FE Not wanting to start

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

Cannot get this 66 to Start, Wants to but just not

Points have juice on each lobe at the points, re-gapped points several times
Pulled spark Plugs and spark is coming through the plugs
Have Gas
Change the coil that was running the day before on another 66 that was not suppose to run But Ran Great
Double and triple checked the Firing Order
Checked to be sure when Top Dead Center Rotor was on # 1 and facing 7/8 and balancer right on the mark
Even run a Direct Hot wire to the coil with same results as through ignition switch

maybe possible bent push rods or bent valves

has to be simple or Am I missing something simple

[HotRodMatt]

are you getting fuel to the carb? dump some gas down the carb and see if it will run or starter fluid

[slick4x4]

Timing chain jumped ?

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

DID Pour little gas down Carb, no success, Pat I did notice fresh heads since the front of the head is bare metal and rest painted so that might suggest somebody might not have put something right on the top end or maybe even the head gaskets not on right,, gets me the truck was suppose to run with automatic but the other that's was not suppose to runs great
will run a compression check to see what's cooking if anything cooking

[unibody madness]

Tom not sure if 66 is wired the same as the 61 but mine had a similar problem. There is a direct voltage wire that runs to the coil in the START position, because of the drop in voltage on the pink resistor wire when the starter kicks in. They both need to be hot when starting or the coil will not have enough to kick it off

[slick4x4]

I have ran into a situation 2 times that were quite baffling ....
I call it saturated spark plugs ...
Caused by a constant raw fuel mixture without spark to plugs....
I worked for several days trying to figure out the problem
EVERYTHING was perfect... Carb... Ignition... Still wouldn't hit at all...
Put in new plugs ... BAM ! ... Ran perfect
.....
A second way is to run a full 12volts to the coil for a "hot" spark
But that didn't even do it on the first one... HAD to change plugs

[bruceandersson]

With the fresh heads, could the distributor be off cycle? it could be set with tdc at the exhaust stroke rather than compression.

[LM14]

Buy them from the same guy? Maybe he mixed up which one ran and which one didn't.

SPark

[Toyz]

C F A S T ! As Pat stated, fuel saturated plugs may fire under ambient conditions, but not under compression. "Rock" the engine forward and back with the crank pulley. Throw a timing light at it; if correct and little looseness, I wouldn't be concerned about timing chain. Compression is an easy check, but would need to be extremely low on all cylinders to not even "hit". Ultra low compression on an FE is usually obvious to the ear. Sounds fuel related to me; and likely just what Pat stated. As John mentioned, sometimes maximum coil voltage is required. I sometimes use a jumper box or additional battery tied only to coil and ground to avoid voltage drop. Just remember if doing so, it will only shut off when hot wire is removed, so be ready in case throttle sticks.
Good luck, and keep us informed!
Paul

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

OK Found out it has C8 heads on it so they have been Changed and Guess what pulled so far Pass side Valve Cover and 4 Bent push Rods and I mean you can see they where bent without even pulling the rocker assembly,

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

OK Another update, drivers side has 4 bent rods as well, and when I replaced pass side it bent # 1 push rods twice, then on drivers side replaced the 4 and just spinning by hand bent the 4 again so Now what,, either this PO floated the lifters and lifters are stuck or cam broke,, Bent Valves ???? maybe

[chris401]

OK Another update, drivers side has 4 bent rods as well, and when I replaced pass side it bent # 1 push rods twice, then on drivers side replaced the 4 and just spinning by hand bent the 4 again so Now what,, either this PO floated the lifters and lifters are stuck or cam broke,, Bent Valves ???? maybe

Jumped timing chain. Probably bent the exhaust push rods and valves. If you can rock the crank back and forth 10° or more till you feel the cam resist that is what happened.

[LM14]

As many old engines as I have messed with, I have never seen a timing chain jump a tooth on a metal gear. I have seen them so stretched you had to move the distributor to get them to start and move it again to get it to run right but never a slipped timing chain.

Even being a tooth off shouldn't cause valve interference. My guess is when they had the heads off they
1. changed the timing chain and messed up the cam phasing or
2. they put a higher lift cam and didn't check clearances or
3. The lifters/valves are stuck from sitting for years.

If you pull the valve covers, can you manually compress each valve? Should be able to move each one off the seat fairly easily with stock type springs.

If the valves all move down, then I would suspect a cam installed wrong or a bunch of frozen lifters.

SPark

[64 f100]

At this point, I'm going to say it needs to be partially dismantled to find problem. May be a broken cam or as stated possibly a cam change without checking valve clearance.

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

Rich does look like a possible teardown,, I have checked several times on the dist. and keeps coming up on # 1 on the Cap with facing 7 and 8 on rotor button and on the mark on the balancer as well,, Plenty of oil I can see going through the rockers, going down through the galleys under the intake oil and under the intake very clean and heads/valves very clean like hardly any miles or run time on the engine,, Only way I can see is to do almost a engine tear down with pulling heads to be sure no bent valves, pull the cam to see what's going on there ..

Now one other is I wonder if some idiot put solid lifters in with running a Hyd. Rocker set up

Now I have run several 1/8ths and 1/4's with Fe's and pushed then to beyond the limit with some of them running bent push rods and still able to drive the truck home from the track, and 2 years ago brought one in that ran xxxxy with bent push rods But still ran terrible but with this one cannot get it started

[LM14]

Remember the rotor points at that post twice. Once at TDC compression and once at TDC exhaust. Make sure you are on compression.

SPark

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

Have been opened to ideas , went to a local older garage and here is what I was told to try,,, Pull all Rockers assemblies off, then take a small hammer and hit each valve and see what happens,, He said he has seen on fresh heads < I do not know how long been on truck with it maybe engine not running > that valves can stick after assembly even if the machine shop DID NOT put oil around the valve seats and this can cause to bend push rods ,, does this sound even remote I know in many years I never heard of this but being a older local garage I guess it's possible well we will try in a few weeks when getting caught up

[bruceandersson]

I think the hammer approach sounds like one way to tell if the valves are stuck or not. Might even free up a stuck valve. Are all the bent valves the intakes? If so I suspect the timing chain is off and the pushrods were bent by impacting the pistons. If it varies, I'd be more inclined to think the valves were stuck. The exhaust valves should clear as they are open at TDC of the exhaust stroke.

[chris401]

Cannot get this 66 to Start, Wants to but just not

Points have juice on each lobe at the points, re-gapped points several times
Pulled spark Plugs and spark is coming through the plugs
Have Gas
Change the coil that was running the day before on another 66 that was not suppose to run But Ran Great
Double and triple checked the Firing Order
Checked to be sure when Top Dead Center Rotor was on # 1 and facing 7/8 and balancer right on the mark
Even run a Direct Hot wire to the coil with same results as through ignition switch

maybe possible bent push rods or bent valves

has to be simple or Am I missing something simple

Figure it out?

[oldsmiley]

Someone may have used the wrong length push rods. But, it wouldn't hurt to say a prayer.