A variety of unrelated questions. . .

[jtminton]

I have a few questions and figured I'd put them all on one thread:

1) I have a factory tach that is acting up. It seems to work just fine until about 20mph, then it will drop back to 0 until i get to about 55 or so, then it will shoot way over to about 4k. All the wires are hooked up and tight, so I'm guessing that it's internal. Any ideas? Are tachs rebuildable? Should I just shut up and be happy I even have a factory tach?

2) I have a quadrajet carb on top of a 350. Whenever I drive, I get a puddle of gas on top of the intake on the driver's side where the shaft that is attached to the throttle hooks up. I figure that it's leaking from years of use. Is it fixable?

3) My hood closes a little off. It's a straight hood and body, but the driver's side rear of the hood sticks up about a half inch above the front of the cowl and the passenger side is down about a half inch below the front of the cowl. Any way to adust this?

4) What's the easiest way to unfreeze a frozen engine? My dad got a 53 F*** 239 flathead for his street rod. He's going to fill the cylinders with kerosene and let it sit, but there's got to be an easier way.

5) What causes an engine to diesel after you shut it off?

6) Anybody in the DFW area have a used windshield in good shape that's cheap?

Thanks everybody!

[724wdcopper]

cant say on the tach, but your throttle shaft on your quadrajet is indead fixable. very common to do. if you have a local engine machine shop, they undoubtably have done hundreds.

on your hood, sounds like you need to adjust the hood hinges. kind of a pain, but worth it.

frozen engines - probably need a rebuild if it's that bad, so total disassembly is in order. others may disagree, and thats fine, but if your dad's engine is frozen so tight you cant break it loose with a breaker bar on the crank snout, it could use some bearings, at least.;

dieseling engines - typically, bad timing and too much fuel. others probably have more info.

Good Luck!

[Fred T]

2) A combination of problems. Sounds like the float is too high and the throttle shaft is worn. A professional rebuild is in order, find someone that works on Q-jets. If they don't know what they're doing, it's a waste of money.
4) A locked engine isn't always easy. ATF or Marvel Mystery oil work better than kerosene. Figuring out a way to turn the engine is the tough part. Most don't have a way to use a prybar. Sometimes you end up dragging the truck around trying to get it to turn over. time and patience.

[jtminton]

Originally Posted by Fred T

Sometimes you end up dragging the truck around trying to get it to turn over. time and patience.

The engine is sitting on the shop floor, so that won't work.

[jtminton]

Originally Posted by Fred T

2) A combination of problems. Sounds like the float is too high

Would the float set too high make it diesel?

[blazerparts]

Do you have HEI? I know that affects my tach...........guess the factory tachs aren't all that reliable in the first place, from what I read here.

[jtminton]

No, no HEI. Yet. . .

[RicksTrucks]

3) Adjust hood hinge. May just need to be lubricated.

5) Timing.

[Fred T]

Originally Posted by jtminton

Would the float set too high make it diesel?

No. But it will make it idle poorly. Like Rick said, timing

[pjmoreland]

To get your hood to sit lower, loosen the two rear bolts that attach the hinge to the fender and lower the rear of the hinge. Then retighten the bolts. If that doesn't give you enough adjustment, loosen the front bolt that attaches the hinge to the fender and raise the front of the hinge. Basically you want to rotate the hinge back. Also try lubricating all of the hinge pivot points.

[jtminton]

I know that the timing is set at 4degrees. Should I go a little higher? It was set about 2 weeks ago, so if it's off again I must have a serious problem.

[curbyk]

when we re-installed my hood we couldn't get it to go down right on drivers side at the cowl end, raised the front hood bumper on rad. support and rear went down. Don't know if that is what you should do but we tried to adjust the hinges and it didn't help.

[72ChevyRock]

Dieseling can also be due to high idle adjustment or hot temp engines. Check your cooling system and readjust your idle, that might help.

[rwgregory]

Can be due to too low octaine fuel,(lousey gas!). I live in San Diego and
travel in Baja and have seen/experienced this quite a bit. Most cars down
there run great no matter if the key is on or off!!
rwgregory

[Brainchild]

My hood was too high in the back,and I loosened the back bolts,and raised up on the front of the hood,and retightened the bolts,and it fits right now.

[Dual quad]

Dieseling is not due to timing issues since the ignition system is de-energized a this point.

As a few of the fella said, low octaine fuel, high static compression, high idle speed, and combustion chamber hot spots (mainly carbon build-up) are all possible contributors.