QuestionHello again and thanks for the quick response! I suspected the guage was bad and I also have a threaded hose with a whistle on the end. I pulled the number one spark plug and installed this whistle. No Sound. I ran a liitle air from my compressor through it and it whistled. So the whistle worked. I then put my thimb over the hole and had somebody bump the starter and no compression. here is the kicker... i felt a blast of air come from below the head. this is what lead me to believe that the gaskets are bad. Especially when I have no compression from all cylinders. This weekend, i will pull the valve cover to make sure the rockers are moving. Also, I still have the original head that went on this motor. I will also try them on too.
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Question -
I tried starting it with the starter motor. The distributor rotor is turning. I have tested for spark and gas, and I am getting that also. I have primed the oil pump with a drill and I am getting a 50PSI pressure reading at the guage. When i cranked it, itsounded like it wanted to start, but did not. I forgot to mention in my previous post that I replaced the freeze plugs, too.------------------------
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Question -
Hello. I have a 66 Cadillac with a 429 motor. I recently came accross a 1965 429 motor that was sitting for 10 years and stuck. I took the motor apart and unstuck the pistons (The Number 1 was the only one stuck). The rings on all including the stuck one was fine. I replaced all the gaskets, cam, timing set and lifters with new ones. The front timing cover and water pump were replced with the one from the 66 along with the distributor. When the motor was all together, I took a compression test and was reading zero on all cylinders. someone told me this could be the heads or the head gaskets. The head gaskets I used are Fel-pro metal ones. They looked kind of thin. Any suggestions?
Answer -
This is much more than bad head gaskets! I suspect the camshaft isn't turning, or there is something else serious wrong mechanically. Pull the valve covers back off and watch the rockers - are the valves moving? How are you cranking it- with the starter motor? Are you sure the key is in the crank gear pulley? Does the distributor rotor turn?
Write back with some answers to the above and well see what else I can think of. But it ain't the head gaskets, I can assure you of that, unless the heads aren't tight to the block! Maybe the intake manifold is holding the heads up away from the block - different deck height?
Dick
Answer -
OK, well that narrows it down quite a bit. Since the oil pump and the distributor are turning, we know the front end of the camshaft is turning, so there is no problem inside the timing cover.
I guess, so we don't go down the wrong road here and do a lot of extra work, can you check your compression gauge and make sure it is working OK?
If the engine sounded like it wanted to start, I think you DO have compression, and I suspect your gauge is lying to you. If there were really zero compression, the engine would have sounded like a Honda motorcycle when you hit the starter - it would have spun so fast you might even had thought the starter wasn't engaging. Now I think your problem is the that the distributor is installed 180 degrees out of time.
The way to sort this out is to pull the #1 spark plug, stick your finger in the hole, and have a helper tap the starter a tiny bit by tiny bit, until you feel a bit of pressure building in the #1 cylinder - now you know you are on the compression stroke. Now, with a wrench on the crank bolt, or by pulling on the fan belts, slowly pull the engine clockwise (viewed from the front) until the timing mark is at TDC.
Now, remove the distributor cap and see what spark plug wire hole the rotor is pointed at. I'm betting it will be pointed at #6 instead of #1 - if so the distributor has to come out and be re-inserted so that the rotor is pointed at #1 plug wire when it is all the way seated. Now the engine will run.
That's my guess at the moment. If I'm wrong, and your compression gauge wasn't lying, then it's off with her head, as Henry the 8th used to say, and find out what is wrong. Start by pulling a valve cover to see if the rockers are rocking first.
Let me know what you find out, please.
Dick
AnswerOK, well you've convinced me! If you felt air coming from between the head and the block something is very wrong. It wouldn't be just a gasket - for some reason the head isn't bolting up tight to the block - maybe the parts are not right, or there is something in the way keeping the heads from sitting down where they belong. That is why I asked about the intake manifold - that can cause this type of problem.
Let me know what you find out, please.
Dick
