i'm having a bit of trouble getting the motor dialed in. the motor was just rebuilt fully, had the valves and seats re-cut, has a brand new carburetor and all that good stuff.

 

engine starts up without any trouble. but once it's running, it dies when i try to bring the idle down below 900 or so. poking around the engine i noticed that cyl 1 and 3 are running quite lean. but on the flip side cyl 2 and 4 are running quite rich. at this point i'm pretty stumped.

 

anyone have any experience with this or insight as to what may be going on?

Edited April 23, 201213 yr by tboned

Was the valve lash adjusted after engine reassembly? What is the timing set at?

valve lash was set up before the engine was re installed. I've fiddled around with the timing and it didn't seem to make a significant difference. It seems to run a bit better with some advance, but like I said before, 1k~900 rpm is about the best I can get out of it before it dies.

 

I also sprayed carb cleaner around the base of the intake manifold and played around with the vacuum lines a bit because I thought maybe there was excess air getting down in there from somewhere.

 

Still no improvement

Here's the project I'm working on by the way!

 

 

all new tires put on last week. the wheel you see on the ground is part of a set of 4 which I'm willing to part with if anyone is interested

How are the connections at the exhaust flanges? and the condition of the exhaust gaskets?

gaskets are brand new and the manifold is torqued down nicely, at least i think it is. is there a specific torque they need to be?

Does the motor burn any coolant? If one intake mani gasket is allowing coolant to be ingested into that bank your plugs will look similar to a lean plug.

^^^^ I think you may have been right about the coolant thing. I managed to fix that.

 

The engine was missing, this was remedied with new spark plug wires. Now I'm on to figuring out the abnormally high draw coming from the electric fan on the radiator, which causes the engine to die when it kicks on.

 

Also noticed the coil and the fuse for the ignition was really really hot.

 

Would anyone happen to have the wiring diagrams for this motor?

...to figuring out the abnormally high draw coming from the electric fan on the radiator, which causes the engine to die when it kicks on.

 

Also noticed the coil and the fuse for the ignition was really really hot...

It Sounds to me like the Electric fan has a Short Circuit itself...

 

I Kindly Suggest you to Test it Directly with Power from the Battery and Watch for Hard Spinning and / or Wires Getting Too Hot.

 

In that case, I Suggest to Swap it with a New, aftermarket one, usually those draw less Voltage and the ones with Curvy Blades trend to Move More Air.

 

If the Original electric fan Runs Fine directly powered, then there should be a Problem with the car's Wires.

 

Kind Regards.