51 has me stumped

Jul 24, 2006 13 Replies
J

The engine on my 51 V8 is not stuck, but it's running like crap. It idles fine, but does not enough power to keep from stalling when placed in drive. The funny thing is, it ran great once or twice, even drove it a bit, then like crap again. So far, I've:



Rebuilt the 2 barrel, even swapped another known good carb. rebuilt fuel pump, tried a electric pump replaced the plugs, points and condenser replaced the coil Checked for vacuum leaks



Anything else I should try before I pull the front of the engine off to check the cam and timing gear ?



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O

I doubt cam gears in an intermittant issue, I also suspect fuel quality, try running off small fuel supply known to be good (i.e. gas can, etc.)

Bob wrote:

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S

I had a similar thing with my 51. It would idle but thats all. It was the tube inside the gas tank that bends down to the bottom of the tank. There was just enough there that it would let it thru but not enought to keep it going at any speed. Just a thought. .

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J

Try looking at the intake gaskets to the block Last Champ engine I had off was warped to the hilt and had bad vacuum leaks, especially after things warmed up a bit. Jeff

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G

Rotor, distributor cap, wires, vacuum advance???

JT

John Poulos wrote:

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G

Good possibility there...

JT

Bob wrote:

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P

You might try running it at night. If you have a light display you'll know you have a cross-firing problem. Paul Johnson

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D

Or, if the exhaust manifolds glow red, a blocked exhaust.

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P

John, I picked up a post from another group that might relate to your high rpm problem. Does the car have an oil bath oil cleaner? If so, try running it with no air cleaner (or a paper element). Years ago my '53 was very sluggish. I took off the oil bath cleaner and tried it with no filter- huge difference. I have run dry cleaners ever since. I found a small FLAPS air cleaner that fit the 90-degree neck and cleared the hood. Later I found a NOS air cleaner with element at Standard Surplus for $5.95 when the elements alone were $9.95. Paul Johnson

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