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Lost #3 cylinder today
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rustyfastback
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:18 pm    Post subject: Lost #3 cylinder today Reply with quote

My '68 fuel injected squareback has been skipping a little here & there up till today. I noticed a big loss of power coming home from work today Sad I got home & noticed my car was only running on 3 cylinders. I pulled the plug wire off the #3 cylinder & no change. I tested the injector with a 9V battery with the engine off. Seems to be okay as it made a clicking sound. I also tested the power to the injector with the engine running, tested good. The plug wires are new bosch, plugs maybe have 300 miles on them. Fuel pressure is 30psi. My engine has between 40,000 & 60,000 miles on it. The engine smokes a little (blue smoke) when it is cold. I honestly don't think the problem is with the fuel system. Maybe time for some new pistons & cylinders? Maybe time to rebuild the heads?
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Tram
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Check all the simple stuff first. That means ignition. Just because parts are new doesn't mean they can't be bad.

Second- Pull the valve cover and check things out on that side, incl. adjustment.
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Russ Wolfe
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Run a compression check, and adjust the valves before you condem it.
If the #3 exhaust valve is tight, Figure on doing a valve job as soon as possible at least.
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rustyfastback
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tram & Russ, thanks for the info. I will check it out on Monday when I am off from work.
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bigbussur
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah I also lost my #3 cylinder on my Thing last month, luckily I just put the new motor in the Square right before that. I had just put electronic ignition in the Thing and it ran the best it had ever ran, it was great. Drove it to work about 25 miles of freeway drive and then came home and halfway home I got a backfire in one of the carbs and I pulled over and had lots of smoke and shut it down, didn't get any pinging or anything like that, no noises to alert me. So I got it home and had it running( rough though) and pulled all the plug wires and they all still kept the motor running with no loss when pulling each individual wire. Then I shut it off and checked the valves good there until I pulled the exhaust and had oil in the exhaust on #3 all the other exhaust ports were nice. After pulling the motor and the number three cylinder which had no blueing from overheating or anything like that. There was a hole in the piston on the bottom where the rings are. The rest of the motor was clean, only has 3,000 miles on it. So with the hole in the piston usually it's timing, or overheating but it's definitely not overheating, the culprit come to find out....was me......dang it. After I had retimed the motor, after putting the electronic ignition in, I was so excited to run the motor with the new toys in her, that I failed to tighten the distributor clamp down all the way, and that's all it took to overadvance her a little bit. Sorry for the lengthyness of this post but maybe my lesson can be someone else's too. I found the culprit out because I couldn't find my 10mm socket and found it where I had left it on the garage floor under where the car was. And I remembered right then that I had not tightened the damn thing. So definitely check all the little stuff, i have since replaced the one piston and cylinder and she is back to cruising. Good luck with it. Anthony
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rustyfastback
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Today I checked the valve adjustment, it was correct. Also put different plug wires & plugs no difference. I did the compression test bad news Crying or Very sad I did not even know it but # 1 cylinder was bad also. Evidently I have been driving my squareback running on 3 cylinders for a while, but when #3 gave out the loss of power was very noticeable. When I removed the valve cover on 3&4 side I noticed a heavy carbon buildup around the #3 exhaust valve spring.
compression test results
#1 70psi
#2 110psi
#3 97psi
#4 110psi
I am going to put the dual carb 1641cc engine I built for my '67 squareback in the '68 for now. Once I repair the '68 engine I will reinstall all the fuel injection components.
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Project SB
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

that sucks... but at least you found the problem and have a spare motor...
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