Yes, it spins slowly even with the sparkplugs out.
I have not been able to start the engine since the rebuild. I have been the mechanic, so I suspect more what I have done in putting all the components together from a bare block and heads, than I do the professionals who rebuilt tmy engine at United Machine shop in Sunland,CA.
I Have the reciept and it is a bit hard to make out, but says "Complete rebuilt engine with all new parts. New lifters and timing set, new gasket set, new ring rod and main bearings, new high performance oil pump"
That's all it says, but they listed out this right at the end, and may not be all they did.
I rebuilt it from the intake manifold on top, the water pump in the front , and the flywheel in the back on....
It has great spark, gas squirting throgh the carb, timing closer and no boom boom boom.
I have a whole write-up of what I have been through before our recent changes. Here is a portion of it:
The engine has been totally overhauled: 1976 FORD Marine 302 CID Winsor V8 engine with GT 40 heads giving it 190 horsepower and a 55 gal. stainless steel gas tank. It has a new electronic ignition, starter, fuel pump, line and filter; voltage regulator, water pump, high-capacity oil pump and filter and a new four-barrel carburetor – all connected to a fully overhauled OMC outdrive.
The overhaul was done professionally by United Machine shop in Sunland, Ca., and I have been the acting mechanic, re-assembling all the components from the bare block and heads. Maybe I screwed-up, as I have not been able to get the engine started.
Symptoms: It is slow cranking. I had done some load tests and found that it needed a new seleniod and the connections cleaned up. The new seloniod came in and I put it in and I also cleaned up and sanded all the connections to the battery, starter and selinoid, and put on some dielectric grease for a good connection. Tried starting it and the same exact thing, slow cranking. In fact after two ten second tries it was down to 12.9 volts (from 14.2 volts) and stopped cranking altogether! My F-150 will crank link crazy with that voltage. I bypassed my batteries and wired it straight to my truck battery and got the same slow cranking results. The starter is new, about four months old, and my selonoid is brand new (my fourth one). It may be hard to crank because the bearings and seals are new and need to be broken in, but still...
On the cranking problem, this is the fourth new starter selonoid I put in and the second new starter motor, the current starter motor I bought about four months ago. All the wiring and connections are new and are large. The ignition switch is also new. The batteries are good and fairly new, tested under load, although it seems they should give more than 10 seconds of cranking time. There isn’t much else to the cranking system – it’s all new. I have solar panels and a solar charger that charges the two batteries up to 14.2 volts. Maybe this is too much. I crank it for about 10 seconds and the voltage goes down to 13.0 and it cranks slower. Another crank and it gets to 12.8 volts and it stops. My F 150 will crank like hell with that much voltage. It should crank down to about 12.0 volts, I believe.
The second problem, other than the cranking problem, is that the motor doesn’t start at all, not even a hit, and has never started since it was overhauled. It
turns over, but
doesn’t hit at all. It was backfiring, but I think I handled that problem by re-installing the intake manifold. I found a new aluminum intake manifold on Amazon with closed ports, like the original one, and installed it with new gaskets and sealer, and it is still not starting, but it doesn’t seem to be popping or back-firing anymore. I hope I got a good seal on the new intake manifold
I re-checked the spark and it is great! I re-checked the gas and it is squirting nicely into the primaries. The timing is close. But no boom boom boom - not one hit.
The timing has been verified multiple times and is set at factory recommendations of
10 degrees before Top Dead Center. I have verified it by multiple thumb tests on the #1 spark plug and it gets pressure from the compression stroke just before the rotor passes the #1 lead and the timing light shows 10 degrees advance, and is marked in silver on the timing marks. Right now, I do not have an exact setting on it, as I have been moving it around a bunch. It should be close enough to get it started with a twist of the rotor, and once running should be more precisly adjusted.
The spark is now strong. I went through the wiring schematics, opened up the wiring harness so all could be seen, and found and replaced some burnt wires and most connectors. I also totally bypassed the ballast resistor, since I changed to the electronic ignition with an HEI distributer (65,000 volt coil), joining the wire from the the ignition to the coil wire and the choke wire at the (I) terminal on the selenoid (see wiring schematic below), so those both now get the full 12 volts when the ignition is turned on, unaffected now by the antiquated ballast resistor. I also put in the proper Boush iridium spark plugs for an older 302 (Boush #9659), which has a wider gap of .052 (was .030) and now it seems to be getting great spark as measured with an adjustablle spark testor and a bright wide spark at the plug. I made an exact schematic of the electrical as it exists on the engine (attached below), and I believe the wiring now to be messed up somehow at the selonoid, and I am not sure where the wiring to the consle goes, as it is hard to follow the wires.
The gas can be seen going through the jets in the primarys of the new four-barrel carburator when goosed. I had previously cleaned out the stainless steel tank and put a new fuel line, new one way check-valve, new fuel filter, new fuel pump and the new four-barrel carburator with the factory settings. Gas gushes out of the fuel line when detached and the engine turned over. The gas was new last spring, and I did put in Marine Stabil at the proper rate. I have tried putting some new gas in the carburator to see if it would make a difference, but it didn’t. Nor did starter fluid work. The only time where the engine hit at all was one time when I was pumping the throttle like crazy, and it hit maybe three times. That is when I decided to change out the carb. I have the old Holley two-barrel and I did rebuild it myself, but thought maybe I did something wrong, or it just wasn’t getting enough gas, as the old intake manifold had to be replaced and the new aluminum one has much more volume in it’s chambers and was for a four barrel, so I had added an adaptor for the Holley two-barrel. I since have changed it out to the new four-barrel, which is squirting gas and set at the factory settings. Once running it should be adjusted more precisely.
The batteries are two fairly new large marine barteries wired in parallel, both checked with a tester under load and they checked-out fine, although they seem to run down from fully charged at 14.2 volts to 13.0 volts very fast, when the starter starts to slow down – this only takes about 10 seconds of cranking. I did put in another new starter a month ago, as one mechanic thought that was the reason why it was turning over so slowly, causing back-fires. Both batteries are dual purpose, starting and deep cycle; one is a Duralast (Autozone) AGM M31 (850 CCA) and the other is an Optima Blue top, maybe a bit smaller. They are switched so I can isolate them. I have them set up on a solar system that keeps them fully charged to 14.2 volts at all times when the sun is out. Maybe I should get a new dedicated starting battery, but it seems the 850 cold cranking amps should turn it over well, and I did hook it up my truck battery,s eparate from the other batteries and it did the same thing.
The solar system is separate from the console or engine, being connected only by the battery. The solar panels go to the solar charger, which charges the batteries and powers the new fuse bus that just powers some lights and other accessories, not connectred with the console or engine, except by the batteries and some new switches on the console.
Conclusions:
Gas, spark, timing – it should run! But it doesn’t - right now it is thought to be due to slow cranking.
The whole cranking system is nearly new with large wires with clean connections, so it should crank nicely, but it is very slow and doesn’t last long. It will only crank for a few seconds at 14.2 volts until the batteries get to about 12.8 Volts, when it stops cranking.. The last selonoid only lasted a few trys until it just clicked and didn’t engage and smoked. So something is wrong with the electrical.
NOTE: The ballast resistor was totall bypassed due to the installation of the electronic ignition, which compensates for this. I joined the wire from the the ignition to the coil wire and the choke wire at the (I) terminal on the selenoid, so those both now get the full 12 volts when the ignition is turned on, unaffected now by the antiquated ballast resistor. I am pretty sure that these attachments to the (I) terminal on the selonoid are correct.
You can see on my website:
www.sport-fishing-friends.com Go to the page called Nealie's Boat.
