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98 Chevy C2500 need some fast help with the distributor

84CUCV

84CUCV

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working on this again for a friend of mine. I'm not exactly sure how old the cap and rotor are. Maybe a year and a half two years at most. The Is all corroded again just like it was last time. Runs like crap. I have standard automotive cap and rotor coming, AC Delco plugs and MSD Street FireWire's.

What would cause this? distributor looks like it has no vent. guy at work said to drill a hole in the top of the distributor and be done with it. is that really necessary though? I thought they were supposed to have a vent. Needs his truck back tonight. Any help would be great. Thanks:waytogo:
 
Put on a new cap to make sure it's not a crack letting the moisture in and spray the inside with WD-40 before you install.
 
After all, WD-40, stands for Water Displacement, 40th formula, it was originally designed to repel water and prevent corrosion.
 
:haha: wd-40 in the cap . . . . . = BOOM

friend sold a car years ago . guy cleaned up the cap/rotor and coated it with wd-40 went to fire it up and BLEW the cap clean off the dist .

spark + fuel = boom .

those are known for corrosion problems .

vent it and try that .
 
Sounds more like he was using carb cleaner,:dunno: but most peoples common sense says don't spray one full of propellants, slam the cap down, and turn the key.:screwy:
 
I blew the cap apart on my 72 K5 after I got it waterlogged doing a flooded street crossing ,and I barely made it to the other side of the road,before it sputtered and spit and stalled..

I took off the distributor cap and sprayed it with WD-40 ,and I heard a loud "POP" when it started,and I drove off,but it was running worse than before..I pulled over again,thinking it needed another squirt on the plug wires maybe,and discovered the top half of the cap with all 8 wires had blown off the bottom half,which was still clamped down in place!..

I managed to limp it the rest of the way to work 5 miles away by using duct tape to hold the top half somewhat back together ,it wasn't a smooth ride but I made it..

WD-40 used to be flammable enough to use as starting fluid on small emgines and diesels,but I think they changed the propellant in it or something,it dont work as well for that any more..I think it had propane as a propellant maybe?..
 
It can still be used in Diesels, but it takes a bit more to get them going. Used to have to do this now and then when the crew out at Firebird Raceway would run the forklifts out of fuel. :doah:

Even lost pick on a truck I was driving, back when I drove long haul, parked on a decent slanted area to take a break and make some food, when I went to take off, most of my fuel ran to the passenger side tank, I lost main pick up, stalled out the engine and couldn't refire. Roadside assistance came, flooded it with WD-40 while I was cranking and it eventually fired up.

He also mentioned it used to be easier to start with the stuff and said the same thing about them changing the chemical formula.


I sprayed a little dab in a nitro powered rc car once, turned the engine over and it fired up real quick too.
 
we used to do it ALL the time back in the day on Mopars.. they where notorious for moisture in the dizzies on rainy days...

I've never seen it happen, than again I'm not talking douchenozzling the inside of the dizzy/cap and closing it... :rolleyes: spray some in the cap and wipe it out with a rag...
 
84CUCV said:
working on this again for a friend of mine. I'm not exactly sure how old the cap and rotor are. Maybe a year and a half two years at most. The Is all corroded again just like it was last time. Runs like crap. I have standard automotive cap and rotor coming, AC Delco plugs and MSD Street FireWire's.

What would cause this? distributor looks like it has no vent. guy at work said to drill a hole in the top of the distributor and be done with it. is that really necessary though? I thought they were supposed to have a vent. Needs his truck back tonight. Any help would be great. Thanks:waytogo:
Click to expand...


What does the corrosion look like? These caps are known to fail even without corrosion. Also, there should be a couple small vents in the dist base. (like under the pickup coil) I have also seen wd40 pop a dist cap.
 
Venting these with the same design and even parts from a LT1 OptiSpark distributor works well.

Cheap cap and rotors are always a fail and the GM is best.
 
put on a standard automotive cap rotor wires and new both platinum plugs. runs like there is a miss?? what the hell am i missing now? all the wires are in the holders. my c1500 has the same cap rotor wires but ac delco plugs never a problem. could these platinum ones be the problem some how? thanks
 
Distributor gear worn out? Vortec small blocks have a problem with premature/excessive wear. Make sure to get the correct melonized gear and restab the distributor exactly in the same place or you have to use a high dollar programmer to reset the timing.
 
84CUCV said:
put on a standard automotive cap rotor wires and new both platinum plugs. runs like there is a miss?? what the hell am i missing now? all the wires are in the holders. my c1500 has the same cap rotor wires but ac delco plugs never a problem. could these platinum ones be the problem some how? thanks
Click to expand...


I'd pull each plug wire till you find the dead hole...
 
if it skips under load its the non acdelco plugs . boy have I changed a lot of new ones out for skip under load to fix it by installing correct acdelco plugs .
 
If you don't have issues as soon as you put in those fancy name brand super dupper better then stock adds MPG etc... plugs? You will soon.

AcDelco stock replacements! Stock, Platinum or Iridium, they are all the same but the precious metal ones last longer!
 
I've seen many chevy V8's have a dead hole skip after Bosch platinum plugs were installed..many mechanics wont use them around here for that reason..no one knows why they so often fail to fire in GM's but they do..get rid of them and I bet your skip goes away..
 
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