Hey all I recently rebuilt my 400 and I will be ready to start today and was anyone has any tips for me since this is my first rebuild? Any info would be great. How do I prime oil can I use 5 16th on a drill? How much fuel do I put in carb?



Friend gave me the air cleaner. . Kinda gaudy ill get another later or try to take off numbers lol

 

Come on I know someone has some knowledge to share.

 

Yes spin the oil pump shaft with a drill to prime.
But if the engine is well pre lubed with like white
lithium pre lube it should be fine either way. Than re
set the dizzy in time, fill the carb bowl or prime with
a shot of fresh gas and crank on her. Keep an extinguisher
Very handy and start it outside the shop. Just sayin.

 

So, how did it go?

 

Took some time. Timing was off but fixed and it came alive and sounded extremely pissed off lol. Now need to work the bugs out. Still need a timing light and possibly adjust carb. It won't run without choke.

 

You probably have a vacuum leak, causing it to be lean.

 

When I get on it it starts to rip then chokes? I re used the old distributer I think I'll change. One thing I noticed was my front and rear rubber intake gaskets seem to have pushed out. They were not like that before I started or at least I didn't notice and I'm pretty sure I would have being that I was playing with distributor. What should the total timing be set at?

 

Initial timing will be in the 8-12 range, but that'll take some experimentation.

Rubber gaskets? Did you put them in with some RTV on them and just torque the bolts right down? That's a problem as the RTV acts as a very effective lubricant and let's the gaskets pop out.

I don't use the rubber gaskets, but just RTV. However, the trick is to not torque the manifold down until the next day, which lets the RTV set up on the metal of the engine and manifold. That way it won't squeeze out. Make sure everything is surgically clean, lay a bead of RTV in that is a bit more than enough to bridge the gap, lay the manifold on using guide pins to ensure it goes on square, and snug the bolts up finger tight. That'll squeeze out any excess and get it ready for final torquing.

 

If I take back off can I re use valley pan? I let the rtv set up for only a hour.

 

I doubt the pan can be reused. There are embossed areas that get flattened when you torque the bolts down.

 

Ok what's another 35 bucks right.

 

Right. Do it right so you don't have to do it again.

Did what I said, on letting the RTV set up some, make sense? You don't want to put in way too much and let that completely set up, but if you put in quite a bit and then squeeze the excess out by tightening the manifold down snug, then you just put it in a bit of compression when you torque the manifold down. And, you can shave off the excess that comes out.

 

So toss the rubbers right snug down hand rite let sit over night? Do I still put rtv on intake ports like directions say? What kind of rtv? Black I have ht red

 

Yes on the snug down. But, RTV on the intake ports doesn't sound good. RTV and gasoline don't work well together. Instead, I'd use a high-tack spray. This thread talks about that.

 

Ok find a vac hose leak and oil pressure seems to be goin op n down the wire is messed up hoping that is it. I still have break in oil in should I change out?