Back in March i decided to put a different cam into my 351w to try to get a little more power out of it (not that i needed it but hey i wanted it) so i took the engine out so i could change the power steering box easier and while it was out i put in the new cam!!!! I tried to get it running but i was off a tooth in the distributer so i pulled it out and low and behold the oil pump drive shaft fell and got wedged in the engine so i jacked the motor up pull the oil pan and got the shaft. I was so discusted with thie happening i went to a local machine shop to which i have ties and we drilled a hole and soildly pined the dizzy and the shaft!!!! Restabed the distrubuter and couldnt get the engine to even try to fire finally after a buddy came over we got it fired so i ajusted the rockers arms and away i went!!! But it didnt seem right it was really slugish off the line and i thought the carb was at fault so i rebuilt it and rejetted it and everything i could think of and get advice to do. Finally someone told me to remove the 2 inch carb spacer i had on it so i did and it made a huge difference, this just told me that the carb was at fault for the sluggishness off the line. Well a week went by and my Dad told me he thought he heard a miss i shrugged it off cause i couldnt hear it, another week my dad tells me he stuill hears it so i ask him how he would go about finding/ fixing the problem!!! He tells me to find a compression tester and to see if something was wrong with that so i borrowed a friend of mines tester and cylinders 1,2,3 all check out to 150 psi cool im thinking then i get to number 4 and i have zero compression, my mind starts racing to rings and all that stuff but i decide to check the rest of the cylinders first, #5 145, #6 10 psi (not a typo), #7 zero, #8 zero!!!!! So now im really thinking im in trouble but i start at the basics and reajust the rocker arms and there lies the problem at least one arm on all the previously mentioned cyl were way to tight, so i get them back to the proper ajustment and oh wat a difference a V8 running on all 8 cylinders is over a V8 running on 4!!!
Im not really sure how this happened but it did. And now as i look back the engine before i put in this came probably had a couple dead cylinders cause it didnt run at its top performance!!! So i guess the moral of the story is if you have ajustable rockers make sure they are ajusted correctly!!!! Oh and through all the messing with the carb that i did it now has 2 fuel leaks that need to be addressed but hey its all part of the learning curve right!!!
And as a side not my truck was getting 8 mpg on the 4 cylinders so i have no idea wat it will be now!!!
Well thanks for reading i had to tell someone and i figured you guys are the only ones who would listen (read)!!!
