440 still wont idle for more than a minute

[green69rt]

Excellent.  sometimes the problem is obvious (once you find it!!)

[six-tee-nine]

I found it!!!

Loose ground wire on passenger cyl head. It was tight on the firewall and it was loose where it bolted to the head. i torqued the bolt down and there is no shortage of power. I hooked up the msd again and fuel pump and car fired right up..

I am going to see now if I can get it to idle and all. I def think this was the issue. And I would say the sudden drop in power i saw the other night was the ground wire coming loose.

When you said no starting and batt ok then the next thing that popped my mind was "bad ground"
That may very well be your problem that causes the engine to stall

[charge69]

Almost all electrical problems with a car can be traced to a bad ground!  Glad you found it and good luck getting the idle set!

[nvrbdn]

great news.

[cudaken]

Doug  So where is the video? 

Ken, happy for you!

[69dodge383]

Ok guys. So here is a video of the car running. Has plenty of power. I still need to set the idle but I noticed my car had some smoke coming from the exhaust. I think it is sticking rings, the motor is pretty much a fresh rebuild, i have ran it a couple times...

Take a look and let me know.

PS, dont worry about the wiring, i am going to get it cleaned up this afternoon.


YOUTUBE LINK -------->    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIqEJoiazi0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[1974dodgecharger]

Rich?

Carb tune, nozzles, etc?

[green69rt]

I wouldn't worry about the water after a short run.  Until the exhaust gets heated up you'll get water in at the tailpipe.   The smoke looks blue to me which indicates oil.    If the engine is a fresh rebuild, I'd worry that it was a bad job, either rings or valve seals.   Both sides smoke??  Does it have a H or X pipe?

[Dino]

The rising smoke could be a contaminant that is burning on the hot headers such as a protective coating but if it is then there's a lot of that stuff on there that should've been burnt off by now.  You may have a small leak around the head or valve cover that drips onto the exhaust.  A leaky exhaust can cause this as well.  Definitely looks like you're burning oil there or the smoke wouldn't be blue.  The water is absolutely fine.  Any combustion reaction produces water and CO2 so don't worry about that part.

[69dodge383]

I ran the car a little while ago and it didnt seem to smoke as bad or at all. I will get it out tomorrow and do more testing. I built the motor myself and put in total seal gapless rings, and yes i staggered the rings. It may be valve seals but when I bought the motor from the guy he didnt mention the heads needed redone. Just talked about the short block mainly. I think if it was an issue, guy would have mentioned it. Maybe not...

Rich? yes, maybe. I looked at the float level in the Demon850 and it seems to be at the line above the mid level line so it may be rich at idle.

Time running the motor? Maybe an hour at the most so far, it has been hit or miss with the electrical and so forth so I havent ran long like a minute at a time or whenever it would die out, thats why i was wondering if the rings need more run time to seat. I think I need to get this baby out and run it some to see if the seals are an issue..

Both sides seem to smoke the same, no X or H pipe. Straight 3" duals..

[69dodge383]

I just went out and started the car. It gave out one small puff of smoke and then did not smoke at all. Did one rev up and checked again, no smoke. I adjusted down the float level a little bit earlier so that may have helped.

On another note, my valve train sounds noisy. It is a solid cam and roller rockers. I pulled the driver valve cover a week ago and didnt see anything loose or anything like that. How normal is the noise?

[firefighter3931]

I just went out and started the car. It gave out one small puff of smoke and then did not smoke at all. Did one rev up and checked again, no smoke. I adjusted down the float level a little bit earlier so that may have helped.

On another note, my valve train sounds noisy. It is a solid cam and roller rockers. I pulled the driver valve cover a week ago and didnt see anything loose or anything like that. How normal is the noise?

Gald to hear it's up and running 

A light puff of smoke could just be a small amount of oil making it's way past the valve seals after the engine shuts down. The oil will go into the chamber and when you re-start later it just burns off.

I would adjust the idle mixture using a vacuum guage and adjust for max vacuum....one corner at a time.  You should keep the idle at 900 in gear to keep the oil pressure up with an agressive flat tappet cam. Hopefully you're using a zinc additive in your oil becuae you can wipe the cam & lifters without the proper additive package. 

Solid cam's will produce valvetrain noise. The hughes should be a tight-lash solid but you have to account for head growth when using an aluminum head. I set the lash .004 tighter cold with aluminum heads. Check your lash when warm to see if it's where it's supposed to be. I've also found fully synthetic oils to be noisier as compared to conventional dino oils. Brad Penn 20/50 is an excellent lube and it contains the necessary additive package for flat tappet cams.

Did you install the matched valvesprings with that cam ?



Ron

[69dodge383]

I just went out and started the car. It gave out one small puff of smoke and then did not smoke at all. Did one rev up and checked again, no smoke. I adjusted down the float level a little bit earlier so that may have helped.

On another note, my valve train sounds noisy. It is a solid cam and roller rockers. I pulled the driver valve cover a week ago and didnt see anything loose or anything like that. How normal is the noise?

Gald to hear it's up and running  

A light puff of smoke could just be a small amount of oil making it's way past the valve seals after the engine shuts down. The oil will go into the chamber and when you re-start later it just burns off.

I would adjust the idle mixture using a vacuum guage and adjust for max vacuum....one corner at a time.   You should keep the idle at 900 in gear to keep the oil pressure up with an agressive flat tappet cam. Hopefully you're using a zinc additive in your oil becuae you can wipe the cam & lifters without the proper additive package.  

Solid cam's will produce valvetrain noise. The hughes should be a tight-lash solid but you have to account for head growth when using an aluminum head. I set the lash .004 tighter cold with aluminum heads. Check your lash when warm to see if it's where it's supposed to be. I've also found fully synthetic oils to be noisier as compared to conventional dino oils. Brad Penn 20/50 is an excellent lube and it contains the necessary additive package for flat tappet cams.

Did you install the matched valvesprings with that cam ?



Ron

I am going to give it a start in the morning and watch the exhaust, if there is blue smoke again, probably seals, yes?

I noticed that the Demon, being that same way I got it from the guy, has the primaries/front idle mix screws a little further out than the rears....

My digital oil pressure gauge is showing 90psi at idle, seems steady even when revving motor. I did use the most expensive competition bearings that clevite offered for this engine. Running castrol gtx 10w40 with Lucas oil break in fluid with the zinc.

The springs are the ones that were on the heads. I am sure they were matched to the cam but dont know for sure. The guy I bought the motor from seemed to have his stuff together. Bracket racer for some time, he owns this company http://www.efisource.com/
If you look on the left side of the page you can see the cuda that the 440 was in before I got it. He took this out for a 528 hemi he built.

[firefighter3931]

Yep, a small puff of smoke is just a bit of oil making it past the valve seals after shutdown....nothing major. At some point you can address it if it becomes worse.

So, this cam is the one that came with the engine correct. If so, it's safe to assume that it has the correct valvesprings for the application. 

Oil pressure is good but once it warms up you should see it drop at idle I would think. Castrol is descent oil and as long as you have a zinc/phosphorus additive package it will protect the cam & lifters.

Your fuel pressure should not exceed 8psi so make sure that it's where it needs to be. Middle of the site glass if fine for float level. As for the idle mixture ; as previously stated...just use your vacuum guage and adjust each screw for max vacuum, one at a time. You might have to go around the carb a couple of times to get it dialed in.

When you set the lash...what did you set it at ? Did you get a cam card or paperwork with the engine ?




Ron

[green69rt]

All in all it sounds like you are going thru a break in cycle.   So the smoke may go away and you can have confidence the motor is sound.   Change the oil and look at it.  No filings, no funny swirling (water.)    Just give it a while and see how things turn out?   Either things will turn out ok or you'll need some work. Too early to tell.

[69dodge383]

Hey guys, been running the car over the last few days. Still havent got it on the road yet, driver front drum brake doesnt brake when you put your foot on the brake to stop. All the parts in it are new and it brakes worked perfect sometime back when the 383 was in the car and on the street...i took the drum off the other day and all the interior parts look like they did the day my dad installed them. so i dont get why it isnt working..the only thing i can think of was at few months back i backed over a wheel chock that was behind the driver front... i dont know how i did it , but i did it...

Also, today i let my car run for a few minutes and when i got shut the car off i noticed that there was some trans fluid underneath the converter and i pulled dipstick and am overfilled some. If I just drain this extra out will I be ok? and just check again when at operating temp and in neutral.... I am just hoping this isnt a seal issue?? I never had a seal go bad or anything before. The trans in this car has new front and rear seals and never leaked like this until today. Small spot 4" diameter about.  

Car still smokes when accelerator is pushed and only when accelerator pushed, swapped back to edelbrock carb and got same result. car idles like a champ at 1000   . I still have the new NGK plugs to swap in, i dont know if that would help the smoking...

Tomorrow, I am going to change out the 10w40 castrol w/ zinc additive and swap in 20w50 lucas break in oil    ...and drain the excess trans fluid and hope for the best

Thanks for the insight guys!!!