Whats wrong ?? 351w problems HELP !

[Stangninjak]

I was going down I95N cruising at about 70, when I heard a loud popping niose..sounded like a backfire..I looked and I had oil pressure, but the engine sputtered and turned off. I coasted to the side of the rd, and tried to crank it again. The car backfired loudly, and did not crank. It then sounded as if it was trying hard to turn over, like something was blocking it..I went under the hood, no leaks, oil. water, ect, I tried again and it sounded as if it would crank and again a very loud backfire. I towed it home.

Today I took a good look and I did not see anything..someone a spoke with said it sounded like the distrubuter coil ?? Um I am a bit noob to this, so A: what does it sound like to you guys..and B: The distruber coil is where...The cap and rotor, or the shaft they go on ??


HELP

 

[302 coupe]

could be a number of things. Could be the ignition coil, could be fuel filter or pump, could be dist. gear pin, distributor gear, timing chain, something amiss in the valvetrain, ignition box/module if so equipped, etc, etc. I hope you're familiar with diagnosing 40 year old cars. Its easy if you know what to look for, otherwise it can be a real goat rope. Anyways, first thing I would do is remove the air cleaner and pump the throttle a few times (with engine off) and check for fuel flow coming from the pump shooter. If you have fuel, proceed to check spark by removing a spark plug, reattaching that plug's wire, hold the plug slightly away from a clean metal surface while cranking the engine. You should be able to see it spark (arcing to grounded surface). If you have fuel and spark, proceed to distributor removal and inspection, then valvetrain inspection. Its probably something simple though, just a matter of finding it.

oh yeah, the coil is a cylindrical looking thing, normally mounted on the intake. Easiest foolproof way to find it is to locate the big wire thats hooked to the center of the dist cap and follow it to the other end. Where the wire stops is the coil. Its hard to test it without some electrical troubleshooting experience, if in question just replace it, they're only a few bucks.

 

[69 Rustang]

Well it could be any number of things. If it still turns over but won't fire my first thought is a jumped timing chain. If the engine won't turn over with the starter (you said something was blocking it) there could have been a dropped valve and catastrophic engine failure. Without more info, I am just guessing though. Does the engine turn over or doesn't it?

 

[krash kendall]

Could be your radcap blew coolant into your distributor....blew up my new exhaust last summer because of that. Did you drive through a large puddle or was it raining heavy?

 

[Stangninjak]

The engine will turn over, but it seems it gets to a section, then it turn over very slowly...like its hard to..My first thought was the timming chain as well..and I also turn off the car when it happened, but I am hoping its not a bent valve or what not...

I asked about that BTW<chain> and was told its extremely rare that the chain on these engine jumps or break<whatever> but it could be..

 

[Stangninjak]

Could be your radcap blew coolant into your distributor....blew up my new exhaust last summer because of that. Did you drive through a large puddle or was it raining heavy?

No..was sunny out

 

[302 coupe]

starting to sound like a valvetrain related issue.

 

[12sec67]

What does you you set up consist of..


this happen to me on the way to the track- it was the distributer and my timing retarded to the point it died.

 

[Stangninjak]

Hey thanx for the replies..I found the issue.

The oil pump apears to have seized. This caused the distributer shaft ? 'not sure of proper name' to break off some teeth down in the cam. The next issue is that after short forwarding the engine, it seems one of the cam teeth, or that gear in the bottom, lost a tooth as well. I was told that was the cam. Sooooo what to do ?

Can I save this engine ?? It seems as if it took no damage on the bottom end, due to it shutting down. I wanted to replace the heads and cam anyway, but after I had put in a randall's rack, or flaming river streeing kit So do I just go with a head set, 'The ones that include everything' or just drop in a new engine ?? Need some advice on this, as I have just step out of the circle of my limited knowledge.

 

[ForceFed70]

Sounds like you need a new cam, oil pump, and related hardware.

Sure you can save the engine as long as it didn't run for long without any oil pressure.

BUT... replacing the cam and oil pump is a part way to doing a complete engine rebuild (as far as labour goes). Depending on the age and condition of your engine, you might want to do a complete rebuild...

 

[302 coupe]

new cam, lifters, oil pump, hardened oil pump drive shaft, and distributor gear should get you going. About $200 in parts, plus gaskets and whatever labor. If its a non-roller cam, be sure you're using a cast iron distributor gear. Roller cams require the harder steel gear. Be sure to get all the debris/metal shavings out of the engine when you tear it down.

 

[Max Power]

Hey thanx for the replies..I found the issue.

The oil pump apears to have seized. This caused the distributer shaft ? 'not sure of proper name' to break off some teeth down in the cam. The next issue is that after short forwarding the engine, it seems one of the cam teeth, or that gear in the bottom, lost a tooth as well. I was told that was the cam. Sooooo what to do ?

Can I save this engine ?? It seems as if it took no damage on the bottom end, due to it shutting down. I wanted to replace the heads and cam anyway, but after I had put in a randall's rack, or flaming river streeing kit So do I just go with a head set, 'The ones that include everything' or just drop in a new engine ?? Need some advice on this, as I have just step out of the circle of my limited knowledge.

I thought you said you had oil pressure?

Anyway, the same thing happened to me. It was a fresh motor, so I just replaced the cam, distributor and oil pump and was on my way.

 

[Stangninjak]

I thought you said you had oil pressure?

Anyway, the same thing happened to me. It was a fresh motor, so I just replaced the cam, distributor and oil pump and was on my way.

Well so did I..when I took a look, I saw that the psi was up..but now that I think about it, it was dropping fast, and the car had switched off..so base on what I seen today, yeah..I guess I did not have pressure. If the bottom end is still good, then just get a cam, some decent heads, "stock ones now" the oil pump, and the MSD distributer...can I get just the gear part to that ???" I have looked at the DSSracing bottem ends, and truefully if I can get a nice bottom end, with heads, then heck I may just replace the whole thing, and toss my intake and carb back on.