The slant six in my A-100 van is the first one I have ever owned, and I'm not too familar with them. How do I check the valve timing, and if it is off, how do I fix it. Thanks

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I believe 100%, and without a showdow of a doubt, that I am most certainly, absolutly positively, Crazy beyond all hope.

Do you want to check Valve Lash (lifter clearance) or do you want to check cam timing (camshaft position or "cam timing")
If the engine runs OK but makes some ticking noise, you will want to do a valve lash adjustment.
DD

I want to check cam timing. The van won't start, and backfires through the carb.

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I believe 100%, and without a showdow of a doubt, that I am most certainly, absolutly positively, Crazy beyond all hope.

You will need a timing light and 1/2 inch wrench. Please give us the year of your van and if its still original. It will have a points distributor. You will want a set of new points for it. You will also need a feeler gauge to set the points up.
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

the rear of the van is '68. the previous owner said the engine was an '85 put it still has points, so I don't know. I have allready put new points in it and roughly gapped them with a business card.

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I believe 100%, and without a showdow of a doubt, that I am most certainly, absolutly positively, Crazy beyond all hope.

If the engine is truly an 85 then its a Hydrolic lifter engine. Its also most likely has a lot of emissons junk that we will need to address. Can you take a picture of the top of the engine(carb specificly) with the air cleaner unit removed? This will give us and idea of what we are dealing with.
Thanks,
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

I would guess that they kept the old distributor and it’s wiring to simplify things when they changed the engine. But you never know without checking - he may have just thought it was an 85 engine.


I don’t remember if it was your other thread where it came up or not, but I’ve read recently that slant six timing chain gears are screwy. Sometimes the two dots do not go together like you would think they do. Remove the valve cover and check that both valves are closed when the #1 piston is at TDC on the compression stroke. And that the rotor in the distributor is pointed at the #1 spark plug wire tower at the same time.

Also, the mark on the crankshaft pulley could be wrong. It could be very wrong if the timing cover is a different year from the pulley. It would be best to find TDC by some other means and start checking everything from there.

You may not need all of this but there are some cam degreeing instructions HERE.

Danny

I agree with 65Dodge100. Since you are new to the engine, you should determine true top dead center. Otherwise it's a pig in a poke, or a crap shoot even. Also with a /6 you are usually in for a valve adjustment, if you don't know the maintenance history. Electronic ignition is a good upgrade.

Thanks for all the help. It all should proove very usefull. one thing I was wondering... is there a serial number on the block I can use to find the year of the engine? I would like to know for sure, for future upgrades and such. Thanks.

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I believe 100%, and without a showdow of a doubt, that I am most certainly, absolutly positively, Crazy beyond all hope.

Yes, if it hasn’t been milled off. The engine number is stamped on a pad jutting out from the block where the head meets it, facing the sky on the front passenger side. There is a picture of it in THIS THREAD.

Any casting numbers on the block may help. Count the number of freeze plugs on the drivers side and let us know if your head has spark plug tubes (like the picture above). I don’t know how to de-code the numbers but there are some here who can. You may have to make a new post so that it gets noticed.

Danny

Secret decoder page here.

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I don’t remember if it was your other thread where it came up or not, but I’ve read recently that slant six timing chain gears are screwy. Sometimes the two dots do not go together like you would think they do. Remove the valve cover and check that both valves are closed when the #1 piston is at TDC on the compression stroke. And that the rotor in the distributor is pointed at the #1 spark plug wire tower at the same time.

Also, the mark on the crankshaft pulley could be wrong. It could be very wrong if the timing cover is a different year from the pulley. It would be best to find TDC by some other means and start checking everything from there.

You may not need all of this but there are some cam degreeing instructions HERE.

Danny[/quote]
Danny this is on a van Sooo it would not be easy to do. Lets keep it simple til we are sure he needs to pull it.
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Don't forget the easy stuff, like swapped around plug wires, or the distributor being 180 degrees out.