I have a 1970 chevy pickup, and I am looking for some suggestions on how to get it running, becasue I dont know what else to try.
About 4 years ago, I was driving it and the cam gear broke. I had it towed home, and replaced the timing chain with a double roller chain. When I went to put the oil pan back on i couldnt get the pan rails closer than 1/2 inch from the block, so I pulled the engine so i could reinstall the pan with it upside down on the stand.
After I had the engine out, I decided to check the rod bearings, and they were very worn, but were within spec when I measured it with a new bearing, so I replaced the rod bearings.
After that, I replaced the oil pan and timing cover with new ones from e-bay (btw, ebay oil pans are junk). And I checked the compression and found out all the valves were bent. I had expected they might be, even though many people had said they wernt. I replaced the valves (just lapped them in, the seats wernt in too terrible shape), and replaced the valve springs (with cheap "z28" springs).
I put it all back together, with a rebuilt carb (my dad did it), and a serpentine acessory drive setup, and a few wiring changes (I have since checked all the wiring and the changes all work correctly).
Once it was all assembled, I used a priming rod and a drill to circulate oil though the engine, then started it. it ran fine, but would die like you just turned the key off when you put it in gear.
After probably a total of about 15 minutes of it running, it would no longer start. I was tired of working on it by then, so i didnt look at it for at least a few months. Recently, I checked the compression, and it was 0psi on all 8 cylinders.
I readjusted the valves (leaving them slightly loose), and checked the compresion again, and all but 2 cylinders were over 150 psi (one was 90 and one was 120 i think).
After that, i filled the float bowl of the carb with fresh gas and it started. I drained most of the old gas out of the tank, and dumped a littlr bit of new gas in, and after that it seemed to run alright on the gas from the tank.
I set the timing and adjusted the carb with a vaccum gauge, then I tried driving it around and it seemed like it ran farily well.
I did find out that the distributor was only getting 10-11 volts when cranking the engine, so I added a relay and the seemed to fix the problem.
I went to start it again the next day, and it would not start. I put a little bit of fresh gas and some starting fluid in the carb and eventually got it to start.
I drove it around for a few minutes again and it was fine.
2 days later, I went out and started it ( I had to crank it for about 15-20 seconds), and it started and ran ok, but then it started running rough and died and it wouldnt start again, even when i tried again 2 days later.
What should i do next? I dont have any other ideas. One time i started an old chevy truck that had 400k+ miles on it and had been sitting for many years, and it ran fine. Mine must have something wrong with it. Its in too nice shape to scrap, but It has been sitting in the street infront of my house not running for 5 years, and I dont really have any other ideas to get it running.
If you dont want to read the whole thing, I have an old truck, and I replaced the timing chain, and I can get it to run fine for a couple days at a time, and then it wont start again, and I have no more ideas of hoe to fix it.
