installing Ta 212 Cam and questions about rotor poition

Guys,

While your correct with the # of turns and dot positions and all that.. your missing the bigger point and the key to understanding, when it comes to crank/cam/distributor orientation.

It is as simple as this.. your looking right at the cam with the intake off.

Both #1 cylinder lifters on the base circle of the cam

Crank at TDC

This is the number one firing position.

I worry that all this talk of dot positions and rotations blurs the understanding.

Gear markings should be used to line the cam up, and only that.

 

Tomorrow morning I;m firing her up. I put a cork screw in #1 plug hole and turned the crank (with a breaker bar) and it blew the cork out with a loud bang. then i aligned the mark on the balancer to 0 degrees on the timing chain cover. Now I will install the distrib with #1 wire and rotor aligned. I think i might advance the timing on the balance wheel 12 degrees first then point distrib rotor to #1 wire. I was going to do this tonight but Ive been working on it all day getting it back together.

I really appreciate all the advice. Not done this before so its been a learning experience. All I can say is that damn intake manifold is heavy and being able to stand inside the engine compartment of the riv is a big help.

 

will report back on how things went tomorrow.

 

Latest update. Put everything back together and fired her up. after about 4 or 5 turns she started right up. I let it run for about 30 mins between 1500 and 3000 rpm.

i adjusted timing a little and then went for a drive and after that came home and it was having trouble idling. looked like the carb was getting flooded had gas leaking out of it and it would spit gas.

looked like it was kind of cycling from running at 1000 rpm and then would slow down and almost stall a few times . it would do this in a cycle then eventually stall out.

So after thiking about it and the fact i didnt touch the carb i figured id take out the new fuel pump ( its a Carter M4511 which has a Psi of 8).

So put the old one back and it now runs fine. So maybe my qudarajet carb is not able to handle the higer pressure of the new pump? Any one have any ideas on this?

Rgards

Pinder

 

Q-Jets have had several different float/Needle/Seat arrangements. Which of these YOUR carb has, I don't know. Some have larger floats with less leverage, others have small floats with more leverage. There was the "patty melt" needle and seat deal that caused GM some headaches and eventually a recall when too many engines caught fire. This was an excellent design, troubled with poor materials. The fuel pressure was balanced on both side of the needle, so that fuel pressure couldn't affect needle closure. Problem was, the little rubber diaphragm would rupture, and then the needle couldn't shut-off the fuel flow.

In short; 8 psi could easily be too much pressure for your carb to handle.

 

I rebuilt the carb last year with a kit from quadrajet parts. Ill send the new pump back and get another one with lower pressure or i could just run my old pump until it dies.

 

This is a you tube of the car with the TA 212 cam installed. I also put the second Eastwood crome alternator in (one wire unit). as you can see it still whistles. I even changed the wire to an 8 awg going from alternator to starter solenoid. my old remy never did that. ITs very annoying. louder than the engine. Something has to be wrong with it. but this is the second one from eastwood. they took the other back but im thinking there was nothing wrong with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovzz8OcYyhs

 

Ok after some research I conclude that the Quadrajet that I have works between 2 and 6 psi. So thats why hte new carter pump which is rated at 8psi was flooding my carb. I got my old pump back in and the car is running nice. Still not break neck perforance but with the new cam its running really nice. Thank you to all of your advice. The cork in the #1 cylinder while i hand cranked the car was a great tip as i was working on this on my own to determine TDC on compression. Thanks for that . It popped the cork out with a real loud bang.

 

"The Rochester Q-jet likes to see the fuel pressure between 4 and 6 psi...Never design a fuel system for a street-driven car with more than six pounds fuel pressure at idle because the fuel level rises with increased pressure, causing idle instability, over-rich low end and starting problems" - Doug Roe

Although this is an older thread, due to the current (as of April 2021) lack of Stage 1 BBB fuel pumps from trusted sources, this non-stage Carter M4511 pump should probably be avoided, as Pinder discovered and Doug Roe explains.

 

Thank you Larry for the clarification!

That perhaps explains why Carter has two pumps for the BBB, M4511 (8 psi) and M6744 (6.5 psi). Both are small-reservoir, non-Stage applications, unfortunately.