I do not know what the different colours are, or what they mean. If you have spark, concentrate on lining up your distributor. I have never experienced a bad condenser so I can't tell you about how that may contribute to your problem. The thing that sticks out in my mind is that the people you bought the car from said it backfired and they parked it. If it was me and my money I would call around to the local parts stores, get a timing chain and gear set, a jar of Vaseline, the timing cover gasket, and if budget allows a water pump and gasket, and thermostat and gasket to play it safe. Spend a saturday and tear it down and fix it. Once the timing cover is off, it will be easy to line everything up and hopefully get it going and should still cost less than a night out with the boys. Also maybe see if you can just buy a condenser or see if there is a way to check to see if it is defective or not. P.S. in the old days we would take off the oil pump cover remove the gears and pack it full of Vaseline to prime the pump. Always worked and never had a problem. And when the distributor is out try and check to make sure the gear an pin are in good shape.
Thanks for the advice. I'm going into this expecting to have to change the chain anyways, I just want to be certain that's my problem first. I don't want to do the work and then have the engine still not run. So today, I will hopefully find out! :grin: Got my cheap distributor parts . . .I read a couple guides online of how to set the point gap so I will give it a shot. I will try and take a video of the process!
Let it be known that on this day, October 25th, 2015, my Skylark ran and drove for the first time in 10 years!! :grin::grin::grin::kodak: This is after I swapped the distributor cap, condenser and points, and also verified that it was installed correctly (not 180 out of phase). I set the timing at approximately 12 degrees BTDC (approximate since the timing marks only go to 8). I only have a basic timing gun so I couldn't verify timing at rpm. It idles fine, doesn't overheat. Oil pressure is 40psi cold idle, 20 psi hot idle, temp stays at 190. It has a few problems: -It smokes what I believe is exhaust from the engine bay. It smells sooty and stinky, so I believe it's not an oil burner! I'm guessing this it due to 10 year old exhaust manifold gaskets? I also have the stove pipe open since I am not running the original air cleaner. I plan to install a block-off plate for this. -The exhaust from the tail pipes is smokey and smells that same as the engine bay, so it's leaking exhaust smoke from both places. Running rich? -Transmission drips fluid, not sure from where yet. Hopefully it's that pan or rear seal, not the front seal! -Here's the biggest problem. When I do anything other than ease the throttle from a stop, it will chug, stumble, and die. Once the car is moving (I'd say around 2k rpm, but I can't tell since no tach) giving it more gas is better. Sometimes just putting it in drive will make the engine die. It revs fine when in park and neutral, so it seems that it doesn't like load. Is this due to the Edelbrock 1406 carb? I twiddled the mixture screws and moved the pump shot arm to the richest setting, and that made it slight better. I've seen many posts on here that say the 350 won't run right with an Edelbrock, and I do pan to get the original Q-Jet rebuilt. But will this fix my problem? It's hard to believe that the Edelbrock will run that crappy, although I did buy the carb used so I have no idea of it's history. What do y'all think?
If you do have exhaust leaks please get them fixed asap for your health! Yes that 1406 carb can be that bad... I would bet good money you will be amazed how much better a rebuilt q jet is over that e brock.
Part of 'the smell' may be old stale fuel in the tank. The stumble/stall may be carb accelerator pump.
I had installed a 4bbl in my car that had only a 2bbl. I purchased a reman qjet from one of the box stores and it ran crappy. I finally sprung for a proper qjet rebuilt by carmantx and wow, what a difference. It ran like it should.
Nice going! :TU::TU: Make sure your mufflers aren't puffed out from the backfiring you've experienced. Your gaskets and seals in that engine are all dry. You could slightly tighten trans / eng. pan / valve cover bolts a little. Careful not to bend pan / cover rails. Get fresh fuel, drive it and warm it up real good.(20 or more miles) Some leaking may slow or subside. Get a different carb, those gaskets/ pump diaphragms are probably shot. Like everyone else says, not the best carb for you. You must feel happy getting it running, and may not need a timing chain just yet!!
Thanks or the tips all and yes I feel very happy getting it running and not having to do the chain on top of that! (yet) I think I'm going to do the valve cover and exhaust manifold gaskets today as I did notice a drip from the valve covers that is probably leaking onto the manifolds. Will also inspect the trans and tighten if I see dripping somewhere accessible. Also I'm going to get my Q-jet rebuilt by Ken at Everyday Performance so that should help. The running issues don't sound like timing right? I will report back!
One thing I noticed right away is that the AC compressor is mostly covering the passenger side valve cover. Also someone removed the AC condenser and snipped the hard line, so I wasn't planning on running AC in this car. Can anyone provide any tips for removing the stock AC system? Is it tough? I will save all of the parts if I decide I want AC later. Thanks!
Didn't get a chance to do the exhaust manifold gaskets, but I've been reading up more on causes of the smoke and now I'm worried that it may have a blown head gasket? I plan to buy a leak down tester to confirm. The problem is I can't tell if what I'm smelling is burning oil, coolant, or exhaust. Any tips on how to tell what's going on?
What colour is the smoke? White usually means coolant, blue oil, and black out the exhaust running too rich.
Its been sitting for so long assume valvecover gaskets will need a change and change fuel filter often as sediment from tank gets pulled to carb.
As long is there is no coolant in the oil i would not be too quick to think head gasket issues. Does the oil stay clean or is it turning milky and foamy?
If your running that edelbrock carb put an inline filter in fuel line as some of those don't have a filter in them. Don't want dirt from tank or possible rust from inside lines to ruin carb. Could be moisture/rust burnoff as far as smell since car sat. Run it a few more times and it might not smoke as much.
Thanks once again for the tips guys! I did put an inline fuel filter to the Eddy carb, one of the cheap plastic kind. I will swap it out for a glass one with a replaceable element after I've run the car a bit more to make sure old gas tank crud isn't clogging it. I am in the process of registering the car, so I've only drove it a couple of miles so far as I don't want to get a ticket for no reg! I may take it out around the neighborhood later and see if the smoking and trans leaking subsides. I will also keep an eye on the oil. When looking for water in the oil/foamy-ness can I just use the dipstick or do I need to drain some oil? My next task is to replace the 10 year old coolant!
Also I noticed this thread is getting pretty long, does that mean I shoould start a new one since technically my original issue is resolved? :Comp:
No, I think this thread is fine. No, on the glass filter. I had one on my car and was warned by the guys on here that they break. And just pull the dipstick. If the oil looks milky, there's water in it. Flush the coolant real well. I would also change the trans fluid and bleed the old fluid from the brakes.
