1985 2.0 g63b

I am going to edit this thread to reflect the fact that I got my problem child running, and to eliminate all my rambling and ranting!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I've got this little '85 Ram 50 that I bought at an estate sale. It wasn't running, but after a year of tinkering I got it running!

It had some bad wiring on the drivers side at the battery connections and a few others- some wires had been ripped apart and I fixed all that.

It had stale 8 year old gas in the tank. I finally drained all that and have left the tank dry.

It had a burnt exhaust valve- replaced that, ground all the other valves and did the valve seats, new stem seals. Surfaced the head. New gasket on the head and etc. Used the old lash adjusters. Flushed them out and primed them with diesel fuel -according to instructions. Quite a bit of crud flushed out in the cleaning process. I saw the "special tool" that you use to do the flushing/priming of the lash adjusters, so I made one on the lathe.

New belts for the timing and balance shaft. Got a good replacement used Mikuni off ebay. Got a rebuilt distributor off the net. New distributor cap, rotor bug and coil.

It has 140 psi compression on each cylinder.

After a year of on and off tinkering and lots of frustration, it turns out that there is a catalytic convertor built in to the exhaust manifold right above where the exhaust pipe attaches. It was clogged solid and after I forcibly removed it, the engine starts and runs perfectly!

deleted by poster

deleted by poster

deleted by poster

BREAKING NEWS

With nothing better to do, I went back up to the shop this morning. Thinking to myself that maybe I'll just take the cab off this truck and turn the remainder into a pickup bed trailer- then I'd have a matching truck and trailer.

I had talked to a coworker the other day, complaining about how this truck was kicking my ass. Told him what it was and wasn't doing.

He told me that his dad had a V-8 engine put in an old Dodge truck back in the '70s that came out of an old Dodge car from a junkyard. It was running when it was pulled from the car.

Got it put in the truck and everything bolted together, and the darn thing wouldn't hit a lick. He fooled with it for a month and gave up and took it to a mechanic. That guy tinkered with it for about a week. It was just like my situation- everything was there~ gas, spark and air. But, it wouldn't start.

Finally, he pulled one of the exhaust manifolds off for some reason and found someone had placed duct tape over the exhaust outlets (to keep debris out) and never removed it before they put the engine in the truck. Removed the tape and WE HAVE IGNITION.
Back to my story~ So, today a friend comes by the shop and I am standing there scratching my head, watching the TV- daydreaming. He says "take this S.O.B. to a real frickin' mechanic and quit wasting time on the thing."

I tell him where he can stick his real mechanic. I reach in and crank the engine over. It hits once or twice and nothing- there is a little bit of gas spitting back up out of the carb- as usual- and it makes a sputtering noise out the carb as it turns over. It has been doing that ever since I started messing with the thing, nothing new.

But, I made the comment to him that "you know what- it's doing that but the thing is in perfect time and it has excellent valves so it for sure isn't backfiring. For some reason, it acts like way too much gas, but I had the remote gas tank shut off, so it wasn't getting flooded at all.

I remembered the story about the V8 and the blocked exhaust system, so I told him to reach in and crank the engine over while I held my hand over the exhaust pipe. NOT A DAMN BIT OF PRESSURE!!!!!

After that, I undid the exhaust right under the manifold and cranked it- nothing. Stuck my fingers up inside that manifold and what do I discover? It is a self contained cat. converter. A clogged up converter at that!

So, I take this 18 inch long drill bit and reach up in there and drill a half inch hole thru the converter material. About four inches thick!

Then, I turn the key and the darn thing STARTS RIGHT UP!!!!!

Then, I drill a bunch more holes and chisel out the remainder of the material til I hollow the thing out. I also took out the other cat. converer just downstream from this manifold and hollow it out.. Put the exhaust system back together and the truck purrs like a frickin kitten. Drove it around the parking lot and about broke my arm patting myself on the back.

What the problem was, all along, is that there was no air flow thru the engine. The pistons would make pressure in the cylinder, but with the cat. plugged, there was no air flow thru the carb. to draw fuel/air mixture into the cylinders. It would make compression, but there was no flow thru the plugged cat., so no combustion!!! Who would have ever thought that.

My next order of business will be calling NASA and offering my services on the space shuttle if they ever need it, since I now feel like I am a rocket scientist!!!

Awesome to hear that you figured it out. I was watching this thread but had nothing to contribute since you had air,fuel, and spark and you had tried everything I would have thought of, but I forgot reading about the older trucks having a cat in the exhaust manifold. I'll try to remember that for now on

Yep, that little hunk-o-iron just purrs right along. The timing was right on TDC after it started, so I put the timing light on it and set it to about 7 degrees BTC.

The little putts of gasoline I'd see popping back up thru the carb was pressure from the cylinders escaping as the intake valve was opening and releasing it into the intake manifold!

I really wouldn't have ever noticed that the exhaust manifold body below the ports is actually about 4 or 5 inches in diameter if I hadn't taken off all the heat shields. It is hidden. Plus, I would have never ever thought that a cat could plug up so solid like that!

But, from reading, if things aren't just right with the fuel management, the carb makes the fuel/air mixture too rich and that creates excess carbon (soot) which collects on the inlet surface of the cat converter and effectively seals it off. The engine can't breathe.

Don't know if the clogged cat caused the burnt valve, or the burnt valve cause the clog, or is the other emission controls are bad allowing excess fuel into the engine overwhelming the cat.

That's all water under the bridge, now. No catalytic converters left intact on this engine to clog again.

Well, here's some more stuff.

Put the hood back on and drove it around the parking lot, then drove it over to the parts store to get some more anitfreeze and some windshield wipers.

Ran good going over to the store. Stopped and filled the radiator full because it was real low and was starting to overheat. I got the cap off, steam was boiling out the fill neck. Put about half a gallon of juice in, then it cooled right off.

After the system was full, the engine started running like crap. Wondered if maybe the heat from the coolant circulating thru the carb may have something to do with it. I can clamp those hoses off and try it.

It doesn't want to take any throttle after it warms up. It will sputter and backfire and bog down bad while trying to drive it. Step on the clutch and you can rev it up moderately and it will respond without so much coughing and sputtering. Kinda like it runs like crap if there is a load on it.

When I set the timing with the light, I only got it to about 5 degrees, and the distr. housing is twisted as clockwise as possible. I think I need to pull the distributor and stab it back in one tooth different and see what that does.

With the backfiring up thru the carburetor, that tells me that an intake valve is open when the plug fires and I need to retard the spark. Right? Or, do you calling it advance the spark? Anyway, it only does it under any sort of load, not idling.

The rotor turns clockwise, and I have turned the dist. housing as far clockwise as possible trying to get the timing to 7 degrees BTC. but ran out of adjustment, so I need to set the rotor back clockwise a tooth and try adjusting the timing there.

I've tried disconnecting the vacuum advance, to no avail. Thought that may have been acting on the dist. and messing things up.

Besides this trouble, I see there is a puddle of oil on the floor beneath the junction of the tranny and the engine. Probably has either a bad pan gasket, or a leaky rear main seal. Probably main seal.

But, it sure idles smooth