Technical ‘63 Impala not running properly

I’m posting a YouTube video of a cold start of ‘63 impala 327. It was running pretty good until I got it back from the alignment shop. What do they have to do with it? I dunno but my car didn’t run like this before I dropped it off. Any ideas of what’s going on and what I should do next is greatly appreciated.
https://youtube.com/shorts/lpVzXJWEsbQ?si=eUzHpl1rIRv969Vp

 

Pay attention to the vacuum and rpm gauges. The engine rocking at idle.

 

Did a couple of plug wires get knocked off during front end word and reinstalled incorrectly? 18436572
Warren

 

Abuse, valve not behaving.
Try a compression check.

 

That one wire on the Pside looks looped around and hitting the frame?
Did you note mileage before drop off?After?
3 pedals?
How old were the techs?
Check the rear wheel wells for excess rubber.

 

Wound her up, bent a pushrod.

 

I needs an easy to read spark plug wire diagram. I’m looking at the distributor factory manuals not clear.

 

Check the front plug wires on each side to make sure one didn't get bumped. Check them all and check the firing order but the front one on each side isn't far from the control arm and could have got bumped.

As Budget 36 pointed out 5 and 7 often get crossed even when you are being careful. Still there is no reason to take plug wires loose when doing a front end alignment. Back when I was doing front end work every day I once in a while had plug wires get in the way when someone bought a wire set and didn't route the wires right or used too long of wires and let them flop here, there and in the way.

 

This is the orientation of my dist cap

 

Can someone please edit my photo with cylinder numbers? Thanks

 

You cannot edit picture without knowing which one is cylinder one. Follow each wire back from the appropriate cylinder and tag the cap end with a numbered piece of masking tape. When all are marked, it should look like the picture above. If all else fails, take it back to the shop that messed it up and let them have a look.
Warren

 

Looking at the photo it appears this is your no. 1^.
Going CW you should have 8-4 to passenger side, 3 to drivers side, 6 pass., 5 dr., 7 pass., and 2 dr. side. As was mentioned earlier 5 and 7 are easy to cross if you’re not careful.

 

I inspected the wires and this is #1 wire. That ain’t good.

 

Thank you for doing that. Yeah I ordered new spark plug wires. I’ll hook up the new wires soon and report back.

 

Take them off and replace one at a time with a same length wire.

 

How many times have I INTENDED to have done it that way, and still gotten 7 and 5 mixed up???

 

Crap! Bought new wires and it’s still running the same. I don’t have all the wire holders and brackets. I’ve routed them so they don’t get on hot parts of the engine.

 

I would take the time to pop the valve covers and start looking for bent push rods. I know a guy who didn’t listen to me, after letting his friend drive his truck. He said it was to hard to take the valve cover off due to the brake booster. Did he? Yes he did! He drove that truck a year with bent push rods. Eventually motor said the hell with it. One rod in the pan, another laying in the valley. Don’t let anyone drive your*****. Even your best friend has a lead foot.

 

Yeah there’s white smoke coming out the exhaust. I took it for a 20 min drive on the freeway got off and it died at the stop light. Couldn’t get it to idle without giving it a bunch of gas. At every stop light the engine would die. I got it home and let it sit for 1hr. It started up and idled okay. Drive it around the neighborhood and it didn’t die so not sure why I had the engine dying earlier. The soonest a repair shop can get me in is mid November. I need this fixed now. Phuck!

 

White smoke?

 

I know what I would do...!
Contact the alignment shop OWNER and tell him the situation so, you can put them on notice NOW not in a few weeks once you figure it out. This way....if it gets ugly they can't claim you are at fault and just blaming them...
Pull the VC's is a great place to start looking for damage.
6sally6

 

Rough idle, white smoke, kinda sounds like a head gasket.
Warren

 

I'd still double check firing order first, like stated before 5 & 7 is easy to cross.

No offense but 2 things I noted, no offense but it seems you have limited knowledge so I'd find a friend that has some and have them walk you thru it step by step and in person.

Number 2 looking at that plug wire it appears regular inspection and maintenance isn't performed very often.

Now with that said after 40 years of doing alignments and frame work I've heard all kinds of things, has a woman come in and accuse me of theft, supposedly I stole the small screw that held the light inside the trunk, why? Because when she got in the trunk that morning it was fine but that night when she opened the trunk the light was hanging down and the screw missing. We found the screw under a bag in the trunk, she said I still took it and then just thru it back into the trunk because it was either to big or small for my needs.

Had another woman drop her van off, I align it at 8:00, it goes to the tire shop at 10:00, at noon she's driving to K.C. and wheel comes off, calls next day wanting us to pay for damage, why ? Because she's been using the same tire shop for 20 yrs and they would NEVER forget to tighten lug nuts so it had to be me, yes tried explaining that the tire shop was AFTER me and they HAD to take wheels off to put new tires on, she still didn't get it and was going to sue us for negligence.

Pulled a guy's truck into the shop, as I pull 10 feet into the door onto the heads of the machine the radiator blows, he's standing right there, then asks us how much of the repairs are we going to pay ?

And the list goes on, point is sometimes***** happens..... and it's not always the fault of someone who just happened to be there when it did, especially on a older car that never has the hood opened and inspected on a routine basis or regularly maintained...

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Is it using brake fluid? If the MC leaks into the booster the booster diaphragm can fail resulting in a vacuum leak (poor running) and white smoke.

 

As soon as I saw the white smoke comment I thought head gasket too....... or there has been a new Pope elected.

 

It’s had the smoke come out occasionally before but now it’s doing it more. The shop didn’t have nothing to do with it and I can’t prove anything. It’s probably time to do an LS swap.

 

Did you look at the spark plugs?

 

How does that make things better? Dig in and find the problem because LS’s can do the same thing.

 

Yeah 1 or two of them are oil soaked