[BogiesAnnex1]

Rare earth spark plugs stay clean and maintain their set gap for a long time. The problems they can get into is the center tip runs very hot such that if you’re racing or running some form of super charge or nitrous boost they can become a source of preignition in a hard run motor. Plus since they don’t need to be changed often they are subject to thread corrosion with the cylinder head making them mighty difficult to change out especially with aluminum heads they will often fail the plug threads of the head even where anti-seize is used as that stuff doesn’t last forever.

To the end of keeping fouled plugs firing there is nothing like hitting the electrodes hard with the kind of power a 6AL box introduces across the plug gap. This also includes high quality low resistance wires. If you’re not running a capacitive discharge ignition like a 6AL for example there is no need for 10.5 mm wires as a standard HEI isn’t producing enough voltage to warrant that much insulation if you are running a Capacitive Discharge (CD) ignition then you can benefit from thick wires and should run separate grounds from the heads and intake to chassis in addition to the typical starter motor block ground cable.

Ignition wires should be spiral wound, these allow good electrical radiation suppression without using a lot of wire resistance to do it.

Bogie

 

[Tynan89]

All of these issues are starting to look like the root of all my timing settings and running problems...

 

[Tynan89]

This comes from excessive tightening somewhere either at the factory, by you, or the carb was a return sold as new.

I’s expect if from excessive tightening the broken ends are still in there and likely the seats of the carb that these close against are damaged.

After my smoke break I'm going to pull off the carburetor and inspect the idle mixture screws...I can't really do much until I get some money made for these replacement parts.

 

[Tynan89]

If you’re not running a capacitive discharge ignition like a 6AL for example there is no need for 10.5 mm wires as a standard HEI isn’t producing enough voltage to warrant that much insulation

👍🏾👌🏾

 

[Eduramac]

OK, one thing I thought that looked odd and could be the issue to my problem is I'm off a tooth....during distributor drop in, my pointer wasn't exactly pointing at the drivers side front intake bolt, it pointed more between cylinder 1 and cylinder 2.

I've literally dropped this distributor flush with the engine all the way clockwise and the only two directions I can get it in as close to where it's supposed to be are these two positions... View attachment 624461
View attachment 624462

From what I'm seeing in multiple YouTube videos is the pointer should be pointing at the first intake manifold bolt on the drivers side, all of them used a long screwdriver to rotate the oil pump shaft...neither of these pictures of mine are pointing there and these are the only two settings I can get near it... View attachment 624463

Is my pictures considered "off a tooth or two" ? Should I grab a long screwdriver and rotate the oil pump shaft to achieve the correct position ?

The second picture is what I'm driving with now...

All you need to do is get #1 on compression stroke use a starter button feel compression blow out. Crank the engine by hand by the crank bolt until you initial timing is lined up. Set the rotor to point to #1 in the cap. If it doesn't drop into the oil pump simply hold down on the dist base click the starter button until the dust sits down. Point your vac advance 1/2 way between the rear corner of the intake and the intake runner. Lightly snug up your hold down. Start the engine with vac advance unplugged and hose blocked. Try it around 8-12 degrees advanced. If you have an advance timing light plug vac adv back in and rum it up to about 2500 see if It's about 32 degrees. This is a good place to start

 

[Tynan89]

Rare earth spark plugs stay clean and maintain their set gap for a long time. The problems they can get into is the center tip runs very hot such that if you’re racing or running some form of super charge or nitrous boost they can become a source of preignition in a hard run motor.

Rare earth spark plugs ? Can you tell me what you mean when you say that ?

 

[Tynan89]

All you need to do is get #1 on compression stroke use a starter button feel compression blow out. Crank the engine by hand by the crank bolt until you initial timing is lined up. Set the rotor to point to #1 in the cap. If it doesn't drop into the oil pump simply hold down on the dist base click the starter button until the dust sits down. Point your vac advance 1/2 way between the rear corner of the intake and the intake runner. Lightly snug up your hold down. Start the engine with vac advance unplugged and hose blocked. Try it around 8-12 degrees advanced. If you have an advance timing light plug vac adv back in and rum it up to about 2500 see if It's about 32 degrees. This is a good place to start

I'm good in this area bro.

Now I'm trying to figure out what spark plugs and spark plug wires I need to replace my faulty ones with.

 

[Eduramac]

I'm good in this area bro.

Now I'm trying to figure out what spark plugs and spark plug wires I need to replace my faulty ones with.

If they are peanut plug heads start with an ac r45 plug. I've had good results with Taylor plug wires if you have Hei they come in 8 mm with either straight 90 deg or 135

deg plug boot ends.

 

[Tynan89]

I’s expect if from excessive tightening the broken ends are still in there and likely the seats of the carb that these close against are damaged.

Ding ding ding, you're right...The needles are stuck in the seatings...how can I get these out and tell if it damaged the needle seatings ?

Damaged needle seatings mean new carburetor replacement ?

 

[Tynan89]

If they are peanut plug heads start with an ac r45 plug.

Peanut plug heads ? Can you elaborate ?

R45's is all I've been using.

 

[Eduramac]

Peanut plug heads ? Can you elaborate ?

R45's is all I've been using.

Ok that's a peanut plug 14mm tapered seat. Earlier heads used a washer seat. 45 is a good all ours heat range for most. Higher the last # number hotter the plug. Best of luck.

 

[Eduramac]

Ding ding ding, you're right...The needles are stuck in the seatings...how can I get these out and tell if it damaged the needle seatings ?

Damaged needle seatings mean new carburetor replacement ?

I would say if they have been bottomed against the seats they have likely damaged the seats which I don't believe are replaceable on that carb. I see no other reason the could have broken off in there.

 

[ericnova72]

Platinum, Iridium, Rhodium are what are known as rare earth metals.

You don't need fancy plugs right now, it would just be a waste of money fouling expensive spark plugs. Until you get the engine tune sorted out and running fine just use the standard plug like you have been, AC Delco R45TS.
Once the engine is running well, then you can consider changing to the platinum or iridium plugs.

I'm not an Edelbrock guy, I don't know how the mixture screw circuit path as far as getting broken screw tips out.

 

[BogiesAnnex1]

Rare earth spark plugs ? Can you tell me what you mean when you say that ?

I’m probably stretching the point with spark plug‘s these are more rare precious metals than rare earth elements.

Metals like Iridium, Platinum, Gold-Palladium being used for spark plug electrodes. These metals can be run very hot to resist deposition of combustion byproducts like carbon build up and they are very resistive to wear so they last a long time.

The down side is they are very expensive but in the OEM manufactures search for zero maintenance at least by the end customer or private garages the life cycle cost isn’t any different than needing to change regular plugs on some mileage frequency. When I was young and gas was leaded the life cycle of a spark plug was about 10,000 miles on the outside with one or two cleanings and gappings between replacements. Today the standard copper plug lasts a lot longer between replacements and does not require cleaning and regapping between replacements.

Another problem with exotic plugs is they becoming a source of preignition because they run very hot. So it your engine is boosted with supercharge of some sort or nitrous you must be very watch full of their heat ranges and even then your on the risk edge. The other problem of infrequent plug changes because of these tings long lives is thread corrosion especially with aluminum heads where plug replacement also brings thread repair to the head. They will tell you to use anti-seize on the plug threads but I’ll strongly suggest that anti-seize is not a lifelong thread treatment for spark plugs over a 5 to 10 year period.

So I’m rather of the opinion that especially on a budget the money put into exotic metals spark plugs is better spent on a 6AL capacitive discharge ignition. The powerful spark is enough to overcome most deposition and electrode erosion problems of copper core spark plugs and they typically have a much wider heat range choice. Add to this you want to cycle plugs just for thread protection as much as anything especially if your using an aluminum head.

Bogie

 

[Tynan89]

This comes from excessive tightening somewhere either at the factory, by you, or the carb was a return sold as new.

I’s expect if from excessive tightening the broken ends are still in there and likely the seats of the carb that these close against are damaged.

Bogie

Spoke to Speedway and they're going to give me a refund because they don't have this carburetor in stock so I'm going to go ahead and switch out for a Holley carburetor and more than likely it will be the Holly 4150 brawler or the Holley 4150 because they have the single fuel feed line.

Between shipping to and from and payment processing, it'll be about a month before I'll be able to give an update. And more than likely I'll need help installing the Holly because I've never installed a Holly

 

[Tynan89]

You don't need fancy plugs right now, it would just be a waste of money fouling expensive spark plugs. Until you get the engine tune sorted out and running fine just use the standard plug like you have been, AC Delco R45TS.
Once the engine is running well, then you can consider changing to the platinum or iridium plugs.

That's exactly what I'm doing I'm going to use the old plugs to sort everything out once the new carburetor comes in the mail and once everything is sorted out then I will put in the expensive spark plugs.. I'm also considering replacing the distributor and I also need to replace the spark plug wires..

 

[BogiesAnnex1]

That's exactly what I'm doing I'm going to use the old plugs to sort everything out once the new carburetor comes in the mail and once everything is sorted out then I will put in the expensive spark plugs.. I'm also considering replacing the distributor and I also need to replace the spark plug wires..

Your old plugs are totally shot, once they are black with deposits they no longer function well if at all. The deposits are carbon, carbon is conductive. The high voltage form a conventional inductive ignition just bleeds to ground through the carbon coated insulator. In the days before peanut plugs they could be cleaned but these peanut plugs that came out with lead free fuels just don’t have the internal space to get into them with cleaning tools. The color of the coating says these plugs are very cold, the compression is very low, the AFR is very rich, the induction system is pulling oil from somewhere, the timing is way off, the engine is running extremely cold, way too much choke for way too long, or any possible combination of these things.

Lots of things needing checking out.

Bogie

 

[ericnova72]

Yeah, scrap can the current plugs, use new R45's when the new carb gets here.
Get it up and running so you can make adjustments.

 

[Tynan89]

Your old plugs are totally shot, once they are black with deposits they no longer function well if at all. The deposits are carbon, carbon is conductive. The high voltage form a conventional inductive ignition just bleeds to ground through the carbon coated insulator. In the days before peanut plugs they could be cleaned but these peanut plugs that came out with lead free fuels just don’t have the internal space to get into them with cleaning tools. The color of the coating says these plugs are very cold, the compression is very low, the AFR is very rich, the induction system is pulling oil from somewhere, the timing is way off, the engine is running extremely cold, way too much choke for way too long, or any possible combination of these things.

Lots of things needing checking out.

Bogie

I'll do a compression test today while I have the plugs out. Weather has been 105-115° since summer, so the choke is wide open

 

[KAMjenII]

When i initially read your post, i am thought 'i wonder if the distributor went down past or before it's correct placement into the block at TDC or top dead center. So cylinder 1 has to be at tdc and the dizzy pointing to it's wire after it slides in. Correct? How did it go? what was are your new findings. Compression is perfect with 175-180 psi, thats awesome.