Projects AGAIN x2 / disaster averted by accident

Another great save. Nice.

 

Back in early '70s I was working at a Chevron Station, saw a lot of Pontiacs with that problem. One day I was tuning a lady customers Pontiac when it just shut off. Wouldn't start back up, timing gear gone. Called customer and told her she needed a new timing gear/chain kit. She said fine, she would bring it back next week. I explained the problem to her and she said "It was running when I brought it in!" Thank goodness her boyfriend was also a customer and he explained it to her. All was well after that. Ron

 

I bought a new '70 Pontiac Trans Am. My mechanic buddy told me about the plastic gears and said 40,000 was about the limit. A couple years later I was driving down the road and it stumbled, bucked, and quit. Pontiac dealer told me that I needed new timing gears.

The mileage was 40,031.

 

It's not a 307... In this day of the "stroker" ..... It's a "283 stroker" with 1/4" arm.

 

Seems like engines have less caked on grunge nowadays. Better rings, better oil?

 

Now I feel better when I post on an old thread.

 

Given comments on a previous "Oil" thread,

Use Wix? Synthetic? And....
An occasional 'change'?

 

Something has sure changed! Back when I first started wrenching, I remember pulling the valve covers off some Chevies and you couldn’t see the rockers, but you could read “ Chevrolet “ ... backwards..... in the gunk!






Bones

 

Good catch.....
A similar thing happened to me. The “lifter tick” in a ‘ 68 Ford 302 was the broken #1 piston skirt bouncing in the cylinder between the counterweight and piston.
It sounded tiny.
I caught it early and all it needed was new pistons and I went ahead and put in new rod and main bearings .I could have gotten away with just pistons and rings.

While there is a certain romance in getting a long sleeping engine to run but really if you plan to actually use it, it’s best to open it up and really check it.
The difference can be a runner or soon to be scrap.
Opening one up is just wise.

 

It’s my thread and I can bump it with new info anytime I want