41 V12

[Guest imported_48DLX]

Hi guys, I know very little about these cars. I have had Buicks, Packards etc but never a v12. My neighbor just bought a very nice looking 41 coupe with a V12. It runs, but not well. It has been in a museum for some years. In trying to help him with this we pulled plugs and found numbers 4 and 6 (from the front) on the drivers side to be wet. I pulled one and it seems to be sparking, can't find my compression tester. The car runs but is very sluggish, obviously not running on 12. Since it has been sitting I am guessing it could be a stuck valve-What should I look at? The distributor scares me! I am pretty sure there is spark, seems to be running on 10--Any ideas?? All the plugs are new--Motor looks like it has been rebuilt, car is beautiful but doesn't run right. If I can find my compression tester that will tell me a lot, thanks for your help and ideas. Dave

[Aanderson44]

Wet? As in wet with water? If so, I'd be looking first for a leaking or blown head gasket--good way to check for this is to pull the radiator cap, start the car (make sure the radiator is topped off), then look for bubbles to appear in the filler neck of the radiator.

Wet with gasoline? The cylinder isn't firing at all (which you already know)

[Guest imported_48DLX]

Sorry, wet with gas--

[Guest imported_V12Bill]

If I have read your problem correctly, cylinders 7 and 11 are wet with gas but not firing. It is possible that the wires from 7 & 11 plugs are reversed down at the distributor end. 7 & 11 are both on the same terminal plate. The terminal plate has the plug sockets numbered for each side. Some times they swell and are hard to remove. I have used a wooden dowel about 8" long to tap them out after removing the coil. You state that you have very little power which leads me to think you have only one bank of cylinders firing. To test for this, short out plugs with a screw driver on the suspect side. The fault is usually a condensor, which are available from Earle Brown.( listed in sources)

The distributors in these cars can be intimidating, but are basically the same as all others. Just remember that the dual points have to be timed to fire at the right time. Jake Fleming is the man to see for that.

Bill

[Rolf]

For heavens sake break down and spend under $5 for a cheap compression guage, and run a compression check, and report back to us, that is called starting at the top in trouble shooting, and tells you a whole bunch about your engine, don't do just the 2 troublesome cylinders, but all of them, all 12, Rolf