Projects "Pea Green" the '29 Tudor build

decided to go with an Odyssey PC680 battery after doing some research on HAMB. It seems to small and light, but reviews are great.
battery box seemed alittle heavy, so I figured it needed a couple holes in a paisley pattern.

 

You mean it's not going to be painted green?

 

And the battery brown?

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lol, you guys are real comedians. But I do paint everything brown or green I suppose. (there is a little off-white in this picture.)
Getting pretty excited, picked up some fluids............

 

I can’t believe I haven’t seen this thread before . You are a true craftsman and artist . I won’t miss any more . Blue

 

What's the status on the interior? Any thing cool planned?

 

well, I have lots of ideas... I'm trying not think about it much until I get it running and driving (been without a driving hotrod for a few years now) and stay focused on what needs done first.
Anyway interior will be kind of traditional with pleats or diamond pattern stitching etc.. on mostly flat panels. Thinking about using some medium brown distressed leather (maybe faux) with cream color vinyl, AND a crazy busy pattern cloth. I'm suspect it will be polarizing, you either love it or hate it

Blue; thanks for nice words.

 

I've been thinking about dash stuff, and decided i'm going to just make a temp dash to get running/driving... Then I can spend a lot of time this winter on the real thing......ideas below. I kinda am liking the bottom sketch....(it'll have some brown leather and paint, some polished aluminum and the bottom corners upholstered to match door panels etc...)

looks like my garage dog sneaked a lick of coffee...

 

took a break from working on the 29, been kinda bummed out engine didn't start.

Short story is I'm 100% sure ignition timing is correct, I've verified valves closed when piston up etc... but noticed engine never "flooded" while trying to start even though I could see, smell gas in carb. (and seem to crank alittle slow) I noticed carb blowing air out once while cranking, so I checked compression with my thumb and noticed it didn't make much. I watched valve train and seen the intake valve closing as the piston is coming up on compression stroke not before. so I backed off rocker arms and checked compression. builds a ton like it should....

I can't believe I installed camshaft/valve timing off...... kind of pissed. I've installed many cams/timing chains and don't know what I did. to make worse, I have to raise engine about 4" to get harmonic balancer off, AND to raise the engine that much I have to raise the body off the frame.

here's the best picture I can find of the timing chain. Is there something about 1956 chevy 265 beside the camshaft notch for oiling that is different than most SBC's?

I ground this notch in cam before installed and used special freeze plug.....

hard to see timing marks...

 

Hang in there Bud! You kick this problems ass! And I'm sure you'll get the right help from the HAMB gurus.
I'm sorry I cant be of any help though but don't give up....just keep a clear head and keep at it!!

 

What am I missing that you couldn’t just un bolt the engine from the trans and lift it straight up instead of removing the body?

Or pull the radiator and grill and go forward and up?

That motor isn’t shoved nearly far enough back for me to think you’d need to pull the body to remove the motor?

 

Scrolling back looking at photos of all your doing is pulling the balancer and cam off, shouldn’t you be able to pull the rad and grill and it’s sitting right in front of you?

 

I really wish is would be that easy, I have very little clearance... it's tighter that it looks in pics.

 

Yeah that sucker sits pretty low. I’d take the rad/ grill off, unbolt the trans and with a load leveler on the cherry picker tilt it nose up a little and pull it up and forward out of the frame.

Might need an extra hand but it’s way less bs than removing the body

 

What about : take the front engine mount off and lower the engine in the frame until the balancer will come off ?...but before you do, ..THE TIMING MARKS AND CHAIN LOOK 100% CORRECT in the picture. So re lash the valves on 1 and 6 and check the compression again with you thumb on both..... making sure that its not just the distributor which is installed 180 degrees out.

When you time the cam the dots aligned at 6 on cam and 12 on crank is the # 6 firing position, you need to turn the crank 360 degrees before you install the distributor...this has caught out many people .

 

After you readjust the valves put your finger over #1 spark plug and feel for compression as you turn the motor over , just before top dead center it will blow your finger out and the timeing marks almost line up. Then line up the marks and drop the distributor in on #1 and she should fire up. Then use a timeing light and lock down your dristributor . Years ago I did the same thing. Frank

 

I'm looking at the last pic in post 459. I don't recognize the markings on the front of the heads. What are they or what is there casting number....curious about what they are. Tim

 

here's link with very little information on them, and a picture with the casting numbers.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/strange-small-block-chevy-head-casting-mark.1013792/
if you find out anything, please let me know.... I bought already rebuilt, don't know their history

 

I'm following you guys, I've checked it's not 180 out timing (I tried just incase) I'm going to re-adjust valve lash and check compression again. But i'm thinking something is odd with cam or timing gears still.

97, that's a great idea about lowering engine to get balancer off..... I'll be looking into that tomorrow.

thanks to all for replies,
Gregg

 

The photo shows your timing marks are on the money. I would forget about going to all the trouble of pulling the timing cover to see the same thing you see in that picture. Don't worry about low compression at cranking speed. Performance cams close the valves later than stock cams and often don't make a lot of cranking compression. An engine with the ignition timing way off will often whistle or puff through the intake.
Do you have spark?
To be sure your piston is at the top, you can bust the guts out of an old spark plug and tack a bolt or something in the hole sticking out an inch or so. Thread it into the plug hole and rotate the engine by hand until it stops and make a mark on the damper where your timing pointer is. Then rotate the other direction until it stops again and make another mark. TDC is halfway between your new marks and that is where the factory TDC mark on the damper should be. If it isn't, make a new one where it's supposed to be. Then put the distributor back in with the points just starting to open and the rotor pointed at your number one wire on the cap. Also, be sure you wired the cap for the same rotation as the rotor makes. I'm sure you already know this basic stuff, but sometimes the simplest things are the easiest to overlook. I've done a lot of head scratching over the years for some really simple (dumb assed) mistakes.

 

If you have to see the timing marks, let the front of the pan down a bit, pull the water pump and you might be able to slide the cover forward and tip it far enough to see them. But.... you already know they're right.

 

Not to add another variable to the mix, but I had very similar problems firing my engine for the first time, and it ended up being two things. First, I somehow had the distributor off a tooth or 180 out. There's a great YouTube video where Freiburger shows you how to dead time an engine - the most interesting thing was after he found TDC on #1 compression stroke, he rolled the balancer back 12*, then dropped in the distributor. That way you don't have to screw around with the advance too much once it lights off.

The second problem I had was that PC680. I don't know if I had a bad one or if it sat around too long, but it wouldn't turn my engine fast enough. Once I switched batteries, no more issues and it fired right up. You'll get it!


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Ok since this thread gets pretty good traffic maybe you could give us more than “it doesn’t start” and some valve train/ compression trouble shooting that could be a variety of things.

It’s very possible that it’s a simple tweak but we don’t know what it’s doing.

Does it crank?
Does it click?
Does it try to run!

I mean throw a guy a polka dotted paisley green and brown bone over here

 

Gregg - amazing build and skills!

I know you will get it figured out.

 

thanks to all for ideas/support...

I got to talk with and engine builder friend today and told him my story. He's 99% sure I collapsed the lifters when I initially adjusting rocker arms. He said it's pretty easy todo, maybe just to make me feel better When I told him I have 15/20 psi of oil pressure while cranking and no oil coming up push rods, that points to collapsed lifters.

So next time I'm in the garage, I plan to back off all rocker arms, pull spark plugs and crank engine a couple times a little bit, hoping to pump up hydraulic lifters. then go back and adjust again.

hopefully I'll have a good update for next post....

 

Hope that’s it . That car is a beautiful one and needs to be driven . You did a great job . Blue

 

I also hope that's it, it will be something simple. Looking forward to the first drive video. Don't let it bum you out, just keep pecking away at it and you'll be cruisin' before you know it.

 

It spit back through the carb when cranking but won't start and run...
He has shown us a pic of the long block ... cam timed and without the timing cover on, it is correct ....crank key at 2 oclock , cam locating dowel at 3 oclock and marks lined up...this is the #6 firing position.
Cranking is kinda slow and the motor spitting back, I am now wondering if it is advanced by nearly 1 cylinder on the distributor...... ignition timing can look correct under the cap , but without putting a timing light on it it is hard to eyeball .
The only other thing I can think of is hydraulic lifters pumping up while cranking ... lash set to tight on dry lifters...loosen them off to zero lash (roll the pushrod , while you tighten until it gets resistance to find zero) and then down half a turn for initial lash..... making sure the valves don't move when you do that....if the valve moves it means the lifters haven't got any oil in them.

 

Ha I just read the latest posts......I see that your engine builder and I concurr.... he is correct it is easy to collapse them, if they have never been filled with oil...

 

Yup sounds like you e found your gremlin

97 I went back a few pages looking for any info other than “it won’t start” and didn’t see anything talking about it back firing and etc. must have missed it