[white 86 flatty conquest]

sorry its gone, can a mod remove this thread?

[Flatty in Va]

Hey guys, I just wanted to post on here about a pretty sweet find i ran into the other day. I found a spare cylinder head in fredericksburg, va on craigslist and i saw the car he has while I was there (here's the link). I thought someone might want to know you can pick up a nice flatbody and all the spare parts for $1000. The car is in very decent shape, though not running, and I'd say it's a really good deal. The guy doesn't live there anymore and doesn't have time to work on it, so he's just looking to get rid of it. Just a heads up.

Thanks for posting this for me, anyone want pictures of the car?

[Weight of the G54b]

It weighs less than the both doors put together!! Seriously though, the engine weight is minimal compared to the shell. I believe it should round 400 + pounds. I know someone around here knows the exact weight.

 

Te better question is.....why do you want to know?

I keep pulling it out of my car so often that curiosity got the better of me. Plus since I have an extra engine now, I want to know how many friends I'll need to have over to move it without a lift, lol. I know that its not too much compared to the body, but little things like this bother me from time to time. I do know that I'm never going to be able to make the car that light without a lot of money or a lot of cutting, or both. lol, now I know i should remove my doors during the summer to beat my friends mustang(I don't need that much if the engine ran, but meh. stupid things are what I do best.) I always figured that the engine with all the accessories was close to 500, not necessarily there, but close

[Weight of the G54b]

I've tried looking around and so far nothing, I'm not entirely sure which forum this thread fits into so I'm trying here. What is the weight of the (4)G54B found in the Starquest(with the A/C and Power steering)? hell, whats the weight of a naturally aspirated g54b with accesories?

Thanks

[New problem! hooray conquest]

When your VC is off and the cam lobe is not touching the rocker arm of the respective valve you should be able to move it back and forth(im assuming you have mechanical valve train but i dont know). As it sits right now your compression numbers are too low and that should be your focus is to figure out why. Whether its your valves, bad rings, bad cylinder wall. If you keep cranking and cranking trying to get it to start(which it wont trust me) you are just going to do a lot of damage to your cylinder walls and burn up your starter.

 

Pull all your spark plugs out, un hook the connectors to your injectors and redo your compression test after pouring a little bit of oil in through the spark plug holes. when you crank the motor hold the throttle wide open and repost your numbers here.

After spraying in some SAE 30 motor oil, the numbers have picked up to 100, 90, 100, 90 respectively from front to back, but I could be off by 2-3 psi in either direction. I'm guessing this means its the rings are pretty much the main issue here. And yes, I have a mechanical lifter assembly, from a Montero, since the one it came with wouldn't go back on correctly(two of the bolts would not go back in at all at the front) after I pulled it off for some reason about a year ago.

[New problem! hooray conquest]

if you cut the coolant line going to the tb you would be dumping coolant all over the place. Do you have water in the radiator?

 

Did you ever pull your VC and check to make sure your valves were all moving and check the clearance on them? Its very simple but can be a little time consuming. If someone tightened your valves too much or your jet valves are stuck open you will never get that motor to run. VE needs to be in a certain range for an engine to run. low compression means the mixture is going to be off and you wont have the right ratio to ignite the air.

I shouldn't have said cut, sorry, I removed the line and blocked off the two points at which it was connected. And I'm confused about the importance of water in the radiator(other than mixing it with coolant or something)

also, I have watched the valves go at it, they all move, but I haven't checked clearance. I also don't have jet valves, someone replaced the head with a minivan unit, though I do have a spare jet head sitting in my garage somewhere that I think I pulled just in case(I honestly can't remember the reason I pulled it so long ago).

[New problem! hooray conquest]

be careful cranking it too much. You can check to see if your injectors are working properly by just removing the pipe that goes over your valve cover. You should be able to peek in while someone cranks it.

 

Be careful if you pull your TB off because it is liquid cooled(heated) so if you dont drain some cooling you are going to fill your intake(and your motor) with some coolant. there is a hose coming off the back of the intake that you can pull and drain it. If you drain that line it should be low enough to pull the TB.

 

I dont recommend you try and start the car on starter fluid. Too much of that stuff can be very hard on a motor. Did you verify if all the spark plugs have spark? If you still think only one is sparking dont bother trying to start it until you figure that problem out.

 

you can rest the cable connecting your coil to your dist cap somewhere near a ground and give the car a quick crank( you can see from the driver seat if it sparks). if that sparks then you know all your plugs should spark unless you have a problem with your wires or the rotor button isnt making contact.

i cut the one coolant thing leading to the tb long ago when it cracked and i didnt want to get a replacement. the spark plugs were sparking, the wires were replaced. it caught once and then it just wouldnt, now it wont even turn over, so i should probably bother my dad about beer very soon for you guys' help, any preference on brand?

[New problem! hooray conquest]

1st: Don't waste your money taking it into a garage. You've got a one of a kind animal. Most shops won't have a clue. Find a member near you and bribe him into helping you. Food, beer and gas money usually work good.

2nd: If only one cylinder was firing, there is no way to tell which one it was. Be careful about listining to "friends".

3rd: If only one is firing, are you sure the firing order is correct? It should be 1-3-4-2

 

It is also possible that you have it very flooded. It doesn't take much cranking for it to inject enough fuel for it to flood and wet the plugs.

Make sure you smell the oil for gas and change it right away if you do smell gas.

 

Since I'm 3 years short of being able to buy alcohol, does two out of three work well or should I bribe my dad to buy the beer and I cover the other two?

I'm just gonna go ahead and check the tb to see if theres a pool or anything, I finally gave up on the injectors throwing in too much so I unplugged the pump and have one friend spraying in some small amounts of gas or starting fluid until it starts(even though that hasn't happened yet), then cut it off, plug the pump back in and try again, this probably has a lot to do with any damage the engine has suffered with me. I know this sounds really really stupid but should I crank it for a second to get excess fuel out of the combustion chamber if its flooded, change out the spark plugs(or have them pulled out to start with?) and try again with starting fluid or gas(from a spray bottle) to see if those plugs work, then try with the pump plugged back in?

[New problem! hooray conquest]

Alright and we're back. Had difficulty doing all that stuff cause the weather and my high school just don't like the car. I got the valve timing spot on(thanks Indiana!) and the spark is now close enough to correct that the engine caught. It almost started, but I think some older fuel left in the lines kinda messed up the process and my injectors still aren't working like they should. I'll get them cleaned soon depending on a job. And my friend tells me it was cyl 4 that caught. So now I just have to work out the other three and swap out spark plugs for a fresh set just in case(seriously, I've got like 4 sets on back up, 3 sets I got for free so its all good, they're plat too). And I'm really hoping the clutch has enough pressure behind the slave to put it all the way out, cause I got all the bubbles out of the system but it just doesn't seem hard enough to put the clutch in. This thing WILL go to a garage the minute i get a paycheck large enough so that they can check on everything I did to make sure its correct and that I didn't horribly mess up the poor thing.

Thanks all for your help(especially Indiana and shift1313) I don't think this thing would have escaped the junkyard if it weren't for you guys(my parents constantly threaten me that if it stops turning over its gone. They also fail to understand why I love this car, but whatever.)

[New problem! hooray conquest]

alright, lemme try to correct everything based on the last two posts, ill see if i can get pictures if i run into further problems

[New problem! hooray conquest]

Or pop off the valve cover, and get the dowel pin in the cam gear at around 12 o'clock when the crank timing mark is at zero.

 

then install the distributor with the detent on the small gear aligned with the ridge on the shaft of the dist. don't adjust for anything, just put it in and wiggle it. (that sounds sexy). it should start right up.

The detent? forgive my ignorance, but, the hell is that? and the cam gear is already lined up so the dowel is at twelve when the crank is at tdc, problem is im not sure the crank markings are correct, cause the last time i had the engine out(a long time ago really) the timing marks were about 20 degrees behind what was actually going on in the cylinder. when the thing was at the 10d btdc, the pistons had already moved to about 10d atdc(i used this band around the top of the cylinder that seemed to indicate where the explosions happened. it seemed to line up with the 10 deg marks) unless there is something about the crank pully and the crank itself or something. maybe the previous owner's mechanic did something. and i got the dist to the point of the metal thingee that actually dist spark(i really cant remember for the life of me what its called, distributor, then whats the main thingee its attatched to??) to be right at the point for spark plug wire one when the crank mark i made was at the 10d btdc on the timing chain cover.

and for all those wondering, my cyl compression numbers were 80psi, 65psi, 85psi, and 65psi respectivly. ofcourse thats with the engine cold cause it wont start and theres some fuel getting in the cyls when i smelled the spark plugs, im gonna get some new ones just incase, maybe try again. im not entirley sure what im doing right now.

thanks for everyones help so far.

i really need to know what this detent thing is if itll give the engine a better shot at starting. kthx

[New problem! hooray conquest]

If your intake is wet but not your plugs, you probably aren't pulling in much air.

That would mean little to no compression and/or valve timing off.

Sometimes it's hard to see nice clean fuel on the plugs.

Inserting the distributor isn't a guessing game. There are exact points to line up so that there is chance of error.

Do a quick search and you'll find a good walk-through with pictures.

Does checking it against the timing marks on the timing chain cover count? I also checked it against the cam (not in really all that accurate) and I tried to see where the piston was with the spark plug pulled on cylinder 1. And is there a mark on the gear for the distributor? I always thought that one hole was an oil hole of little significance. Thanks for all the help so far everyone, I haven't gotten anything yet to check compression, I'll check with the advance auto near my house sometime tomorrow.

Where exactly can I get new pistons and rings if it does come to that? I've had trouble finding a place last time I looked and the one place I found wouldn't take my call

[New problem! hooray conquest]

Yeah, if you replaced the head gasket, you removed the distributor. Make sure that's lined up right. Then when it starts, time it right.

I am pretty sure the timing is right (or close, i tired to compensate for the thing on the cam gear spinning the dist a little when i shoved it in)

also if you are flooding your spark plugs can become fouled and not fire.

and when i last pulled out the spark plugs, they werent even wet, but the intake manifold had fuel in it.

[New problem! hooray conquest]

if you have fuel and spark, then you need air... do a compression test or a leak down test to find out where your at.

 

O.K., thanks, I'll try to borrow some stuff tomorrow. Off topic, found this interesting: http://www.automedia.com/Engine_Compressio...ccr20050801cc/1 honestly, what are the odds of the first link in a search on compression test would lead to a site with a Starquest?

[New problem! hooray conquest]

Alright, I've done everything i could think of today and here's where I'm at. The car won't even catch(have an explosion, start, try to start, whatever). I do have spark in every cylinder. The car does get fuel(so much to the point of flooding the intake manifold if i don't unplug the pump and try to start off of starting fluid) and as far as I can tell it does turn over fast enough, but it just doesn't do anything. Any idea on what i should check/replace/cry over? I've already replaced basically everything. fuel filters, fuel, fuel pump, injector o rings, air filter, oil filter, oil, coolant, head, head gasket, head bolts, a bunch of other gaskets, trans fluid, etc.