Welp, cam break in was successful....sort of. First step was to wire everything up, which you'd think would be easy. I mean, eight wires, right? Wrong! Despite being date coded correct and all that, they're about an inch short on every plug. But as one can see by the expression on my face, I didn't let that stop me!
Once that was done, everthing was primed and I was ready to fire! My film crew wasn't available so you'll have to take my word that it went well.... sort of. But here is why my posts are so awesome....I love talking about my downfalls as much as I do my successes! So what do I mean by "sort of'? After the 20 minutes or so running, I let it cool down and added more antifreeze, changed the oil and filter, and was ready to fire it back up. Cam break in done! Like I said, I was ready, but the mighty 340 wasn't.
I couldn't get it to start or stay idling without a lot of popping and misfiring. Hmmm.....but at 2600rpm or so, smooth as silk during break in.
So what's the deal? I screwed with the timing and got it running, but it wasn't right. So what's one to do now? Sell the car and buy a Hellcat? Quit the hobby and become a recluse? Shake my first in the air and say "Damn you, car!!".
I chose to do the latter, then pulled the plugs to figure out what the heck was going on. I found #7 and #6 not firing. So I then decided to check the plug wires. They checked ok on ohms. I thought with them shorter than required, maybe they pulled away from the contacts on either the cap or plug? That was true with #7, but not #6. I shoved them in tight and tried it again. Once I had it idling, the slightest move of the distributor to set timing was met with stumbling, popping, and a stall. So seems the freshly rebuilt dual point dizzy is to blame in conjunction with two of the plug wires.
Jam on down to the parts house and grab a single point distributor and a set of plug wires. First try, fires right up, idles great, no issues.
So diagnosis? Condensor bad or dual points not set correctly, after checking the continuity of #7 and #6 plug wires, determine both are weak. Chinese crap parts 1...... original Chrysler parts 0.
So Crusty is alive! She hasn't had a running engine since 1978!!
Brake bleeding and a new yoke for the driveshaft and I'll be cruising!
Cheers
Dave