Hello all, See my intro thread in which I describe my situation here (or just read below): http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?300011-Hello-Buick Essentially I'm trying to start a 1970 Skylark Custom that has been sitting in a garage for 10 years. The owner told that that it went "bang" before it died. I believe that yesterday I reproduced that bang . . . here's a list of things I have done so far: -Changed oil and trans fluid -Replaced Plugs/Wires (set gap at .45, should it be .35?) Still using the points dizzy. -Replaced Fuel pump -Replaced carb with Edelbrock 1406 -Replaced wire going from coil to distributor, it was rusty and falling apart -Primed engine with electric drill and tool -Added bottle of Lucas Break-In Additive (just in case) Yesterday I was trying to start it using a fuel can to bypass the tank and lines in case they are gummed up. I verified that the carb is getting fuel (it wasn't before I replaced the fuel pump) so that's a start. However when I cranked I got nothing. I moved the distributor around a bit trying to find a timing that would get it to fire. After a couple more tries I cranked and BANG it backfired through the exhaust stove pipe very loudly, like gunshot loud, followed by a bit of smoke. I was slightly deaf in my left ear for a couple of minutes :ball: I thought "at least something happened!", but every time I tried again (this time with my ears plugged) same result, moved the dizzy around a couple more times. One thing that I wasn't quite sure about was the firing order. according to this thread: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?198788-Buick-350-firing-order-help A 1970 350 should have the distributor in the rear and rotor should spin CCW. However my engine has the dizzy in front and the rotor spins clockwise . . . Did someone put in a motor from another year? It has the "350-4 High-Compression" Air Cleaner Decal but I guess that could have been added later? I routed the wires to be CW, 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 which was what the car was before I touched anything. I put the number one wire at 5 o'clock when looking from the front. Does anyone have an idea of what's going one here? I'm wondering if I had an HEI if that would solve my problem? Or is this 350 kaput? Thanks all!
As far as I know all buick 350's have the dist in the front. Firing order should be 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 Number one is the front drivers side cylinder. You probably turned the dist backwards. I hope you marked where it was before you moved it. You said it was parked with a bang, and then you just got it to backfire again? I am wondering if the pin that holds the gear onto the distributor got broke?
Got it, I set it up as in the diagram for a 67-69 350. And yup that is correct, the owner came out and said "that's the same sound it made when it died!". I did mark where it was, but I stupidly didn't mark which post the #1 wire was connected to, so I set it at the 5 o'clock position after reading through a couple threads. Is this incorrect? Is this for sure an ignition issue? I'm wondering if buying this would be wasting money on a potentially broken engine: http://www.taperformance.com/proddetail.asp?prod=TA_690B/C/R
Here is pic for you. Depending on the condition of the car and thr price, a motor in most cases can be fixed or replaced.
Bang as in backfire? Out tailpipe or carb. Does engine spin free by hand? I would suggest a larger carb . edelbrocks are universal so jetting is set to get by. But that's not your engine problem. Pull distributer cap. Disconnect coil wires. Then turn engine by hand to zero then turn it past zero to about 16 degrees the turn back the opposite way. If crank moves a lot before distributer turned back toward zero the timing chain is bad. I would start there.
Ah thank you that is very helpful!!! Yup Bang as in backfire, through the exhaust, smoke from the stove pipe that would connect to the air cleaner. The engine does spin by hand with a breaker bar with no clanks. I will try the timing chain test! Then I will try setting up the distributor and wires like in that picture, with the engine at 12-16 degree before TDC with the rotor facing the #1 plug. That correct? Thanks again guys! :grin: I want to get her runnin!
So that explains the bang and die situation? To do the timing chain I will what . . . have to drop the oil pan and pull the water pump and timing cover? Forgive me but I've only worked on SBCs before so I'm not sure of the timing cover/oil pan relationship on SBBs! Do I need to put a hoist on the engine to gain clearance for dropping the oil pan or does the motor need to be pulled? I will start searching for threads on this process in case this is the culprit!:TU:
No you do not need to drop the oil pan, but it is a fair amount of work. I would buy the car 1st or atleast agree on a price in writing 1st before going through all that work, or they could say "gee thats runs nice, think I'll just hang on to it for awhile yet". I just saying, cause you never know. Cover your butt.
True that, I will have to talk to the owner once I confirm what the problem is . . . That's really nice about not dropping the oil pan! So I can do this job without disturbing the motor in it mounts? :eek2: Been looking at another thread on this and it looks like the biggest things to be careful about are not breaking timing cover bolts and re-priming the oil pump afterwards.
For me it is a fairly easy job, but it is time consuming and you will need to take your time. You will need to pull just about everything off of the front of the motor. If you are truly interested in this car it could be a good time to replace the seal for the harmonic balancer in the cover and the water pump as everything will be out anyway. I'm not sure if you will need to be all that careful with the cover bolts, but you will need to be extremely careful with the water pump bolts, and I would even suggest using a propane torch to heat the up a little before trying to move them.
Got it, I will heat each bolt for 1-2 minutes with a torch before turning them and after soaking in PB blaster. Let me figure out if the timing chain is the problem first, but this sounds like a do-able fix! Do I need to pull the radiator for room to wrench if I do this?
Did you try what Mopar said about a sheared pin in the distributor gear? I had this happen on mine while driving. A big bang and smoke out the back. It is easy to verify by pulling the distributor cap and cranking the engine over. If the router spins it is okay, if not, the pin is the problem. Don't worry if the rotor is not facing the #1 position according to the picture when you set TDC. Someone may have installed the distributor to make the rotor point to a different location at TDC. Just make sure the #1 plug wire ends up where the rotor is at and then install the other wires after that. Good luck.
you can check the chain a few different ways before teardown (reference valve timing to TDC, measure degrees of rotor backlash, etc...) but that's what my money is on. when you're doing the front cover, heat the bolts, hit them with penetrating oil, heat them again and hit them HARD with a hammer. it's always worked for me. Good luck and keep us posted!
Got it! Thank you all for the responses, I am going to try and get at the car on Thursday to test the distributor and timing chain!
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when you say "hit the bolts with a hammer" and I just hitting them straight on the head? Using a mallet or regular hammer? Just want to make sure I don't crack the timing cover by doing it wrong :TU:
