Hot Rods New one on me (SBC question)

I'd borrow a GOOD used coil off a running engine - just to rule it out. NEXT would be checking the timing chain. Don't think about a replacement cam - unless you KNOW the engine has good compression. If money is tight, hard to beat rockauto.com for parts, and shipping is fairly quick! Good Luck!

 

I'd borrow a GOOD used coil off a running engine - just to rule it out. NEXT would be checking the timing chain. Don't think about a replacement cam - unless you KNOW the engine has good compression. If money is tight, hard to beat rockauto.com for parts, and shipping is fairly quick! Good Luck!

 

You don't need a roller chain. a stock GM steel gear link belt chain is plenty good. Roller chains tend to stretch.

 

You need to double check the simple and inexpensive things before tearing in to the engine. You may need a new timing chain but be sure the simple things like ground and good connections are ok. You would be surprised how often a bad ground or loose/broken wire is the problem. If the engine fires intermittently,but won't run.....spray a little starting fluid in it. If it runs you have a fuel problem. If it still doesn't run you know it's not a fuel problem. Then take a compression check. While the sparkplug is out, and with coil disconnected, rotate the engine to TDC and see where the timing mark is. But check grounds and wires before any real mechanical work.
Had a friend recently who chased a problem cause his truck quit. Had it towed to a shop and $300 later it quit again. He was getting ready to load it on a trailer and take it to another mechanic. Messing with it, he found a wire at a connector making intermittent contact......

 

I had a similar incident with my 305 in an OT truck. I got the same advice you are getting- timing chain. So I spent about 6 hours changing the timing chain with no result. Turned out to be a bad rotor or distributor cap (I can't remember which one). If you have to ignition parts, I would swap them before I changed timing chain. Could save you a little effort. I have seen plenty of old engines run with a lot of timing chain slop.

 

Before you pull it apart, I would borrow a known good running H.E.I. distributor and stab it in with a switched hot wire to the battery, that will temporarily bypass and eliminate you existing ignition system.

 

Hold the phone, if you take a compression test, this will tell you if the timing chain has jumped. If the chain jumped, compression will be low on all cylinders due to valve timing no longer being correct.


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