Hey there slanters

today was a warm day and my car heated up a li'l bit. I was wondering what can be causing this, going all over the head gasket, timing, etc etc. and tonight (5 min ago) I reved it up nice for getting a green light, I aligned the car with my garage door and... KA-BOOOMMM it died. Funky burn rubber smell like clutch blowing (but I have an auto trans) so I figure that maybe my module died or my coil or my whole ignition system.

I was planning to move on to an old mopar performance (MSD 6AL rebranded) ignition with a blaster 2 coil so I'm not concerned about that...

just wondering if an ingition miss or malfunction can cause an engine to heat up and/or ping at certain RPM range.

Thanks for your advice.

Juan

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

Greetings from the cold part of America!

I saw your ealier post, and my guess was that it was something with your timing, or a blown head gasket that was causing the heating and pinging.

Could also be something as simple as a bad thermostat (engine overheating will cause pinging).

Sometimes it helps to think of the last time the engine ran fine, and then start to work forward and remember each change you did to the motor (if any).

If you made a change, and then the motor started to run bad, it may be related (even indirectly) to the change.

For example, new plug wires should make a motor run better, but if a motor starts to run poorly a month after getting new plug wires, some people would assume that it was anything BUT the new plug wires (since they are new). But the last change is always the first suspect.

In the example above, the plug wires might have been defective.

k

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1963 Dodge Dart, motor by Doug Dutra, Offenhauser two carb intake, Pertronix, Clifford 6x2, Flowmaster 40's, Erson RV15/295 RDP, head work. Addco anti-sway bar, urethane suspension bushings, KYB's, racing leafs, SSBC discs. Need ZDDP? Get STP.

Thanks Kevin

That's pretty much my way of thinking this things. The history goes like that: my radiator top tank was funky soldered and opened up. The car threw all the coolant out and got some serious heat up. I drove it for about 10 blocks (till I could stop at a gas station) and refilled with coolant, the temp went down and I drove it again to my garage (another 16 blocks). I tore it down and went to pay a "nice-social" visit to my radiator rebuider he soldered it again this time no leaks. In the meantime, while I was cleaning up the coolant mess, I decided to go to electro fan (I had those lying around ever since I rebuilt the engine) and so I did. In the process, and ignoring some advice, I took out the thermostat. I installed my sender unit on a brass T I made for upper rad hose. Assembled everything again, started it, ran great from the first time.

Drove it daily for about 5 days w/o any complaint or malfunction, I'm very happy with electrofan conversion, and then I started to notice pinging above certain RPM range, some tendence to go on the hot side, then yesterday tending to heat up, then everything was fine but I got a hard time starting it about a mile before it died.

I have to say that I'm suspicious about my head gasket too... If it was a regular one I would had changed it w/o any q, but since it's a steel one, I first thought it gonna be ok.

How can I rule out burnt head gasket? (or missealing gasket) ?

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

Hmmm...

I've never blown a head gasket - but this is what I heard:

1) visually look for water in your oil, or

2) pull out your dipstick and hold a burning match to it (do this away from your car in case of fuel vapors). If the oil on your dipstick pops or sizzles, that indicates water...

Wow, sounds like a pesky problem - best wishes on nailing this down!!!

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1963 Dodge Dart, motor by Doug Dutra, Offenhauser two carb intake, Pertronix, Clifford 6x2, Flowmaster 40's, Erson RV15/295 RDP, head work. Addco anti-sway bar, urethane suspension bushings, KYB's, racing leafs, SSBC discs. Need ZDDP? Get STP.

The issue was that when I reassembled the rad I pressed a hot wire (the one that goes from ignition to the voltage regulator) underneat the rad side "wing". This created a kinda come and go short circuit that burned that wire aaaaallll the way long to the conector in the firewall and from that point back to the underdash wiring. I'm rewiring that (anyway my wires was 30 years old, that's for a consolation)

and I'm going to swap over to my mopar performance MSD 6AL box with a blaster 2 coil. I ain't even bothered on checkin on my old ecu, with this kinda short is dead for sure i guess....

will keep posted as I move along with the work.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.