Hi folks,
I have a SIIA, 2.25 petrol that is a practically daily driver that has run beautifully for more than 15 years, with normal attention, maintenance, and problems of course. A few months back it started backfiring, according to wifey, on deceleration (didn't happen for me). It got progressively worse though -- rough and uneven running, difficult starting (but always did), sputtering acceleration, seemed to be low(er) power.
Time for some attention, obviously, so:
- new plugs (gapped at .030")
- new plug wires and coil wire
- new condensor, points (gapped at .015"; checked with dwell meter, approx 51-55 degrees), & rotor
- new dist cap
- new fuel filter
- new fuel lines near carb (literally saw a leak spring up when working on carb!)
- made a new LT lead line from distributor to coil
- checked to see it was pumping gas to the carb (though hard to say how much is enough)
- took (Rochester) carb apart (several times...) and found some buildup in screen (hoped that was the problem!), all else looked fine to me (minor adjustment to float level)
- new oil breather hose and some other worn out PCV lines
- dynamic engine timing (more on that below)
I haven't touched:
- coil
- fuel pump
- anything beyond top side of distributor
- other fuel lines
Setting the timing has been a painful trial and error (all error so far). My truck has a timing marker on the crankshaft pulley, but unlike the helpful pictures in the green bible and elsewhere it has only 2 prongs. I assume the leftmost one is 3 deg BTDC and the right one is TDC. I use 87 octane (always have) and have an 8:1 head. According to the gospel of others, my timing should be TDC or so.
After going on a scavenger hunt for the nearly invisible mark on the pulley, I used a timing light to adjust things. Set it up at TDC...no fun. 3 deg BTDC...no fun. About 3 deg ATDC (estimated)...no fun. By ear, ignoring the marks...no fun. In all cases it continues to run roughly -- more specifically, I can get it to run ok after very warm and on idle (at about 775 RPM), as well as when I drive about town AFTER it's fully warmed up. But if I try to start it cold it sputters, chugs, throws fits, and basically fights against me until fully warmed up. Then, it's basically ok (at TDC-ish setting). It never was so temperamental before, though. One thing I did notice is that with the timing light on it if I rev to about 2500 or so RPMs the timing mark wanders quite a lot (maybe 3 inches to the left as facing the engine; about 39 degrees according to the advance setting on the timing light, which I adjusted to get the mark back to the original one at idle speed -- I don't actually know if that makes sense, but it felt like an intuitively correct way to quantify the "wander"). I don't know if that is normal or if that indicates worn weights/springs? I'm out of my league on that one and am only throwing out a guess here...
So, if anyone has any ideas of what I try next, I'm all ears. I really appreciate any help or opinions anyone has to offer.
Thanks.