Bad News

cocobolo said:
OK, so I agree that the DUI is excellent, but then so is the stock HEI. And they are practically bulletproof.

Did you ever find a reason for your dizzy blowing apart? It's something you might want to look for before just dropping another one in place. Won't cost you anything to look! Good luck.
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One of the counterweight arms on the centrifugal advance came off. The pin holding it in place was in the bottom of the distributor and I haven't found the spring. The other arm wedged itself into the linkage between the rotor. The imbalance caused it to shear the top off the distributor just under the rotor. The bottom end of the dizzy looks and feels fine.

I went ahead and ordered a new MSD 8365 Distributor with internal coil and rev limiter from summit today. I'll pull #1 spark plug and set the motor to TDC, pull the old dizzy and install the new one, then keep my fingers crossed.
 
Well, bad news turned into good news !!!

But damn, you're asking for a budget minded crate engine and then you buy a $350 distributor? Holy cow.....

:3rd::3rd::3rd::huh::huh:
 
MYBAD79 said:
Well, bad news turned into good news !!!

But damn, you're asking for a budget minded crate engine and then you buy a $350 distributor? Holy cow.....

:3rd::3rd::3rd::huh::huh:
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I don't disagree with you but here's my rationale, I have a heavy foot and this was the cheapest easiest way to incorporate a rev limiter. Don't get me wrong, I saw a nice little billet job for under $40.00 that had to be Chinese but had good reviews. It was tempting but I would have caught shit from the gang for running a cheap import like this plus I wonder if it would hold up?
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/CHEVY-HEI-DISTRIBUTOR-SUPER-CAP/dp/B005O2WIA4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1378006416&sr=8-2&keywords=chevy+distributor[/ame]
You also have to understand my sense of relief. In my mind I was trying to justify either machine shop work or a crate engine which was easily going to set me back 5K. When I found out that the distributor went balls to the wall and not something more costly, at that point $350.00 seems like nothing. An MSD 6AL with distributor and coil would cost about $500.00. Let's just hope my enthusiasm isn't premature!
 
I have a Proform China distributor, bought it a few years ago when the cheapest ones were around $89 on Ebay... I guess I was lucky, no problems with that thing .... I think the easiest way for me to ad a rev limiter is the $150 Summit box or the $200 Mallory....
 
I dug into the broken parts a bit more today. The counterweight assembly is press fitted on a fluted shaft at the top of the distributor. The out of balance weights caused the assembly to wobble and enlarge the hole that was press fitted, it finally got to the point where the inside of the two fluted pieces wore smooth - no more teeth to engage. The counterweight assembly finally spun loose and the imbalance caused the whole thing to let go.
Anybody want an old HEI dizzy for parts?
 
How do you spell relief?

The new MSD distributor is installed and the motor runs fine. I still had some fears that there might have been something else wrong but no, all is well. Lars' tech article on how to install a distributor came in handy. As a younger man I always set the motor to TDC and aligned the rotor to point to the #1 cylinder. The tech article shows I was wrong. Anyway, after setting up the distributor, again as per Lars' tech article, so that I am "all in" with the timing by 2800 rpm and dropping it in the motor, I got lucky and got it in right the first time. A little fiddling with the orientation of the distributor and she fired right up and ran smoothly. No bad noises, no smoke. That's how I spell relief.

Thanks to all for your help!
 
Back to bad news again. If I let the motor sit at idle and get good and hot it starts to smoke pretty badly, especially if I rev it up a bit. I am really tired of this emotional roller coaster! I spent a good deal of time setting the distributor just right and dialing in the advance, as well as fine tuning the carburetor for maximum vacuum and when all that was done I got the smoke issue.:rain:
I have been in touch with the people at Skip White. They seem to have some really nice products and are very competitive. It would cost me almost as much to either get a 383 short block or to have my motor redone so I am leaning toward this motor without the aluminum pulleys (long block with carb. & intake)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/350850673335?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
 
That's quiet a chunk of money to fix a little smoke ... Does it only smoke when hot at idle? Does it stop dmoking after driving it ???

For that much money you can buy a Lsx incl 6spd and accessories ... Complete takeouts or donor cars are way less than that 383...

that 383 sure is a fun engine and going "old school" with big carb/big cam is definitely not bad either, just saying I would not want to spend that much money again - keep in mind that's exactly what I did (383 1pc rms, roller cam etc) ... cost more than a used modern engine incl 6spd ... nowadays you can get a nice LS1, LS2 incl tranny, all the computer crap, AC , all accessories for $3000-$6000 depending on mileage ---- now AC would be great, wouldn't it ????

I'm sure if I had to it again I'd just buy a donor car .... when I did what I did I wanted a "new" short block ...

I guess what I'm trying to say is: keep cool.... weigh all your options before you spend that much money..... if your only problem is some smoke and burning oil, just keep driving and keep adding oil.... that PEAK brand stuff at WallyMart is under $3 a QT.....
 
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MYBAD79 said:
That's quiet a chunk of money to fix a little smoke ... Does it only smoke when hot at idle? Does it stop dmoking after driving it ???

For that much money you can buy a Lsx incl 6spd and accessories ... Complete takeouts or donor cars are way less than that 383...
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I am so at a loss as to what to do. The smoke is enough that it won't pass emissions testing. I will have to take it out for another drive to give you an answer on whether or not it smokes after being driven.

I am also clueless as to what is involved with an LSX conversion.
 
DeeVeeEight said:
MYBAD79 said:
That's quiet a chunk of money to fix a little smoke ... Does it only smoke when hot at idle? Does it stop dmoking after driving it ???

For that much money you can buy a Lsx incl 6spd and accessories ... Complete takeouts or donor cars are way less than that 383...
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I am so at a loss as to what to do. The smoke is enough that it won't pass emissions testing. I will have to take it out for another drive to give you an answer on whether or not it smokes after being driven.

I am also clueless as to what is involved with an LSX conversion.
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just added to my reply while you replied..... see above.....

btw, is it possible that you're burning off some unburnt fuel/oil in the exhaust ??? see if it still smokes after a 20 mile drive....
 
DeeVeeEight said:
Back to bad news again. If I let the motor sit at idle and get good and hot it starts to smoke pretty badly, especially if I rev it up a bit. I am really tired of this emotional roller coaster! I spent a good deal of time setting the distributor just right and dialing in the advance, as well as fine tuning the carburetor for maximum vacuum and when all that was done I got the smoke issue.:rain:
I have been in touch with the people at Skip White. They seem to have some really nice products and are very competitive. It would cost me almost as much to either get a 383 short block or to have my motor redone so I am leaning toward this motor without the aluminum pulleys (long block with carb. & intake)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/350850673335?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
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Skip White, isn't he the largest pro comp professional products or whatever chinese junk peddler there is?
 
Twin_Turbo said:
Skip White, isn't he the largest pro comp professional products or whatever chinese junk peddler there is?
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to be fair, they offer name brand stuff (at a higher price) too ... I bought a starter from them which is kinda 'stuck' after 3 years but minimal use .... You'll find good and bad feedback for most shops, skipwhite however gets a lot of bad feedback because of his china junk that he sells on Ebay ..... Lol

Btw, i remember back then you told me to spend the $300 on a Tilton and be done with it ..... Lol
 
Help with smoke diagnosis please...

After going back and forth with the folks at Skip White by email for a while I started to get bad vibes from them. The first engine quote I got suddenly jumped by $900 and they wanted to do everything over the phone. I prefer to keep transactions like these in writing based on past experiences.
I don't really want to throw money at the problem, that's what my boat was for. Now that the boat is gone I need to be more careful.

I have gotten the car running really smoothly again but there is a smoke issue after it gets to operating temps. I'd like your opinions. Here is the scenario:

On start up, no smoke. While warming up, no smoke. When hot at idle a little blue/white smoke, seems to be oil, not coolant.
Rev it up and the smoke gets worse. No really thick heavy smoke but enough to make it smelly and noticeable.
I removed the PCV valve as I thought it had too much suction and put a simple open system on it for the crank case gases - a vented cap on one side and a cap connected to the base of the air cleaner for low vacuum on the other side.

Once I get this figured out I plan to simply remedy the smoke issue and keep this motor, it's plenty fast and strong. Top end or bottom end?
 
Do the plugs show oil fouling at all? I'd recheck them first.

Go for a drive at dusk....go WOT and look in rear view mirror....got a smoke screen?
 
SmokinBBC said:
Do the plugs show oil fouling at all? I'd recheck them first.

Go for a drive at dusk....go WOT and look in rear view mirror....got a smoke screen?
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I haven't pulled plugs yet. It's hard to tell if it's smoking when I drive because of the rear window tint. I did take it out a week or so ago and romp on it in second gear to see if it smoked, no noticeable clouds on acceleration or deceleration.
 
I told you before that I don't think this is a huge issue, however I don't think your symptom is not very "common". Only smokes when hot at idle??? White/blueish could very well be coolant, oil smokes usually blueish/black.....

Now that I think about it some more: how about a bad intake gasket or loose bolts at the intake??? Anybody else comment/agree/disagree that it could be one of the intake gaskets ???

How comfortable do you feel taking it apart and inspect?? Have you pulled an intake before?
 
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