Can I get this old 283 to fire up?!
Wildgrove Garage
851 views
What started out as purely an exploratory day to see what shape the old 283 may be in, turned in to quite the shake down.
I knew one of the spark plug wires was cut in half, so had a new set on hand. Replaced the bad one, fed a fuel line off the fuel pump to a can and saw what it could do. It turned over easy, but not consistently.
Had preemptively bought a distributor cap and rotor so threw those on (only shocked myself once checking for spark).
Then things started to fail. The battery cables were sparking and were visibly getting hot, they were crusty and in rough shape. Threw a new set on.
Then the starter stopped engaging, no matter how hard or where I smacked it with a hammer it wouldn’t actuate. So threw a new one in.
Had a real suspicion the fuel pump wasn’t pumping strong enough, so threw a new one in and BOOM - she lit up 👏
It’s rough and won’t idle but it’s a runner!
I was way deeper in for the day than I had anticipated so I called that a success without any further diagnostic…
Then began the tune up and tinker session that went on for too long…
Plugs, wires, oil change and fixed a couple vacuum leaks. Got it to idle and started to adjust the timing.
This is where things started to get weird for a bit that threw me on a goose hunt.
Suddenly my timing light was very intermittent and it started idling rougher than it had. Then it died and would fire again…no spark.
Came back to it later, threw a new coil and condenser at it and it fired up for a bit, then the same thing, died and no spark.
Checked the points and they were not opening! Filed them, gapped them and bam, fired right up and idled smoother and more controllable than it had been the whole time.
Could still use some adjusting, carb probably needs to be gone through and adjusted for sure, but I’m really at a crossroad on how far to take this motor. I’ve already put more money in to it than I wanted to just to have it idling…roughly…it’ll need more for sure….so pretty sure it’s all just going to come out and not worry about running it.
I did put it in gear, transmission went in to all gears no problem, no weird noises from trans or the rear end, so that’s good 🤷♂️
Decisions are ahead!
Onward!
#283 #willitrun #belair #impala #hotrod #chevy #projectcar #diy #bbody #restoration #garage #wrenching
1 Comments
Can I get this old 283 to fire up?!
Wildgrove Garage
851 views
What started out as purely an exploratory day to see what shape the old 283 may be in, turned in to quite the shake down.
I knew one of the spark plug wires was cut in half, so had a new set on hand. Replaced the bad one, fed a fuel line off the fuel pump to a can and saw what it could do. It turned over easy, but not consistently.
Had preemptively bought a distributor cap and rotor so threw those on (only shocked myself once checking for spark).
Then things started to fail. The battery cables were sparking and were visibly getting hot, they were crusty and in rough shape. Threw a new set on.
Then the starter stopped engaging, no matter how hard or where I smacked it with a hammer it wouldn’t actuate. So threw a new one in.
Had a real suspicion the fuel pump wasn’t pumping strong enough, so threw a new one in and BOOM - she lit up 👏
It’s rough and won’t idle but it’s a runner!
I was way deeper in for the day than I had anticipated so I called that a success without any further diagnostic…
Then began the tune up and tinker session that went on for too long…
Plugs, wires, oil change and fixed a couple vacuum leaks. Got it to idle and started to adjust the timing.
This is where things started to get weird for a bit that threw me on a goose hunt.
Suddenly my timing light was very intermittent and it started idling rougher than it had. Then it died and would fire again…no spark.
Came back to it later, threw a new coil and condenser at it and it fired up for a bit, then the same thing, died and no spark.
Checked the points and they were not opening! Filed them, gapped them and bam, fired right up and idled smoother and more controllable than it had been the whole time.
Could still use some adjusting, carb probably needs to be gone through and adjusted for sure, but I’m really at a crossroad on how far to take this motor. I’ve already put more money in to it than I wanted to just to have it idling…roughly…it’ll need more for sure….so pretty sure it’s all just going to come out and not worry about running it.
I did put it in gear, transmission went in to all gears no problem, no weird noises from trans or the rear end, so that’s good 🤷♂️
Decisions are ahead!
Onward!
#283 #willitrun #belair #impala #hotrod #chevy #projectcar #diy #bbody #restoration #garage #wrenching