InsideTrader

@Rusty_OTooleSir, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find a block off plate for my mechanical fuel pump would you? Google was not helpful. I am not even sure what exactly to google.

@Rusty_OTooleI just had a thought... Is it possible the mechanical failed at some point to and is allowing oil into the fuel system and that is how I am getting oil in the intake manifold? I am not noticing exhaust smoke though.

The electric fuel pump is wired to the ignition and it on all the time. I assume the mechanical failed and the electric was added. But I don’t know that. I’ll have to look into that. And does that mean I have no fuel filter?

I have an electric fuel pump that someone added. Does that mean I have two or should I bypass the mechanical?

@Grimy I took your advice and retarded the timing .5” Unfortunately I had my carb problems and I swapped my battery cable so the timing wasn’t the only variable I changed but it is running and starting so much better now. The drivetrain is geared sooooo low that it is really hard for me to tell if the engine has more power but it either does or there is a placebo effect going on because I think it sounds better. Hopefully sounds better means runs better. No hint of any odd ping or detonation sounds at all. The muffler on it doesn’t do a whole lot of muffling so hopefully I’d hear it if it were there. @Rusty_OToole I had the carb so messed up that I couldn’t get it started. So I did your screw it in and the back it out whatever you told me and it was enough to get it running. Then I adjusted it to max vacuum and it seemed to run pretty well like that. Both at idle and under load. So I don’t know if the timing and carb are perfect or not but it’s definitely better than it was when I started messing with it. I tried dropping the idle speed but without a tach I don’t know where 400 is. It doesn’t seem to love a low idle though. So I kind of just set it to as low as my ear thought it sounded like it was ok with it. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all of your help and the help of all the other guys that gave me advice on these topics. If you’ll put up with me for one more question…. Is this my fuel filter and how do I replace it and what do I replace it with?

@Grimy I’m in just East of Tulsa, Ok. Is that too far of a drive for you? @ABear I am a pilot and my plane is the only other carbureted engine I own. They cover pinging and detonation in flight school because in a plane you have mixture control in the cockpit and can lean yourself out too much and destroy your engine. This has resulted in the rich or peak vs lean of peak debates. But since I was told how to avoid pinging or early detonation, I avoid it and have never heard it. My question for you is… Would this be obvious to me or do I need to be paying attention to notice it? And would bucking the starter be obvious to me? I have not noticed any rapid reversal in the radiator fan or odd sounds when it’s trying to start and I get the random cylinder firing before it completely starts. @Rusty_OToole I plan to take your advice as always sir. Thank you. @Lee H Lol

Well as I’ve said before… my goal isn’t lower quarter mile time. It’s best running and reliable engine that isn’t destroying itself. So if I need to retard to 19 or 19.5. I don’t mind doing that. I was under the impression that timing to best vacuum was foolproof but if not I can retard. And is retarding clockwise or counterclockwise? In all honesty, I’m in my 30s and have grown up in a fuel injected world. I’m not sure id even know what pinging or detonating sounds like and I’m not sure I’ve ever even heard it. What I really need is one of you guys that knows what you’re doing to live near me.

@Rusty_OToole I pulled the screw all the way out. It did not seem to be deformed. The tip was blunt but also had a nice smooth taper after the blunt end like it was made that way. Nothing looked mushroomed or deformed. I got the battery cable swapped out and the starter spins a lot faster. I’m hoping that takes care of my starting issues. It started to rain on me so I didn’t actually start it yet.

That will be tomorrows project then. Thank you sir!

So had a couple of setbacks tonight. I tried to start it and the engine was spinning really slow. I grabbed the negative battery cable and it was very hot. Turns out it is almost completely severed where it mates to the head. So I used jumper cables connected to my car and it started but it struggled to do so. It hasn’t been a great starter but I think it might be a little worse now. Once it got running it was sitting a lot of black smoke out of the exhaust. I thought I may have made the carb too rich and I messed with the right screw for quite a while. I was surprised how little it changed anything and I couldn’t get the black smoke to stop. After a while I figured out that after my first start attempt from the drivers seat, I switched to jumper cables started it from the engine bay. I left it at full choke which is why it was making black smoke. I pushed in the choke and it cleared up. I felt like an idiot but at least it was an easy fix. I hopped on and let it roll down my slopes driveway and drove it up repeatedly trying t gauge how my engine was doing. I’m pretty sure I don’t have the carb adjusted correctly since I was adjusting it to run at full choke. I eventually stalled it and decided to call it quits until I get a new battery cable. What is confusing me is that when I was adjusting it, I screwed it all the way in and it didn’t kill the engine. What I realized it that it wasn’t all the way in. It just got really hard to turn but would still go in further. It got really hard to turn but never did kill the engine. I am not sure how hard to force it to fine the point it slows to back it off the 1/2 to 3/4 turn. I also discovered my vacuum line conducts electricity. I learned that the hard way. It was also laying across the plug wires so that may have been screwing things up. So anyways, I’m planning to swap the negative cable and then kind of start from scratch. I think the distributor is still good. I’m pretty sure my issue is carb. But I’m not even sure the carb is the correct carb. I don’t know if carbs even need to be matched to an engine or if any single barrel carb can be put on it and all will be fine. I’ve also questioned if that valve thing between the intake and exhaust manifold might be stuck on the wrong spot. So I said all of that to say, still a lot of unknowns but pretty sure I’m not to the “good enough” point yet.

After I used the second screw to get more adjustment out of the distributor, I was able to adjust it far enough that my vacuum started to drop off after going past peak. So I think I have enough adjustment. I’m not trying to chase the lowest possible way quarter mile time. I just want it to run relatively good and not be damaging itself by being way out of time or by running crazy lean or rich. Based on what you’re seeing, do I have it dialed in well enough to run it this way for 50 more years? I think I will chase a lower idle though. The tug has a clutch like any manual transmission but it also has a torque converter. It would be nice if it did idle pretty low. The torque converter overpowers the brakes in the low gears with the idle as high as it is now. Lower idle might solve that. But in the past when it wanted to die with the initial adding of throttle, I didn’t want it to idle too low because the torque converter wanted to add load at the same time it wanted to die. Now it might be preferable.

Ok here is an update… I finally got some time to mess with the distributor. I learned immediately that I was already maxed in one direction and the other direction made things worse. I found a second bolt on the back of the distributor and after monkeying with it for a while, I was able to get more timing range out of it. I was able to adjust it and get the engine to sound better and I got three more inches out of the vacuum gauge. So I got from 17 to 20. By throttle response is now WAY better. The engine doesn’t act like it wants to die now before giving me more power. Next, I started to adjust the only adjustment screw on the carb. I didn’t see much of a change in the vacuum gauge at all. So I leaned it out until the engine complained and then gave it more fuel until it stopped and then gave it just a little more. I don’t have a tach but I might be able to borrow one if anyone can tell me how fast it should idle.

No sir. The blow by exits the oil cap into a hose that vents out of the bottom of the engine bay.

Well it turns out that second hole I found was also a blind hole. There are two drilled and tapped blind holes that have been plugged. I ended up getting the big wrench out and removing the square head plug. It was a true hole. I hooked the vacuum gauge up and it was a stable at 17 at idle. According to my handy dandy vacuum gauge chart, that could mean delayed ignition timing. Timing was one issue I suspected so I’m feeling good about this. I wasn’t able to mess with timing yet as the wife and kids had other demands on my time but I’m optimistic. What I’m not liking is that when I pulled that plug from the manifold, it seemed as though there is oil residue in my intake manifold. Not sure what that’s about.