General Trouble-Shooting - All Spark Plugs Removed:
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Compression Check: What is the actual compression psi of "all" individual cylinders.
Standing in back of the engine, facing the spark plugs, the cylinders are numbered as follows:
2.....1
4.....3
Ignition/Spark Check: The spark should jump a air gap of 7/16" with a strong blue lightning like flame... a real SNAP! Does it?
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No Spark Tester?... See below...................
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(Spark Tester - Home Made)
(J. Reeves)
You can use a medium size philips screwdriver (#2 I believe) inserted into the spark plug boot spring connector, then hold the screwdriver shank approximately 7/16" away from the block to check the spark or build the following:
A spark tester can be made with a piece of 1x4 or 1x6, drive a few finishing nails through it, then bend the pointed ends at a right angle. You can then adjust the gap by simply twisting the nail(s). Solder a spark plug wire to one which you can connect to the spark plug boots, and a ground wire of some kind to the other to connect to the powerhead somewhere. Use small alligator clips on the other end of the wires to connect to ground and to the spark plug connector that exists inside of the rubber plug boot.
Using the above, one could easily build a spark tester whereas they could connect 2, 4, 6, or 8 cylinders all at one time. The ground nail being straight up, the others being bent, aimed at the ground nail. A typical 4 cylinder tester follows:
..........X1..........X2
.................X..(grd)
..........X3..........X4
This can obviously be modified to a 6 or 8 cylinder setup tester.
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Let us know what you find... Be specific as we try to be... Don't reply with statements such as the spark is great, the compression is good, that sort of thing as it really tells us nothing.
