The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 235 Up & Quit

Not sure where to begin... I have a 54 stock 235 (stamped 55 on the block) She was runnin' kinda funny - cuttin' out an such The engine started fine and idled great but was running very ragged. Thought it was the dist/timing or something in that relm. So I took it to a guy... He replaced the dist. set the valves & timing. After driving for a short distance, it seemed like she had a lack of power. Got on the freeway, felt like there was some kind of rpm limiter. after a few miles I continued to loose power. Traveling at 60 mph then she continued to drop until she got to about 40 then a loud whining sound an' then she up an' quit!. Any ideas before I tear into her? This truck until it started to run rough had plenty of power and was running great. Plenty of oil in her an water was where it should be.
Also when she stopped, there was a lot of smoke coming out of the valve cover.
[Had her towed and she didn't like none either.] Thanx It is a along intro but the bottom line is where do I begin?

White smoke?

More like burnt oil smoke. No water in oil as far as I can tell. Wondering if the oil pump gave out. Seemed like the noise kind of a loud squeel / grinding noise came from the top end.

Can you turn the motor over by hand? If so, remove valve cover and remove dist cap and watch rockers and rotor move. If you have a magnetic oil pan plug, it would be interesting to see what it may have collected.

At some point, it would be good to pull the dist out and check the gear. Or for that matter the dist shaft.

Also check you coolant for traces of oil.

Did you have oil pressure during the short ride before it quit? it sounds like your wrench jockey might not have gotten the distributor fully engaged into the oil pump. If so, you've got a major engine failure on your hands- - - - -burned bearings, scored crankshaft, etc. It's possible to get the dizzy in there far enough to run, without turning the oil pump. No oil pressure=trashed engine!
Jerry

I tried to start it the other day. Ran for 30 seconds or so. Lotsa grinding noises. I'll pull the dist in a while and take a look. Thanx, Jack

That was my first impression. That the dist was not fully engauged. But the question is can the engine still run w/o the dist fully engauged? wouldn't there be a gap where it seats onto the block?
But I know one thing is for sure until it started running rough b 4 I took it in, the engine ran very strong. Hoping for the best expecting the worst.. unfortunatly

The way the vacuum advance is mounted onto the distributor housing, a gap won't be noticeable until the pressure gauge fails to get a reading. Particularly on the babbit-pounders, low oil pressure is expected, so NO oil pressure sometimes fails to get noticed until it's too late.

Hard not to get frustrated sometimes. Money tight and the wife ain't to happy seein' the truck parked - again. Isn't the 1st time'n prob won't be the last either. I'll keep you posted. At least I can have some of you guys to cry to...