Re: File this one under "Do I feel stupid, or what"

[amckiwi@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Matt
My manifold bolts come loose when the car is used
it is part of my maintenance schedule to tighten them regularly or i blow 
gaskets
Thanks 4 the honesty it brought a smile to my face
If you need any new curse words let me know I have a few Australian / New 
Zealand ones you will have not heard
Stu
Melbourne
Australia

Quoting Matt Haas <mhaas@xxxxxxx>:

> One of the nagging problems that I've had with my American almost the 
> entire time I've had it is a rough, hot idle. I've done a bunch over the 
> years that has sneaked up on solving the problem but since I got back from 
> Kenosha, the problem has gotten much worse and at times, it's been more 
> like riding a mechanical bull than sitting in a Rambler with a stockish six 
> cylinder.
> 
> Anyway, outside of rebuilding the motor, I've done the following to the car 
> to try and fix it:
> - Removed the heat riser valve (was stuck half open) and had the faces of 
> the manifolds machined flat, double checked the seal by spraying with WD-40.
> - Cursed at it
> - Noticed that the dwell angle was all over the place at idle so I shoved a 
> Pertronix Ignitor in it
> - Cursed at it
> - Put the correct carb back on it (it had an Economizer with a bad choke 
> coil when I got it). Checked for leaks again with WD-40 -- made no 
> difference in idle quality.
> - Cursed at it
> - Fiddled with carb jetting, idle mixture, and timing. Checked for leaks 
> again with WD-40 -- made no difference.
> - Cursed at it
> - Put a rebuilt distributor on it (or more correctly, put the rebuilt 
> distributor's guts in my housing since the housing I got was messed up)
> - Cursed at it
> - Fiddled with idle mixture and timing
> - Cursed at it
> - Replaced the plugs, wires, and cap
> - Cursed at it
> 
> None of these things really fixed the problem (the distributor sure helped 
> with acceleration and high speed operation) but my cursing skills have 
> improved quite a bit so it wasn't all for nothing.
> 
> I had actually tried spraying WD-40 at the joints between the carburetor, 
> manifolds, and engine a few more times than what I mentioned above and it 
> never made a difference until today so I had pretty much written off 
> "vacuum leak" as a problem. What I did different was drive the car first 
> until it started idling rough. I then popped the hood and first thing I 
> checked was the choke. It was wide open so I started looking around and it 
> looked like there was a gap between the manifold and the gasket at the #3 
> cylinder. I got out the WD-40 again and gave it a good spray and sure 
> enough, the engine smoothed out quite a bit for a few seconds. I sprayed 
> WD-40 at a few other places and saw improvements in idle quality again so I 
> got out my torque wrench and started tightening bolts. It seems what I did 
> when I had the manifolds off almost 5 years ago was to fully tighten the 
> bolts that only go into the exhaust manifold and just snug up the rest of 
> them. The bolts that attach the intake manifold were a full half turn 
> loose! I torqued them to 25 ft. lbs and reset the idle mixture and took it 
> for a test drive. I'll need to go recheck them after the engines had a 
> chance to cool down and I'll probably have to replace the gaskets to get a 
> totally smooth idle but man, what a difference a tight intake manifold made!
> 
> Matt
> 
> mhaas@xxxxxxx
> Cincinnati, OH
> http://www.mattsoldcars.com
> 1966 Rambler Rebel
> 1968 Rambler American sedan
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