FJ55 newbie

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Depending on the kit you have installed, you could have the magnetic pick up wires crossed. It will do exactly as you have described.
Personally, I would have just dropped in a cheap HEI, they are less then $100
If the dizzy is 180 out, it will not run.
 
Well... havne't had much time to work on my piggies lately, but things have finally calmed back down and I started messing with them again. Got married in June and it was just a couple of crazy crazy weeks before and after so not a lot of time to work on things. Then got home and the house was a mess from not being here for two weeks. Got married at Sand Mt and it was awesome. :)
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I ditched the pointless ignition and put the points back on trying to figure out what's up with the aweful backfiring. No real effect. With the timing correct and everything how it should be it was still shooting flames out of the carb every few seconds.

I pulled off the valve covers thinking maybe I had a stuck intake valve (it had been sitting for a LONG time before I got it). No stuck valves, but this:
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The nut is adjusted all the way down to the bottom of the threads. The cam/pushrods are just worn out I guess. :( Wierd though... the motor WAS running better then it is now and I don't see this being a all a sudden kinda thing. THis almost has to be the cause of the backfire though. I had it running and was watching it and the exhaust valve isn't opening as nearly as much as it's brothers. :/ Bummer.

At this point I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. By the time I rebuilt the heads and replaced the cam.. I am going to have more money into the rust bucket then I really want to put into something so ugly (when I have a nice one too). I really like the truck though and don't really want to part it out. I am hoping maybe to find a used SBC somewhere that runs good and can just swap it in.

I think tomorrow I'm going to tow the blue one over to my parents house and put the motor in it finally. So hopefully next week I'll have a nice driving pig finally.
 
Congratulations, Being married, can be the best thing that ever happens to you or not! :) You look like a couple, that shares the same interests. Great picture and have fun.
 
Cut off the rocker panels today. This was the "good" side. The other side I'm not sure I even needed the cutoff wheel... I probally could have kicked it off. The floors are actually solid though which is wierd.

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hairy_apple said:
Cut off the rocker panels today. This was the "good" side. The other side I'm not sure I even needed the cutoff wheel... I probally could have kicked it off. The floors are actually solid though which is wierd.

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What do the body mounts look like, under there. I am always amased at how much " stuff " comes out of the rockers.
 
Things got a little crazy today...

I drove to my parents house to work on it. I have no garage and didn't feel like laying out in the sun today to work on it. Drove the bucket over there and it was running HOT... 220ish the whole time.

Started tearing into it almost right away when I got there, I was going to replace the timing chain and gears as I was thinking it may have slipped causing the popping through my carb, and the funkyness with the timing.

Went to take the hoses off the water pump... started pulling on it.. and the wrong end came off and instead of going into the bucket I had under it... poured out (still very hot) onto my foot. I was wearing shoes instead of boots which might have been good becuase I was able to get it off quickly as the burning hot coolant went down into the shoe. I burned the crap out of my foot. Blistered almost right away. Yay.

After a brake for a few hours to figure out if I felt up to finishing, I went back to work. Got everything apart and then broke my puller on the stupid timing gears. I live out in the country and am half an hour to the closest auto parts store so I just gave up for the day and desided to take out my frustration on some sheet metal....

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:) I love it. The plan is to actually put the window back in working again if I can make it happen. If not, I'll use the thickness of the back section there and make a little gun rack or tool box behind the back seat.
 
Sorry to hear about your foot. Give it some time to heal, before you abuse it again.

Man, up opened a can of worms now! You guys, with the Sawsalls, cutting off stuff. You'll make it work, but it will take alot of effort and time. I've seen some good ones, on here.

Keep the faith!
 
Yeah, I've seen some neat ones here too which inspired me to start cutting. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have a nice one too. This one is so ugly I didn't feel bad about chopping up a semi rare truck.

The foot looks NASTY today. Blisters all over. :( Might not be wearing shoes for a while. Ha ha.
 
Check to see if the valve rocker stud has pulled up from the cyl head. I've had a few of the press in studs pull up when adjusting valve lash. Tell tale sign is having the nut adjusted all the way down. If thats the case, you can fix it by installing a screw in stud.
 
Good call , you can also take the push rod and try pushing down it should have a spring action to it to rule out a collapsed lifter. I sure you have pulled out the push rod to see if it is bent already . I have seen a few bent ones before do to a over rev.
 
Yeah, pushrod wans't bent. I will check to see if it pulled up tomorrow once I get back to the truck. I left it at my parent's house this weekend. The timing chain replacement did not go so well... I can't the the crank gear removed to save my life.

Overall, the more I look at this motor.. the more things I'm finding worn out on it. I am more and more thinking I am going to end up replacing the whole motor. SBC engines are cheap and easy enough to find used in good shape. We'll see what happens, if I can get enough of the issues fixed I'll wait.. but I don't want to end up dumping a ton of time and money into a worn out motor.
 
Started pulling taking apart the motor in the blue cruiser today. Got it almost ready to pull out. Took off all the parts I'll be using for the new motor going in it. Intake, carb, exhuast, alt brackets, fuel pump, ect. Wierd thing is.. the guy I bought it from said that motor had put a rod through the block.. I saw an oil covered spot on the side of the moter under the intake and exhaust and that's where said the hole was.. when I got the intake and headers off there was no hole. No damage at all that I can see. I almost am wondering if the motor isn't bad after all. The guy I got it from never ran it, he was told it was blown up by who he bought it from. Who knows... but I will be tearing into this motor a little more once I get the new one in. Maybe I have an OK motor here after all.
 
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Started working up some brackets to make this happen... :) It's going to be neat. Also got about HALF the body work down to reattach the back of the top. It's welded on, but not pretty yet. I don't expect it to be totally seamless, but look good enough.
 
Oh no... I started welding in the brackets to put the window mech in. Got it tacked together and tested it one more time to make sure the angles and position was perfect... and the whole thing stopped working. :( The motor just froze up on me. I am debating if I should take the thing apart and take the motor down to get fixed... or just not bother with having the back window roll down... which kinda bums me out.
 
Yeah, probably will. The airflow and the cool factor would be nice to have.

Picking up a new motor for it tomorrow. Friend of my father in law just sold him a SWEET 61 Chevy stepside with 415HP. The guy had a less built up 283 that came out of it. Rebuilt and a lot of nice stuff went into it but sold the car it was going to go in and kinda gave up on racing and hot rods. He selling it to me for cheaper then I could have replaced the worn out stuff on this motor for. Hoping to have the swap done by next weekend and be able to go take it camping next week.
 
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Something fell out today. I've had the darn thing totally unbolted and ready to remove for 3 days, but my dad's tractor was the engine lift and didn't feel like starting. Finally got it to start today and got the motor out. Picking up the new one tomorrow and going to hopfully have it running early next week. The tractor delay made it so I can't take the bucket camping yet, but we're going to still go somewhere this weekend.

Funny, when I got the two cruisers, I had fully expected to part this one out it was sooooo ugly and rusted. But it ran so good I couldn't bare to scrap a good running truck. Then it stopped running so good but it was too late, I had fallen in love it it's uglyness too much. I have a feeling I'm going to dump a lot of money into a REALLY ugly truck. :)
 
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