I just had my engine and heads rebuilt and assembled. Been driveing off and on for the past two days. No problems but fine tuning carb choke adjustments and idle. Motor has ran fien till now. When I accelerate in gear I am getting valve clatter, it does not do it when setting in park and revving up but just mild acceleration and clatter. Timing is set at 12.5 motor is a 383 4bbl auto. Any suggestions?
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
I can't think of any good reason why lifters would clatter under load and not when the engine is reved without load. Could it be a wrist pin or rod bearing?? I'd take it back to the engine rebuilder and get them to check it out.
Well all better now. Called my nephew who is a mechanic and he suggested taking timing out due to the larger cam. I set it now at 6 and all is well. But I only had a little test drive. He had many other suggestions to check but that did pan out. Thanks again
Take you're dist. to a competent shop that knows mopars and get them to set up you're dist. on a machine and get it "CURVED" to take full advantage of that cam.Backing off the timing till it stops pinging is a step in the wrong direction.You are getting rid of the pinging but you are also getting rid of HORSEPOWER.Only when you get it curved and phazed properly will it perform to maximum potential.Mopar engines will take more total timing than most Brand "X" motors due to better combustion chambers.This will cost you about $40.00-$100.00 (about 1-2 cases of our high test beer up here in Canada).Small price to pay "EH" This is the #1 most overlooked item on a car.The factory set these up as a compromise between,Driveability,Fuel Mileage,Running on any quality of fuel and No detination.Glen
That dist is actually made by Mallory Ign.and it is way too fast for the street.They make an adjuster that you put in a slot i do believe.They have different degrees.I hear it's easy to do,you just have to play w/the springs.This is a Quality piece at K-mart price.I would still take this to a shop and have it set up.Then when you get it home and install it,ya throw the Light on it and then go out and buckle the pavement.I don't know why Dodge did not spec these at 34-35 degrees when 9/10s of these dist's are sold for street use and not track use as these are set up for?Glen
Newest update: Nephew came down to ckeck out the car. He had me adjust the timing last night to pasify me. He found : 1) I hadnt put gas in it since January So I went and filled up with premium 3/4 tank = 50.00 2) He ran it for a bit and then reset the timing up between 10-12 initially He will retune after a few more break in miles 3) Adjusted carb a little but need to set the Edelbrock up for cold starts later 4) To ask for more help tuning this Mopar from Mopar people ( He is a diehard Chevy man and hates to work on anything but) So on that I still need a little tuning help to make it run sweeter and to get all the horses out of it. 383 bored 60 over Hyper. pistons approx 9.5:1 comp Eddy 750 carb and alum intake Stock electronic dist MSD 6A box wires and Blaster coil Comp cams XE cam 488/491 lift (has a nice rumble) Aluminum WP housing, pulleys and Griffin Alum radiator w/ elec fans Any tuning help suggestions or tricks would help. I am good mechanically but I dont have a good touch for tuning.
When you mentiond that you hadn't put fuel in it since Jan.that is interesting because the way they blend fuels today is that they actually go bad after sitting for a few months,and when we fire our cars up after sitting all winter and start to GET IT ON,it may seem a bit flat.Try and get you're fuel from a station that does a lot of volume sales as theirs is more FRESH.You tend to notice OLD fuel more in a two stroke engine loosing power more than a four stroke.Bad gas is a tuners worst nightmare.I have been known to put out bad gas with a vibration that could snap a tuning fork!Glenurito