Is this good...or is this bad...

[Purple Moo Cow]

Hello er'body and welcome back to the saga of bessy dirt.

 

So I confirmed I have spark at every cylinder. I removed the panel on the passengers side and pulled off the valve covers. I had no idea that was a thing, wish I knew that when I was redoing my fuel pump. Anyway...I definitely had a layer of oil buildup on just about everything, but I have no clue if it's considered a lot or a little. So I'm looking to you folks to fill me in on just how bad it is in there. I did turn the engine over some and every valve appears to be moving up and down and able to spin when I move them with my hand. 

 

Also, I did get the car to start-ish. Which is super exciting and I'm very thankful everyone on here has continued to help me despite my ignorance. So, I filled my carb bowl with gas and sprayed some starter fluid in the intake and got it to run for about 15 seconds. The distributor was retarded in timing as far as I could get it with the main adjustment (which is the only one I'm familiar with, the adjustment bolt for it is near the oil dipstick).

 

So my questions are:

 

1. how bad or good do these valves/oil buildup look?

 

2. Is there a way to further retard the timing? Or

 

3. should I flip my dizzy 180 degrees again and try advancing the timing as much as possible, working back from there?

[keithb7]

Based on what I have seen, yours looks pretty typical of an engine running with non-detergent oil.  My suggestion is don't be switching over to modern detergent oil without doing your research and needed clean up. You may want to pull the oil pan and clean it out sooner than later. 

 

Looks like possibly new valve cover gaskets were on the to-do list in 1975. Yet for some reason got deferred to the new owner.

Edited October 7, 2021 by keithb7

[Sniper]

The buildup is not as bad as I have seen.  But you do have at least one valve stuck open, you can see it above your fuel pump.  That's not going to help getting it running.

[Bryan]

Don't try to flush it out unless you're willing to take the pan off, cleaning the oil pickup tube & sump, galleys, everything where oil was circulating.  I did the ol kerosene flush in the  mid 90s with just draining the pan plug, later had the engine knocking.

[Purple Moo Cow]

36 minutes ago, Sniper said:

The buildup is not as bad as I have seen.  But you do have at least one valve stuck open, you can see it above your fuel pump.  That's not going to help getting it running.

Ya so @Sniper I should add that I dribbled a little mystery oil into every cylinder again, and when I went to turn the engine over I could see some smoke/air/cloud idk coming up from the 2nd cylinder and I think the 6th. So assuming there's a stuck valve on each of those, can I use a screw driver to try and get it moving?

 

@sniper I did find your post from July on stuck valves 

Edited October 7, 2021 by Purple Moo Cow
Additional info added

[tom'sB2B]

IMHO 

Valves look fine.

If you are getting it to run for 15 seconds, it sounds like you're close.

You've found top dead center

You've identified the position on your distributor for the number one spark plug.

You have the plugs set for correct firing order.

You have the correct points gap 

At top dead center, you've position the distributor slightly before or at the rise of the cam.

I have also found that, having a clean fuel system and trying to draw fuel from the tank will take some cranking and will help to hold your hand over the carb to help draw the gas up into the carb.

Good luck 

I'm sure there are forum members that will correct my procedures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[47 dodge 1.5 ton]

Is there a valve spring on #3? Picture is hard to see, but don’t see it. With the valve covers off, did you see if there was approx .012” clearance (just to confirm a valve has not dropped)? Think you are getting there— just have extreme patience. If you haven’t already, may want to put more MM in each cylinder and blow some air in the spark plug holes(help it get to the valves when each one is open) while rotating by hand.

[greg g]

Careful handling that stuff, it basically lead pudding.  Gloves and goggles highly recommended.  The side covers tend to get overtightened  and warped by overzealous folks chasing leaks. The reason there are thumb screws there is they are only supposed to be hand tight.  The reason most of them leak is because when the galleys are sludged up the oil doesn't drain as it should and likely flows out around the thumb screws.

 

You might do some drift and dolly work to assure the covers fit as best they can when reinstalled.

[Sniper]

On 10/6/2021 at 9:27 PM, Purple Moo Cow said:

Ya so @Sniper I should add that I dribbled a little mystery oil into every cylinder again, and when I went to turn the engine over I could see some smoke/air/cloud idk coming up from the 2nd cylinder and I think the 6th. So assuming there's a stuck valve on each of those, can I use a screw driver to try and get it moving?

 

@sniper I did find your post from July on stuck valves 

 

You can try a screwdriver, I pulled the head so I never tried that trick.  Not like the valve springs have a lot of pressure on them anyway.