[prexford]

I went to a local cruise night and my Formula 400 drove great to the show. When I drove home it sounded like a Volkswagen and no torque power. I first thought someone had stuffed a rag in my exhaust pipe because it had this weird "muffled" sound. On the drive home, I could not drive over 55 MPH and had to rev the motor up as high as possible to keep from stalling when switching gears, however not too much because it would loose power. The oil pressure read normal and the voltage gauge read normal, however the temperature never went above 125 degrees (this is not normal, especially for hot FL weather). The car would idle fine, but still sounds like a VW. Where do I look? I pulled 3 plugs this morning and see they are wet. I pulled the spark plug wires from the distributor cap and see spark, I have not checked spark at the plugs yet. I pulled the distributor cap to check if the springs were attached and checked all plug wire connections. I did walk away from my car for about an hour last night; could someone have put water or beer in my tank? Is this a symptom of the coil going bad or my Pertronix II igniter in my distributor cap?

[67cruiser]

Personally i don,t think beer in the tank would make for wet plugs, we need more info like what carb. you running?? Picked up some dirt someplace in the fuel system maybe?? I hat the petronic systems and don,t undertsand why so guys are using them when we have perfect HEI EVERY PLACE BEGGING TO BE USED.Could your timing have have jumped??

[getmygoat]

Was the hood open while you left it?

Check your firing order, make sure no one switched a couple plug wires on you.

How full was your tank? If you didn't have a full tank, might be worth just draining it and putting new gas in it..

p.s. - I don't take my car to car shows for this exact reason - too many immature a-holes with distructive personalities.

[gtome]

I am picking up a couple good used distributors tomorrow, I could bring one over if you arent too far from Port Orange?

[prexford]

I changed out my spark plug wires and still have same problem. I ran the car for about 2 minutes and did a compression check; #3 @ 149psi, #1, 2, 5 @148psi, #7@145psi, #8@140psi, #6@131psi and @4@127psi....80% of 149 is 119psi so I'm ok? I do have moly rings and only ran for 2 minutes prior to test. i'm warming up the motor now to do another compression test and follow up with a leak down. just to make sure the rings are seating on a warm motor.

I feel as though I'm looking in the wrong area, seems more like a spark issue. ???

I'm not blowing any smoke out of the tailpipes, however the fumes will water your eyes (n ot b urning gas).My timinig is still where I left it 12BTD.

[gene simmons]

Have you checked for loose rocker arms or bent pushrod?

[Murf'sDad]

Sounds to me like your float sank.

Stewart

[prexford]

i warmed the engine up and did a compression check and found the same readings, even on #4 and #6 that were the two lowest. I then did a leak down test and found that #4 and #6 have a 70% and 60% leak (too much I assume?). All the others passed, they rated around 30%. So what does this mean...I forgot to open the carb throttle, pcv line and radiator cap to listen to the aire passing. I did have the dip stick out and heard a noise there. but I also heard a noise there from the other cylinders that passed.

I rebuilt this motor with a buddy 5K miles ago, surely the moly rings could not have broken? I'm hoping the worst case senerio is that I only have to remove the heads for a valve job. How can I verify this is the only problem?

[chiphead]

What do your plugs look like? I suspect a simple fuel system problem.

Worst case would be valvetrain problems or a blown head gasket between 4 and 6.

Likely a accidental mechanical issue, not sabotage.

[mels80ga]

I agree with murfs dad, it sounds like you have a hole in one of your floats.

[prexford]

The plugs looked like a medium/dark oil color. i think i smellled some fuel. i'm not blowing any smoke out of the tail pipes, but the fumes are bad. How can I tell if the float is bad? I have the black, foam style float.

[bnorris_74]

I see you changed the plug wires. You will probably need to change the plugs too. Sometimes when the foul they won't come back.

[Murf'sDad]

Originally Posted by prexford

The plugs looked like a medium/dark oil color. i think i smellled some fuel. i'm not blowing any smoke out of the tail pipes, but the fumes are bad. How can I tell if the float is bad? I have the black, foam style float.

They can develop porosity and absorb fuel. Open up your carb and see where your floating setting is at. If the bowl is full and the float isn't floating, there's your problem.

BTW, what are you running for a carb/intake combo?

Stewart

[guccieng]

verified timing yet?

[prexford]

OK, I'll check the float. i have a factory intake and carb and timing is unchanged from 12BTD. What do the results from the leakdown and compresstion test mean?

[6D6GOAT]

im with gene....have you checked you rockers?

PS. buy a locking gas cap then you will never have to worry about that or anyone stealing your gas.

[prexford]

i have not checked the rockers. They are not making any noises.

[goatman65]

I agree with the bad float.Is the choke plate open while its running?

["QUICK-SILVER"]

prexford said "The car would idle fine, but still sounds like a VW."
If the float sunk it would be flooding and dieing.

Cylinders 4 & 6 does sound spooky but lets hope not: need to pull plug wires one at a time with engine running and see if those cylinders are skipping/missing. If the headgasket blew between those cylinders, compression blowing through will ignite the other cylinder and make some strange engine noises. If it is, the sound will change with the wire off. 4 blowing into 6 will ignite it way to early and cause a power loss because it fights against the other cylinders/engine rotation.

Choke flap not opening would foul plugs and kill power. Also something in the filter snout.

If the factory exhaust crossover valve is shut that'll make it sound funny and kill power. Same as having something stuffed up one of the exhaust pipes. Need to feel the exhaust coming out of them and compare pressure. Maybe stick a wire up the pipes and see if somethings in one/both.

Locked up clutch fan will kill power and roar loud and might explain it running cold.

Anyhow, alot needs checked out. It may have to have new plugs if they're fouled.
Losen plug wires at the cap and then pull them one at a time with the engine running. (If you're careful it wont shock you doing it at the cap) You can feel for skips/misses and sometimes letting the spark arc to the wire will make a fouled plug hit.

If 4 cylinders are missing, end and middle on opposite sides, half the carburetor may be stopped up.

Fouled plugs might have let oil get washed off the rings causing some of the compression issues.

There's just a bunch of things that need looked at before you can even guess at what's actually wrong.

Got my fingers crossed on something simple
Keep us updated

[prexford]

IT WAS THE FLOAT!!! You guys are awesome...how do you know all these things?? I could not wait to get off work today to install the rebuild kit (BTW...only put in the float from the kit). I was thinking spark was the problem (not igniting the fuel) and never occured to think I was getting too much fuel to ignite. Everything is back to normal...Thank you once again!! I guess I'll enjoy the ride for a little while and then do another leak down and compression test on #4 and #6.