72skylark
06-25-2002, 08:15 PM
"Buick 306 CI V7" or "Cylinder #7 just going along for the ride"
Well, I've never been able to get my car to idle perfectly smooth, and I just figured it was this or that, nothing big. But when I changed my plugs everyone looked normal, except #7 was wet, and didn't look like his brothers. So I put the new ones in and started it up. I unplug #7, hear the MSD arching elsewhere, but no change in idle quality. I pluged it back in and unpluged a different one, and idle got rougher. So I whip out the old compression gauge. It read a nice 25 PSI, another cylinder read 155. So.... I thinking burnt exhaust valve...
It still runs pretty good on 7 cylinders. I figure since I have to pull a head, and want to change the timing chain also, I'm going to do a few things while I'm there. New cam and lifters, I'm thinking the TA 212, anyone run this? it says stock gears/stock converter ok, do the 2.56 stock gears work OK? I'm going to also do some headwork, mill the head/home port/ valve job. What is the most I can mill the head, without having to worry about valve train problems? Can I get it up to a good 9.5 (or higher)?
I'm thinking the problem probally originated last summer, it was running 230-240 degrees, unknown to me until I installed a temp gauge. I'm hoping it's not a cracked head... hoping for just a bad valve, unless someones got a nice set of worked up heads lying around???
hopefully the gas milage will pick up a little... just drove to Oklahoma and back to connecticut, got 16.5 MPG without AC, 15.5 with AC, and 12 MPG creeping in traffic going through NY... yikes! this was cruising between 75-80....
Well, I've never been able to get my car to idle perfectly smooth, and I just figured it was this or that, nothing big. But when I changed my plugs everyone looked normal, except #7 was wet, and didn't look like his brothers. So I put the new ones in and started it up. I unplug #7, hear the MSD arching elsewhere, but no change in idle quality. I pluged it back in and unpluged a different one, and idle got rougher. So I whip out the old compression gauge. It read a nice 25 PSI, another cylinder read 155. So.... I thinking burnt exhaust valve...
It still runs pretty good on 7 cylinders. I figure since I have to pull a head, and want to change the timing chain also, I'm going to do a few things while I'm there. New cam and lifters, I'm thinking the TA 212, anyone run this? it says stock gears/stock converter ok, do the 2.56 stock gears work OK? I'm going to also do some headwork, mill the head/home port/ valve job. What is the most I can mill the head, without having to worry about valve train problems? Can I get it up to a good 9.5 (or higher)?
I'm thinking the problem probally originated last summer, it was running 230-240 degrees, unknown to me until I installed a temp gauge. I'm hoping it's not a cracked head... hoping for just a bad valve, unless someones got a nice set of worked up heads lying around???
hopefully the gas milage will pick up a little... just drove to Oklahoma and back to connecticut, got 16.5 MPG without AC, 15.5 with AC, and 12 MPG creeping in traffic going through NY... yikes! this was cruising between 75-80....