I have a 1960 F100 with a 223 inline 6 that has given me problems for a year. -I had the engine rebuilt a year ago. -It has a Clifford intake and headers and Weber 2 barrel carb. -I have installed a new distributor and cap. -The carb has an electric choke -It has an electric fuel pump which then runs into a weber fuel regulator. (to achieve the required 2.5psi max) It started and ran okay a month ago until the choke disengaged then the engine would die. I bought a jet kit and upped the idle jet one size (from 45 to 50) At this point I realized that gas had made it into the oil (all over the intake too.) Alot of gas! About 5qts. I pulled the carb apart and found the float stuck and not properly adjusted. The accelerator pump diaphram had deteriorated so I replaced that (this is a new carb) The oil and filter were changed. I had problems with not being able to keep the fuel psi below 5. I had plumbed the regulator backwards and was able to achieve 2.5psi once I reversed it. Okay, done with the back story... 2 weeks ago it fired up and was running very smooth but had a hesitation on acceleration. So, I bumped the timing back just a hair. I tried accelerating again and it started running very rough and died. I haven't been able to get it to start again. Changed the plugs and moved the timing back to the original position. Changed back to the smaller jets. No change. It cranks and one cylinder might try to fire and it back fired a couple times. Its getting spark and clean fuel. Could I have jumped a tooth on the timing chain? Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated I am at wits end with this thing. Thanks in advance for any help!
Check the cap and rotor, How is your spark? Check compression? Are your plugs wet like its flooded? Just curious what all you have checked?
The only plug that has been wet has been the first plug. My driveway is an incline with the front end facing downward. Could this be an issue? I ran the battery down cranking the engine tonight it's on a slow charge and I plan on tinkering tomorrow. The cap and rotor will be the first things I check tomorrow. Could a blown head gasket be the culprit?
How long ago was new distributor installed? Could it be off a tooth too? Maybe even distributor gear chewed up? Started and ran ok until choke off. Vacuum leak? Jumped a tooth possible but not likely on a new rebuild, if new gears and chain were installed. Only one plug getting fuel? How clean is the tank? Running a fuel filter? Where in line is it? You getting flow all the way up to the carb? Where is the pump, how close to the tank? How much of an incline is driveway? But should not really be a problem. Hope you get it sorted out.
The cap and rotor are good. No cracks no burns. I am running a fuel filter between the tank and the pump. The fuel pump is in the frame rail about 3' from the tank. I'm going to replace the filter just for good measure. Once the battery is charged I'll check the fuel flow to the carb. My fuel pressure gauge is working but I haven't checked to see how the fuel flow is at the carb.
I am getting plenty of fuel to the carb. There is a healthy stream of fluid spraying in the carb. The coil ohm'ed out good The plugs are getting spark (seems weak but I am not sure what color spark I want?) Engine seems to turn over very slow but the battery reads 12.38v When I hooked up the battery cables after charging, the engine tried to run. No keys in the ignition (the ignition switch is new changed it a couple months back) I obviously have some electrical demons where should I check first? Is this a ground problem? I have a ground strap from the battery to the firewall, from there a ground to the starter. Im not tied into the frame. Thanks again!
Okay! So I sprayed starting fluid in the carb still would not start. So to me, a novice at vehicle diagnostics, this says it is in the electrical/spark system. Any other ideas?
Have some one crank the engine and watch the voltage while it cranks. If it is still good check voltage at the coil.
I did some research on the Pertronix site and found that they recommend 3 ohm primary coils on 4 and 6 cylinder engines. I have a flame thrower coil rated at 1.5 ohms primary. Could this be my problem? From what I understand the 1.5 ohm should operate fine on 12v systems. I don't have a ballast resistor inline. Any thoughts?
Not having enought ohms in the system will only shorten the points life span, as they ballast resistor gives them 6 volts when running. And IIRC the petronix coils require 12v If you still have points, I would bet they have been burned out. If you have a petronix, it should be fine, as my understanding is that they either work or they don't. Did a little google research on them and stumbled onto a thread that referenced that a failure of a flamethrower coil caused driveability issues, but the car still had spark, just not enough.
Thanks GreasyKnight, CGKid,and everyone else who has commented. I still have a points distributor but they look fine no burns (I will pull them again to check very closely). I was able to ohm out my coil and it was in spec but don't know how to test to see if it is getting 12v with the ignition on. I set my leads across the primary but didn't have 12v. Is this the proper way to test for 12v at the coil? Maybe my flamethrower has failed?
You're welcome Ground to battery negative, and positive to one of the terminals, one should go to the distributor the other to the key. You want the one that goes to the key to test for voltage. Also check the wire that goes from the negative side of the coil to the distributor, it is not unheard of for them to short to ground. The negative is the signal from the distributor to the coil to tell it when to fire. I am not sure on the proper test procedure for the petronix coil, it would be best to contact them for that. Check out this thread on FTE, know more then I do about the 215/223 http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1018933-215ci-not-starting.html
I figured it out! One of the pads on the points came off causing the gap to be extremely large. I looked at this 3 times before I noticed that the pad was missing. I was looking for burn marks and pits not missing half the pad. Thanks for the help everyone!
The Jalopy Journal
