455 in a Land Rover

@LARRY70GS the float bowls are half full as per my list of things Ive checked.

 

Hi Brandon, pressure is 6 - 7 psi
I've had the bowls off and cant see anything. The floats are free and I've blown everything through with carb cleaner

 

Oh and I hope you are all having a good 4th of July

 

I agree Larry, I'm going to order up a repair kit

 

Did it back fire and take out the power valve, not that that would be the issue. If you pump the throttle does it squirt the gas?

 

No, there's been no back fire and it squirts gas if I pump the throttle

 

Any updates, did you get it running? I found it strange it wouldn't fire with the acc pumps dumping that fuel in there, maybe somehow water got in the fuel?

 

check how much vacuum it pulls during cranking ?

 

Repair kit should be here today.

I suspect a vacuum leak.

 

Carb rebuilt and found a few things that I'm not happy with.

 

Ouch!

 

OK, so the carb has been rebuilt and refitted. No change, it still wont run.

So I'm going to order up some gaskets from TA and pull the inlet manifold and do some forensics.

If that doesnt work then I'll wheel the engine into the corner of the workshop and put a cover over it. Maybe sometime when I have time I'll drag it out again but in the meantime the Land Rover is likely to end up with an LS in it.

 

Don't swap engines just because you've got a fueling problem. I wouldn't even pull the intake manifold (yet.)

Runs on starting fluid = adequate compression, adequate spark, adequate exhaust. Personally, I'd like to know the cranking compression numbers, and I'd like to test the spark with a tester calibrated for HEI...but I also don't expect to find a problem there. Just covering bases.

All you're missing is a burnable fuel/air mix.

If this were a problem with the carb, it'd be in the idle circuit, not the disfigured boosters/main circuit you photographed. But it should run on the accelerator pump if the fuel was good.

I think you've got contaminated fuel, too.

 

I asked the fuel questioning quality or water in it but don't remember seeing an answer.

 

Schurkey, as you say it's all there except it won't burn the fuel.

I don't see any reason for the compression to be off. This engine has basically done one cam break in, 5 pulls on the dyno and about an additional 30 mins of run time. Compression was ok when it ran last year.

Checked the spark using a tester and they were all good enough to ignite any fuel, so will try some fresh fuel.

The biggest problem is that I don't have a spare carb to swap with.

 

I bought a 455 conv once cheap that owner said it had a burned valve. Ran lousy, hard to start....took a chance on it and ran it off fresh fuel in a jug and it ran great....pumped ALL the fuel out.....that was 15 yrs ago and it still runs great. Previous owner was just adding fresh fuel to bad fuel....add 5 gallons of fresh to bad and you then have 10 gallons of bad fuel.
Becomes a BIG issue when you are talking boats with 100 to 200 gallons of fuel!

 

So the bad fuel theory proved to be the right one.

I have two five gallon Jerry cans both of which were filled a month or so ago. Swapped over to the other can and off she went.

........that's when I found that all the cranking had wiped out number one intake lobe.

So some time later this year I'll swap the old cam back in.

Thanks for all the suggestions, Ive no idea why the fuel should be bad.