Re: 1941 One Eighty - curious engine problem

Posted by Victor On 2011/1/24 15:12:00

Tim and all:

First, a word of THANKS, and my progress report:

We had found cil 1 to be the problem, with no compression there due to open valves. As suggested by Tim, we had a sticky valve problem. We found water marks from the radiator hose down the engine neck and down to spark plug 1, so what apparently happened (theory only) is that due to a not-tight spark plug, some water got in and created some rust in the valve stems.

We added quite a bit of fuel inyection cleaner to cil 1 and let the product soak for several hours. When we started the engine, it still missed a lot but work a little better. We did find some tiny rust particles or debris in the floor, under the exhaust pipe.

We repeated the process, with a lot of fuel injection cleaner to no. 1 piston, but adding some product to each cilynder, and let it soak for 24 hours. To my surprise, the engine this time started much better and missed only just a bit (not a constant no. 1 cilinder as before).

I never found Gumout but added a type of oily additive through the carb with the engine reving high. Lot's of smoke of course. This I guess means, because it showed a lot of improvement, that the 'major problem' was partially solved, but we might still have some sticky valves, partially working only.

Then we took oil off (oil pan cleanup is something I had done before and it was mint, as expected from a newly done engine)and following Tim's suggestion we added light oil, in our case, 4 quarts of 10-W30 and 3 quarts of 5-W20 plus some oil detergent. We let the car sit for a couple of days and this saturday I started it up and it works almost great! I drove it home (about 10 miles) and it really behaves well. I will be using it as is for a while before dumping the oil and adding thicker oil again.

So, car is runnning very decently now, and I am sure it will be improving as I use it.

So... thanks again for all the help!

Victor