I have not heard from the mechanic yet. He was going to put a degree wheel on the crank tonight. My best bet is the multi groove crank gear is in the wrong position
Bad day here. Still no luck. The timimg chain I brought to the shop was not a TA unit but a Rollmaster ( I think) I bought from a board member. It has 3 key ways and with every combination I am looking at the best 111.5 instead of 109 degrees and that might not give me enough vaccum to let the car idle. Duane asked if I can get a TA set but I imagine that would be late next week before I can get it ( if they are in stock) This whole ordeal is killing my chance to make BG. I have lost 2 weeks of build time while we deal with this low vaccum problem. Looks like I might put out a request for a TA set from the members. MAybe someone close to St Louis. Wild Bill it looks like if I make BG it will be without a car again!
John, I put a timing chain in the mail today after work that should be there Wednesday. I know I for one want there to be another Suncoupe at The Nationals.
Shop is machining a new slot in the crank gear. Thgis is supposed to get me within .5 degree. We'll see. Thanks to Mike for the help. If the TC set gets here and has the 9 key ways I'll be insisting on using it. AI have to sork tomorrow so I will have to wait to see what they say. Due to the economy the shop is now closed except M W F 5PM to 10 PM. The owner had to take a position teaching at a local tech school to have income coming in. He now has insurance which is a net increase as he is one of the small business owners we hear about "S" where he takes his pay from the business. For over a year he has not been making any money. I cannot blame him I would do the same. But the delays in getting the car done are killing my chances to make BG. I have been spending a lot of time lately rushing around and trying to get stuff done and worrying getting it to BG. The last 2 days I have slowed down and am starting to feel like it won't happen. I keep telling myself it will not be the end of the world if I have to wait to 2011 BG to debut the car. With the investment I have in the car now I will not be taking short cuts just to make it this year. Regardless I will be there. After all the friends I have made there are the main reason I go. I am still depressed that the car has been running for a month now and have yet to get it to the body shop. today I am taking the side moldings to the polisher to see what he can do with them.
John, keep your chin up. Your right don't rush. That's when mistakes happen, or paint get's scratched. Look at it this way, worse case scenario BG will only be another 7 months away instead of 12. Of course Id love for it to be October every year...
John, keep up the faith. It will eventually work. I am looking forward to seeing that beauty at the nationals one day. You and the other Suncoupe owners keep me trying to get the Suncoupe that is sitting about 60 miles from here. Tim
Today was supposed to be the day it was ready. The mechanic said that he got the timing within a half degree 108.5 as opposed to 109 so it should be close enough. I got a call saturday that the carb was not working properly. He thought it had a crack internally as it ran poorly once it was heat soaked. I went tonight with the carb from Terrys Suncoupe and guess what it still runs the same. Now the wierd part. The balancer is supposed to be checked and is fine its a NOS original. Cam was degreed. The car has 15 inches vaccum but the initial timing is set at 30. Any attempts to bring the timing back to 10 results in the exhaust starting to thump and the car dies. I am wondering if I need to pull the cam and ship it back to TA, or maybe degree the damn thing myself, Seems like the car idles better the more advance you put in until it gets to 35 or so then it starts to get hard to start and runs worse. Maybe I will have to time this by ear and best vaccum. Im Lost and so is the guy working on it.
All stock points and 2016 dist GM coil. The strange part is that they say my balancer is right on. The cam is degreed to within 1/2 degree but the car will not run until you hit 27 degrees initial and the vaccum gets higher as you advance the dist. I say that the cam is still off and for some reason they are having a difficult time setting the gears and I found out that the lower gear was cut for a new keyway but that was off and not used. I probably have to buy a TA gear and chain then degree it myself
OK cam in at 109 as per the cam card and still not right. Torn down and cam lift measured. Stock stage 1 grind intake lift 348 exhaust 498 measured off the cam not the lifter. Also the card states that 4 degrees are ground into the cam but it was 7. The cam card I got from JW is useless with a cam this far off .How does a cam get ground that badly and it was bought from from TA ALWAYS DEGREE YOUR CAM ON THE STAND !
I would take that cam out. If TA will not trade it out, I would throw it down on the pavement untill it broke to pieces.
I had a different place where I thing it should go.:af: I am now looking into fini=ding a Comp Cams piece that I can get locally in a couple days. I even am looking intop a stock 455 cam anything to get the car running. the whole mess is making me sick. I asked about my bill and the guy said hes working on it:eek2: at 85.00 per hour if I have to pay for the whole thing I am looking at 5k or more just to get the damn engine running and thats on top of the rebuild costs. Now with al the parts I could be into the STOCK 455 stage1 for 10Kou: They must have gone thru the degree process 10 times , torn the front down 4 times and installed 3 different intake gaskets, sent the carb to have it checked, did a crack test on the intake,:shock: :shock: I might have to sell the car to pay the bill:shock: :shock: Now I feel that the cam should have been degreed when the engine was assembled and I don't think I will; be hit with the whole bill but I am nervous because he cannot seem to get me a idea where I stand on the charges. Some of it is his employees inability to decide the cam was bad and some of it was the its a stock engine and I don't need to degree it. I was NOT given the choice to degree it before it was finished assembled.
Engine is assembled except for a rocker retainer they broke, I don't know how as the shafts were all assembled from TA. But I went to the almost local Buick dealer and got 3 of these at 10.00. I remember buying these for like 35 cent a piece. now 2.45 each. So the car will be started again wednesday night and I hope to have good news about the whole ordeal.
Comp cams Close to stock but not quite. I cannot remember but something lie 496 lift 112 LC and 286 dur. That might not be right but its close
We have vaccum and the car is running , no wait. The distributor has a short from the advance screws backing out. Now I will have to wait till friday. Oh yeah the cam is broken in and it sounds real nice. My mechanic is going to drill and tap the dist for the new screws tomorrow or friday
