Looking for a board member who is local to Canton, CT and wouldn't mind spending some time with me installing a camshaft, maybe replacing a headgasket?, and throwing a new timing set in my Riviera. Let me know if anyone would be supportive of that in the next few months. I'm learning, but I don't think I'm ready for taking it on myself without messing something up
I don't think you know what you are getting into, but most folks reading this do.. It would likely turn into a "large deal".
Hahaha....truer words have never been spoken. Go in for a camshaft and head gasket, end up with a total rebuild.......
Okay, then who wants to help me break down my engine and hope that I don't see anything that is rebuild worthy?
John, BEFORE you start a tear-down of ANYTHING 1st. perform a cold & hot compression & cylinder leak-down tests to find out the health of the engine. DO THIS 1st.
Just out of curiosity, what are you trying to accomplish? Has the car got an issue that youre trying to solve?
Timing chain has 15* of slop. It is past time for a new set. While I'm in there I thought I would block the heat crossover (while drilling 1/16 holes for the stock choke), swap the cam with a matched set of lifters, and put in a steel shim headgasket at .020, unless they came from the factory at .020 . Possibly put an adjustable oil pressure regulator spring as well.
How does the car run now with the sloppy chain? If it runs good now, just replace the timing set, it WILL run more gooder Leave the headgaskets alone if they're not an issue. Leave the exhaust crossover alone also. An adjustable oil pressure regulator AND TA's thrust/wear/booster plate IS a good idea. Install an oil pressure gauge if you don't have one already.
I'm with Mark, given your level of skill I'd say dont try to fix whats not broken. The oil mods can be done without going too deep, and it sounds like you've already got the cover off. Put a chain in it and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Thanks for the responses, but the car hasn't been touched yet. The car runs "alright" but doesn't want to rev over 3750rpm. Cover is still on, etc. could crank it and run it in 3 minutes from now. I put a socket on the crank bolt and read the timing tab, watching until the distributor barely turned. I only want to take the cover off one time in the near future, so I'm trying to get as much done as possible. I would like to get some cheap gauges as well and have been considering that for several weeks also.
Compression tester is on the way, so I will test that early next week. Anything else I should do to determine engine health?
Compression test is the first step; if one hole is bad you'll need to do a leak-down test which will indicate valves OR rings. The farmers way to do that is to pressurize each cylinder, one at a time with air and get your ear on the carb, exhaust pipe, the oil filler on the valve cover, and finally the filler cap hole on the radiator and listen for air escaping or bubbles in the anti-freeze. If you get a "good" compression tester, there will be a tee on it with a Schrader valve to administer the air and watch the gage slowly decrease; you'll still need to determine where its going... ws
When doing a compression test make sure you ground the coil wire or remove the + wire from the coil. While cracking to do a compression test put the gas pedal to the floor & leave it there till done.
I shouldve said something about that Tom, but actually you should have all the plugs out to attain maximum starter cranking speed. PULL THE COIL WIRE LOL! You really should drive it for a while for a "hot" test, and then by the time all the plugs etc. are out, do a "cold" test. I take the throttle cable off and put the return spring on backwards to keep the gas at WOT. That prevents pumping the gas for the whole test. JMHO... ws
I may be able to offer some help, but as suggested, there are some diagnostics that need to be done before doing anything to that engine. Mikel (in New Haven)
OR you could fire it up and pull one plug wire at a time, if you get a miss each time you pull a wire, that cylinder is OK until you get around to a rebuild. If you don't get a miss you could have a dead plug , bad wire or valve if you pull the plug and it is dry it will probably be a valve. If there isn't a lot of blowby I wouldn't bother with a leak down test if there is a rebuild in the future. What does it do when you try to rev it past 3750? It sounds like the points might be to wide and could be floating. Put a dwell meter on it and set it at 30 if no dwell meter check the points gap and set them at .016. If you have HEI you won't have points. Changing the timing chain will really help if everything else is fairly healthy. No cheap gauges, save up and buy good quality. Other than distributor modifications, any other performance mods at this time would be a waste of time until you do a rebuild. IMHO Good Luck. Bob H.
It loses all pull at about 3750 no matter what gear or speed. Engine also has HEI from Everyday Performance. Though it will rev to 5200+ it has no pull
