318 Timing Question:

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RLINSOCAL

RLINSOCAL

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Working on a car that has been sitting awhile and have no history on it.
Starts up and idles fine, but is real rough on acceleration.
going thru the basics when checking the timing, the timing mark on the balancer does not show at all, checking TDC and rotor position it looks to be a plug off.
I,m thinking the timing chain skipped, it has 98K on it.
Any opinions?
 
IF the chain is slack enough to jump there will be a lot of crank movement not thansfered to cam / distributer movement. Turn the crank forward and back to chesk for lost motion. If definate answer isn't found in that check, pull the number one plug and bring the piston to tdc. Now check to see if the balancer has seperated and slipped.
Too often the timming is suspected fault when fuel quality and delivery is the culprit.
 
We're having the same issue with our 1974 Dart w/318. Our timing is just a little "retarded" so we are going to loosen the distributor and adjust it just a tad, so the mark is just past the timing mark. We just need the proper wrench to loosen the distributor that a neighbor is bringing home to use from his shop. Our car also has 90K+ miles and sat for an extended period of time.
 
RedFish said:
IF the chain is slack enough to jump there will be a lot of crank movement not thansfered to cam / distributer movement. Turn the crank forward and back to chesk for lost motion. If definate answer isn't found in that check, pull the number one plug and bring the piston to tdc. Now check to see if the balancer has seperated and slipped.
Too often the timming is suspected fault when fuel quality and delivery is the culprit.
Click to expand...

will do, thx Redfish, would the car even run with a chain skip?
 
My experience if the chain skipps one tooth the engine stops.
 
I've seen engines that ran after they skipped a tooth, but none were Mopars, and all were just barely running. If I'm not mistaken if the small blocks skip timing the valves hit the pistons. At least, they did on my '71 318. Valve dents in the piston tops and a cracked rocker arm...:angry7:
 
my 71 dart when it had a 318 in it...the balancer had slipped...
 
thx for the info guys, the way it starts and revs and with this new info maybe not a timing chain, I,ll keep diggin..
 
Please keep us posted as I am dealing with the same issues. If I figure it out, I'll let you know. Shoot me a PM if you definitly figure it out.
 
Button said:
Please keep us posted as I am dealing with the same issues. If I figure it out, I'll let you know. Shoot me a PM if you definitly figure it out.
Click to expand...

I will for sure, I did notice the muffler is totally expanded (obviously many backfires with the po), I,m gonna start at the dizzy and work form there
 
Our car has back fired twice since we have had it. The Thrush Turbo swelled and developed a crimp in it's side. I want to get this issue resolved before putting a good set of dulas on the car.
 
We're hearing a strange metalic clicking/whiring sound that appears to be coming from the distributor when you lean down and put an ear close. The noise comes and goes and is more noticable once the engine has run for a few minutes. I believe I may replace the entire distributor. I haven't done this before but figure it's worth a shot and certainly couldn't hurt since the current one looks as if it's the very worn out original. I did replace the cap, rotor, coil and wires already. The coil and wires are Accel parts.
 
RLINSOCAL,
We ended up putting in a re-man distributor we picked up from Auto Zone. It made an instant improvement but we've been playing with the timing. Right now we're at 5-6 advanced and it still has a small backfire and is sluggish when accellerating. What is the optimum advance to place the timing on?, 3-4degree's?
 
Crackedback,
Adding the 10 degree's helped alot. We took a 25 minute test drive and only twice was there a small back-fire and I think that is mainly due to the fuel mixture. Now I'll have to figure out if it's to lean or rich and adjust accordingly.

Mech1nxh,
Here are the pictures of the disributor once it was tightened down at 10+. I hope this helps.

000_1042.jpg


000_1043.jpg


000_1044.jpg
 
Last night we drove the car and leaned out the carb (turning the screws counter-clockwise) in 1/4 turns at a time. It got better with each attempt until we had tuned it one complete turn and could pretty much push the pedal to the floor without any backfire / stumble. Darkness fell so we'll play with it some more this evening.
 
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