I ALSO POSTED THIS IN" REGALS WITH EXTRA CYLINDERS" Thanks While everybody seems closer to getting their Regals done. Mine all the sudden seems to be getting worse. It all started after a fill up and an wash job and cleaning of the engine bay. Can't determine wich if any of them are the cause. (I've since done another fill up at another gas station) It surges going down the road , wants to idle low or high, sounds like a plug wire is crossed, ( that veries from side to side, one day the left bank sounds like missing and rough and then on the next start up its the other side l, (that listening at and from the tailpipes). Pops when let off the throttle out of the tailpipes. The other weird thing , is when pulling up to a stop , it actually vibrates the car, not shaking, just like a heavy load and a rough eng trying to pull it, it sounds wierd just like the car is a tuning fork for this weird vibration. And now the cooling fan runs constantly about 5mins after start up, dosen't ever seem to get hot, and THE BIG THING THAT WORRIES ME...I hear a light knocking or slap noise from the front of the engine, on the drivers side. I'm still driving it.... tried everything..this happened about 2 days ago and today really got worse, then for a short time after stopping for a Coke, restarted ran fine, untill I throttled up to pass, got up to 62mph and let off and it was back. Any Ideas at all? o No: thanks
I'm no expert, but during the engine bay wash, could something maybe have shorted out? I dunno, it just sounds to me like what my car did when I had a crack in a spark plug wire and it was arching with another wire... just something to check maybe?
You have HEI correct? It's possible that you got the module/distributor wet, and it's shorting something out, or damaged it. As for the knocking sound, no clue on that one.
Could it possibly have carbon tracking in the distributor cap. I had a GMC Jimmy that acted like that. A new cap and rotor solved the problem.
betcha anything that you have water under the cap. I washed my daily driver last summer and it did the same thing....sputtered, surged, bucked..all that fun stuff. Took the cap off and it was soaked. Sprayed it down with some WD40 and the engine purred like a cat. Ante
Guys thanks for all the replies.. Looks like this Sat will be spen t fixing a van and diagnosing the Regal...Bummer.. Now the fun update... or confusing... It ran bad on my way to work... when I got off work I started it and it barely ran , when it died, there was a whoosh sound from the carb, I restarted it it and it ran smooth, very flawless, in fact it did a 60 mile round trip with no hiccups other that overheating and my electric cooling fan didn't kick on.(failed fuse) After several start ups , I started it for the last time for the short drive back to my house, It ran like garbage, wouldn't hold an idle, seem better when romped on, but if at a stop it would slowy, come down on the idle, to almost dying. Now I remember when I first got the Regal running I ran into a similar problem, one of those needles in the front of the carb would get "kicked" out of it's seat and cause it to run bad. Seemed like that power piston needle combo would travel to far up, and would let the one of those needles hangup outside it's seat. I also remember someone saying something about a screw driver test to see if that needle and seat( power piston) were functioning ok. How do you do that? And if that's the case how do I cure the problem so those won't ket kicked out again? OR.......Should I just go get a new carb, like a Holley or one them Q-jets from Edelbrock? The light knock sound can still be heard, The cap and rotor checked out great, did find a oil saturated plug boot, from a leaking V/C gasket ( didn't tighten that one properly when I assembled the engine ) Again thanks for the input
AHHHH YES...the knock... well got that figured out and will be fixed... It was the power steering pump? My 9 year old son figured that one out.. I was so wrapped up in the finding the cause ( in the engine) I overlooked the obvious. Tried the screw diver stethiscope test to confirm, and the pulley looks wobbely. Anyhooooo.........o No: Now today...she ran like a champ, can't fix what ain't broke, just my dang luck tho...it'll happen tomorrow. Still tho how do I keep that (if that's the case) power piston and it's needle to stay down? Thanks
Q-Jet power piston The power piston should not be able to go up high enough to let the metering rods out of the jets. There is a little plastic ring that pushes down into the carb body after the power piston and rods are installed. Then the gasket slips under the rod hangers on the power piston, and the carb top holds everything in place. Are you sure that you are getting them installed properly in the first place? Also, they will never reinstall themselves - if they popped out of the jets thay would stay out and the car would run rich all of the time. Sounds to me like you have a crapped up needle and seat or a problem with the float. As far as checking the power piston operation, use a small screwdriver and push the power piston down through the bowl vent tube. You will need to angle the tool toward the front of the car, just probe around until you feel the resistance of the spring. Make sure it moves up and down freely. Then start the car and let it idle. CAREFULLY check the plunger again through the vent, make sure the vacuum is holding it down. That's all there is to it.
primary metering rods? As a side note, If your metering rods are the incorrect year for your carb they'll be too short and could possibly be the problem of them popping out but thats a new one on me. 75 and later rods are numbered differently than earlier ones with the double taper and are .080 shorter in overall lenghth. I would suspect a bent hanger before anything else. Most if not all rebuilders ignore the power piston(not us guys though)heigth and whether or not the metering rods are the correct ones for the application or not. That would still not explain all the symptoms your car exhibits. Know any exorcists? What carb number are you using?
