Engine started running crappy! Any ideas?

[jorgensensc]

Hey all,
THe motor was reinstalled and running great after a little cleanup and paint action. I drove my daughter to school this morning and everything was fine. I came home, parked the truck, then left again about 25 minutes later. When I started the truck up it shook pretty good. I'm talking the whole truck. When I put it in drive it started shaking really bad!! If I turn the steering wheel all the way to the locks then it will kill the engine (strain on the pwr steering pump I guess) It wasn't doing this before when I parked it. All the vacuum lines appear in tacr and the dizzy has not walked (I had it marked from the reinstallation during painting). All the wires seem to be ingood shape without cracking or fraying. One more thing, I have one of those edelbrock breathers on the valve cover and it seams that smoke or (steam??) is coming from it when the truck is in drive (with the emergency brake on). The truck also spins the tires just like it did before when floored, it just doesn't like to idle smoothly anymore. I'm very confused. Any ideas on where to look?? THanks in advance!!
Shawn

[68gmsee]

I guess for starters you might check the exhaust. Is it smoking?

White smoke is more than likely water. Black or gray rich mixture, and a bluish to bluish gray is oil...


Something could be cracked- as in head or your head gaskets gone bad. Most of the time you can tell by looking at your exhaust to see if it's sucking water.

Also, check your oil to make sure no water has gotten into it...

[Boog]

Well if it's buckin and jumping at idle you have a plug misfiring most likely. With it running using a good pair of insulated plug pliers pull each wire off one at a time until you find the one that doesn't make any difference in the way it runs. It may only be fouled. Or the plug wire may be jumping spark over to the exhaust manifold. The smoke from the breather may just be blowby, oil smoke. Give the spark plugs a look and you should see which one is guilty by the business end of it.

[jorgensensc]

Originally Posted by Boog

Well if it's buckin and jumping at idle you have a plug misfiring most likely. With it running using a good pair of insulated plug pliers pull each wire off one at a time until you find the one that doesn't make any difference in the way it runs. It may only be fouled. Or the plug wire may be jumping spark over to the exhaust manifold. The smoke from the breather may just be blowby, oil smoke. Give the spark plugs a look and you should see which one is guilty by the business end of it.

THanks. I will try that in the morning. There is no smoke coming out of the taillights, but I haven't checked the spark plugs yet. The wires look good and I didn't find any that were frayed or warn, but you never know right! I will start pulling plugs tomorrow. Any more ideas? It just seems odd it would start doing it all of the sudden.
Shawn

[brianthelion02]

Sounds like a fouled plug!!!

[truckster]

Even though you marked the distributor, I'd put a light on it to check for sure. Your symptoms sound like a timing problem to me.

[greasemonkey]

Water in the fuel?

[c10crazy]

Did you get paint on the plugs???

[jorgensensc]

Originally Posted by c10crazy

Did you get paint on the plugs???

No, the plugs are brand new and installed after the engine was painted with the old plugs in place. Good suggestion though.
Shawn

[68gmsee]

I mentioned to check exhaust since you said steam or smoke was coming out of the breather. If you hadn't noticed that before, and it's doing it now, there's got to be something causing that.

A valve can cause that. Either burned or piece of debris keeping it open. Also a burned valve problem is most noticeable during idling. Tends to smooth out at higher rpm's.

Also if your plugs are good, timing is right on, no vacuum leaks, etc., and it only idles rough, it could be fuel problems.

Check carb adjustments, water in fuel as someone mentioned, etc.

[jorgensensc]

I found the problem, partially. I pulled the spark plugs and they all looked fine, just some were a little rich looking. I am running on 4 cylinders!!!! I put the truck in drive with the wheels chocked and the parking brake on I pulled spark plug boots to see if there is any difference in running. I pulled all of the boots and 4 of them made absolutely no difference in running. I'm going to pull the dizzy and see what is going on there. It's amazing that once I got it up to speed it will spin the tires, but at idle it shakes violently. This is a new dizzy bought off ebay. I hope it isn't the dizzy since this would be the second oneI bought from the same vendor and the other one had a problem too. I will keep y'all informed!
Shawn

[jorgensensc]

Okay, I pulled the dizzy and it looks fine, so I went back to the spark plugs. I pulled the boots again and watched what happened. Cylinders 2, 3, 5, and 8 have spark, but don't seem to be making a difference when pulled. The engine runs the same. If I pull any of the others the engine tries to (and in most cases) dies. Now is it coincidence that the firing order for the engine is
1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 and the cylinders that don't seem to make a difference when pulled are every other one in the firing order? Is that unusual, or does that point to something else. I will admit that a couple of the wires shocked the begeezes out of me when I pulled them, but they don't appear to be jumping spark when installed. I am open to any and all suggestions! Thanks a lot, I need to get the truck running correctly before I go to the swap meet tomorrow with the trailer I am towing. Thanks again!
Shawn

[71tahoe]

What type intake manifold do you have?

Which plugs were fouled?

I just looked at a dual plane and the passenger side intake runners feed those cylinders. Like previously mentioned, it couldbe a fuel feed problem in the carb.

[jorgensensc]

Originally Posted by 71tahoe

What type intake manifold do you have?

Which plugs were fouled?

I just looked at a dual plane and the passenger side intake runners feed those cylinders. Like previously mentioned, it couldbe a fuel feed problem in the carb.

Just reread your post. And it makes sense. Let me make sure that I understand completely. Your saying that cylinders 2,3,5,8 all feed from the passenger side of where the carb attaches to on the intake. so if my carb was acting up and not getting fuel on that side thoss cylindrs would not be fireing, However because I have a 1 inch spacer maybe they are getting a little fuel when I'm on the throttle and that is why it runs better while driving and can still spin the tires? I will check that out. hmm.

[retodd7711]

Water under the dist. cap? Was it raining when this happened?
Another thought, are your plug wires touching each other? Make sure they are seperated.
Keep us informed.

[jorgensensc]

Originally Posted by retodd7711

Water under the dist. cap? Was it raining when this happened?
Another thought, are your plug wires touching each other? Make sure they are seperated.
Keep us informed.

NO rain, been remarkably sunshiney and nice here. All the plug wires have seperators. Any more thoughts?
Shawn

[cdowns]

do you have any other plug wires that you could try? or if you still have the original plugs clean gap and install and see if that helps

i've had brand new topofthe line platinum gold with uramium enriched tip plugs fail in very short order

[68gmsee]

Dude, if you can spin the tires and it doesn't act up other than when idling, why are you checking the distributor and the wires, etc.

Seems like I'd be looking elsewhere. Don't know what at this time, but I wouldn't suspect the electrical system since it only acts up when idling.

I may be wrong but it sure seems like carb/fuel/vacuum problems. You may have to go all out and check the compression on those cylinders also...

Just my .02 worth...

[jorgensensc]

UPDATE: I went ahead and got new wires (under warranty) and new spark plugs. It didn't help in the least bit. I will tell you thought that even with the new wires if I get my hand down around the spark plugs it will shock the s@#t out of me. I've never had that problem before. I wonder if somehow the block may be charged? I'm not really sure. I'm really starting to think it's the ebay dizzy again. I may just go down and buy a new one from the parts store.
Still looking for any info or ideas.
Shawn

[jorgensensc]

I think we have a winner with the fuel problem!! Maybe...I just went outside and turned the idle air adjustment down on the carb on the driverside. The truck tried and almost died. I turned it back up (2.5 turns) and turned down the passenger side. There was no change in the truck at all. So here comes the question. Is there no change because of lack of fuel (carb problem) or is there no change because of spark problem (not burning the fuel). I will say that the truck doesn't smell terribly rich and the spark plugs are not fule soaked as I would expect them to be if there were fuel dumping down the chambers and not getting fired up. Now, how to fix the carb problem. Where could that problem be in the carb? Any carb gurus out there now?
Shawn

[67ChevyRedneck]

^Or the plugs aren't being fouled because they're not getting fuel at all.

[CCCC]

My 2 cents is that you have a fuel delivery problem at idle - most lilely some blockage in the idle circuit of the carb (whay type carb?) or a related vacuum issue in there. Because the problem is overcome with the throttle wide open, I don't know how it can be electrical. I would chase the idle fuel/vacuum thought.
CCCC

[smoked68]

I had an idle circuit problem years ago in a 600 double pumper. Cleaned it out real good and it ran fine afterwords. It had small trash in it. Also I bought the reman. HEI dist. from Advance it did a good job. Still have it only used 3 weeks before we put on the supercharger and had to use a unilite. lemme know and good luck. Mike

[Dingfodgy]

with "CCCC"- sounds like a clogged idle jet or circuit. I get very similar results on my VW with Dual Carbs, when one of the idle jets gets packed full of S*#T (.....and they constantly get packed full of S*#T!).

[corn]

What are you running for a carb? Did you have the intake off when you were painting?