390 pulsing problem- RE-HASH

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » April 14, 2007, 8:38 am

I have felt and seen vibrations from alternators that have bad bearing on some customers vehicles in the past, i dont know if that is what your feeling, take the belt off and see if it goes away.

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » April 14, 2007, 9:17 pm

yeah. I'll yank the belt tomorrow and see what happens. I'm starting to think it's pretty likely. The engine is just running too strong to have something terribly wrong with it... At least I would assume so.

If that fixes the vibration, I'll be happy as hell, in a pissed off kind of way...

6166 Junkyard Dog · Post by **6166 Junkyard Dog** » April 15, 2007, 9:55 am

Do not know if this will help, but I have did away with the Petronix for the reason of on higher than 3000 RPMS Works for short time, all of my FE'S Have put points back in and also have fixed these units for many people at the shows cause they can move by themselves just like points can move that was my biggest problems I even kept a spare unit then sold it at a show for way less since not very happy with those units, I will stick to the points I know one thing I bought a set of Motorcraft points and WOW cost me 16.85 just for points thats very high but I do know when those units where in my Big Slick had to keep adjusting them all the time + would make the temp go up also , I replace points in her in a
years time with no worries, But like everything there is many opinions on this just use whats works for you the best

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » April 15, 2007, 11:10 am

the only thing I got working in my cracked FE block was a good ignition

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » April 16, 2007, 8:06 pm

Well... She's runnin bad as or worse than ever today. I think it's grown into a full-blown miss. And I'm running out of ideas here...

Paul Merrell · Post by **Paul Merrell** » April 16, 2007, 8:22 pm

I think you have a bent pushrod and maybe a burnt valve.

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » April 16, 2007, 8:22 pm

have you checked compression?

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » April 16, 2007, 10:39 pm

no bent pushrod. I determined that is is the pass. side of the eng. by listening to the pipes. (Not interconnected), craked off the right valve cover, looked real close, wiggled on everything, ran it a little, nothing looked out of order.

Have not ran a comp. test. I can't find a tester for loan, and really can't afford to spend any more than I must. I'll probably wind up coughing up more money for one.
May well be a burnt valve... Might explain the carb-firing. who knows. I sure as shit don't. Starting to get a wee bit pissed.

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » April 16, 2007, 10:44 pm

I had that with my 390 also it bent several of them, dont know why it was that way when i bought it, can get entire set from part sotre, not to expensive, good thing, I was starting to think a bad valve

eliminator46 · Post by **eliminator46** » April 17, 2007, 6:47 am

If no bent Prod, could be an unfortunate flattened lobe on the cam.
This is sounding like one of those snowballs. I know the feeling. :evil:

eliminator46 · Post by **eliminator46** » April 17, 2007, 6:51 am

I have also inquired about my low oil pressure. I have no gauge, but running without V-covers, the oil only trickles down the drains on the top end. It does not squirt everywhere. I too have one bent rod. A flattened lobe can be the result of this. Also I'm not sure if you have hydraulic lifters or not, and could be of concern if one is bad. :idea:

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » April 17, 2007, 9:45 am

mine had two bent pushrods when I tore engine down it had a flat cam for sure, not one lobe, not two, not three but everyone of them, it seems the person I bought it from thought it had a plug over the oil dipstick tubes hole, he seemed to believe that was because the dealer installed the AC which is actually factory installed in 69s and the dumb ass forgot to put dipstick tube in and oil leaked out them as you say it all snowballed from there, amazingly enough it could still light up the rears and pass emissions, I found that block had two cracks one inside and other is above soft plug by starter, so I now have a 428 service block, I sure hope you dont have this happening to yours

Paul Merrell · Post by **Paul Merrell** » April 17, 2007, 5:25 pm

If you have the right side valve cover off you could take the rocker arm shaft off and check the height of the valve stems. I had burt valves on both heads on the intake. The heads did not have the harden seats for unleaded gas. I could tell as soon as I took the rocker shaft off because all the intake valves stems were taller than the exhaust valves. I just hope that if it is a burnt valve that you did not run it too long because it will crack the head. I know that because both of mine were cracked.

luisenrique · Post by **luisenrique** » April 17, 2007, 5:37 pm

check timing chain, this happened to us once. we changed distributor, coil, plugs, and it ended up being timing chain....

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » April 17, 2007, 11:38 pm

well, I had the right VC off, everything "looked ok", but I know that means Nothing... but I did determine that oil does in fact spooge all over the place.

Today is actually the worst I think it has ran... It "goes", but is almost constantly missing.

When the engine was rebuilt in May of 2005, hardened valve seats were put in, new cloyes roller timing set (steel gears), fresh cam, new hydraulic lifters, etc.

Yesterday I think it was missing on right side only, today I believe it is both sides.

Mufflers pop. Carb pops.

I played with the distributor timing today. It seemed to reduce the symptoms a little, but the next time I drove, it all went to hell again.

I REALLY don't feel that I deserve this crap... I have no money, no spare vehicle, no excess time, no facilities/ diagnostic tools. And the places that I tried to get a job at say they want me, but are taking their sweet time in getting back to me.

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » April 17, 2007, 11:46 pm

dude you need to pull dist and check to see the gear is being held with the roll pin its prob tight and spinning out of time, you set timing and run engine then it spins out of time, thats first thing I would look at

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » April 18, 2007, 12:39 am

yeah. it does sound likely...

she can't decide how she wants to run...

Earlier today: I set timing. it ran ~fair~. Not good, but fair. Like 1/2 hour later, Drove it, went to hell immediately.

Parked it for like 3 hours

Came back, started, ran ~fair~, wasn't missing horribly. Drove about 1 1/2 miles, stopped at a red light. While at the redlight, suddenly she started throbbing hard, hiched, felt like was going to quit on me. Then I went, ran real bad. Ran bad for a few seconds. By the time I stopped at the next light, it was kinda ok. Fair now.

Makes no sense to me. It seems like if my distrib. gear was slipping on the shaft, every time I tweak the dist, I would have to go further around til it was all the way around, etc. That's not the case. Timing may be an issue with the way she's running, but I'm 95% sure that my real problem is something bigger than that.

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » April 18, 2007, 8:39 am

you could have several things going on, at first your post was a pulse, now its a full on miss and engine continuously runs like shit and its getting worse, you adjust timing and it improves but returns to worse again. could be anything now from a carb problem to internal engine failures, like earlier post mentioned burnt valves, better take it to a repair shop and have them take a look at it

norville · Post by **norville** » April 18, 2007, 10:06 am

Take a minute and recheck you wires for the correct order. Did you check to see if you had a vac leak? I chased one for about a year and it finally came down to the slighest leak in the booster, I only found it cause it got worse. Just something that hasn't been mentioned yet.

bob

joeymac64 · Post by **joeymac64** » April 18, 2007, 1:38 pm

i would definetly check your firing order on the cap and plugs and if your wires are old change them as well fe ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,s are bad for arcing between the wires if the wires are bad or run over top of each other also i would run a new hot ignition wire to a ballist resister and then to the coil if ignition is getting full 12 volts it will run terrible experienced the same problem with mine turns out the 40 year old resister wire coming from the ignition switch was no goog spliced in a new wire from the switch and added the ballist runs great check and recheck your firing order