any body know what happend?

If I remember correctly, the early 283's & 350 harmonic balancer were pressed on. The 327's have a center bolt torqued @60ftlbs.

 

All the Chevy V8 dist from 56 through 86 should drop right in-the only exception that I know of is the "W" big blocks (348, 409, first 427). The early 265 units will also fit, but I think most or all of those will be a cast iron housing that is best left to 265's. The 87-99 will also drop in but are electronic and require the ECM which is another big can of worms unless you want to go FI.

 

Are you using vacuum advance? Driving it and actually making vacuum to advance the timing, which could be 20-30 degrees, and then that mechanism sticks could cause it. Is the mechanical advance free? Can you grab the rotor, rotate it, and have it spring back?

 

Wow, sorry but I’m at a loss for what is going on.
I tend to doubt you chain is skipping particularly since you can line everything back up and it all checks out.
I do agree with the guys telling you to pull the distributor first, it sounds like your crank and cam are remaining timed so the problem is probably elsewhere.

You’re talking about the tall deck big blocks, right?
If so then that’s correct as far as I know, the only other major consideration is space. In the short fender CJ’s with an SBC often the engine has to be placed back close to the firewall which doesn’t leave enough room for a “big cap” HEI distributor with the coil in cap. That is why I had to stick with a small cap HEI and remote coil.

 

Thanks guys, I will let everyone know what it was when I get it figured out. I looked on some hotrod sites and I dont think it is the chain either. I think I have a junk timing light, the pick up wire did get a little melted on the header, Didnt notice it at first. You can see the metal wire inside the insulation. I did some reading up on ignition timing and think if I get a better light, the timing is where my problem is going to be. Keep you informed

 

I put it all back together today. pull all the plugs and they were black, and were kind of tacky to the touch, smelt like gas. I Cleaned them up and reinstalled. Next double checked wires and firing order and all looked good. Fired it up and the starter draged a little but started, and idled like crap. The timing light I have is shot, won't even light up, so I tried to time it by ear. Got it sounding good at idle, but rev it up and it was crap. the points and dwel was all out of whack. dont have a dwel meter so again did it by ear. Turned the alen screw and it smoothed right out, and made sure the gap was .19 Now im back where I was before. on test drive if you are easy on the gas its not bad, but if you give it a inch or so of the pedal all at once it cuts out and sometimes puffs up through the carb. At least its back where it was. I have no idea why the timing mark went to the other side of the balancer before but its running decent again, I can at least take it down the road with out fear of making it back home. I really think my problem is in the distributor as some of you have suggested. or in the timing. Im getting a timing light off of a neighbor tomorrow, so wish me luck. any thoughts or suggestions please tell... and thanks for all the help so far, lord knows I need all I can get.

 

I've got another question guys, I checked the play in the timing chain today. I took off the distributor cap and manually turned the crank clock wise. When the rotor started to turn, I turned the crank counter clock wise until the rotor started to move again. I had the timing mark on the timing tab so I could see how much play there was in degree's. There is 10 degrees of slack in the chain, would this be causing my problems?? and is that too much slack?? Thanks

 

10 degrees slop is no good for a race engine. If you have steel gears and don't care about peak performance, you are good for a while.

 

10* isn't much crank shaft rotation, that doesn't sound bad to me.
Besides, if you had a sloppy chain it would also show up in "scatter spark" where the timing mark doesn't sit still but bounces around on the scale at any given RPM.
So your spark plugs are carboned up, that's an indication your running rich now the hard part is figuring out why.
Quick question, are you running a PCV (Positive Case Ventilating) valve?

 

no, there is no pvc valve, no EGR. I dont know where one would go either. behind the distributor on the block, there is about a half inch diamiter tube. I have been told that it was a crank case vent tube?? and on the back of the 750 carb there is about the same diamiter vac line, is that where a pvc would go?? been so long since I have trouble shooted a engine and I dont know much about it to begin with. thanks for the help

 

Hate to flash a picture of my dirty engine, my buddies and I discovered and have been rutting up a mud hole at our wheeling spot , but this is a PCV valve. It will be located in one of the valve covers and connected to a big vacuum port typically at the center front or rear of the carb.

 

The reason I bring it up is its a common problem when running a hot cam, say over 240* or so duration @.050, to have rich idle issues. I struggled with it myself for a while before figuring out the solution is as simple as running a PCV valve.
I'm not saying that's what your problem is but it's a cheap, simple modification that your engine will appreciate anyway besides being better from an emissions standpoint.

 

Ok, my big vac port is on the back of the carb. there is a small port on the front of the carb that the vac hose from distributor is hooked to and a small one on the side of carb that is pluged. should that vac line be hooked to the port on the side of carb and the front port pluged?? Should I put a pvc on it? My valve covers only have those rubber plugs on them, should I have some kind of breather on there? They seem to want to suck into the valve cover. I Like your valve cover bolts, I have the exact kind. How much room do you have between your dis and your firewall with that small cap? With my point cap, I have just enough room to place my finger between the two.

 

I do not see the actual PCV valve in the photo above------it is a metal cylinder about 5/8" dia, and 1 1/2" long, factory setup will have it plugged into a grommet in the valve cover, and a hose to the carb. Or it will be in the hose from a fitting at the rear, next to the distributor, in the early blocks. This fitting replaced the road draft tube when they went to closed crankcase.

There is also a larger hose from the air cleaner to the valve cover.

The airflow is filtered air from the air cleaner, to the valve cover, and blow by from the other side valve cover to the carb.

The PCV valve will rattle if you shake it, if it is not plugged up. It is a one way unit, and has a disk in it to block off back flow.

Here is a photo of one, but it has an extra hose barb.



And here is how it works.

 

Its the big round breather looking thing with the vacuum hose attached.
It's just a different style of PCV.

 

I have never seen one built into a cap like that--------learn something new all the time.

Due to the hose barb size, (evident because you had to reduce it to fit the carb line size) I expected it to be the cap shown on the right of the drawing above.

 

So today I played with the carb, looked in the sight hole to check float level and It looked dry in there. I tried to set the level, but the level wouldnt change. I took the screw and the nut all the way off, and the seat(geuss that what it is) was screwed so far down in there that the nut wouldnt adjust it. I had to use needle nose pliers to get ahold of it to screw it back out. Ran alot better, can give it lots of throtle at idea and it revs up pretty nice. Again, when you take it for test drive and give it a good load, or go up a good hill, it ping(doesn't hessitate anymore). Tried turning the time down (retard) and it didn't make much differance, but had lost some power. I geuss I will try putting a pvc on it. Do you think a pvc would cause this?? thanks for the diagram of how on hooks up.

 

Unless you have a really bad blow by problem you should not notice much, if anything, from a PCV......That is correctly installed that is.

It wont hurt to add it, probably wont help either, IMHO.

 

Pinging? No, a PCV isn't going to affect that.
But you say a float was stuck? Sounds like you found the biggest part of your problem right there.

 

had a similar prrob with my motor, smokey no power, crappy idle. timinng light apppeared to be malfunctioning until i realized it was skipping bbecause of my ignition. i repplaced the coil and bam. ran great
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