First startup issues

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Colohusker

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Started up the 318 in the son's 70 Duster tonight, and doesn't sound right.

Here are the details

1974 318 - stock bore, just honed since bore, round, and taper were within specs, crank ground and polished, .010 undersize on mains and rods, deck squared but minimal taken off, maybe .005
KB 167 pistons
eagle i beam rods
moly rings
Melling high volume oil pump
Comp XE256H cam

magnum heads from a 94 jeep 5.2
Chevy beehive springs
MP pushrods for the magnum conversion
crosswinds air gap manifold
Holley 4160 carb that probably needs rebuilt
electronic distributor and ecu
stock manifolds from a 75 Dart

So, finished buttoning up the coolant system, hooking up the guages, mechanical cheap sunpro gauges that were in the car. Started right up after fiddling with the timing then tried to set it at 10 degrees, but the timing mark isn't visible. Thought maybe I stabbed the distributor 180, pulled it and restabbed it, now the timing mark is visible but won't run and acts like it's 180. Turned the distributor 180 again and it will run, but sounds like something is knocking. Took a long piece of rod and used it as a stethoscope, couldn't hear any knock from oil pan, heads, valve covers, intake manifold, so might just be an exhaust leak I thought. When it first started up, oil pressure was about 45, noticed after it was running for 10 minutes or so while I was trying to find the knock sound, oil pressure was around 20.

So, looking for ideas on what to look at next?
Any ideas on why the timing mark is so far off that it seems to be out 180?
Any ideas on the oil pressure? What's normal for a melling high volume pump?
Pretty sure I remembered the plug behind the oil filter, but if I forgot it, I wouldn't have any pressure would I?

Been a long time since I built or dealt with a 318, from what I remember it seems like it's low on oil, but checked it and says it's full.

Sorry for the long post, wanted to try to provide all the info I could.

I can take a video and figure out how to post it tomorrow night, don't think the neighbors would appreciate me firing it up this late.
 
Is the crank dampner and front cover same as came off. The distributor drive gear may be off a tooth. Need to find TDC on No1 cyl with piston coming up to compression. Then check that rotor is pointing to No1 dist tower. If you have old dist cap you could drill hole next to No1 tower to visually see rotor. If off then have to move dist gear. or 180 the dist to get to line up.
 
Thanks, I'll pull the cam gear and try that.

The harmonic balancer and timing cover are the ones that came with the engine. Whether they are correct and were on there before, I can't answer for sure.

Thanks,
Scott
 
Double check the plug wires and make sure their installed correctly.

That is super low oil pressure for having a hv pump in it. Are you sure all the block plugs were installed? While you have the dist. out look down at the left side rear oil galley and see if the oil plug was installed there. That's one that seems to get overlooked a lot.
 
Pull the intermediatre shaft.
Roll the motor to TDC for CYLINDER 1.
It's easy to confuse since there are 4 other marks on the balancer.
turn it till it blows your finger out of the no 1 spark plug hole.
That's cyl1!

The install the intermediate shaft with the slot in the top pointing to the number 1 cylinder intake bolt hole, or the intake bolt on the drivers side in front. It should point at that. If you meet those conditions, throw in the dizzy and you should be able to tweak it to run right. That's how you time it properly.

I assume you know the rest.

OIl pressure...ahem...that could be anything. Is the pump mounted flush with the cap?
Plugs in the block missing? Too much clearance? primed good?

And fishy is right, that plug is left out with people jsut plugging the back wall which is really the plug you use to get to the galley plug...THAT NEEDS TO BE PLUGGED. If it's this plug that's left out you wont have any external leaks. It will leak back into the pan since it's not outside the block, it's through the rear wall, through one plug hole and then into the galley.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, got the timing sorted out where I confirmed top dead center on #1 feeling the compression on the spark plug hole, the timing mark was lined up at about 2 degrees on the timing cover, pulled all the spark plug wires and put them on starting with 1 where the rotor was pointing at tdc, then set the timing at 8 degrees and powered right up, nice idle for a couple of minutes, but still low oil pressure so shut it down.

Pulled the oil filter plate to confirm that plug was in and it was, changed filters and oil, put in 10w-30 with some zinc additive, started it up again for a few minutes, 40 pounds at idle, still seemed low and lots of valve train noise. Pulled a valve cover off, doesn't seem to be getting oil to the rockers. Confirmed the comp lifters are part number 822-16, which have oiling capabilities and using the hollow MP pushrods.

I'll check the oil galley plugs and make sure they got put back in. As far as the pump, when it was installed, mated to the block correctly, no gaps there, measured for the sump pickup, should be between 1/8 and 1/4 off the pan bottom.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!
 
Thanks for all the help! It was the oil galley plug, and could have sworn that it was put in originally. Think it's time for me to stop working on cars, getting old and senile and slow. Took 12 hours to pull the engine and put it back in, but getting oil to the rockers and have 65-70 pounds of oil pressure at idle now. Now on to the rest of the car!
 
Glad you got everything sorted out now. Hope you get it on the road soon.
 
Colohusker said:
Thanks for all the help! It was the oil galley plug, and could have sworn that it was put in originally. Think it's time for me to stop working on cars, getting old and senile and slow. Took 12 hours to pull the engine and put it back in, but getting oil to the rockers and have 65-70 pounds of oil pressure at idle now. Now on to the rest of the car!
Click to expand...

Glad to hear you got it but don't beat yourself up too bad. I know it's frustrating but we all make mistakes.
 
Awesome!

Nothing worse than a new rebuild not working right.
Glad it's all good!
 
Great you got it figured out & it's another reminder to ALL of us to double check our own work. I'll probably check all of the oil galley plugs at least 5 times on my next build!
 
Yep, I'll definitely be double checking everything next time!

I can't wait to finish this enough to deliver to my son at Iowa State, hopefully in a couple of weeks. It's been a long 10 months of working on it. Got it as a roller and we built the engine and have everything for the interior. The goal is just to make it reliable and fun to drive for now, and hopefully next summer take it apart and put it on a rotissierie and make it look good, and the summer after that put the 440 and 833 in it and make it run as well as it will look. In the meantime, need to finish the safety and reliability part of it and then look for a car for the younger son and work on that. He's thinking 1965-1968 Mustang right now, mainly I think to be different than his brother.

Thanks again for all the ideas!
 
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