bringing engine back to life

[atomicrm]

hi all,
Me and my dad are attempting to start a 53 land cruiser that hasnt been run since the mid 60's. We have restored the fuel pump and it works excellently. we get fuel to the carb no problem. once we get to the carb we start having problems. turning the engine over results in no fuel getting to the pistons. we have sprayed carb cleaner into the carb. we have also poured fuel directly into the manifold and it just pools up. we pulled a spark plug and it was completely dry. any ideas? the original starter ended up smoking and wouldnt work anymore. we pulled it off and cleaned the inside up and now it works better then ever. another question, on the dash control panel, there is a switch that goes up and down and says "INST" on it. what does that mean? thanks for all the help.

[N8N]

sounds like your engine doesn't have any "suck," pull the valve covers and see if you have any stuck valves and/or bent pushrods. Pull the rocker arm assemblies, and if there are any valves stuck down hose them down with penetrating oil and then rap on the valve with a brass hammer. Roll the pushrods on a piece of glass to check for bends. Make sure that you put them back in the holes they came out of so your valve adjustment isn't too far off. Also when removing the pushrods twist and wiggle them a little so you don't pull the lifters out of their bores, if you do that it's no big deal but you'll have to pull the intake and valley pan to put them back in.

The "inst" switch is for the instrument lights, there's a bright and dim setting. The dim setting is essentially useless

good luck

nate

[Aussie Hawk]

A very quick check if your engine has 'suck' problems is put the flat your hand over the top of the carb to seal it, then with the throttle wide open and get someone to crank it over. If all is well you should feel a significant 'suck' on you hand, if not - there's your problem.
If it's that bad it won't pull fuel into the cylinders - you will know.

[rockne10]

The "inst" switch is for the instrument lights, there's a bright and dim setting. The dim setting is essentially useless
nate

Nate,
I would have to respectfully disagree. If you do a lot of night driving in rural areas where there isn't much traffic, reducing the brightness on the instruments improves your road vision. I drove for a living for over thirty years and am a big fan of the dash rheostat.

[irish]

Aussie has the right idea, I would recommend you do a compression check, it's one of the first things I do on any engine.

Joe

[N8N]

Nate,
I would have to respectfully disagree. If you do a lot of night driving in rural areas where there isn't much traffic, reducing the brightness on the instruments improves your road vision. I drove for a living for over thirty years and am a big fan of the dash rheostat.

I agree in principle, but I remember driving my 56J at night, the "bright" setting was just about right

On my newer cars, yes, I do drive with the dash lights turned almost all the way down.

nate

[atomicrm]

Got compression. Doing a Carb rebuild now.
Tried the "inst" lights lol. They don't work lol

[N8N]

I don't think they will come on unless the parking lights and/or headlights are on, just like a modern car. The switch just selects brightness - instead of having a rheostat, you have a choice of full bright (12V fed directly to dash lights) or dimmed, with a resistor in series.

nate

[hotrodstude]

since engine has been setting so long you probbly have a few valves stuck open.

[irish]

Got compression. Doing a Carb rebuild now.
Tried the "inst" lights lol. They don't work lol

I don't mean to sound condescending but how do you know it has compression? Have you checked each cylinder for compression?

Joe

[brian6373]

I have a lark that was sitting in an orchard since 1988. one of the things I did was squirt Marvel Mystery oil in the cyl. to loosen any stuck rings, a little diesil fuel works too. I then let it sit overnight. The other advantage is that the oil tends to seal worn cyls. and restore the compression when cranking. Hope this helps. Good lluck!

[HammondA100]

Question regarding the subject: Is it normal practice to replace pushrods to ANY unknown engine which has sat a long time or other questionable history even if it does run well? I ask because lash could be adjusted out of a slightly bent one but would it just get worse?

[irish]

It isn't normal practice to replace a pushrod unless the pushrod is damaged (bent). If you can adjust the valve clearance to specs and it runs fine I wouldn't worry about it.

Joe

[Guest]

Atomicrm - I hope you guys have put fresh oil in the crankcase, too. At this point ANY fresh oil would be better than what was there. The ZDDP can come later.

[atomicrm]

Irish I meant that the engine did 'suck'
We have changed the oil.
Hooked a timing light on and the timing is waaaaay off. So far off I'm thinking the spark plug wires could be mixed up. How can I tell from the distributor wich one fires first. Is it in the manual?(my manual is an hour away)