exact part name?

[FestYboy]

make sure you clear flood your engine while cranking (hold pedal to floor), likely with lack of spark, you have flooded the engine and possibly washed the rings as well.

[Winfield1990]

Yah I noticed that , took the plug out , let it sit for a little while , put a teaspoon of oil in each combustion chamber , unplugged the main relay so the fuel pump would be cut off.

Took compression checks of each chamber and compression is 50-75 between all the cylinders flat head screw driver was used to keep throttle wide open , I cross tested to make sure my tester was good on my fiero which came out at 150psi on a cylinders with 3 of the 6 spark plugs out , so I know my tester is good....

So with the oil in the cylinders my guess now that I know I have a fuctioning tester , is the lack of compression is due to the top end atleast mostly or the main cause. So being minimum in hayes manual says i think it was 150 , assuming I have spark on all plugs and fuel in all chambers that compression is too low to run.

But before I jump to that conclusion i need to check cam timing to make sure that its right.

[FestYboy]

also should try to a pressure drop test. if you can provide and hold about 100 PSI to a cylinder at TDC through the plug hole and HOLD THE CRANK STILL, you can hear where the air is escaping to narrow down what repairs are needed.

noise in the intake = intake valves
noise in the exhaust = exhaust valves
noise from valve cover (PCV port or oil fill hole or dipstick tube) = rings
bubbles in coolent = head gasket

[Winfield1990]

wondering how exactly I can supply 100psi , we have an air compressor but idk if I have anything to use as a fitting for the air hose to the sparkplug hole.

I need to try and make sure got fuel to every injector , and spark to every plug tomorrow.

Checked the cam timing on the car and thats good , spark timing is a few degrees retarded from tdc was going to go outside tomorrow when theres light and put is as close to tdc as I can , where exactly is the crank timing marks for timing advance on the crank? all ive been able to see is the tdc V notch , and the spark timing should be closer to 10 degrees advance for base timing right?

[FestYboy]

set the dizzy hold down bolt JUST left of center of the adjustment groove, that'll get you darn close.

[Winfield1990]

is that with the distributor installed with the notch angled 180 degree leg facing up or down? Like where it keys into the camshaft , on the distributor key theres a notch on one side. I have it facing up right now after seeing it moved the rotor to a more retarded timing position thinking it would give me more adjustment range to angle through on the distributor?

[Winfield1990]

Well tried making it go in with the key on the distributor facing down and could not get it to go in , so figure it can only go in 1 way with the key facing up. I could not get any combustion noise anywhere through the distributor adjustment range , with the rotor pointing toward the number 1 plug wire direction being theres 3 rotor cap positions. I have spark on all the plugs

So being the compression being as low as it is , is the problem. Just wanting to make sure im not somehow overlooking spark timing

I did however want to try something out and I purposely swapped wires to throw off spark timing and there was combustion misfire noise , which is kind of weird to me because with the lower compression the air/fuel mixture should be hottest when timed correctly to give the greatest chance for ignition...... Regardless I need to pull the head anyway so idk why im not working and typing instead because compression did not raise much at all when oil was added to help seal the rings , so the topend needs to come off anyway. Because the cam turns , and the cam/crank marks are lined up and compression is bad.

[FestYboy]

i think you confused yourself there Win. i ment for you set the timing by the dizzys relation to it's top hold down bolt in it's groove (without going inside the dizzy). if #1 cyl is at TDC, the rotor should be in the 10 o'clock position. the rotor shaft will only go into the cam one way, though i've heard that it can be forced in 180* out (i immagine that it is due to cam notch wear). i've never benn able to force a dizzy 180* out.

try using ether as your fuel for testing (doesn't require good compression to fire).

[Winfield1990]

yah I understood what you ment , I just wasnt completely sure if the distributor shaft could go in 180 .. which I know now... because if it could then that could make a 60degree timing swing even with the hold down adjustment being in the same exact spot.

dont have any ether I have wd-40 but didnt think to try to use it and heard it works great.... but went ahead took the valve cover off , found some oil/coolant mix in the valve cover , so pulled the intake and exhaust off before got too dark and went to the gym so can pull the head tomorrow if get a chance. Was already expecting them to be mixed due to

*low compression from topend from oil added compression test
*no coolant , along with new water pump installed on car
*oil levels higher than the full mark , althought not milky/syrupy ish

so figured I have to do the work anyway might as well go ahead and get ready to pull the head instead of keep fiddling around trying to get it to crank with horrible compression and waste all the day light , and currently the head is still on so I can still leak down test still if I can find something around the house to work which I think I can use the fittings and hoses from my compression tester to do it maybe idk yet.

[Bert]

The trials and tribulations of being a 'dead Festy' owner. Sooner or later she'll go though!

[Winfield1990]

yah , im just glad I sorted out the spark issue as quick as I did without having to replace hundreds of dollars worth of electronics , As long as this turns out to just be the head gasket then im golden but ill see...

I just got the car maybe 1-2 weeks ago , another hint also that the engine badly overheated besides what I listed is that the heatshield exhaust bolts got so hot they deformed a little , some of the bolts around the flange area like the built in washer part got so hot they melted to almost paperthin with sharp jagged edges. Got all the bolts out I tried without any real issues , Did however break 2 of the bolts into the 3 bolt flange for the exhaust manifolds though.

[bravekozak]

Winfield, just so you are aware. The distributor firing order is 1-3-4-2 counterclockwise!
Rotate the distributor clockwise to advance, counterclockwise to retard the timing.

[Movin]

A teaspoon of oil in the cylinder?

[Winfield1990]

thanks for the counterclock wise info , always good to know. However I saw it already in my hayes manual when looking through the the specs before I did any work on it.

Yes its a trick I picked up on a while back , do an initial compression test , than afterwards add a little oil to each cylinder to help create a seal at the rings if compression only goes up a hair thats due to the volume being taken up from the oil and no info really learned .. but if it raises quite a bit and around levels it should be then the compression test is confirming excessive ring wear and top end being pretty much good still. Of course doesnt give you a clear cut answer cause topend and bottom end could be bad and so the oil not do anything to let you know the ring condition because no pressure is able to build anyhow.. along with being a dynamic test vs a static test like a leakdown test but still a nice trick that helps figure things out sometimes. I may have misquoted by saying teaspoon , tablespoon is probably more like the amount it needs to be. I have only done it like 3 times total and this last time its been a while since ive done it think I may have used too little this time teaspoon vs tablespoon , but being a relatively small displacement should of still gave me a good enough indication.

[Movin]

I put a 1/4 cup and more in bigger engines . Crank over once with the plugs still out and a towel thrown over the engine. Then put plugs back in or compression test, what ever you are doing.

Some pistons are are domed and you might get away with a good test with so little oil. Some such as our engines have area in the piston that will easily hold a tablespoon with no oil reaching the rings. Other engines have a even bigger dish and some combine the dish with a piston not level to gravity and that is why I over fill and blow out the oil before a wet test or start attempt. What ever you do do not forget to blow out the excess oil by turning the engine over before putting plugs in or screwing in a compression gauge. Oil does not compress and something bad could happen. This is the most fool proof way though, good luck!