What Did I Do To My Dauntless...

Hopefully this isn't too long winded - basically my Dauntless is chugging like it has a miss. At idle the engine is vibrating around more than I recall. I did adjust the idle down to 700 last time I drove it but its doing more than just vibrating. Popping through the carb if it get bogged down. Looked like there was some light hazy smoke behind me (could see in headlights of car behind me going up a hill). But the best way to describe it is that it feels like its running on 5 until higher RPMs. I tried pulling plug wires one by one and cylinder 4 didn't seem to make much difference but I haven't looked at the cap/rotor yet. I did some things to diagnose.

What I did:

The valve covers were off for repaint. Saw a bunch of old built up crud and cleaned it off. If any got down into the lifter valley I can't imagine my missfire situation would be because of that hurting the lifters. But thats why I was even under the hood - to repaint the valve covers.

I also tied the driver side pcv valve in with the passenger side pcv valve. Originally my passenger side egr fed under the carb and the driver side one was not hooked to anything. I added a tee and linked the both together. Could this added air lean out the carb so much that it feels like a miss?

I had new plugs and wires on my shelf so it got those...no change.

I checked and the timing is at 5 degrees of advance.

I also hooked my vacuum gauge up and at idle the needle is pretty stable and at 18 which seems like correct vacuum.

I haven't looked under my HEI - could my issue be the cap and rotor?

Should I be looking at the carb since even though it really seems to be an ignition issue?

Thanks for the help - I just want her running like a top again!

 

can't comment on why your engine is running bad . but one valve cover is the breather(in) and the other is pcv (out)
there is no egr on a dauntless . is this a 231 maybe

 

I don't know if these pictures will be of any help but might as well add them to the discussion. The picture of the distributor shows its orientation - this was installed by previous owner. The other is of the burnt oil in the valve cover that I had to clean out.

 

Sorry I am probably using the wrong language. On one valve cover I originally had a line feeding in under the carb. That same valve cover uses a breather as the oil cap. The other valve cover just had a pcv valve not connected to anything. I tee'd that in with the other valve cover so they are both feeding in under the carb.

 

It's really odd the way that distributor is clocked and where's the vacumn advance? Also if the numbers on the plug wires are correlated to the cylinders something is askew

 

Leak it down.............

 

The vacuum advance is at around 11 o’clock. The numbers are incorrect but the wires are at the correct cylinder.

 

Check all ignition components. Cap and rotor and plugs are inexpensive. Make sure the plug wires are in the correct order. Change the PCV back to one open with one plugged. Try those things first, as they are cheap and easy.

 

Good points. I changed pcv back but no dice. I think cap and rotor are next. Would I be looking for a mid 70s Buick v6 hei for replacement parts?

 

1976 Buick Regal with the 231. The tell on the cap is the eight towers with only 6 having terminals.

 

And just to be sure I am using the correct firing order. This picture of the HEI correct? And I am using the cylinder numbering as shown in the second picture.

 

Drawing courtesy of Focker. Worked perfect on my HEI but maybe yours is different. Here's mine

 

Your distributor orientation looks about same as mine but we definitely have the plugs different.

 

I stole this text from Timgr from another thread. Seems to me your wires are rotated on your distributor.

This is an odd-fire engine and does not fire at 120-120-120-120-120-120. Instead it fires at 90-150-90-150-90-150. And, there is a specific location for #1 on the cap, so that you are in-phase with the angle change, If you are out of phase (ie 150-90-150 ...) it will not run right.

 

I changed my wires to reflect this picture and now it will not start. I feel like I may just need to shift them all one way or the other but currently I'm stumped. And to be clear I am calling cylinder one the closest to the grill on the driver side, two is closest to the grill on the passenger side.

 

Dang! Sorry to hear that. I'm not sure what's next. I'll wait for the pros to answer.

 

Moved the wires to the orientation I found in the attached picture and it runs beautifully. I am a little confused because I am pretty sure this is what I had last night. Is it possible the module under the cap could cause this rough misfire running or is that a go/no-go type module? Right now it runs perfect. Put a tach on it and its idling at around 950 which has always been the smoothest for my particular engine. Timing light is still pegged at 5 degrees of advance. All is well for now! Thanks for the help all. The picture attached came from a google search that brought me right back to our forum I believe. Here it is:

 

I'd guess you switched wires at the plugs. Then when you moved the wires around, you were tracing from the plugs back to the cap, and everything ended up connected properly.

 

I thought I followed them each time and I don't think the wires are any different than they were last night but this new pattern has me purring. One sure doesn't sleep well when the Jeeps not running right.