TetanusShot
Well-Known Member
Find some humor in my misfortune
Backstory: Decided a year and a half ago to build a hemi for the Road Runner and it was a huge pain in the a$$. The end.
Ok, so Tuesday evening it was finally time to fire this thing up! The tank still had 87 in it so that needed to come out. After an hour of various failed siphoning methods, culminating in a mouthful of stale gas, I gave the car a shake only to find the stupid tank was nearly empty already. After putting fresh 93 in and filling the bowls we were ready to roll! But it was not to be… the big motor cranked, fired a couple times, then blew a huge fireball out one of the exhaust manifolds. Something wasn’t right. I glumly stashed it back in the shed and festered on it for a few days.
Friday work let out early and I decided to attack the car. With the distributor cap off, the timing was re-guesstimated @ 5 degrees initial, more 93 went in the tank to further dilute any remaining 87, and plug wire firing order was rechecked. With a flick of the ignition the hemi cranked over and let out a huge backfire out the rear carb that blasted the rubber vacuum caps clean off. Subsequent attempts while twisting the distributor this way and that, yielded the same results.
Puzzled yet determined, I methodically pulled the valve covers, verified tdc again, checked the distributor again, plug wires again, checked lash, fuel feed, and anything I could think of. The best result after hours of troubleshooting was a slow, weak idle that sounded like a Harley and it wouldn’t run the rpm’s up for proper break-in. From 4pm to 9pm I battled that big orange son-of-a-b!tch and got nowhere. Dejected, I none too gently shoved the car back into the shed and retreated to air-conditioning and libations for the evening.
Saturday morning I moved the car up to the garage while debating new, simpler hobbies besides cars. Maybe coloring books or whistling could be my thing. For the umpteenth time, all the systems were checked, and the initial timing reset. The problem just had to be ignition related, but what was it?? The old single point distributor, coil, and such had been rock solid reliable with the old 7.5:1 440 but I was having my doubts at this point. An ignition upgrade was in the future plans but, it should still work for simple break-in right? Maybe the spark is too weak, vacuum advance stuck, coil shot, bad ground, loose connection, just what the hell did I do to this lump that it won’t fire up?
My brother was looking things over, counting out the firing order on the cap like I had done so many times before. Then he says to me “Well, straight off it looks like these to wires are in the wrong spot.” And instantly I knew… Every. Stinkin. Time I counted out the firing order on the distributor, I counted clockwise. I did this knowing full well the rotor went counter. I did it wrong on the stand, I did it wrong in the car, checked Tuesday, checked Friday, and Saturday. Cripes! No wonder it sounded like a Harley, it was only running on #1 and #6!
Embarrassed and pride totally deflated we corrected the wires, and turned the key. The hemi roared to life in the afternoon sun like a caged animal, with the exhaust thundering off the walls like the drum solo in ‘hot for teacher’. Instantly, all the frustrations of 16 months of parts chasing, saving, spending, building, saving, spending, and troubleshooting melted away. And for the first time in a long while, I looked at that damned engine and smiled.
Backstory: Decided a year and a half ago to build a hemi for the Road Runner and it was a huge pain in the a$$. The end.
Ok, so Tuesday evening it was finally time to fire this thing up! The tank still had 87 in it so that needed to come out. After an hour of various failed siphoning methods, culminating in a mouthful of stale gas, I gave the car a shake only to find the stupid tank was nearly empty already. After putting fresh 93 in and filling the bowls we were ready to roll! But it was not to be… the big motor cranked, fired a couple times, then blew a huge fireball out one of the exhaust manifolds. Something wasn’t right. I glumly stashed it back in the shed and festered on it for a few days.
Friday work let out early and I decided to attack the car. With the distributor cap off, the timing was re-guesstimated @ 5 degrees initial, more 93 went in the tank to further dilute any remaining 87, and plug wire firing order was rechecked. With a flick of the ignition the hemi cranked over and let out a huge backfire out the rear carb that blasted the rubber vacuum caps clean off. Subsequent attempts while twisting the distributor this way and that, yielded the same results.
Puzzled yet determined, I methodically pulled the valve covers, verified tdc again, checked the distributor again, plug wires again, checked lash, fuel feed, and anything I could think of. The best result after hours of troubleshooting was a slow, weak idle that sounded like a Harley and it wouldn’t run the rpm’s up for proper break-in. From 4pm to 9pm I battled that big orange son-of-a-b!tch and got nowhere. Dejected, I none too gently shoved the car back into the shed and retreated to air-conditioning and libations for the evening.
Saturday morning I moved the car up to the garage while debating new, simpler hobbies besides cars. Maybe coloring books or whistling could be my thing. For the umpteenth time, all the systems were checked, and the initial timing reset. The problem just had to be ignition related, but what was it?? The old single point distributor, coil, and such had been rock solid reliable with the old 7.5:1 440 but I was having my doubts at this point. An ignition upgrade was in the future plans but, it should still work for simple break-in right? Maybe the spark is too weak, vacuum advance stuck, coil shot, bad ground, loose connection, just what the hell did I do to this lump that it won’t fire up?
My brother was looking things over, counting out the firing order on the cap like I had done so many times before. Then he says to me “Well, straight off it looks like these to wires are in the wrong spot.” And instantly I knew… Every. Stinkin. Time I counted out the firing order on the distributor, I counted clockwise. I did this knowing full well the rotor went counter. I did it wrong on the stand, I did it wrong in the car, checked Tuesday, checked Friday, and Saturday. Cripes! No wonder it sounded like a Harley, it was only running on #1 and #6!
Embarrassed and pride totally deflated we corrected the wires, and turned the key. The hemi roared to life in the afternoon sun like a caged animal, with the exhaust thundering off the walls like the drum solo in ‘hot for teacher’. Instantly, all the frustrations of 16 months of parts chasing, saving, spending, building, saving, spending, and troubleshooting melted away. And for the first time in a long while, I looked at that damned engine and smiled.
