1977 Dodge V8 440-3 Engine extremely shaky

Started by 50YrOlNoob, April 02, 2022, 01:22 PM

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50YrOlNoob

Blessings all,
This RV sat for ten years. I dropped and cleaned the gas tank, gas pump and fuel lines. I added new fuel filters. I changed the motor and transmission oil. I changed the sparkplugs, the distributor cap and rotor and checked the firing order per the recommended settings 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2. I hear a vacuum leak but can't find it. The old spark plugs had oil on the threads per the attached picture.

Any help or suggestions to help with the excessive shakes would be greatly appreciated. I just need to drive it 200 miles to it's next resting place. Paying to tow it is way too expensive nowadays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBHhUBUe0ec

Mlw

The sound of your video is really crappy but it sounds like you have misfires.


Good explanation of the system: http://dave78chieftain.com/

Go to Dodge Class A motorhome chassis/electronic ignition. You will find a treasure of information there.


then pull each spark plug an check if you have spark. What is the state of your sparkplug? They will tell you a lot of the state of your engine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVCs5gWLUyI

If you do have misfires you have to start at the beginning of the distribution which is your distribution cap. How is the rotor and how are the connection points in the cap. When they are corroded clean them.

What is the state of your spark plug wires? When they are old they can leak spark or and hence causing a bad running engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_EFGAFxi1w

Do a compression test. as far as I know it needs about 130 PSI with no more that 25 PSI between the cylinders on a warm engine and full throttle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYuox-B1C2Q

And last, cleaning out a carburator that has been standing for a long time helps a lot too.


Mlw

Ok didn't see the spark plugs at first.

if i look to the second on the right, its fouled. See the video for the sparkplugs.

You can also clean the tips of the plugs with a wirebrush and see if it improves as well next to earlier mentioned contact points in your distrubution cap and rotor,

As for the oil on the threads, they don't match the tips cause I think they are pretty clean so don't know what's going on there.

And I wasn't thinking about it at firs but the sound of the engine at the end like air sucking in is NOT a good sign and seems to indicate a bigger problem with your engine, but for that you need a more experienced person than me.

Eyez Open

You have a mess that is for sure. Each person's approach to something of this nature is different. Over the yrs with marine engines I've always bathed the cylinders with PB blaster just for a start. I sense you have little time to clean up this old engines internals?

Elandan2

Do you have a vacuum gauge? You can use it to diagnose many engine problems without taking anything apart. Watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrnzD7PgoHI
Rick and Tracy Ellerbeck

Arkansas travco

I just watched the video. I zoomed in on the plug wires on the right and it looks like there is spark jumping between the wires and and any other ground. If you start it at night then you can see the spark jump better.

50YrOlNoob

I want to thank you all for the helpful tips and resources. That's great advice you all gave me and I will definitely keep them in mind for my next project. I have a third RV that I will be fixing to keep.

My mechanic friend came down after I had set the proper firing order. He fixed the idle by adjusting two screws on the back of the carburetor and by adjusting the choke adjustment screw because it was letting too much air in. Whenever he would place his hand on the choke it would normalize so adjusting it made a world of a difference.

I traded two RV's for a title on a piece of land in Nevada 230 miles from me. I had already fixed one with all you guy's help and drove it there a few weeks ago. This was the second one. The lady was OK with following me in case something went wrong. I told her we would drive 30-40 miles all the way there and she said it was OK. I have 100 miles AAA RV tow so I figured as long as it made it half ways I was good and since I was in a hurry to get it done and didn't have much time to trouble shoot at all. I only had a three day window since the time I created this post so I ended up following a YouTube video that showed the use of cleaners and I was surprised by the actual results. It actually worked. Check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agAWXnT4-EQ&t=247s

When we first started driving I was going 30-40 mph on the freeway when all of the sudden there was an explosion and some gunk came out after about 10 minutes of driving. Then the car started going 40-50 mph but then there was a second explosion of gunk about 30 minutes after the first explosion and then the car performed even better. I was able to drive it as fast as 70-75 and did great going up hill too after that. We got there with no mechanical problems at all.

Thank you all once again. God bless!

Mlw

The firing order wasn't right??? D:oH! Didn't see that one coming as you put such a nice picture of it with your question and actually mentioned the firing order :D

As I found these kind of topics leaving me with more questions then answers I'm going to add some info if that's allright.


The two screws at the back you mentioned are the idle screws. As your engine was idling I didn't mentioned those, but yes those need to be adjusted right. For people who want to know more about this  plus the choke adjustment and the carburetor in whole:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nytI-8__hms
The guy has a lot more, learned a lot from him.

And as a last: Looking at the picture of your sparkplugs you couldn't had the engine running long (understandably) because as far as I could see they don't tell the lean mixture condition (please correct me if I'm wrong)

@Arkansas travco
I don't know if those were sparkles or dust particles, at first I thought they were sparkles too but sparkles coming from a Vacuumline and a fuelline? I hope not.  :D I concentrated at the sparkplug wires but didn't see anything there.










50YrOlNoob

Thanks again Mlw,
I appreciate your further explanation and supplying that awesome channel "Uncle Tony's Garage". Wow that guy gives some great detailed information. I subscribed.

I was in such a hurry to get this done so I looked for answers everywhere and I made several mistakes. That YouTube video I uploaded was before my friend told me the firing order was wrong. That's the reason I mentioned the firing order on my closing comment but disregarded that clarification thinking there was no need to mention it but you guys are sharp and there's always a need to explain things in order to clear everything up and for others to learn from our mistakes.

I also didn't specify but the picture is of the original sparkplugs that were in the car for 10 years. There was major oil leakage from the head cover gaskets that I fixed but I don't think that contributed to the oil on them much. They looked as if they burned ok but the engine does need a maintenance job because all the spark plugs did have oil on all the threads.

There was some scotch tape on cables for some reason and debris including a bird feathers and some leafs that got stuck on cables while I was filming. Luckily nothing got sucked in to the carburetor.

God bless you all

Mlw

You're welcome,

As a closure, I'm restoring my engine at the moment and with me some of the screws of the valvecovers (that's what you probably meant with the head cover gaskets?) were so loose that i could take them off by hand, so yes I had major oil leaks too. My manifolds are always smoking like an chimney  when I kill the engine.

I've placed new sparkplugs a few months ago and as I was busy today to remove the head I removed them, and they had the exact same "oil ring" like yours so probably it were the leaky valvecover gaskets.

Its an easy fix and anybody could do it. '

Oz

Interesting note on the valve cover bolts:
The manual has an error in it. In two places it gives the torque for them. Once in the section where it gives the instruction for installation and once in the torque table.

As I recall (and this well may be incorrect in its accuracy), the procedure says 40 Foot Pounds and the torque table says Inch Pounds .

When I reinstalled my valve covers, I used the foot pounds and it dimpled the covers really bad, causing actual gaps between the covers and gaskets between the bolts! This would have certainly caused severe leakage.
So, I took the covers off and carefully reworked the lips back to flat and even and then re-read the process. Yep, 40 Ftlbs.
Then, I looked at the torque table.  Inch lbs.

I re-installed the covers and applied the inch lbs.
That was correct.
This is verified by an older thread in which the dimpling problem was addressed.
1969 D22, 2 x 1974 D24 Indians, 1977 27' Itasca

Mlw

Yep, have the dimples too.

Good note on the torques. On the other hand, I'm always carefull torquing down doing it exactly as this guy, Yankee's journey and fine coffee

But also remember, there is a difference between cork gaskets and rubber gaskets. Rubber needs more torque. As the original types of gaskets were cork the specifications in the manual will be for the cork type.