Bloo

A compression test would be a good idea just to see what we are dealing with. Beyond that, check the following things: 1) Heat riser either working (preferably) or at least not stuck in the "heat on" position 2) Choke is not sticking or at least is all the way open with the engine hot. 3) Inside the distributor there are 2 little wires, one bare and one insulated. The bare one runs from some non-moving part of the distributor up to the breaker plate, which the vacuum advance moves. The insulated wire runs from the insulated post over to the points. Make sure that neither is broken, for instance the insulated one shouldn't stretch. Make sure that the insulated one cannot short against anything when the vacuum advance moves the breaker plate. The insulation doesn't need to be perfect, as long as nothing bare can touch when it moves. This is special wire by the way, made to bend a gazillion times without breaking. It is probably intertwined strands of copper and spring steel. 4) Make sure the vacuum advance moves holds vacuum, and that it can move the breaker plate. 5) Make sure that the points are set correctly, preferably with a dwell meter. Look on the surface of the points for metal transfer that looks like a mountain. If you find a mountain, replace the points AND condenser. Even if you don't replace the points, make sure there is a tiny (very tiny) drop of grease or Vaseline on the rubbing block situated so the cam will tend to pull grease under the block. Consider replacing the condenser on general principles even if the points are ok. A bad condenser can weaken the spark and cause all kinds of screwball problems. 6) Plug wires, cap and rotor are good, or at least don't have the problems I mentioned in my post above. 7) Timing is set to factory spec. (yes you can try advancing it but humor me and leave it stock for the moment). 8] Make sure centrifugal advance at least works. Disconnect vacuum advance and rev engine up while watching the timing marks with a timing light. It should move, and come back to where it started when you let the engine idle. 9) Clean the bakelite on the top of your coil and look at it real good under a light. You are looking for a carbon track from the center down to either the case or one of the other terminals. Inspecting the distributor cap for tracks might also be a good thing to do. 10) Have you adjusted your valves yet? It probably needs to be done anyway and it couldn't hurt. While the valve cover is off, remove the plugs, ground the coil wire and crank the engine while watching the valves. Make sure they are all moving about the same amount. 11) Is there a screen in your fuel pump that could be clogged and restricting fuel flow? Good luck and let us know if anything turns up.

In many states of the US, for road registration, no. You do see them at car shows now and then, as display pieces.

Or yellowstone.... But I have not seen any with that style of rear mounted spares Look at this city bus, perhaps a close relative? http://www.mackeysclockrepair.net/old city buses.html

If you let a car sit, the fuel bowl will be empty. It could also be empty if the car was shut off hot. As much as I would love to get rid of Ethanol, and there are plenty of problems that can be attributed to it, I don't think this is one of them. In the 80s, one could expect gas to be cut with up to 10% of a mixture of Ethanol, Methanol, and MTBE as octane booster. You could expect the full 10% in super unleaded, regular a bit less. Both Methanol and MTBE boil at an even lower temperature than Ethanol. Some cars did have trouble, but widespread complaints about the gasoline in old cars just didn't exist then. As Beemon said, the fuel pump is a check valve. Actually, it is two check valves. For the fuel to drain all the way back to the tank by gravity/siphon, both of them would need to leak, or there would need to be a pinhole in the fuel line from the tank breaking the seal. Old time wisdom says that a car that drains the gas all the way back to the tank has a bad "foot valve" in the pump. This is the valve facing the gas tank. While it could be true if the gas were boiling in the pump at every shutdown, it probably isn't. Cars with this problem seem to do it in the dead of winter, too. More likely both valves leak (or there is a hole in the line). Cars with leaking valves in the fuel pump will often start right up with a squirt of gas in the carb, but run the battery low or dead before the pump can suck the gas all the way up to the carb otherwise. Pump efficiency is terrible with leaking valves. Some extra crankshaft speed helps a lot. Old time wisdom also says you should never mess around with a working valve. Today you would have to replace them for sure if they have an elastomer (rubber) valve, due to Ethanol in the fuel. Rubber ones probably seal ok right out of the box. If the valve is a bakelite disc, a new one will have to break in. You could try to lap it, but that often doesn't go well. One way or another those valves should seal before the pump goes back together. They should pull vacuum and hold it for a little while. Both of them. If they can pull and hold a good vaccum, the fuel is going to come up right away, and it won't matter much how fast the crank is turning. New bakelite valves probably broke in ok in most cases when the car was in daily use. Mrs Jones probably wasn't going to let the car sit around a lot before putting some miles on it. Today, I wonder if any of them ever break in. I also wonder how many 12 volt conversions are done, and how many electric fuel pumps are installed just because these little valves aren't sealing, and no one realizes it.

Carl: Do you mean the Auburn? I think 16 inch radial truck tires (in a tall size) are thin on the ground these days, unless you happen to be in Australia or NZ. I have seen 7r15 fairly recently.

Diamondback could probably arrange that....

As someone who spent most of my young life fixing up and hotrodding Mopars, I have to say that is a simple question with an answer that would go on for 27 pages. I'm not even sure I could answer it today. I could have when I was 18 years old... Chrysler's engineers were "taking it to the next level" literally every year during that period. There is not general interchangeability with a few simple engine swap rules like there could be with say, flathead fords or post 1955 Chevrolets. That sort of interchangeablity begins in roughly 1966 in Chrysler products.

On a more philosophical level, what should one do when you see someone running toward a cliff intending to jump? Perhaps it is a cliff you have jumped off yourself. Perhaps multiple times. Perhaps you know there are sharp rock outcroppings halfway down, and a river full of piranha at the bottom. What do you do in a situation like that? Tell him not to do it and be perceived as a snob who looks down on people who jump off of cliffs? Do you say "here, let me help you!" and give him a push? I don't know about you guys, but I usually stay out of it.

And you have replaced the pickup inside the distributor, right? With a new one? I think I saw that in an earlier post. Does anyone in this thread have the correct manuals and wiring diagrams for this car? My recollection of the auto shutdown circuit is it is very difficult to troubleshoot. Every manufacturer had some way to shut the fuel (and maybe the ignition) down in the event of a crash. This was Chrysler's. It is extremely effective. As I recall there are several things it looks at, like the MAP, the pulse from the distributor, etc, etc. to determine if the car is running. If it loses an input it wants to see, EVERYTHING (fuel pump, ignition, injector power) shuts down. You may find yourself wondering as I often did what failed first and shut everything down. One of my coworkers used to keep some old used parts around to substitute. Usually it was the pickup in the distributor that turned out to be bad. Those can cause all sorts of symptoms, but the most common is... won't start hot. If you are really down to the SMEC, it is time pull the codes (if you havent) and see if any relavent circuit like the MAP or the distributor pickup have set codes. If not, then get a wiring diagram out, pull the SMEC connector off, and make SURE that all the 12v hot pins, key-on hot pins, and grounds are present. Keep in mind that some of the grounds might run all the way back to the engine block. If so, they could be broken from vibration, eaten by squirrels, etc. I hope Hemi Dude has some ideas.

I went on a short tour last weekend with the Wenatchee Valley (WA) Antique Auto Club, from East Wenatchee over Badger Mountain to visit a private museum in Douglas, WA. Badger mountain highway is one of the slower roads around here, and very little traffic, but it is a real climb. There's no shortage of 10% grade up there. Some of the cars got a little hot.... Here are some pictures of the cars made the trek....

Back in the day the rule was never ever ever touch a working check valve. If those ones have an elastomer in them I suppose you will have to change them for fuel compatibility. If not, I would err toward keeping the old valves. Whatever you do, new valves or old, make sure they seal and hold vacuum before you put the pump back together.

Last year I saw Hirsch paint on a Buick, and it did not lay out, leaving a heavy orange peel surface. I would thin the paint a little. Apparently Hirsch told the Buick owner not to thin. It made a nice thick coating, looks like it will last a long time, and was the correct color for the Buick. I will probably use Hirsch paint on my next engine, but will try to get it to lay out better. For Pontiac, I do doubt the accuracy of this often-posted link. http://www.pontiacpower.org/enginecolor.htm The 1930-39 color listed is aqua. I have a 1936, I look at a lot of pictures of 1936 engine compartments and I have yet to see an aqua engine. Bob Shafto's restoration of a 1936 Master 6 convertible wound up with a color about like mine has, and most online examples have, far closer to the 26-29 color in that chart. It is not bluish at all. I suppose by now they have all been repainted and maybe nobody really knows. It would be interesting to see what Hirsch would send.

And maybe motor mounts too if they happen to be easily accessible with all the front-of-engine parts removed.

Ok, now I'm confused. Up until today, I have only heard "Tin Woody" used to refer to the very first steel wagons from about 50-54, that were stamped to resemble the last of the woodies. Most of the ones I have seen unrestored were just painted like regular cars, but I understand Di-Noc was an option. Picture is from this ad: https://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/d/1950-oldsmobile-tin-woody/6562836977.html

I have made peace with it.

I don't know, but you are going to have to find and fix that fuel leak before anything else. Follow the fuel lines from the tank all the way to the fuel rail. Also, if your fuel regulator has a vacuum hose, pull it off and make sure that fuel isn't coming out of the vacuum port. Did it run ok on the occasions it would actually start before you replaced the fuel pump? White smoke usually comes from burning antifreeze. Don't worry about that yet. Fix the fuel leak.

Assuming the odometer hasn't been altered, and as someone who spent a lot of time as a teenager screwing around with Mopars of that vintage when there were still good ones around, I think it is 23k. Look at your pedals really close. Look for wear on some corner of the brake pedal, and especially look for thin spots in that stainless trim. Look at the paint on the near-vertical surface on the front of the hood. How many chips? Drive directly into the sun and look for chips and sand pits in the windshield. Check the mark in the corner of the windshield to make sure it hasn't been replaced. Look closely at the drivers seat area. Can you see wear from sliding in and out? Any visible wear on the welting? Also, the owners manual, if you have it, may have some service notes.

HAHA yes, thats what it is from. Some people from another forum started calling me Bloo and it stuck.

Never, ever, ever ever, put a plastic timing sprocket back in an engine. I doubt you could still buy one, but if you can, don't. When one of these sets fails, it leaves you stranded and needing a tow. It also dumps pieces of nylon in the oil pan, and by the time the sprocket fails the little pieces of nylon are hard as rocks. These little rocks can and do get sucked up into the oil pump. On FE Ford engines, it stops the oil pump, and has caused many engine failures. On an engine with a more robust oil pump drive, the oil pump would have to grind the pieces of plastic up. Remember that they are not soft like new nylon. It would then spit them out, hopefully to be caught by the oil filter, but you cannot depend on that. If the engine is cold and the oil filter is in bypass, off to the bearings they go.... In any event there is really no chance the timing set is any good unless someone has been in there recently and replaced it. If you take an engine with a "silent chain" (stock-type) timing chain apart at 20k miles, you will find the timing chain sloppy loose. This it as true with steel sprockets as it is with nylon. It will probably already be past the manufacturer's wearlimit, and at 60k it definitely will be. Since engines generally do not get taken apart this young, few people know. A ton of slop is tolerable, and the driver will never know the difference until the chain jumps and he needs a tow. The chain wont jump until way past 100k miles if the sprockets are steel. When the engine is finally taken apart the reaction will be "wow, this chain is really shot", and no one will realize it has been shot since the car was young. Most "double roller" chains are no better. They wear out just as fast as silent chains do. An exception is a "true roller" chain set. "true roller" means that the rollers in the chain are on bearings and can spin by themselves. It is easy to tell if you have it in your hand. They are expensive, and it is doubtful you could justify the cost for most stock engines. Billions of miles were logged with silent chains, and no one ever saw them as a problem until those plastic sprockets came along.

https://www.liftsupportsdepot.com/ I have not used this company (yet). It was recommended in another forum. Prices look good.

Compression ratios in 70s Detroit V8s were around 8.5:1. Often if actually CCed, they were lower than specified. Honestly, I'm surprised it wasn't worse, but the mileage is pretty low. Also, the actual compression number can vary a lot between gauges and mechanics. Even on all cylinders (within reason) is what you want to see. 10% would be nice. 20% is typical and generally means "not broken". One cylinder (or two) really low is a definite problem, unless the car has been sitting for years, and in that case all bets are until it runs a little while.

Original thread about this problem: Thread 2: Thread 3, problem found:

I'm gonna have to go find the thread. In theory a halfway worn lobe could increase compression. In practice, you aren't going to make it to the next town before it goes the rest of the way flat. Nailing this down requires watching the valves open and close. The car has the classic symptom of an exhaust valve that does not open, an unwillingness to rev up (similar to plugged exhaust), but accompanied by a rhythmic snapping in the intake. Anything that causes an exhaust valve not to open could do this, including broken valvetrain, bent pushrod, etc. IIRC a mechanic verified it was indeed a flat lobe, but would not do the cam job.

Maybe but I doubt it. Maybe if it were just partly worn down. They don't stay like that long enough to mention. It is an exhaust lobe for sure (rather than an intake), given the symptoms There was an earlier thread. Although these engines are not as prone to flat camshafts as some other GM brands, this one does indeed have a flat cam lobe.

Hey, I dont mean to ruffle any feathers, nor argue with you, I am just reporting what I observed at the time. Of course we used the correct names when ordering parts, making notes on work orders, etc. I was a driveability tech for many years, 3 of them at a Chrysler dealership. I very much appreciate your help here. I thought the loss of "alternator" was one of the stupidest things I had ever heard, and still do, but many of the terms we hear today (and observe in manuals) are a direct result of that government issued list, including "PCM" if I remember correctly. I thought at the time that the people who came up with that list probably killed "alternator" because it was a Chrysler term, and they were annoyed at Chrysler for changing the names of things constantly. Maybe not. In any event, I can't prove it. It is off-topic and I wont say any more about it.