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Cant Start 440

S

sun_splash

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"Not sure if anyone can help s

"Not sure if anyone can help shed some light,
I cant get my 440 to start
It was running fine even after the oil overfill incident.I left it a week and nothing!
number 7 and 8 cylinders had a little sea water in them,
I oiled and spun as per recent posting
Its a FWC with two raw pipes going to the top of the risers, can water flood back to the manifold if it is cranked over without succesfully starting? my exhaust outlets are below water level
I have a spark
I didnt move the distributor setting
Rotor arm turning fine
Fuel is pumping ok
Floats and valves are opening and closing in carb ok
Main jets are clear, but not sure what route the fuel takes from there ?
I cant smell fuel on plugs when I take them out
But I can smell it in the carb ( possibly from accelerator pump?)
I have a electronic ignition fitted Luminition
New Plugs
New leads
New Electronic coil
Is the 10 oclock number one cylinder on distributor cap thing the same for the 440? mine is at two o`clock when looking from the front to back (damper front flywheel back)
It fires but the starter kicks out before it will run.

Many thanks

Tony"
 
Only thing I can think of is t

Only thing I can think of is the ballast resistor (IF you have one) is burnt out or the connector to it is off. Try checking the + terminal on the coil for voltage with the key ON.

Jeff
 
Look for a purple wire with a

Look for a purple wire with a yellow tracer going to your ballast resistor (white ceramic block near selinoid). Make sure that the connection is good. I would put a new resistor in an keep the old one for a back up if it turns out to be good. Mine fell off from vibration and the engine would only run witht the key turned. It would shut off as soon as you let the key go.

Good luck.

Ed
 
"I thought of that but wont th

"I thought of that but wont the engine run until you back off the key, we used to have a similar problem on an old van, the thing would start as long as the key was in the cranking position but as soon as you let it back to normal running position it would stop.
I will try one any way they are only a couple of quid I`m sure."
 
"You must excuse a little igno

"You must excuse a little ignorance on my part but by risers you mean the upside down U shaped exhaust pipes from the back of the manifold going to the exhaust outlets,
They are old but the boat was an unfinished project and only been in the water a couple of months, the engine hours clock reads 2 Hrs max so its all in as new condition in theory.
I would say though, they are not like any pictures on the site, they bolt straight and sealed against the end of the manifold, go straight up,over and back down into a fireproof rubber like pipe which in turn connects to a rightangled bend and then straight through the transom, they dont have any what appears to be waterways in the site pictures just shaped steel tubes wrapped in a white fireproof "bandage"
I took one of and although there is rust at present it only seems to be surface there has definately been water back down the wrong way.
but looking at it logicaly the system must rely on exhaust pressure to drive the water out, and I dont have any. fingers crossed thats all it is but I am open to any ideas
The top of my exhaust outlets (which are just below water level) are appx 10 inches lower than the lower part of the "log type manifold" and the risers go up about 6 inches before bending over and back down

Tony"
 
"Tony,

You didn't state

"Tony,

You didn't state whether you have power to ignition. If you turn key to on position, without cranking, do you see you test light lit when contacted to coil terminal? If not, trace ignition wires back to key switch and locate fault in a wire.

,Noel."
 
"You'd get a spark while c

"You'd get a spark while cranking it, but soon as you let off the key the ballast resistor circuit takes over.

Jeff"
 
"T,

I think that would poin

"T,

I think that would point back to the ballast resistor if you didn't have ignition with key on.

I guess its a way to eliminate one of the two possiblities, fuel and ignition.

After describing your exhaust system, I'm interested to see what your setup looks like. Do you have any pictures?

Good luck, Noel."
 
"Tony,
Had a similar pr

"Tony,
Had a similar problem on my 318, it was the pick up for the electronic ignition, would only spark when you let go of the key, has yours been back firing into the exhaust?, took a week to find the problem, 20 mins to fix it."
 
"I am going to the coast tomor

"I am going to the coast tomorow may just swap out the E.Ignition as well, and will get some pics of the exhaust
Thanks
Guys

Tony"
 
"Put a volt meter on that &#43

"Put a volt meter on that + terminal of the coil before you go swaping out parts. Also, if youhave a helper, try it while cranking.

Jeff"
 
"Ok Jeff
I will do that,
I

"Ok Jeff
I will do that,
I am thinking of fitting an secondary ignition switch in the engine bay, Its a pain running back and forth.

Thanks

Tony"
 
T....Your manifold layout is a

T....Your manifold layout is actually the basic one for a I/O configuration...nothing unusual about it. The riser act's like a trap under your sink to keep the backwash from flooding up into the engine. There should be some kind of flap at the transom pipes to prevent a surge of water but it's obviouly normal for water to lie in them since there below the water line. Even though they maybe painted nice and shiny doesn't mean there new. If it has been replaced you should be able to easily to loosen a bolt or 2.
 
"All Bad Nearly
Went to the b

"All Bad Nearly
Went to the boat Saturday took out the plugs and did a compression test ( should have done it sooner but supposedly a new engine thought no need) no comprssion on 4 cylinders 567 and 8.
I took of the rocker covers to check the valve lifters and thought " goodness me what a mess " or something like that!
water and oil push rods out and valves obviously stuck solid in the open position.
I took a pause for thought and thought What About My Pistons! so off com the heads.
all exhaust and inlet ports completely flooded (and rusty)when I took of the inlet manifold push rods everywhere, bent, out of sockets, all over the place but no water in that area, cam followers, cam shaft block walls etc all like new.
I then took of the heads expecting the worst, but all is ok, pistons are as told all new. there was a little rust in a number of cylinders, but it has all cleaned of and I can still see the honing on the cylinder walls from the rebuild.
One piston has a couple of small marks like pin head size obviously hit a valve.
The heads were a mess though.
broke 3 inlet valves trying to free them,
The remaining valves have come out ok and cleaned up like new.
I am going to take the heads to an american car specialist to have the valve guides checked, maybe I will let them put the valves back but I need to de-rust evrything in the heads first.
The boat company`s here look at me like I`m from Mars when I say Chrysler, this guy used to service a boat racing team in the uk and Know a lot about the big V8s.
Okay so what caused it?
The only place I can see where it could have come from is where the Log meets the riser,the gaskets are home made jobs and the logs are very rusty inside, but why the inlet as well?
The riser is just a tube on this boat and has no water jacket just water connections for the raw water outlet but they are on the far side of the U bend nearer the exhaust outlets. another thought is were the heads re-torqued after initial running (do they need that?) and its simply both head gaskets gone.


Heeeelp !!!!

Tony"
 
"Thanks Larry, but its the oth

"Thanks Larry, but its the other side of the world to me, and my one was just like that a few weeks ago, no point putting new if its gonna happen again.
Need to work out what happened, my rebuild is relatively minor. and engine only done 2-3 hours
anyway
Tony"
 
"Tony:

Most likely, your ma

"Tony:

Most likely, your manifolds rusted through and let water flow into the cylinders. (When the riser/ elbow fails, usually only the rear most cylinder get water.)

You can pressure test the manifolds to watch them leak, but I'd just look for new ones.

Jeff

PS: Glad the short block was okay."
 
"Ordered 5 new valves today, h

"Ordered 5 new valves today, head gasket set for 440 truck, Marine is gonna be dificult to source here and crazy expensive, I was told only the actual head gasket is different and with fresh water cooling it should be ok.
The truck set is designed for higher operating temperature, hope its not a load of bull.
local engineering work shop is going to bead blast all the rust re machine all the valves/seats and rebuild both heads for £300.00.
sounds like a good deal to me, dont know what it would be in the States, Intreresting to know though if someone has had similar as a comparison.
I am having trouble with push rods though,
Mine are ball and socket 9 3/16" and I have adjusters on the rocker arms, is it possible my valves are not hydraulic and need to be adjusted, what a pain in the ar**e that will be.
??

Tony"
 
Just a thought......you don&#3

Just a thought......you don't have fiberglass fuel tanks do you? If you have ethanol in your fuel it can melt older fiberglass tanks and lock the valves open when the fiberglass resin hardens on the valve stems from heat. There will be lots of thick black gunk around the valve stems.

I hope that this is not the problem.
 
"No Ed, s/steel as far as I kn

"No Ed, s/steel as far as I know, no black gunk just red rust,

Gasket looks good but head set contains all the other bits exhaust, valve stem seals etc etc.
Hopefully truck gasket set should be ok unless it comes into contact with more salt water (fingers crossed)I also had a plate made to pressure test the manifold,I am still hoping it was the manifold to riser gaskets which, do look very suspect

Tony"
 
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