Motor break in HELP!!!!

[451Coronet]

Lots of smoke, coolant spraying, and burning smells!!!

Okay so fired up the 451 just now....I checked and rechecked coolant levels, oil pressure, connections, ground, fuel in carb etc

Lil info before hand:
400 w/ steel crank short block prepped by Kammer&Kammer
running 9.5:1 give or take a couple tenths compression
Eddy performer fuel pump
Eddy Performer RPM hyd cam
New Crane pushrods and lifters as well as adjustment rockers
Eddy 1406 electric choke (just for break in)
Aluminum rad
Flow kooler water pump
running 93 octane fuel
fresh dizzy (electronic)
Fresh batt
fresh starter
Fresh alt (duel field, w/ conversion harness from year one and flat pack regulator)

It fired right up w/ a lil starting fluid, took it to 2000-3000rpm (wasn't positive, tach wasn't working) but oil pressure was good and ran good with a slight shimmer, but overall fairly smooth. Sounded AWESOME!!!

About 8 min into running, it dies, no sputter, just dies.....smoke pours from reg and from what seems plugs and wires!!

Doesn't restart and the green wire coming off the 4 prong ballast resistor is ASHES!!!

So im obviously not getting spark now but when I crank it over.....im hearing a pretty audible knock!!!

What gives!!!!

Any help advice criticisms you bunch can offer would be greatly appreciated.

I just wanna know what happened before I try this again.....if I even can, that knock has me worried!!!

 

[Hemi Rebel]

What kind of car is this? Why a 4 prong ballast? Smoke comes from what? Voltage regulator?

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If it wasnt knocking before the ignition failure I wouldnt stress over that right now. Its probably just the way the starter sounds.

 

[451Coronet]

69 Dodge Coronet.

Don't remember why I did the elec ign swap using the 4 prong ballast...was quite a few years ago. Did it with some help from a couple mopar guys back when.

But correction, smoke didn't come from reg...just some of harness underneath. That green? (May have been blue), wire that went up in ashes took a few others with it.

Just thinking out loud.....I had a generic tach hooked up, green wire to negative side of coil, red to pos batt post, and black to negative batt post.
...thinking this created short between coil and batt (plus juice coming in from alternator to maintain batt.
Thinking that's what caused the wires off to go supernova and possibly baked my coil. But im just spitballin'

First time breaking in new engine that I have a lot of time and money in, so nervous and worried about every lil tick.

Starter noise makes sense.....tho i don't think it was there before....maybe just not as audible??

Ideas, thoughts, questions??

 

[bm02tj]

Sounds to be a short or overload the burned the fuse able link also the compression is higher now that it has been run in for a short time
locate short the start again

 

[67 coronet]

you are gonna have to do an eng comp rewire if the wires that burnt up were in looms.start there and find the short that caused the burn up.wires prob melted as eng got hot and shorted out.you should be able to find the spot.start again with good wiring and then see if any other damage.

 

[747mopar]

Smoke coming from the plugs could be from the exhaust bolt holes if you didn't seal them (they go into the water jacket). It's pretty common to have allot of smoke on a new engine, header paint, engine paint, oily figure prints on the exhaust etc but the knock would bother me. Get those wires cleaned up and I think if your certain it was knocking I'd drop the pan rather than take the chance. Good luck, I broke in my 541 (456") not to long ago (you'll like that motor).

 

[451Coronet]

'Preciate all the info fellas....working now but will dig into it tomorrow.

Totally forgot sealer on header bolts.

Aaand really hoping that knock is nothing major. Will try and drop the pan this weekend well.

 

[coloradodave]

Another thought. It's possible that the timing is advanced too far. Cranked OK when cold, but after heating up, was trying to 'kick back' when attempting to start. After you find your short and the motor is cold you'll find out. Hope it's nothing serious.

 

[451Coronet]

I think (hope) the 'knock' I was hearing was indeed the starter. Found a couple teeth missing off ring gear on converter.

I also think I found the short and got electrical problems sorted out.

Started it up again and there's def some internal racket and was running really rough. Ping or detonation maybe....1406 might be too lean for it and timing may indeed be off as mentioned by coloradodave.

Cam and lifters are prolly trash....never got to do a proper break in.

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I did pull valve covers and check fluids again. Everything seems ok and the short time I got it running again, oil press was about 45psi.

 

[Hemi Rebel]

What oil are you using for break in. 45psi seems a tad low.it shouldn't have wiped the cam that quick. You think you found the short?

 

[WP29440SE]

you really should get it back on top dead center , advance it a couple degrees, then fire it again. I really doubt the carb is too lean, just because that is my choice of carbs to break all my engines in with. they work really well for that. if you have a noticeable knock , then I wouldn't go any further until you sort that out of which could account for the low(er) oil pressure. missing teeth could have been the starter not disengaging, and account for racket you heard. I would expect to see somewhere around 75-85 for oil pressure when cold. I also agree that it didn't run long enough to wipe out the cam

 

[747mopar]

As long as you used a break in additive or an oil for flat tappet cams your probably alright. I had problems with my lifters not pumping up and went threw 2 sets trying to get it broke in, I got fed up and put solid lift cam in it and even with all of the short runs that cam looked perfect when I pulled it. I used the Lucas break in additive.

 

[451Mopar]

If you burnt the wiring harness / fuseable link, makes sure the alternator field brush connections are not shorting to the alternator case.

 

[Lowhound]

Do you have the complete exhaust hooked up? I once started an engine for the 1st time with headers uncapped & me & my friend both heard a knocking sound. It turned out to be just the sound of the noise as it left the header under the car echoing off of something. Hooked up exhaust & it went away. But it definitely sounded like a small knocking sound low in the engine.

 

[eric383]

Did you go over the the plug wires and make sure none are burned or grounded out or loose boots? Have you checked the condition of the plugs? That would account for a rough idle or possible ignition system problem. Good luck.

 

[451Coronet]

Short im pretty certain was caused be the Rachel, the whole engine harness isn't melted, just the blue wire coming off ballast, which I traced to pos terminal on coil. What I thought was damage to other wires was just residue from wire insulation. I pulled the tach off, replaces melted wire, no problems thus far, and no wiring getting hot.

Using Shell Rotella 15w-40 w/ Lucas break in additive. Also have full exhaust hooked up. New Autolite pn# 85 plugs gapped to .035 and MSD wires. New cap rotor coil and dizzy all auto zone parts.

I turned engine over to TDC, mark on balancer lined up, marked. #1 on cap where rotor was pointing and wired CCW. Tried advancing time...it dies. Runs really rough where its at. Why I was leaning toward Carb issue.

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Also fusible link is intact

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Also the 45-50 psi is what the gage read last tine I had it running and that was right off idle....giving it more throttle or advancing timing just killed it

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'Rachel' is supposed to be tach.....doing this from my phone :/

 

[WP29440SE]

do you have another known good carb you can try? make positive your firing order is correct. it still sounds like a timing issue if it is dying when you try to advance it. no vacuum leaks? just thinking out loud here

 

[67 coronet]

if your msd wires are the bend to any angle at the plug kind,they can come loose if not fully clicked into place.i just went through that breaking in my latest motor.make sure they click into place on the plugs.two of mine actually came off the plugs after 15 min of break in.

 

[451Coronet]

Got it!!!!

Had a couple old Holleys sitting in the garage, rebuilt the 3310 threw it on and after some finagling and retarding the timing a bit fired right up!!!
Set the idle screw and let it break in. Oil pressure was at 50, 40 after it got hot.

Gonna tinker w/ timing and Carb again tomorrow, wanted to do it now but im pretty sure the neighbors didn't appreciate my big block powered alarm clock at 11pm haha

I do have a small oil leak from what looks like the rear of the pan, other than that, it went great......aaaand maaaannn does it sound good!! Didnt think I was gonna like the Performer RPM, but I do!!!

Appreciate all the help and advice everyone!!!

'Knock' is also gone.