Flywheel alignment

[gdmn852]

Yes, you are right starting out on flywheel balance,now on to valve train.Probably the next step would be to take off valve cover and drain tube,and see if valves are hung up on cylinder one and check valve lash on all. From reading past posts doesn’t seem to unusual for valves to stick on a engine that hasn’t run for awhile.

[J Franklin]

Originally Posted by Patrick L.

I like the way these threads go. I get a kick out of all the twists and turns.

I always try to urge detection and measurement first while some just can't wait to urge an engineectomy first.

[kbrandt]

So now, I'm confused. I checked the valve adjustements and they ranged from 0.013"-0.015". See the attachment for specific cylinders.

I did a compression check and got 1 : 50, 2 : 50, 3 : 50, 4 : 48. Those are maybe a little lower than I expected but it could be my 30 year old guage. They're nice and consistent.

I also checked the temperatures at the top of the exhaust manifold with an IR temp guage.
1: 249F
2: 349F
3: 363F
4: 325F
This was after a 5 minute drive around the neighborhood.

I also got a new distributor body from Snyders. It doesn't appear to have helped.

[katy]

Originally Posted by kbrandt

So now, I'm confused. I checked the valve adjustements and they ranged from 0.013"-0.015". See the attachment for specific cylinders.

I did a compression check and got 1 : 50, 2 : 50, 3 : 50, 4 : 48. Those are maybe a little lower than I expected but it could be my 30 year old guage. They're nice and consistent.

I also checked the temperatures at the top of the exhaust manifold with an IR temp guage.
1: 249F
2: 349F
3: 363F
4: 325F
This was after a 5 minute drive around the neighborhood.

I also got a new distributor body from Snyders. It doesn't appear to have helped.

That all sounds good.
In post #12 you said "Removing the #1 wire didn't change idle at all". Does the car have spark plug wires or bronze straps?
If it has wires, that may be your problem.

[gdmn852]

I wonder why cylinder 1 is 100 degrees cooler than the rest?Sounds if 1 still isn’t working correctly ? If valves are working correctly, and one cylinder is not firing,electrical? If engine was rebuilt camshaft should be good. I had a 1980 GMC that had soft cam from factory, kept losing power, finally tracked it down to that. But wouldn’t think that would be your problem. Please keep us posted. Compression looks about even valves must be closing.

[old ugly]

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yeah that's weird!
can you see in through the spark plug hole and see if the intake valve is opening all the way?
just a thought. if they are closing all the way it still may build compression but if they don't open all the way then that may be a problem????
maybe gdmn852's idea is what happened

if it is still able to run here is something that may work,
start it up
take off one plug wire at time and see if it will run on 1 cylinder. work your way towards #1 cyl.
if it will run on one cylinder and if that cylinder is #1 then maybe that cylinder is actually working properly

i am just guessing at ideas now i really don't know what's going on with it.

[kbrandt]

Originally Posted by katy

That all sounds good.
In post #12 you said "Removing the #1 wire didn't change idle at all". Does the car have spark plug wires or bronze straps?
If it has wires, that may be your problem.

It has straps, not wires. I knocked the strap off the distributor post with a long screwdriver. It's still doing the same thing.

[old ugly]

take all the plugs out, place the #1 plug on the head, run a wire to it. any kind of copper wire. now have someone turn on the ignition and crank it over on the starter. watch that plug for consistent spark.
see what it does.
you can move that wire to a different cyl. to make sure it works, check.
no spark you have an ignition problem

[old ugly]

Originally Posted by kbrandt

I also got a new distributor body from Snyders. It doesn't appear to have helped.

maybe the points are not breaking on that #1 distributor cam lobe.
you can crank the engine over and watch the points movement to make sure.

do you have modern points or original style? (i hate modern points)

[Gene F]

Put the old cap back on and see if it goes away. Never assume that every new part these days is a good part. Cap is cheap and easy

[kbrandt]

So, I've had some progress. I decided to check for vacuum leaks by spraying carb cleaner . It was leaking big time at the manifold to block joints. I had used brass nuts to hold on the manifold. One of them had stripped and none of them were all that tight. I replaced them with steel ones and progressively tightened them down to 40 ft-lbs. That fixed the vacuum leak.

About this time, I noticed the crank pulley had broken. After waiting for some parts and changing that out, I was able to drive it around today. It feels like it's running on 4 cylinders again. It's definitely improved over what it was, but it's still vibrating more than I remember.

At this point, I'm putting it on my ToDo list to pull the transmission and align the flywheel housing and check the flywheel runout.

I appreciat the help. I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future.