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Hate to say it, but another problem, SBC only starts sometimes

Yeah, it's just that they are for the most part perpetually 8 years old.

And yes, I checked the carb, I can see gas in the carb, and smell it.
(it floods from more than 6 or 7 seconds of cranking)
My little inline fuel filter fills from just a bump of the key

I am extremely doubtful that it is a fuel issue.

It seems that GM products seem to hate me, the Blazer is completely dead, and my Mom's 04 trailblazer eats brake rotors like candy.

Another friend of mine just got a 84 F250 with a 351 that hadn't been started in years, and I get it running in half an hour, and idling in another 15.

Do I have some kind of GM curse? :rolleyes:
 
If you do you're not the only one. I wont threadjack with stories of my Ill fated camaro's, and the fate of my truck.

But that being said, even wrecked, rusting, and being used as a shed on wheels, I can go out right now and put the fuel lines into a jug of diesel, and crank that sucker up. I love my M1009 even in zombie limbo, and I love my diesel Jetta. Ill only buy a gasoline vehicle with the intention to swap it to diesel as soon as financially possible. give me a emp proof mechanically injected IDI diesel any day of the week :waytogo:
 
Currently my main vehicle is my 94 F250, 7.3 IDI with a factory turbo.

I would trust that truck anywhere, once it starts (it needs glow plugs desperately)
It's got 210XXX on it and runs like a top.

What was my previous project, before the Blazer shot the shat, was my 94 Ram 3500, 12 valve Cummins, NV4500 and has 156XXX. All it really needs is a bed.
It has starting problems and low idle, but that is all caused by the low fuel pressure, which in turn is caused by the overflow valve on the injection pump. I need a new one.



It seems I'm steering my own thread off course.

Ok, well all I can figure is that the pickup coil is bad, I guess I'll make a trip to the junkyard soon to grab another distributor.
That and get some sparkplugs.
 
are you sure its getting voltage while cranking? you said that you put a new working distributor in and it still didnt work. my only thoughts are that it is getting voltage with the key on but when it cranks the voltage isnt there.
did you try jumping a wire from the battery to the positive terminal on the distributor?
 
Well when we tried it with the voltmeter we got 12 volts with the key on and with the engine turning over, that's out of the big pink wire.
 
Alright, New spark plugs today, and try to explain this.

"crank crank cough vroom idle idle die" and then nothing. What happened?
 
Remeber what I said earlier about the chickens feet and live beaxer tails.
 
really starting to think that.

it catches occasionally but won't start, I messed with the timing some and nothing changed.
 
IT LIVES!!!!!!

Just with a little help from a couple of beavers and a chicken.
lol
 
lol
its finally running. set the timing and drive it then i know you have been wanting to for a while.
 
way ahead of you, already got it in time, (or close enough for right now) and I have already burn't up whatever was left in the tank.
 
I'm glad to hear its back on the road. I was thinking I might just have to come by and help you get it running in November when I'm going to be in that area.
 
There's no way I could have waited until November for it to go.
I would love to go out to Wyoming though, My dad wanted to move out there bad.


I just thought of something, I have a habit of overthinking things, Is it possible that it just needed spark plugs? if so I will be pissed.
 
Usually works for me. Glad your up and running. I know how frustrating it can be.
 
It is entirely possible the pulgs were the only faulty parts...like I stated before,many older trucks when HEI first came out had problems with cold starts,if the choke pull off failed and the carb ran real rich for a few minutes it would "drown" the plugs,it'd stall,and you could crank it for a year and get nothing more than an occaisional poop or misfire,or maybe a chug-chug-cough-stall scenario if you let it sit a day...
Install 8 brand new plugs and it would fire up instantly..dont fix the carb problem,it'll do it again and again..

Champion plugs seemed to be most prone to this,sometimes AC's could be coaxed back to life if you let the engine sit a day and block the choke open before trying to restart it again,once it ran on a few cylinders,you could hear the plugs start firing again one at a time..but usually they were dead for good,and had to be chucked...
I used to smash them with a hammer so they wouldn't get put back in and cause grief later on..they would spark fine if you lay one on the block to check for spark,but once they were in the engine they refused to fire under compression..

1975 engines in Buicks and Olds were most famous for this as GM decided a plug gap of as wide as .080 was OK with HEI,but after a rash of problems like yours after the winter ,they decided to reduce the plug gaps to .045 or less on their engines to prevent this from happening,it was pretty common on Chevy's too even with .060 gapped plugs..
 
Ok, well today I put 86 miles on the truck, a legitimate test drive.

I went to town on the highway, meandered some back streets, hit the highway again, then took gravel back roads back to a road we call "Ten Mile" Which is most all dirt, some mud, a creek, some very deep, tricky washouts, and some steep rocky bits, A good test of four wheel drive.
And then drove back on the highway.


And besides some occasional spark-knocking, she did fine.
I backed the timing off a bit, and the spark-knock went away.

All is well.
 
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