225V6 rough Idle

yeah, at 600 rpm you can't hear it, but at about 1000 up through maybe 2000 it sounds like a half a miss, or like one cylinder is missing every other firing. If I pull wires there is an obvious miss on that cylinder, but when everything is hooked up, I get this thing we're talking about. More like a syncopated kitten with head-cold.

 

Dave: Never noticed that either. Runs like a Swiss Watch at each RPM range.

Well, the only noise I hear is my header leak. :evil:

 

I would replace the push rods. I had the same problems left side was dead, right side worked good, I replaced the pushrods and tweaked the carb. Ran like a top. Pushrods are cheap too.

 

I read that you swapped the old dist back in... Did it run correctly with the old dist or did it have a similar problem? I once had the EXACT same symptoms that you do...turns out that I had put an evenfire dist in it accidentally. The left side of the engine ran nice, but the right side had cool exhaust and just didn't sound right. It kinda sounded like it was blowing air out the exhaust...hard to describe. It also popped and backfired quite a bit. It took me awhile to figure it out. I put a different dist back in it, not knowing there was a difference between even and oddfire, and got lucky...it ran good again.

 

This is the point I was trying to make earlier; whenever I hear that one bank is fine and the other is acting up, this usually points to the distibutor.

MikeT: although you have found some obvious wear/problem with the valves and valve guides on the problem side, what are the odds that the wear you found is only present on the one cylinder head ? Logic would dictate both heads would have the same amount of wear and mileage. It would seem strange that just the 3 cylinders on the one head are bad.
Of course, I am assuming that both heads would have been done at the same time. Are you going to pull the other head as well?

Not trying to be a smarty pants, just trying to do an e-fix and think this through

 

Jim, both heads are in getting done now. The eng. is a rebuild with about 3000 mi. on it. It was done by Gopher Eng. rebuilders but was a short block. Looks like the PO just put the old heads back on without having the heads done. Southtowns27 asked if it ran better with the stock dist. back in it, it ran the same as it does now. I agree with you Jim, all 3 cyls. on one side not working right is odd. And running cool on one side don't make any sense either. I am doing the heads partly because they were not done at the time of the rebuild and trying to eliminate one more thing. I did change pushrods but nothing changed. Still thinking. Thanks for the info.

 

Patrick: I've heard that too. But it is something I will NEVER expierence, since I will NEVER use RTV on any oil area in ANY engine. Hippo's use is just fine. For the rubber seal, I use Permatex High Tack, 3M Super Weatherstrip Seal or a new product that Permatex has called "Super High Tack"--it's like a gasket formula of 3M's stuff.

I know a whole lot of people use RTV for that application and get away with it fine. But, I think I mentioned this before, I've seen 2 siezed engines from cloged oil passages with small bits of RTV.

 

I guess I need a little schooling on the diff of an ODD fire eng and a EVEN fire eng. I would assume there is a diff. in fireing order. When I look at the inside of my dist. cap on the HEI the cap looks like it is for an 8 cyl. eng but only uses 6 terminals., but the terminals are not evenly spaced. How does this work? Maybe a better understanding of this concept will help me solve this problem. The old point type dist. cap had evenly spaced terminals, I can understand that.

 

Oddfire has nothing to do with the order of the firing sequence both evenfire and oddfire use the same order, when you look at an evenfire crankshaft there are 6 different rod journals, an Oddfire motor has only 3, each set of opposing rods are tied to the same journal just like a v8 engine, a 90* v6 is the only oddfire motor really that is out there, a 60* v6 is a perfect firing motor just like any 90* v8. The problem with the Dauntless v6 is that it is a 90* block which means when one cylinder comes up and fires when the opposing cylinder in the firing order comes up to fire it is out of sequence on the ignition due to the fact that 360* /6 = 60* and (not 90* like the block), that the engine has just turned to bring the piston to the top of the bore to fire, thus the ignition point of the distributor needs to be altered so that the ignition can turn back 30*, the engine actually fires at 90*/150*/90*/150*90*/150* instead of a normal 90*/180*/90/180*/90*/180*. Your original distributor contacts were evenly spaced but if you will look at you rotor you will notice that the tip that contacts the spark plug tower was hooked by so many degrees, that way one cylinder would fire with the straight side (90*)of the rotor tip and the other would fire on the hooked end (150*) of the rotor tip alternating back and forth to make the engine fire properly.

Hope this helps!

 

Mcruff,
Thanks for the explanation, now I think I understand the concept. It also explains the hook on the old rotor.

 

Mike, if you look inside your HEI dist, I think your rotor should look normal and the cap itself should have the "hooks" inside
might be worth checking

 

Warlock, The site you recomended was great, lots of info. After reading the explaination on how to install the HEI I think that I might have put it in 1 terminal off. I will have to look when I get time but I think when I put the dist. in I was paying attention to making room for the vac. adv. and then just lined up the rotor with the closest terminal useing it for #1 because the eng. was at #1 TDC. I did not understand that there were even and odd terminals on the dist. Now that I read the article, I think I know how to set it up. Thanks for the help everone.!!

 

Mike T: Merls article, along with this one http://www.jeepster.org/swchapter/hei-2.html
are on the reference areas of this Board. You just got to do a little searching for them among the Web Links, Tech References and V6 References.

Also try www.capeconversions.com for excellent instructions.

 

Ok, so soler recommended replacing pushrods... I wouldn't be opposed to trying that. Should all 12 pushrods be replaced at the same time? All on 6 one side? Pull them out and look for a single bent one? Anybody know where to get the cheapest/best? Any recommended part #?

 

71CJDave; sorry, but can you tell us again what problems your having
2 troubles in 1 post, gets confusing
hey, at least we are on topic

 

Dave, The pushrods I used are Federal Mogul/ Sealed Power part # RP-3173. I got them from Carquest. $ 1.90 ea. If you're going to replace one on a side, replace them all on that side.

 

jpflat2a - same trouble different guy! Sorry to confuse...didn't intend to hijack...

MikeT - that's the answer I was looking for, I'm going to start there...thanks!

 

just can't believe that push rods are the problem
how would push rods on one side of an engine, be different than or worn more than the other side, engine history being known?
a bent one, maybe, but not all of them be bad