QuestionPutting a '68 camaro back together from basket case. I have a '78 corvette engine I got at a swap meet that is supposed to be running. I want to test fire the engine. There is no wiring harness in the car now. I know I need fuel, battery hooked up to starter, ground connected. It has an after market HEI distributor with the coil built into it. Do I just need to hook that up directly to the battery for spark? or should it run through the voltage reg? I also understand I will need some sort of switch to control power to the dist. and to the battery as the car does not even have a ignition switch. Am I missing anything?
AnswerThen engine will run with just the 12 volts connected to the distributor 12 volt wire. The only reason to add a switch would be so you can turn it off, but you can always just disconnect the 12 volts from the distributor, that will stop the engine immediately.
To make the starter crank, you need one more wire which is connected to the "S" terminal of the starter (one of the two small terminals) and brought up near the battery. When you want the engine to crank, just touch the end of this wire to the + terminal on the battery, that will make the engine crank - pull it away from the battery as soon as it starts - you don't want the starter to continue cranking once the engine starts.
My first caution is that the engine has to be securely held, either by chains or by bolting it into the chassis, because it will really jump it if is just hanging from a cherry picker on a chain or cable hoist.
Don't run it more than 1 minute at most with no coolant in the engine.
You will be shocked at the noise it makes if there is no exhaust system connected to it, you won't learn anything by doing this because you can't really hear what is happening inside the engine.
The other thing I want to say is that if this engine has not been run in the last 5 years or so, you will do a lot of damage if you even crank it over without dropping the oil pan and cleaning it out. The oil on the dipstick will look like new, but at the bottom of the pan there will be a layer of grit and dirt, which will be picked up by the oil pump and circulated all through the engine - ruining the bearings and lifters very quickly - even if it seems to run great. DON't DO IT without cleaning it out first. Just draining the changing the oil won't do it - it has to be opened up and cleaned out.
Once you have cleaned it out, remove the spark plugs, and with fresh oil in the crankcase and a new oil filter, run the engine on the starter without applying ignition or fuel for at least a minute or so - this will circulate fresh oil throughout the engine, and lube the bearings and lifters before they have to deal with compression forces or high RPM.
Now, and only after doing the above, you can start the engine to see how it runs. If you skip these step, you run a high risk of ruining a good engine.
Good luck with it!
Dick,
