383 build

[aznpersuasion]

http://youtu.be/DHMnYWVkF9E
Video of said hissing. And I am getting some pressure with other head

 

[lesterl]

Front of the block? where at in the front?

What is the "clay test"

 

[aznpersuasion]

I think its just air escaping the cylinder I was using to pressure test. Where you stick clay on thev piston and run it through a cycle with the cylinder head on and valvetrain working to see if youll have valve clearance problems

 

[lesterl]

Sounds like a lot of blowby.....

Yeah, didnt see any valve striking piston marks from the other side.....

 

[lesterl]

Did you put new rings in it? Get the right ones? Perhaps it had oversized rings?

 

[aznpersuasion]

No new rings

 

[amtronic1]

With the engine cold the ring end gap is large, and you cannot do a compression test by hand. You have to use the starter to spin the engine fast enough to overcome the blowby. Ideally the engine should be warm to give the most accurate value.

 

[aznpersuasion]

Thats what I thought. So no way to do even a rough compression test? I did get some pressure build up with the gauge when I spun it by hand. Im going to throw the head back on and double check head bolt torque. If it seems better I will order a new gasket and put it back together.

 

[lesterl]

What numbers were you seeing even with it by hand? With the plugs out of all but 1 cylinder can you spin it with an impact?

 

[aznpersuasion]

30 by hand. When I had it all together I could spin and with a torque wrench set to about 40 lbs. Heads and valve train assembled completely

 

[lesterl]

Pretty low.... I ran a test on a 4.0l ranger cold and got from 170-130, but that was with the starter......

 

[aznpersuasion]

Right, which makes sense.

 

[lesterl]

I had a 3.0l pontiac grand am (87) that the timing chain jumped a tooth (a single tooth) and it acted the same way trying to start, would just spin and spin, cough every once in a while........ Your engine may be just fine. Set the cam timing back to stock and if you want to modify timing adjust it in the PCM.....

 

[aznpersuasion]

i am getting quite a bit of resistance just by hand cranking the motor with only 4 cylinders valves working with other head back on. so maybe it is simply the cam timing

 

[lesterl]

man I would slap the head back on, the intake back on, set the cam timing to stock, fill it with just water and see if it will fire, if so, pull the head and intake back off, replace the gaskets and fill with coolant

 

[aznpersuasion]

thats exactly my plan. im really not even going to hook up coolant lines. ill fire it up, run it for a minute and kill it.

 

[lesterl]

I wouldnt run it a min, just make shure it fires and shut it down... dont want to crack a head without some kind of coolant in the passages in the heads....

 

[aznpersuasion]

Right, I was just generalizing. Sucks I have to actually put it in just to test run. Only time I wish I had carbs

 

[lesterl]

Doesnt have to be perfect, just good enough to fire for a few seconds so you know it is all good....

 

[aznpersuasion]

do you think i can fire it up without the sensor at the back of the distributor? if i can not do that then i wont have to actually stuff it in the bay and make things much easier for me