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truck running like crap. and missing

Wow, the things I miss watching the stupid superbowl. My wife had to pick me up off the floor and set my chair back up.

I have not heard of a valve cover coming lose, but I personally have blowen apart 3 mufflers from tune ups or getting trucks started after years of no use. The last one was last spring getting my 73 k5 going. Damn mice building nest.

As far as the other two, my step father andI where replacing header gaskets and he tried to start the van prior to hooking up the driver side sparkplugs. After it started and ran rough (ya think) he shut it down and put the boots back on. Well it must have super loaded raw fuel into the drivers side exaust and when started again boom. Cool looking clamshell.

As for number three, new motor install and dist. was 180 out. also loaded the motor after the backfire we needed new muff and tried to set the hood isulation on fire. Lucky no one was looking down carb.

So my questions return to timing and /or sparkplug wires mixed up (chamber firing when intake valve is open). Or is valve not seating and is it loading into head. would explain the miss.

Before I forget, I cant remember what year it started but on my 90 with TBI you need to cut the wire (brown?) in order to set the timing with the ECM. Something to do with the spark advance. I dont know why, but that is why I make best friends with real mechanics. There may be a post about it on here somewhere. Sorry about the valve cover.
 
Jester1 said:
Wow, the things I miss watching the stupid superbowl. My wife had to pick me up off the floor and set my chair back up.

I have not heard of a valve cover coming lose, but I personally have blowen apart 3 mufflers from tune ups or getting trucks started after years of no use. The last one was last spring getting my 73 k5 going. Damn mice building nest.

As far as the other two, my step father andI where replacing header gaskets and he tried to start the van prior to hooking up the driver side sparkplugs. After it started and ran rough (ya think) he shut it down and put the boots back on. Well it must have super loaded raw fuel into the drivers side exaust and when started again boom. Cool looking clamshell.

As for number three, new motor install and dist. was 180 out. also loaded the motor after the backfire we needed new muff and tried to set the hood isulation on fire. Lucky no one was looking down carb.

So my questions return to timing and /or sparkplug wires mixed up (chamber firing when intake valve is open). Or is valve not seating and is it loading into head. would explain the miss.

Before I forget, I cant remember what year it started but on my 90 with TBI you need to cut the wire (brown?) in order to set the timing with the ECM. Something to do with the spark advance. I dont know why, but that is why I make best friends with real mechanics. There may be a post about it on here somewhere. Sorry about the valve cover.
Click to expand...

Yeah it sucks...
going to order a cheap set off of amazon For 35 bux.. too bad I only need one...
And as far as the timing goes. I will need some help setting tht. this is my first TBI.
 
Setting timing is extremely easy. There is a wire referred to as "est" wire. It's a single wire to a connector under the brake booster. Unplug it and set timing to zero. Shut off truck and replug it in.
Do a search and you'll come up with pictures of it.
 
Before you start with timing double check your firing order. Sometimes its dumb stuff. Also check a pick a part for the cover may be able to get one for like $5 bucks, or check out a few treads on here maybe someone has on to donate. Seems like everyone is doing motor swaps to big blocks or ramjets or LS. :rolleyes:
 
my battery went dead. on my truck. so its on the charger, and I'll see if i can atleast get it Started tomorrow.. then time to get the valve covers. But first thing is first. getting it back to "driveable"
 
How did you battery go dead? Did you ever get it to start again? Did you double check all the initial stuff you installed to make sure your firing order was correct, boots where tight, cap and rotor was ok after detonation?
 
Jester1 said:
How did you battery go dead? Did you ever get it to start again? Did you double check all the initial stuff you installed to make sure your firing order was correct, boots where tight, cap and rotor was ok after detonation?
Click to expand...

never did start again..

the cap rotor and wires are still good. even plugs.

as far as the firing order goes, I removed one plug wire off old cap. and placed it on the new one.
 
OK, its almost 1am here, so I'm not at my best. I've been up since 4 yesterday morning, and been going all day.

As a result, I may be a little fuzzy.
But, I suspect you may have a hole in a piston. I remember back many years ago seeing a dipstick blown completely out of an engine due to an occurrence like yours.

A hole in the piston might let enough gas blowby into the crankcase to reach critical concentration, and then your nice hot spark could ignite the mix in that cylinder even though the compression would be very low.

When it did, the resulting flash would go down through the hole like the fire from a cap goes through a touchhole in a black powder rifle.

If there is a hole, you might be able to tell by noticing if there is a puffing action on the crankcase vent.
Unfortunately, with the valve cover off, you might not be able to tell.

Of course, it would show up instantly with a compression test.
 
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