Here's little story

[grannyknot]

I haven't been able to get the engine running for the last few weeks so did some testing and posted a thread in the Electrical section on how I suspected the coil, with the help of SteveJ and Zed I figured out the Pertronix ignition module was fried,

apparently these modules don't like to be powered up without the engine running and I had more then a few hours with the power on this winter so I could chase down headlight and fan gremlins.

So I thought I would just change over to the new 123Tune distributor I had. I dropped a pencil through the #1 sparkplug hole so I could watch it come up as I turned the crank to TDC (I have done this dozens of times with no problems) but this time the pencil decided to break dropping a 2.5-3" piece of pencil inside the cylinder.

Great, and it was the end with the metal sleeve that holds the erazor so I really had to get it out.

After about 4-5 hrs of operating through the sparkplug hole I manged to get it out but had broken off the tip of a dental pick while I was doing it.

No problem, I inserted my swivel magnetic probe into the hole and started sweeping for the tip, that's when the magnet on the end came off the probe and stuck to the wall of the cylinder, lovely.

So now I'm pull the head off to retreave the dental pic tip and the magnet but I still can't bring the piston up to TDC because the magent is stopping the piston.

I mark the timing chain and cam sprocket so I can get them back together again and not screw up the timing. I installed the wooden wedge to hold the timing chain and pulled the head off, it doesn't look too bad for 15,000 miles,

But while the head was off I started thinking about the engine knock or ping that I have been chasing for the past 2 years. I've done the colder plugs, 94 octane gas, richer mixture but it is still there.

So I picked up a Kamarie 1.5mm solid head gasket to bring down the compression to 9.5:1,

At $400 I sure hope it is re-useable.

After all that the head is back on, engine is running well but will have to wait a bit before I can punch it and see if the ping is gone

[madkaw]

Wow- what a trip! I've had those days before. Hope that 400$ gasket helps, but from what I read it's not the best solution. I think the 123 dizzy will fix the ping!!

Keep us posted

Edited April 14, 2014 by madkaw

[grannyknot]

It was either the thicker head gasket or a longer duration cam and since I already had the head off it was a pretty easy to choose. At least now I'll be able use full mechanical advance 35-37* before it would start pinging at 28*

[Travel'n Man]

Wow- tough story. Great persistence though!