CyprusMustang

Ok i removed engine to paint and rebuilt heads, got a new intake manifold and new carb.... put everything all together (i think correctly) and went to start her today.

Tried for about an hour with no luck, then right before i decided to call it quits, i tired once more......

then BAMMMM..... the breather cap flew off and landed 15ft from the car. smoke was coming out of the valve covers and carb... i went to take off the valve covers and noticed also the rubber gasket looked as though it expanded (probably from the impact)....

i checked all the spark leads, the firing order is correct, i believe i didnt *** up the distributor allignment as i maked everything before i took it apart and put it back together correct.

what could have caused the breather cap to fly off like that? and why smoke from the valve covers and not out of the exhaust? maybe my valves arent properly adjusted??

any help would be much appreciated...this way I can sleep tonight.

CyprusMustang

anyone?

vineman

I could only guess that either your valves aren't seated right or when you adjusted the rockers you messed up along the way, and when the chamber actually combusted it went into the valve cover and blew the top off it. Either way it is if it actually caught and combusted then that would be what would happen. you may have been just pushing the gasses out the exhaust valves that why it never caught beforehand.

Norm Peterson

Somehow you managed to get combustion somewhere either under the valve covers, under the intake manifold, or in the oil pan. I have no idea why it happened, but you might want to sniff the dipstick to see if you smell gas on it. You'll probably end up pulling at least the intake manifold, in which case be very careful to note the positioning of the manifold gasket around each intake passage.


Norm

fakesnakes

I sounds to me like your distributor is 180 degrees out. Did you turn the engine to TDC on the #1 compression stroke before you removed the distributor?

Try this, remove #1 spark plug. cover the spark plug hole with your finger, and manually turn the engine until you feel air pushing your finger away (compression stroke). Look at the balancer and continue to rotate the engine until it is at TDC on the balancer. Now pull your distributor cap and see if the rotor is pointing towards #1 plug wire. If it is pointing in the opposite direction, you put the distributor in backwards. Fix it and try to restart. Do this before pulling the manifold or trying anything else that requires taking the engine apart.

CyprusMustang

thanks ill try that, i believe you will be right. there is no other explanation. I just hope i havent damaged anything, when you say to remove the spark 1 to feel the air, is that just to make sure we are at the step right before cyl 1 will combust? that means it should blow air out the hole when the piston is at its highest point just before sending a spark so it should be between 1 and 8 at that point.

so in theory, when it blows, it should be at tdc and the distr should be at number 1. in my case when it blows, the distr will be facing in another direction

fakesnakes

Everything you said is correct.

dodgestang

So if you tried starting it for an hour, than means you poured a lot of gas into the cylinders. That means it has all leaked past the rings by now and is in the oil, so you need to change the oil.

kalli

maybe that explains how it blew out that cap

CyprusMustang

ok i might agree but how would it ignite? how would the spark from the plug ignite the little gas that seeped into the oil??