Saturday August 9 2020 is one of the highlights of the build – the Mighty 413 engine started and ran!
It wasn’t easy. The engine fought us every step of the way. But it finally ran!
After installing the exhaust (documented in I’m Exhausted!) it was time to install the battery and starter relay, fill with fluids, and call a friend to help.
The starter relay, voltage regulator, and battery box are all bolted to the inner fenderwell.So, the left and right inner fenderwells were installed, the brackets for the battery box were finally figured out (I continue to be thankful I’ve taken so many pictures), and the rest of the electrical wiring was roughly routed.
It was now time to add fluids. Barely visible in the picture above is a fluids checklist taped to the windshield. I recorded each fluid as I added it: oil, water, power steering fluid, transmission fluid, gasoline, and rear end lube.
You might think this is overkill. I disagree. It is way too easy to skip a step in the excitement of starting the engine for the first time. And it is very expensive to start an engine without oil!
It is also easy to overlook partial fills. For example, the transmission holds 9 quarts of ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid), but you can only add about 6 quarts initially before it overflows the transmission. ATF must be pumped into the torque converter by a running engine before you can add the rest. A checklist helps you keep track of this.
After double checking everything it was time to turn the key.
The engine spun over nicely, thanks to the largest battery I could find. This battery is rated at 1050 amps of cranking power, where most batteries are 400-700 amps.
An initial “burp” from the carburetor got our hopes up. Then… Nothing.
We couldn’t get the engine to start. When this happens the problem can be compression, spark, or fuel.
Compression is good – this is a brand new engine.
Fuel is good. The clear plastic fuel filter quickly filled with gas, showing that the fuel pump was good. Pressing the gas pedal produced a strong stream of gas from the accelerator pump in the carburetor. And we were spraying starting fluid, which would run the engine for a few seconds even if the carburetor was completely broken.
Spark was good. We verified spark with the timing light, even checking several different plug wires. We pulled a spark plug and grounded it against the block, where we could directly observe a strong spark. The timing light showed that it was firing within 5 degrees of Top Dead Center, which is more than close enough to start. The engine might run a little rough, but it would start.
We tried everything we could think of. Then we tried some more things!
We thought the distributor might have been installed 180 degrees out of phase, so we reversed it. The distributor can be installed at Top Dead Center (TDC) on the compression stroke or the exhaust stroke; it has to be at TDC on the compression stroke to run. No change, so we put it back in the original configuration. As a side note, when installing the distributor I had turned the engine over with a big ratchet and socket to align the timing marks on TDC. I held my thumb over the #1 spark plug hole to detect compression, but might have gotten it wrong – the odds were 50%/50%.
I had originally installed a set of Bosch Platinum spark plugs which were listed for this car in a current parts catalog. I had read somewhere on the Internet that old ignition systems don’t work well with the new style plugs, so we made a parts store run for the original factory specified Champion J-9Y spark plugs and installed them. Still nothing.
We had earlier noticed the point gap was somewhat tight. Within specs, but still tight. So we re-adjusted the points to a gap of 0.018″, which is towards the high end of the spec. Still nothing.
We pulled a spark plug again and discovered that it was wet with gas. Our repeated efforts to start the engine had flooded it! The cure for this is to let the engine sit for a few hours and give the gas in the cylinders a chance to evaporate.
As my friend prepared to leave and arranged to come back in 3-4 hours to try again we slapped a battery charger on the battery. To our surprise even after 4 hours of repeatedly cranking a big block engine for extended periods of time the battery still had a 70% charge. This battery is indeed a monster!
We decided to crank the engine one last time before he left.
BANG! went a loud explosion from the exhaust! Not only had the gasoline been exhausted from the cylinders, it had also been ignited. We looked at each other, saying “just a minute – isn’t a backfire like that a sign that that the distributor is 180 degrees out?” In other words, a sign that the distributor is installed backwards.
Once again we eased the distributor slightly out the block, rotated the distributor shaft 180 degrees, and re-seated it.
Once again we turned the key and engaged the starter. This time, to our delight, the engine caught and ran for a few seconds!
We restarted it a few more times, tweaking the distributor and working the throttle. It started and died several times and then caught and continued to run!
We let it run for a few minutes and then shut it off and did a fluids check. As expected, all of the fluids needed to be topped off.
We started it again, and it easily started. We discovered that it wanted to roll forward – even though the transmission selector was in neutral the car was starting with the transmission in gear. Clearly the transmission selector needs to be adjusted before we can run the engine longer.
It was time to shut things down for the day, high-five each other in celebration, and leave the workshop on a high note. Much more work remains to be done, but this was a HUGE step forward!
Our analysis is that we were dealing with a combination of things: the distributor being installed backwards was the main problem, exacerbated by tight point gap, inappropriate spark plugs, and a flooded engine. We basically had to work through all of these before achieving success.
The next step is to get the transmission adjusted, dial in the ignition and carburetor, and then move on to the remaining assembly tasks.
Next: Shifty Buttons.