the problem is prolly more in your valves on that old I6 maybe just need refreshing. you almost cant kill that ol motor. my sister had one in her granada and never checked the oil in it until it started tapping every six months or so. she would fill it up and go for another six months or so for YEARS so a little miss like that could run for another 20 years worst thing it will do is start smoking like a train if a ring collapses but if it does oh well you have another motor waiting to go in just keep oil in it and drive it
A ring collapsed in it about ten years ago, barely made it home. That doesnt need to happen on the way to Carlisle. Good thing I have AAA!
Played with motor tonight. The vac guage I bought a few weeks back cant do a compression test. Only fuel pressure and vacuum. Nobody in town stocks a leakdown tester, they just arent used much today. Not sure if Im gonna invest in any more guages at the moment. What I ended up doing instead was robbing a 90○ pcv valve from my personal junk pile. I also got another oil fill cap, mine didnt have the gasket and fit loose. I did just what Jeff did, cleaned the pcv with gasoline, blew it out and presto, no more rattle. However in dropped my idle way down so I started tinkering with carb again. That led to more tinkering with timing. I havent put a timing light on it since setting it with vacuum guage but I was dying to see where it was. I dropped the idle to spec, plugged the vacuum advance and it was way off the mark. If I had to guess based on the distance it was from the last mark on guage, I would say it was somewhere in the of 24○ btdc. Wow thats advanced! Im running regular unleaded fuel and have no ping. Starts right up, hot or cold, so Im sure its fine. My 39 year old balancer may have slipped too. I dont know which direction they slip in. Just for the heck of it, I moved it back to 10○. My vacuum dropped from 20 inches to 18. It ran ok, but its much happier where it was so I put it back. To address the oil leak at dipstick, well, I used my finger. Removed the dipstick, lightly sealed off the opening and reved the engine. I felt no difference at all. Held the throttle at a high rpm for a brief moment and no change. If I have a problem in the engine, its very minor and Im not going to worry about it. Its always used oil on 600 mile trips, so its not a new problem thats for sure. Thanks for everyones advice, its on to ball joints this weekend. They are 17 years old and 3 were bad. Lifetime warranty though. Lower ones came in this afternoon. Uppers will be in tomorrow.
Found another bad oil leak at the oil pressure guage fitting. Leaking real bad, this might be the source of most of the leak. Whew! I fell a whole lot better now!
