The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 65 C60 292 out of power

I do not have enough power to haul a load of dirt up my hill in 1st gear.

Vacuum is just at the green line (forgot the measure I think about 21) I don't have a timing light or tachometer and adjusted the carburetor to a decent idle and adjusted the air screw to get the best vacuum, found top #1 cylinder and the timing mark wasn't even close and adjusted the best vacuum by advancing the distributor.

The vacuum is low but steady and punching the throttle it goes down and comes back but seems steady no wobble at the needle.

I checked the cylinder compression and 1-4 is about 145 lb and 5&6 are 136lb (Manual says it should be 130???) I squirted 5 & 6 with 5 pumps of oil and the compression test went to 150 lbs. Why is my compression so high?

I don't know where I'm loosing vacuum, intake at 5 & 6 is wet so I tightened that but might still be a problem. sprayed it with starting fluid with no response.

Spark plugs are black sooty and re-gaped to .35 and checked the firing of all plugs and got a good bright light on the tester for each. The system is good plugs, points, condenser and ??transformer?? (brain cramp)
The truck was parked for about 3 years from last use because of cracked manifold which I sealed with Hi temp silicon. (I have another intake and exhaust manifold) (but need this project of hauling dirt now to get sawmill running)

I use to haul dirt over this hill which is a task with full load but always did it. I don't have brakes because of hard as rock peddle so I plugged the Brake vacuum if that was a problem. I back down and dumped off 1/2 the load and finally made it over the hill but had to abuse it to get her done. Truck would run out of power and I held the hand brake and increased the rpms and made some head way (about 2-3 feet) and finally crested the hard knoll with about 4 try's then I could finish the hill which had less incline.

When I worked on the truck it smoked like a fogger but that has cleared up after soaking the carburetor down with wd40, now there is some miner exhaust smoking. The exhaust manifold to pipe leaks and not tight because of rusty bolts and fear I will break them off because of corrosion.

I need to haul 2 or 3 more loads, what can I do to build better power.

I love mu truc, she has done a lot of work for me in the past 32 years and I am going to take the time to get her back to shape, but don;t have the time now to rebuild anything as I need the dirt hauled to finish setting up my saw mill and then some other projects before winter.

I believe that I have sealed the cracks in the manifold. The first crack was sealed several years ago and I thought that was the problem, so I cleaned it off to reseal but it was still stuck real good with hi-temp silicon. Removing the carburetor I found another crack. So I cleaned it then washed it with acetone and then reapplied the silicon. To test I sprayed questionable areas with starting fluid and found no increase in vacuum gauge or idle.

I've studied the truck manual and searched this forum and did the best I could. can someone outline a procedure list of recomendations to get my truck hauling dirt over this hill, then it will go on the project list to get it repaired properly.

Heavy loads and no brakes? You've got a disaster looking for somewhere to happen. You probably don't have an engine problem- - - - -the brakes are dragging. ("Pedal hard as a rock- - - - -")

Do the responsible thing and hire somebody to haul that dirt- - - - -fix your truck before you try to use it again!
Jerry

Hi Hot Rod, Brakes are not the problem, The emergency brake is in good shape and the bands is good. The truck will freely roll and I had spent time on a project to redo my brakes a few years back and the power brake unit was not very healthy then. I live on a 100+ acre farm and working on a project to get my sawmill in operation and need a few loads of fill before I call in some gravel trucks. I just built a 30 x 50 saw building and money is a little tight as I don't finance with them bankers

The truck has made this hill about only 100 feet many times before

The questions I think of that needs solving are:
Why is there more compression than the truck manual shows as designed.

I did not mention that I had a accelerator pump problem so I borrowed the plunger from my 65 c-10 230 6 cyl and it does pump but probably not as good as it should.
I failed to check for blockage in the carb siphon tube when I had it apart.
The truck may not be getting enough fuel on demand.

The vacuum is lower than it should be but I cannot locate any further vacuum leak.

Is there a trick to adding some choking to help provide more fuel air mixture
can I mix some hotter fuel with acetone as I am using non ethanol gas
Is there something that I am not seeing or thinking about as I am not a mechanic by trade.
I just need to enhance the power to get this truck to do what it did before.

Try advancing the timing some more. Could the exhaust be plugged up. Rev the engine & listen for hissing noise out the tail pipe. Some of those old trucks had a double layer exhaust pipe. The inside could colasp & still look good on the outside. The compression is Ok being above the specks. Various models have different comp.ratios. Carbon in the cyls. can raise it. Could the air cleaner be plugged up?

Problem is solved, and I got 3 loads of fill hauled up and basically ready to call in some gravel and get onto another item on the todo list.

I went back to the truck and it started rough and I knew it should be running fairly good, so I got out the vacuum gauge and realized that I was testing from the vent valve hose and all was fine as yesterday so I eliminated the pcv valve by plugging that line and the truck ran better than ever. I loaded the truck with a small load and made the first hill incline in 2nd gear which it wouldn't before. I came to the steep hill and put it in 1st (low creeper) the truck made it without hesitating. The next load was regular size and that did fine with only a little thought it was not going to do it but as a 292 usually does it just torqued right through. The next load was rounded and falling over the edges and it wouldn't make the 1st hill in 2nd the first try so I backed back down and gave it a better run for it and it did it and on the steep hill, it was difficult but that 292 just wouldn't quit. so the job was done.

I've frigged with this much of the week and read the manuals and searched all I could find on Stovebolt (the 1st place I go for truck knowledge) and don't recall any discussion on the PCV valve so I never thought to check it. I had to patch the manifold with Hi-temp silicon, The brakes was not working and the accelerator pump was not doing its job and I solved those.

Just a mention on the hi-temp silicon, I put that on the manifold because of a crack over 10 years ago, and when I run into trouble 3 years ago I thought the patch had failed, but when I went to fix it this week, it was still stuck on real good and still soft enough to expand with the crack. A knew crack had formed on the other side of the carburetor. When you use glue and want it to stick clean the area with acetone first and glue does it s best job. The hi-temp silicon was a no brand from the parts store and when I got it out of the glue jar (peanut butter screw top jar I store all glues in) The silicon was still good and that is what I used this week without having to buy more.

Also to mention the plugged exhaust, This truck was parked down at the garden because it would not make it up over the hill. I walked by where it was parked and saw a mess of stuff all over the ground, and investigated it to be mouse nest material and that exhaust must have been pretty full as there was a good pile of it. I also noticed it along the road here and there. So that was one of the things I checked this week to see if it was plugged. The exhaust gas was flowing out in good shape.

As far as the Air cleaner, I've always kept this truck in good tune with good plugs points condenser, coil and all filters because I like this truck to run when I need it which is not every year, it will set for a while and usually starts and runs when I need it. 3 years ago I needed the truck and it wouldn't start. I checked and re checked for a week and couldn't find out the problem. So finally I called a friend that I hire a lot to do excavating or road work and he grew up with these old trucks and cars. He checked and then said everything is fine you need a new set of points. I said look at those points the are brand new and points don't go bad unless the are burnt. He agreed but said the problem has to be with those points.he took them out and found that there was corrosion behind the points that stopped them from grounding. The points would test good with tester, but not enough ground to run the motor. There was power to the points but not enough to throw a spark. Now I remember that my problem was no spark to the plugs back then. He had me solved in about an hour, while I spent al week guessing and reading the manual without practical experience.

So thanks for your help Don't forget the PCV valve.

Thanks for the update. I bet that hill is good for sledding too.