mopars I learned from this site (been on here a decade now, has it really been that long? lol). And from screwing things up on my own lol.

Regarding the return line I think you'd want to make as much of it steel hard line as possible, that will have no issues with pressure and then for any rubber hoses connecting things together use the stuff that's rated for fuel injection systems. I haven't done it myself (yet) but that's how I would do it. I already have a fuel filter with the 1/4" vapor return nipple I just have it capped off for now (currently running a Street Demon carb). I have a wideband O2 sensor and AFR gauge in my car and I have noticed the AFR change when things heat up under the hood, exactly like I saw in Thunderhead289's video when he removed his FPR and closed his return line to temporarily turn it into a dead-head system. It runs fine as is but it'll probably run better with at least a vapor return and a pressure regulator.

Another issue is venting the tank once you install a return line. On newer cars there is simply a vent line going from the tank to the charcoal canister, I'm not exactly sure how to do that without a charcoal canister or some type of reservoir to safely "trap" the vapors. You could let it just vent out the gas cap but that's not ideal and kind of dangerous.
 
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MopaR&D said:
Sure thing! I know the struggle from having started with zero knowledge about how to work on cars myself, didn't have a dad or uncle or someone to show me the ropes. In fact probably the majority of what I learned about how to work on Mopars I learned from this site (been on here a decade now, has it really been that long? lol). And from screwing things up on my own lol.

Regarding the return line I think you'd want to make as much of it steel hard line as possible, that will have no issues with pressure and then for any rubber hoses connecting things together use the stuff that's rated for fuel injection systems. I haven't done it myself (yet) but that's how I would do it. I already have a fuel filter with the 1/4" vapor return nipple I just have it capped off for now (currently running a Street Demon carb). I have a wideband O2 sensor and AFR gauge in my car and I have noticed the AFR change when things heat up under the hood, exactly like I saw in Thunderhead289's video when he removed his FPR and closed his return line to temporarily turn it into a dead-head system. It runs fine as is but it'll probably run better with at least a vapor return and a pressure regulator.

Another issue is venting the tank once you install a return line. On newer cars there is simply a vent line going from the tank to the charcoal canister, I'm not exactly sure how to do that without a charcoal canister or some type of reservoir to safely "trap" the vapors. You could let it just vent out the gas cap but that's not ideal and kind of dangerous.
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My car has the Charger style flip cap that says fuel on it. I'd say that thing is kn b not air tight. ShouldX ls suffice for a low pressure return.
I've actually been messing with cars since '85. They were always Chevies though. My 'Cuda is the first one I attempted silly go fast stuff with. All of my problems started when I installed the pro comp heads and a .570" solid roller camshaft. What went from simple bolt-on parts all of the sudden became very critical tolerances and high preasure this and extreme duty that. I was always used to simple flat tappet cams and iron heads. Still not a fan of torsion bars or Mopar ignition systems. Lol!
 
VonCramp said:
I remember being told zero lash but I went with .010 because I know with heat metal expands. I did a compression check a while back ago on driver's bank. I want to say 170 psi was average. Haven't done passenger bank yet. I will say that #1 exhaust and #4, and #6 exhaust will at sometimes stay cold and other times function normally at operating temperature. That is why I am pretty sure there are valve issues.
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Hold up, you were told "no lash on a solid roller cam"? Yikes, that's BS. Please add .020 lash hot on both intake and exhaust!!!! That could be your 'running like **** warm' as the rollers at .010 or zero are holding the exhaust valves open! Comp Magnum solid roller cams spec to .020/.020 lash, I assume that would be a good start and a roller is pretty tolerant of a wide lash.
 
VonCramp said:
My car has the Charger style flip cap that says fuel on it. I'd say that thing is kn b not air tight. ShouldX ls suffice for a low pressure return.
I've actually been messing with cars since '85. They were always Chevies though. My 'Cuda is the first one I attempted silly go fast stuff with. All of my problems started when I installed the pro comp heads and a .570" solid roller camshaft. What went from simple bolt-on parts all of the sudden became very critical tolerances and high preasure this and extreme duty that. I was always used to simple flat tappet cams and iron heads. Still not a fan of torsion bars or Mopar ignition systems. Lol!
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Yup once you make that leap to aftermarket heads and big cam everything changes. I guess it's kind of good I started with Mopars, I've worked on a few Chevies and it definitely felt weird (flimsy bodies/frames look like they are made from tin cans, and starter shims!!!). Mopar ignition systems do kind of suck because nobody makes a good reliable replacement electronic module anymore. I love the torsion bars though, infinite front ride height adjustability and the ride is different (nicer) than a coil-sprung car. Especially when you put stiffer torsion bars in, handling improves drastically but ride quality stays basically the same. And if you're into handling the Mopar front suspension has much better geometry from the factory than GM and Ford stuff from back then.
 
lot's of great tips in this thread
on the 383
determine when your car was built
get core motor older
others can give you a date range and casting date ranges

on fuel line
on cars with a vapor seperator I also use that
your 383 car may have a 3/8 fuel line
the 383 may also have a vapor seperator can next to the fuel pump
I forget which year started but after alcohol and MTBE mwas added to the gas
Ma Mopar would not have spent $$$ on seperators and fuel llinnes if not absolutely essential
if it has 5/16 run a new 3/8 fuel line and use existing for a return
I use stainless
do not even think of using cu or al
170 would be nce on the compression
report back after the lifter adjustment
 
pishta said:
Hold up, you were told "no lash on a solid roller cam"? Yikes, that's BS. Please add .020 lash hot on both intake and exhaust!!!! That could be your 'running like **** warm' as the rollers at .010 or zero are holding the exhaust valves open! Comp Magnum solid roller cams spec to .020/.020 lash, I assume that would be a good start and a roller is pretty tolerant of a wide lash.
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NOT IF HE IS RUNNING A HYDRAULIC LOBE WITH SOLID LIFTERS. I point that out because it is becoming more and more accepted, although it’s years too late.

OTOH if it is a solid lobe it may be a right lash lobe and lash between .016-.018 hot.

OTOOH, it may be a solid lobe and the lash is way too tight.

We need more info.
 
just open up to .015 and test
was that comment about comp magnum as .020 from data supplied by the OP?
do we have a cam mfg and part number?
set too tight would certainly explain a lot of things
pishta get's the "catch of the day" award
 
No data from OP on cam specs. Just spit-ballin from Comps website. I ran a Ford Y-312 years ago and ran my lifters no lash once. Ran like crap and found lash specs quickly after that. First solid lifter motor I owned. Looser is always more forgiving that tighter so .020 was a good start. We can work from there.
 
Wyrmrider said:
lot's of great tips in this thread
on the 383
determine when your car was built
get core motor older
others can give you a date range and casting date ranges

on fuel line
on cars with a vapor seperator I also use that
your 383 car may have a 3/8 fuel line
the 383 may also have a vapor seperator can next to the fuel pump
I forget which year started but after alcohol and MTBE mwas added to the gas
Ma Mopar would not have spent $$$ on seperators and fuel llinnes if not absolutely essential
if it has 5/16 run a new 3/8 fuel line and use existing for a return
I use stainless
do not even think of using cu or al
170 would be nce on the compression
report back after the lifter adjustment
Click to expand...
Sorry. Been super busy at work. I will post replies soon!
 
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