LUVTruck.com

Here's one that has been interesting. I've had this truck sitting for a long time, just now got around to getting it running. I don't have much story about what happened before I got it, but I do know the motor in it ran at some point

Run a compression check, and all four cylinders are between 185 and 195. Uhm, ok, that is a switch, looks too high if anything.

Adjusted the valves, most of them were too loose.

Swapped carbs with one just run last month.

Swapped coil and disti with ones known to work, points clean and gapped correctly.

Bypassed the wiring mess with a jumper straight to the coil just to be sure it was getting power.

Cranks and cranks but doesn't even let out so much as a pop.

Timing is as close as I can get it without it running, chain looks to be right. Plugs are nearly new. I even cranked it will moving the disti back and forth to see if I could get fire that way.

Fuel is disconnected (old gas in tank) but I filled the carb bowl by hand so I know its getting something. I should at least get a pop or two just from spilling a little down the carb, but I get nothing.


Sooo... anyone have any ideas or thoughts? The motor has a couple things odd about it. First, no G180 code on the block, in fact no G code at all. Could be a G200 but I don't know. There is a head that came with the truck with a fuel pump hole that supposedly came off the motor that is in it. The head currently on it looks like a normal G180 head. I'm beginning to wonder if the high compression reading is from a G200 block getting a G180 head put on it. Still, that should not keep it from at least popping over a bit on pump gas.

Well, thought I'd share my day and see if anyone has other ideas I might not have thought of. At least I'm still having fun.

have you visualy checked for spark?...ie ..pull the plugs and crank it too see if they arc.

got fuel, air, compression and spark it should do something.

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I like my steak like I like my women, young, tender and bloody.

All I need is my weed, women, and wine. -Edge City Outlaws

Whenever this happens to me it always turns out to be an eletrical fault. Go through your entire electrical setup again. Check the distributor/coil, good place to start.

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-1981 Chevy LUV, 283SBC, T350 Trans, White In Colour, Long Box, Never Ending Project!
-2001 F-350 Superduty XLT 7.3L Diesel Auto, Ext. Cab, Long Box, White In Colour
-1998 F-150 XL 4.2L V6 5spd , Reg. Cab, Flareside SB, Red In Colour

You have plug wires right? j/k:lol:

check the little contact on the distributor where the coil wire comes in and contacts the rotor. maybe it's not touching or not there at all...

I just reread your post but couldn't hurt to check anyway...

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Resident lurker

I'm starting today by taking the brand new bosch platinum plugs that were in it and sticking them in my truck. I needed new plugs anyway, and that will tell me if they are ok. Plus, I get a set of plug I can put in that just fired. If that doesn't get something, I'll do so actual spark testing to see if I really have fire. Yesterday I basically just started throwing parts at it.

Thanks for the sanity check folks. I hope I can get this one going soon. It should be fun to run around the farm with this time of year. It is sitting on 31x10.50 tires right now and they actually have some tread.

You've probably checked already but are you sure the distributor isn't 180 degrees out?

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Cement Shoes available here....One size fits all!

"Rum And Pepsi's Got Your Whole Perception Of Me Sketchy.....Cause When I Stage Dive, People Are Scared To Catch Me"

Funny you should mention that....

It is not possible to put a luv distributor in 180 out. The gear stays in the motor and the shaft only goes in one way. You CAN however put the gear in backwards while rebuilding the motor. That is exactly what happened in this case. End result is the same as having the disti in backwards. I swapped plug wires, 1 with 4 and 2 with 3. Fed it some fresh fuel and it fired right off. A lesson I seem to learn often, if someone took it apart, you better check to make sure they did it right.

To check for misaligned disti drive gear:

Remove valve cover
Turn the motor so the timing mark on the crank pulley is at 0 degrees
Check the valves to see which are fully closed (rocker should have a little slack)
You want #4 both valves closed, #2 exhaust and #3 intake closed to put the #4 cylinder in firing position.

Pull the disti and look down the hole. (You can pull the cap and look what wire the rotor points at, but pulling the works you can be more precise)

The slot in the gear at the bottom should be straight up and down, and it will be offset toward the front. If its offset toward the back or not straight up and down then you know its in there wrong. Find a way to line up the rotor with the #4 wire on the cap and you can work around it.


So, now I've got yet another brought back from the brink of death. It has a bad valve rattle like a couple are sticking, but it seems to be clearing up fast as I run it. Now to pull the fuel tank and clean out the varnish. Just need to go through the normal stuff and it should be driving around in a few days. Then I find out if the comp ratio is too high to drive without buy gas at the airport. Thanks for the suggestions all, it sure helps to have a brain check on this stuff.

oops

You'll have to excuse me, I'm used to V8s

Glad to hear you found the problem and keep up the good work

We should all try to save as many of these trucks as possible.

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Cement Shoes available here....One size fits all!

"Rum And Pepsi's Got Your Whole Perception Of Me Sketchy.....Cause When I Stage Dive, People Are Scared To Catch Me"

Amen to that! Everyone's trying to get me to junk my 79 longbed just because of a little wreck! I'm getting the parts next month and upon completion, I'm getting him shot in electric blue! I will be noticed!!

thats whats wrong with my distributor too cause i have an extra engine lying in garage and looked at plug wires on the engine sittin in garage and sure enough 1 and 4 are backwards on my truck i thought it would be 180 out though hmm news to me

good thing for old post

I finally worked out the steps that lead up to it on my truck. Someone put the head on got the cam 180 out. Then when you line up the cam marks with the head and the timing mark on the crank, the crank and therefore the distributor appear to be flipped around. If you wanted to fix it, you probably could move the cam around halfway with gear off of it and the timing mark on the pulley opposite from the mark on the cover (to put the pistons halfway up/down the cylinders and keep the valves from hitting. Then line up the gear with the cam and bolt it back on. Turn the motor back around to line up the cam marks on the head, the timing mark on the crank, and it should line up right again.

well what i had done a year back ago i had the head warp on me so i replaced with an extra head i had and the book said to pull the distributor so i did my dad was like that was point less why would you do that he says well this was my first head i had ever pulled off any motor so i had a guy do a valve grind on the head i was gonna put on before i did slap it on so im not sure if the cam is 180 out it could be


i ll have to wait til i get better i just had my finger amputated kinda hard to type

hijacking in progress .what the **** happened to your finger dude!?

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Dr. Frankenstein

i ll post it in the lounge