yeah ill do that! It just sucks cause all this stuff worked on my 390 and something went bad...
I really hope i dont do any damage to cam. Its just alot of work to replace it..
Thanks again for all your guys help. much apprectiated

 

I hope the cam is ok too, but their are soooooo many horror stories these last 5-10 years it's not even funny.

A little of topic, but I took my truck to Home Depot a couple weeks ago and it started running like butt. It's like WTF? I just changed the coil, installed new plugs, have fuel pressure yadda yadda yadda so I started freaking the cam went flat. Same symptoms.

Turns out the distributor rotor's top "tang" bent somehow and wasn't making direct contact with the cap button. Found that out after removing both valve covers getting ready to turn the engine over to watch valve lift.

Whew!

Josh

 

is there a simple way to measure valve lift on the rockers. Do you just install a dial indicator and record your measurement to find if its consistant??

 

Dial indicator or a 6" machinist rule should suffice.

You wouldn't have wiped the cam or the lobe just cranking it, it would happen the first few seconds after the engine hits it's stride... or 100 miles down the road or 1000.

A wiped cam lobe has different symptons depending if it's an intake or exhaust lobe. A bad exhaust will pop exhaust out the intake when the intake valve opens, a dead intake lobe will have a dead cylinder and be down on power.

That's why I thought I wiped a cam, my engine just all of a sudden started back-firing and running like butt, even though I have 5000 or so miles on the cam.

I didn't bring it up to be a jerk, just hate to see a wiped cam from all the cranking.

Josh

 

im going to run an oil additive in every oil change

 

That probably really isn't necessary. It may not hurt anything, but if you are going to do any damage to your cam it will be from an improper break in and additional additive will not help.

Once the camshaft is properly broken in, you supposedly don't need the extra additives.

 

I would pull the plugs and squirt a little oil in the cylinders, if you crank a new engine for a long time without it firing you could have washed the cylinders down with gas and the pistons can score the cylinder walls. Just cheap insurance talking from experience.

 

ok so update...
Sadly I havnt got it to fire yet but i will soon. I have the petronix III multispark unit on order with the coil but I also got a loaner points distributor from a buddy from a running 65 T bird. I can temporary install that...
I also talked to petronix tech support today and we went through everything. We came to the conclusion that the distributor may have a bad ground. I have a chrome distributor lock down that is left loose for initial fireup to adjust and it may not be grounding properly with also the possibility of some paint on top flange surface that is held down by lockdown. He said the distributor doesnt always ground out through oil pump driveshaft. He also says it could be the explanation why when i tested the module with a test light it didnt flash like it should and it only dimmed...
Its pouring rain tonite and its dark but I'm now itching to check this out even if I have to run the points distributor.

 

Can't go wrong with points, set the gap, stab the dizzy in TDC and make sure the rotor points to the #1 terminal and fire away. Just one wire to hook up as well.

When I ran the Misery, I mean Mallory Unilte I carried an extra points distributor to swap out when the module failed. There wa sone time in the Village Inn parking lot I am out there in the rain changing distributors, but I got home!

Josh

 

yeah id like to get the crane setup working if possible. petronix tech said testing for bad module like you posted was the same for their unit and hooking up a ground to - coil would most likely not fry an ignition so I'm hopefull at this point. Carrying a points distributor would be a good idea though! As soon as i get a night after work where its not sideways rain i'm hooking something up to fire this thing!!

 

bullett I still cant get it to fire!!! I didnt even try to get a better grounf from other distributor i went straight to the points. I cleaned up the base and dropped it in the same as before. The one wire goes to the - side of coil RIGHT??? my 12 volt power is on at + coil side and again no spark! I pulled lead from on top of distributor from ceneter and cranked it with it grounded...nothing.
What am i doing wrong???????????

 

Do you have a jumper wire connecting the baseplate to the breakerplate in the distributor? Without this jumper wire, the points and condensor won't ground, and there will be no spark.

 

yeah it has a jumper wire...

I've now eliminated the optima battery from the system. It may not be holding a good charge as my smart charger turns off when attempting to charge it. It now is only hooked up with my 975 cca intrstate a couple years old. I've also eliminated the 12 volt direct wires to coil and have now hooked up the original points wire with 9.5 volts to coil and the split off brown press on wire hooked up to the "I" side of starter solenoid just like stock. When cranking the power to coil with test light just pulses with dim glow. On another note the motor is only turning over slow again but my interstate is low. Its on a charge now... This is driving me nuts

 

I think you're supposed to be getting 12v to the coil with the key on and not running.

You have a meter, can you measure continuity from the engine block to the negative side of the coil with the points closed? Does this continuity go away when the points are open?

 

I had that and just took it off. stock points have a ballast resistor so it is only 9 ish volts. With 12 volts it still does nothing