OK here it is , went down the rabbit hole. Changed plugs (which took a week) cleaned and lubed the distributor , checked and changed vacuum hoses.
I started the old girl up (no issues there) fired right up saw some smoke off the top of the engine. Maybe cleaners etc. burning off.
I could get a sense of a sulphur smell: the one tailpipe looked really white and clean. Kind of had a rough idle when cold but went for a bit of a shakedown run. Seems to have settled down.
Just curious about this sulphur smell , hopefully goes away and is burning crap through the catalytic converter. Otherwise all seems good.
Did you happen to spray any kind of volatile cleaner inside the distributor? Or the cap? The distributor might have tried to explode when first started. No kidding.
No but sprayed a lot of carb cleaner down 3B I think it was prior to using the thread chaser at Greg’s suggestion.
So after changing spark plugs , and rechecked all connections , my car now now runs like a John Deere tractor when first started on cold idle. Seems to settle right down when warmed up .
I’ve ordered up a new ignition module to swap out and ordering up a new coil. I think I’ll go to the one coil setup and delete the one in front of the radiator. I swear these coils have been in the car since day one.
After that I can’t think of much else. I changed the old cruddy spark plugs due to a slight flutter.
Aye, sulpuric odor is a Cat issue. Too much fuel…
Anytime i spray carb cleaner into plug holes, along with grease and carbon falling in there, i always get rough running for a good 15 seconds along with smelly smoke out the exhaust. Totally normal.
Well, no. Sulfuric odor used to be a cat issue caused by too much sulfur in the fuel. Then Nikasil liners were destroyed by too much sulfur in the fuel. If there’s too much sulfur in any fuel available today I’d be very surprised. Hence, I dunno where the odor would be coming from in this case.
I agree, strange thing I noted after startup up when I smelled it the driver side tail pipe looked white and really clean. The passenger side not so much. Since then the sulphur smell has gone away. I’ll double check the spark plug boots today and see if I still have a rough cold idle. I did smear some dielectric grease inside the boots but I’m sure I used it sparingly in order not to get any on the electrodes.
Time for another shakedown run. Once warmed up seems to run fine.
Ive put dielectric grease on electrodes, no issue.
Regarding rough cold idle, are you SURE you got correct gap in plugs?
And you could have easily knocked something working in the vee. Is it a low or high rpm?
Make sure vacuum is getting to vacuum advance.
When it comes to plugs… Make sure of electrode reach… Proper heat range… Proper gap… Seated tight… all were problems for me when I allowed someone else to work on some taxicabs I owned years ago
Problem solved, loose spark plug wire 5B. Or seating right at distributor so.
Spark plug wire at 1A spark plug seemed clicky and loose at plug.
And low and behold loose wire at terminal at coil.
I swear I double checked all of these.
Rough idle disappeared. Go figure!
Time to take big cat for a drive on a sunny day!
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