Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 15:13:07 -0800
Reply-To: Daniel Schmitz <djs@GENE.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Daniel Schmitz <djs@GENE.COM>
Organization: Genentech, Inc.
Subject: Re: 93.4% of the way there
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Jason,
Pistons in 4-cycle engines reach TDC on two strokes: compression and exhaust.
Assuming the distributor drive was installed correctly by Boston Engine, the
rotor should point to #1 cylinder when #1 pistion is at TDC on the COMPRESSION
stroke. The rotor will point to #3 cylinder when #1 piston is on its EXHAUST
stroke.
It sounds like you may be running your engine 180 degrees out of time, which
will often allow the engine to run (barely), but will produce virtually no power
and may be causing the red hot exhaust.
You can verify this by simply moving your plug wires on the distributor cap 180
degrees.
If your engine runs OK, that was your problem. You then still need to
dynamically time it, but this will get you your initial timing.
Dan
Jason Willenbrock wrote:
> hey all,
> thanks to those who responded with my last problem of the distributor not
> being fully seated. i properly seated it today and it started right up with
> boston bobs beautiful piece of magic humming like a bird. so now the next
> problem.
> after getting intial start up on the new engine and getting rpm up to
> about 1500, i noticed the exhaust pipes coming out of the heads were glowing
> red. i shut it down immediatley. if you recall the gas in the tank is a
> year old. so i drained the tank and will fill with new gas tomorrow.
> hopefully this was the reason for the red glow. according to boston bob, the
> gas was so old that it was burning slow rather than quick flashes and
> causing the glow.
> also here is another observation. when i seated the distributor while crank
> was at tdc notch, the rotor only seated where it faced #3 cylinder. i
> thought the rotor was supposed to face number 1 which is about 4 oclock on
> the distributor, when crank was at tdc. however this is the only way the
> rotor would seat. does this mean that my timing is way advanced or
> retarded, and could this also lead to the red hot glow? the engine sounded
> great with no back firing. there was slight hesitation though, but this
> could have been due to the bad gas. so could someone please walk me through
> this whole distributor lining up thing in very simple terms. i have a
> timing light but not quite sure how to use it. obviously, i am learning as
> i go here and with the help of you all i am doing pretty okay. where is my
> rotor supposed to face and how can i get it to face there?
> hoping for no mo' red glow
> thanks again
> jason
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