Getting ready to start the engine

I got home from work and decided to try and get the engine started.   First thing I need is a gas tank.  Here is mine!

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The rust holes in the floor provide a handy place to bring the fuel and return lines up into the car.  I clamped a lawnmower gas tank to a wheel and used some ratty old fuel line to tie the fuel line into the tank.  The return is just stuck in the filler hole for now.  This kinda sucks but should run the car for now.  I filled up the tank and moved on to the next job.

Now that I have gas I will need spark.  Here is the distributor.

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It is a Delco unit.  If it seems like there is a lot of GM hardware on this car that is because this is a 225 Buick V6.  Buick designed this engine and used it in the early-mid 60’s.  They then decided that V-8s and straight-6 engines were the way to go and sold the whole engine production line to Kaiser.  When the gas crisis hit in the early 70’s Jeep was owned by AMC and they had their own engines.  So GM bought the engine back and starting using it again.  Eventually it became the 3.8 liter V6.  Handy since parts are very thick on the ground.  But that is not important right now. Let’s take the cap off and see what we have.

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No critters or bad rust.  Good deal.  Now the cap comes off.

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And now we can see the points and mechanical advance.  The advance weighs were a little sticky so I lubed them.  I also dressed the points with my rarely-used points file.  I then put the distributor back together and checked for spark.  The spark from the coil looked decent.

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In the picture above I am putting the spark plugs back in.  Notice the fuel filter was full of gas.  That means the fuel pump is working.  I replaced the plugs, poured a little gas in the carb,  and got ready to try and start the car.  I got some helpers to stand around with cameras and fire extinguishers and hit the key.   The car fired right away but would not run. My daughter said gas was splashing out of the carb.  I guess I flooded it because once that started I could not even get it to sputter.  It was getting late and I was tired so I shut down for the night. I hope the needle valve in the carb is not leaking…

 

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