Maybe I just need to write things out to figure them out myself...opefully last post provided some context to future young bucks like me on the art of overthinking. I posted that on another thread and
@Mark W told me to just start with timing, fueling, and carb adjustment. That i did and it solved many of my issues!
Big breakthrough just a few hours ago! I'm idling at 14hg, a big improvement and only 1-2 hg off of my vacuum goal for 5200 ft. My guage almost certainly reads about half a mercury low cause its cheap as s*** so factor that in as well..
I changed my fuel filter back to stock, and properly capped off the carb vac port.
I added some gas in and after pumping the accelerator pedal a like 20 times and hitting the starter I finally got Fuel to go in and got it started.
I advanced to 15 degrees and its idling at 850 RPM around 14HG Cold, 15 HG Hot. The vacuum advance is plugged off.
I'm told at altitude well tuned rigs sit at 16 idle. Maybe I have a pinhole leak in a line somewhere as I max out at 15. If I advanced it more MAYBE i could get it to 15.5 HG. I'm stoked! Haven't driven it yet because I want to really try to seat the cam if it hasn't already, and I want a mechanic buddy to listen while I do so as I'm not familiar with what pinging sounds like in an engine bay. (see Youtube link below for engine running, does it sound alright generally?).
Anyway, enough of the fun stuff, obviously there are more observations now that I need to get to the bottom of. Here are my questions and observations, each noise I talk about is definitely a separate noise :
1.) every now and then if I advanced to around 20, I could hear a faint metal scratching sort of Noise that would happen maybe once every 5 seconds seemingly from the front of the bottom end or a pulley. Hard to tell, but it did sound metallic. SEEMS to go away when its idling lower, IE less advanced as well, but can still hear it faintly. (see video)
1.b) I'm recalling off the top of my head, I put the pulley for the Power steering on when I was
and could hav easily ****ed that up. But the noise didn't really sound like it was coming from there. Just adding for context and in case. Maybe you can hear the noise I hear in the video.
2.) I get a popping noise when I set off the accelerator, maybe a misfire-type noise. It usually is way worse the first time I hit the accelerator as its warming up, but the second or third rev it is less so and mainly just happens right when I hit the accelerator. It's something to do with fueling, but I'm pretty closed to tune now so wondering if this is just what it's like when its cold (i don't have choke hooked up yet)
3.)The other and more concerning weird Noise is one I can here when inside the vehicle throught he floorboard. It's like a low hum/ringing noise i can actually fenitly feel the vibration come nad go in my feet ont he floorboard. you can totally hear it in this video:
4.) I noticed after I shut the rig down, the battery was lower and it wouldn't start unless I jumped it. I was at 12v when Is tarted it and 8v by the time I was done (granted I was using the starter quite a lot.) Shouldn't the battery have charged under idle? Or only under power? --- (recall I placed a rench on the alternator last week and had a Benjamin Franklin level lightning show..... oops)
5.) How does it sound in general? Not sure how well you guys can hear, but I have no frame of reference. I'm about to try to seat the cam and have no one in person who knows these rigs to give me guidance before I do. I'm up for taking my time if there's any red or yellow flags with the videos.----> Are any of these sounds tell-tale detonation, loose bearing, etc. Context: I need a new fan clutch, my crankpulley/harmonic balancer is a bit unbalanced [could this create the floorboard noise?] and my tranny was sitting pretty damned crooked when the engine was installed and we had to kina force it in there with straps, this happened because the previous owner was a numbskull and bent the tranny cross member by installing a lift poorly. Basically the 4WD driveshaft was hitting the crossmemebr for a while when he owned it and slightly bent the front cross member. Anyway, local cruiserhead said I could "Drive it Like that for a bit" But wondering if a slightly crooked link up between the back of the engine and the tranny is causing this noise). More context: I never "adjusted" the new clutch I installed, and am wondering if it needs adjustment from out of the box like another random thread spoke about.
6.)How can one check for fuel in the oil? I need to probably change oil soon anyway even though I haven't driven it I've probably ideled this thing at least 2 hours worth of time since rebuilding.
7.I tried seating the cam for about 10 minutes day 1 but it started overheating and hit about 280 degrees F IR Gun reading on the head. [Guys on another thread of mine said its probably fine.] Rookie move about 6 months ago, but not sure if this somehow changes engine breaking procedure or sheds light on anything I should look into. Feel free to read back further in the thread for even more context.
I can try to record more tomorrow, I'm gonna have a mechanic buddy *not a cruiser head* listen for a second tomorrow.
I know I'm throwing a lot at you guys, but my buddy and I only know so much. My very busy but helpful local cruiser head mentor gets back in town sunday, I can always WAIT to seat the cam and drive it around the block until he gets here, but its going to be seriously hard to contain myself and NOT DRIVE IT...hahahha.
TDLR: watch the video links above.
Thanks in advance, you guys rock!
Still in the Fight, I can taste victory!
Dan
