anti mechanic

[gas money]

i am the proud owner of an e29 without sails. so i was going to rely on the a4.
i think this site will be godsend to me. i cant seem to find a mechanic worth his salt. unfortunately i am not very handy. i was hoping to pick some of your brains. the plugs for cylinders 1 and 2 are dry but 3 and 4 are wet. i know my timing is off and thanks to this site i know how to set it now. i have had the engine rebuilt. hopefully the timing will be the fix but i somehow don't think that will do it. i am losing my faith. any ideas?

[keelcooler]

Gas, Exhaust or manifold problem to start. Find it before it rusts up your rebuild. Good luck.

[gas money]

i am sorry i meant those plugs are getting fuel. i have a new tank and new fuel line going to it as well

[keelcooler]

Does it run? We need some history and vitals

[sastanley]

the devil is in the details

gas money...welcome to the forum. We'll get it running! Don't waste money on mechanics. Taking some time to get to know your own engine will be worth its weight in gold

As we work thru the process, the more detail you provide the better...Are you sure the plug wires are in the correct order? rigspelt recently posted up a picture with a good diagram on the plug wiring..it should be easy to find here on the forum (probably in the ignition section). I have one out there too, but I wasn't as graphic with it as rigsy was.

How do you know the timing is out? The engine will run on 3 cylinders, sometimes even 2, which may give you a false sense of a timing issue (rough running). If the plug wires are wrong, you get misfires and wet cylinders sometimes too. Just opening the door to the possibilities.

[slightly off topic]
Sails - Check out Bacon's in Annapolis...they have TONS of used sails..you should get the I,J,P&E dimensions for your boat I assume E29 = Ericson 29 - www.baconsails.com

I = headstay length (jib luff length)
J = length from headstay pin to base of mast (used to determine jib size) - I can elaborate more later...this one can be a little tricky.
P = mainsail luff (boom to top of mast at sheave)
E = length of boom (mainsail foot)

edit- here ya go. --> http://www.sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_ID=999

[gas money]

this was a katrina boat. it was not submerged and the engine fired right up when the boat was delivered to me in jan. 07. since it cranked easily i didnt mess with it and did other projects. as the deadline approached to have the boat moved i tried to run the engine but to no avail. while painting and sanding i got a bunch of trash in the fuel tank. so the carb was full of garbage. the boat was launched while the carb was being rebuilt (for the first time.) when i got the carb back it still wouldnt start. i did a compression test and #3 had no compression. thinking it would be better to fix it properly i removed the engine and took it to a machine shop. he decked the head, turned the crank, put in new pistons valves etc. i put the engine back in tried to start it. it may have ran for 1 minute but sounded horrible. the half mechanic that was helping had to guess at where the distributor was set. while it was running lots of extra fuel was going on the floor from the air intake. he took off the carb and pushed the floats with his thumbs. it hasnt ran since. thinking that he bent the floats too much i took it to a carb guy who went through it again. he claims that it wasnt set right but after reinstalling it i have the same problem. i have compression on all 4 of at least 90 and a good spark. http://www.flickr.com/photos/68069460@N00/ any help is greatly appreciated.

[sastanley]

get the manual (A-4 bible!)

gas money...the first thing you need to do is get the MMI Service manual from Don. It provides all the details on these settings specific to the A-4. It will be the best money you ever invest in the engine, and costs about the same as one hour of a (cheap) mechanic's time ($47). It might take a whole weekend to get it running, but you will have set it up properly and know how to do it after that.

If you have compression, now we need to get the spark & fuel right, and then it WILL run. Fuel pouring out of the carb is dangerous!!

For spark, get the distributor set properly, & get the plug wires on properly (1-2-4-3).

For fuel, I would remove the carb and set the float valve properly..I think you want it level when it is upside down, but my manual is not here at work.

Don't worry about the Katrina part of it. My boat might as well have been spun around by a hurricane looking at the condition of the motor when I got it.

[Mark S]

Gas,

Compression of 90 lbs. or better in each cylinder is a great start. That means your rings and valves are okay and you probably won't need to get inside the engine. In these circumstances, a poorly running engine can be made to run better by improving fuel, timing and spark. I would start with ignition, installing new points and condenser (or, better yet, installing electronic ignition), new cap and rotor, new plugs, and new coil. I would ascertain that the plug wires go from the cap to the corresponding plugs. Some thread recently dealt with the proper location of the cap on the distributor and the plug wires from the cap to the plugs. I'd be sure my gasoline was good. I'd make sure the fuel pump was performing. I'd rotate the distributor until I heard maximum RPM. These things are fairly simple, fall within the category of ordinary maintenance, and may yield spectacular improvements. Only if the foregoing do not greatly improve the engine would I then get into the carburetor.

Shawn's right -- the manual is money well spent, and it will tell you how to do all the foregoing.

Good luck!

Mark

[CalebD]

this was a katrina boat. it was not submerged and the engine fired right up when the boat was delivered to me in jan. 07. since it cranked easily i didnt mess with it and did other projects. as the deadline approached to have the boat moved i tried to run the engine but to no avail. while painting and sanding i got a bunch of trash in the fuel tank. so the carb was full of garbage. the boat was launched while the carb was being rebuilt (for the first time.) when i got the carb back it still wouldnt start. .

I just hope you did not get a 'bunch of trash' into the cylinders and fuel system, but it sounds like a likely candidate. If the bunch o' trash is sawdust and fiberglass dust etc. I can only hope that your fuel filters will catch it before it somehow gets into the carb, or worse into the pistons to mess with the valves.
I am just an amateur mechanic compared to many here but I wonder if a couple of shots of starter fluid, aka; ether might help burn some of the particles out of the valves.
Replace the fuel filters and consider draining and filtering the gas tank. Do you have a water separating filter installed?
Clean the carb again as it has some very small passages for the fuel to flow through but get rid of as much particulate matter you can from your fuel tank as that is just asking for problems.
My $.02.

[gas money]

all of the garbage got into the tank prior to the rebuild. i bought a 6 gal tank and have been using that since. (i somehow lost my pickup for the main tank.) i have replace the coil and had the fuel pump rebuilt. from what i can tell it is working well. am i supposed to have any fuel in the small bowl under the spark arrestor? as far as the ignition goes. i have a new coil but the rest is old. i had to replace the coil since i left the ignition on for about 30 mins and almost had a fire. another item that leads me to believe the timing is not quite right. i am going out there today to try again. thanks for the advice

[sastanley]

gas money...if you are cranking the engine and it is not starting there will be some fuel puddled in the bottom of the flame arrestor housing. I do not think it should not be there if the engine is running. That is a good indicator you are getting fuel. You also said you have compression. 2 of the 3 components to run are there. Third is spark (ignition)..so let's keep making progress!

I had to replace my fuel tank due to a hole (30 year old aluminum.) I replaced mine with a Moeller polyethylene tank of similar dimensions to my old tank.

If you can see the front of the engine (flywheel cover) it is easy to set timing with the roll pin position... there is a post here on the forum about setting timing from scratch (I did it this spring) and the diagrams about spark plug wiring by myself and rigspelt show relative locations of rotor/cap position, etc. Since you keep coming back to a timing issue, set it correctly from scratch so there is no question.

Other ignition components..make sure the points inside the distributor are clean...a piece of sandpaper slid across each contact should work to clean it up..be careful..i broke my spring that closes the points by not paying attention.

[Baltimore Sailor]

Have we made sure that gas money is not cranking the engine with the raw water intake open, and flooding the cylinders?

Just checking!

[sastanley]

BS, no we haven't..good question!

[roadnsky]

Gas-
Here is a simple step-by-step for setting timing...

1) Rotate engine to bring the first cylinder to TDC. (See attached PDF)

2) Loosen the hold-down bracket on the base of the distributor.

3) Connect a 12 volt timing light across the primary terminals of the coil. At TDC the bulb will light.
(Basically a simple 12 volt bulb with alligator clips to pos and neg)

4) Rotate the distributor until the points (or the electronic ignition system) is just opening the primary circuit. This position will be indicated by the light bulb going out.

5) Lock the distributor back in place by tightening the hold-down bracket.

And attached is the procedure for finding TDC on number one...

[rigspelt]

1) Rotate engine to bring the first cylinder to TDC. (See attached PDF)
2) Loosen the hold-down bracket on the base of the distributor.
3) Connect a 12 volt timing light across the primary terminals of the coil. At TDC the bulb will light.
(Basically a simple 12 volt bulb with alligator clips to pos and neg)
4) Rotate the distributor until the points (or the electronic ignition system) is just opening the primary circuit. This position will be indicated by the light bulb going out.
5) Lock the distributor back in place by tightening the hold-down bracket.
And attached is the procedure for finding TDC on number one...

We found the timing light gave us an initial setting, but still had to fine tune the distributor rotation to get good starting and running. Make sense?