Well, I worked on the car a little more today. I went back to a previous question that was asked and, although the plug wires had been verified, I did it again. When you are my age, you can remember your first grade best friend's name but you can't remember what you had for breakfast. I checked that the distributor was wired with the correct firing order (1,5,3,6,2,4) and that from the plug terminals to the inside post on the distributor cap, the total resistance of the wires were each a little above 1,000 ohms. I'm using NGK BPR6EGP platinum plugs set at 0.035" gap. Yes, I installed new ones. NOTE: a couple of posts ago, I listed compression test results. I forgot to open the throttle during that test but they were good anyway because I had all the plugs out.
Today I put the fuse back in for the fuel pump and cranked the engine until I got fuel out of #6 cylinder injection line. Then I set the engine at Cylinder #1 TDC before the power stroke and placed a clean pill bottle under the injection line bubble fitting. I then bumped the starter for 1 engine revolution. I should have gotten fuel in the pill bottle from #6 line during it's intake stroke. I did the test several times, cleaning the bottle each time to try to understand what was happening. Sometimes I got fuel from the #6 line, sometimes I didn't. I concluded that without the injector attached, the fuel in the injection line was probably leaking into the pill bottle at irregular intervals. Also the quantity of one injection is so small that it's almost impossible to see in the pill bottle.
Theory is great, but practice doesn't always validate it.
I put the system back together with the new plugs and cranked the car again with the remote starter switch. After a few failed attempts at closed throttle, I cracked the throttle while cranking and it fired and ran at about idle speed. After warming up for about 30 seconds, I tried to open the throttle, but like before, the engine was completely unresponsive to the throttle and only stalled when I eventually closed the throttle. I did not vary timing. I did not have enough hands. Again, the new plugs were fouled but not as badly as the attempt a few days ago.
Circumstances force me to suspend work on the car for about two weeks in preparation for my brother-in-law's Spring Funeral Ceremony on June 1. He passed away in February, but Winters in Quebec are so severe that burials are not performed until Springtime when the ground thaws. This practice is now mostly tradition dating from colonial times. But outside ceremonies in Quebec during the Winter are miserable affairs. It can be -30 celsius There was a funeral service in February, but there will be another on June 1, along with a burial ceremony. My wife an I are hosting all of the participants for a reception after the Spring ceremony, so I have to organize the house for an undetermined number of people.
In June, I'll get back to the toothpick test.
Do any of you understand why, since this exercise started, the engine has never been responsive to the throttle - at all? Could it be that there is something in the injection pump that is not responding to the throttle movement?
By the way, this time I checked the exhaust pipe temperature after the period of idle with the cracked throttle. They were only warm so there had not been any significant exhaust pipe combustion taking place.
If I think of something easy in the the next couple of weeks and have the time, I'll try it and post results here.
Tom Kizer
Levis, Quebec, Canada
