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Capt Saveahoe

Fill the plug holes with top engine cleaner overnight. Let it soak in. Then fire it off the next morning. It'll smoke like a chimney for a while, but that should help loosen the carbon that in the combustion chamber. You've also got a good chance that one (or more) of the valves will get stuck open with a hunk of carbon. So be prepared to wind that motor up, it'll help blow those chunks out.
 
Let's see a good pic of the plugs that were carboned...could well be oil deposits, given the low compression reading on the #1 hole...
 
too late for a picture i scrapped all the carbon off and the plug looked pristine under it. put the wire back on and plug fires like new so i reinstalled it.

yeah if i can get it to run again i was figuring to do something to clean up that one cylinder.

top engine cleanner huh where to get it?
 
Ironically GM sells a really good Top Engine Cleaner....
Seafoam works well...
 
well up date to the issues.

i reinstalled the egr with new gasket. set base timing with the signal wire disconnected to 0 deg.

reset the computer by disconnecting the positive cable for 30 seconds.

pluged the signal wire back in and fired it up.

the engine ran but was stumbling slightly. hooked up the timing light and the timing mark is visible and jumping around a lot.

so i took Binders advice and tested the rev limiter for a few seconds. vehicle seemed to clear itself out some. ran a little better. less stumbling and poping. decided to see what the timing was doing and the mark is not in sight on the half of the pulley that can be seen from above......vehicle runs a little better?

still not right?

any suggestions?
 
How many miles on the engine ? And what's the rest of the compression in the other cylinders ? I had an old Astro van with a dead cylinder , ran it for a few years like that till it wouldn't smog.
 
150
145
150
155
125
150

if i can get it to run good again id think it would still run a while....she needs another year.
 
Hip said:
i reinstalled the egr with new gasket. set base timing with the signal wire disconnected to 0 deg.

reset the computer by disconnecting the positive cable for 30 seconds.

pluged the signal wire back in and fired it up.

still not right?

any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I would run it for a bit and let it learn it's fuel trim before jumping to any conclusions....What do you mean by "still not right"?
 
Binder said:
I would run it for a bit and let it learn it's fuel trim before jumping to any conclusions....What do you mean by "still not right"?
Click to expand...


still poping and surging/stumbling...

im gonna check plug wires tonight. getting the two cylinders to fire made a big difference but didnt fix the problem.

beside i gotta learn all the quirks to these motors i have two of em now.:redneck:
 
If you already have two of the engines, then just swap the cap, rotor, plug wires with a known good set.

You may have simply got a bad tank of fuel.
 
ok im freaking out here, no timing mark is present anywhere within sight of the timing light. vehicle runs? runs crappy but you can drive it down the road. with the signal connected or unconnected.

no fawking timing mark?

so i removed the no 1 plug and rolled the motor till i felt the compression stroke, guess what?

no where near either of the two marks on the crank? way off by multiple inches?:eeek:

could the harmonic balancer stripped the key?

in for a penny in for a pound, ill let yall know what i find tomorrow? gonna take off the timing chain cover.:mad:
 
TreeClimber said:
If you already have two of the engines, then just swap the cap, rotor, plug wires with a known good set.

You may have simply got a bad tank of fuel.
Click to expand...

could this be it? doesnt the distributer send a signal to the ECU that controlls or changes timing?
 
Sometimes the damper portion of the balancer can slip...The distributor caps on these are a very poor design at best, and are suseptible to cross-firing inside...food for thought.
 
Hip said:
ok im freaking out here, no timing mark is present anywhere within sight of the timing light. vehicle runs? runs crappy but you can drive it down the road. with the signal connected or unconnected.

no fawking timing mark?

so i removed the no 1 plug and rolled the motor till i felt the compression stroke, guess what?

no where near either of the two marks on the crank? way off by multiple inches?:eeek:

could the harmonic balancer stripped the key?

in for a penny in for a pound, ill let yall know what i find tomorrow? gonna take off the timing chain cover.:mad:
Click to expand...

Are you sure you're on number 1? Easy mistake to make.....If the ballancer slipped you can put your own mark on the ballancer with a screw in piston stop.
 
jeepmauler said:
Hip.....did you or someone else pull the the distributor and put it back in?
Click to expand...

no but im probably gonna do that i have two others and one was a known runner.

zukkev said:
Sometimes the damper portion of the balancer can slip...The distributor caps on these are a very poor design at best, and are suseptible to cross-firing inside...food for thought.
Click to expand...

that could very well be.

Binder said:
Are you sure you're on number 1? Easy mistake to make.....If the ballancer slipped you can put your own mark on the ballancer with a screw in piston stop.
Click to expand...

yeah the kid that lives with me is gonna rip out the radiator and front pulley system so we can look at the timing gears, then go step by step from there.

zukkev said:
FYI, #1 cylinder on a 4.3L is driver's side front, nearest steering box......
Click to expand...


yeah i even went and reverified i was on number one...

good thing someone let me borrow thier book when setting the timing marks on one of these you set them with number 4 piston at TDC on exhaust stroke. i would have done it all wrong as im so used to setting at number one TDC on compression.

chevy should have cut off the back cylinder instead of the front. :awesomework:
 
Hip said:
good thing someone let me borrow thier book when setting the timing marks on one of these you set them with number 4 piston at TDC on exhaust stroke. i would have done it all wrong as im so used to setting at number one TDC on compression.
Click to expand...

It's the same. Fireing order is 165432 so number 4 TDC exhaust is the same as number 1 TDC compression. I'm fairly sure you still need the light on number 1.
It's up to you but I wouldn't take the front apart with the compression you have the chain can't be that bad.
You didn't put the distributor in with the rotor pointing at number 4 TDC exhaust stroke did you? 180 out?
 

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