Sorry man, a High tension Lead is a spark plug wire.

As far as dropping the exhaust...yeah it can be a pain with out heat, impacts, and a lift, but it is probably the best way to check it....but before you do it try this.

Hit the cat with a dead blow rubber mallet if **** rattles around in there than you have found your problem as the catalist has heated up and melted down snd broken apart causing the clog in the system.

Let me tell you times like this a DVOM can be a life saver, as you can test stuff and not have to load up the 870 express with parts and "shotgun" parts at the car.

Good luck bro
Erik

 

Not sure 'bout the other guy, but I just reattached theexhaust 2 weeks ago when I put the car back stock - so the 3 bolts will sill be easy to separate.

Huh? Easy for you to say!

 

Digital VOlt Meter. I work on cars all day every day and I agree that they can save a LOT of hassle if you know how to use them.

 

Welp, I have an update.

I picked up a vaccuum guage and hooked it up to the tube for the power brakes. Ran the car and once warm it pulled about 14-15 inches...fairly steady.

Then I ran the RPM up a bit and as it went up, the needle went down. Once I hit the spot where the RPM will not go up anymore, the needle had hit almost zero. The book that came with the guage indicated that if this happens, the likely culprit is a partially blocked muffler or cat converter.

I smiled thinking this confirmed what folks on here thought.

I put the car up on ramps and dropped the Y-pipe off the headers (the dual cats and the Y pipe are all connected solidly). it only gave me about 1/2" from the bottom of the hedders to the Y-pipe flange. I ran it (briefly because it was 10pm) and it did the SAME THING!!!

I also bought a compression tester, but didn't have time to mess w/it any more.

Any more ideas? This one's a REAL headscratcher for me...

 

Exact same thing happened to my bonneville. started poking around and found a vacuum line that was cracked in half/sheared (it was metal).

The car would rev up to 2500 and spit and sputter until it died.

Make certain that ALL vacuum lines are not only attached BUT also are not damaged/leaking/broken!

 

I dunno man, a 1/2 inch might not be enough of a drop, just pull the y pipe off the car and out of the way. If you still have a problem with the hesitation, if it where me I would check valve timing next.

Pop of the rocker arm covers and check/re time he rocker arms. I would run the car with the covers off, and then back off each individual rocker arm until it "clatters" and then tighten slowly untill you hear the noise stop, then tighten 1/4 turn. You might be experiancing some valve float and this might take care of it. Also when the rocker arm covers are off, make a good visual inspection and make sure that everything is looking good, no broken valve springs and such.

Good luck, it is hard to diagnose drivability problems over the net so hopefully it all works out for ya,
Erik

 

I will double check, but I JUST put the intake back on - all the hoses/tubing appeared fine at that time.

I spoke to my friend and he's going to check a system he has with vacuum readings and possible solutions... Initially, he's thinking I may have lined the camshaft up incorrectly.

We will see...

 

I would have hoped that I would have seen some difference, right? Hopefully, springs will be fine. I just had the heads worked, and I'd be upset if the shop screwed something up. What is odd to me is that if it were just a couple exhaust valves without the proper preload, I'd expect the vacuum to bounce around. I'd say it was fairly steady - even as it dropped off at higher RPM. I think that's why my friend is thinking cam timing since that would affect all the valves at the same time.

Quote:

Good luck, it is hard to diagnose drivability problems over the net so hopefully it all works out for ya,
Erik

I REALLY appreciate all you guys trying to help me out. Thanks again!

 

I have found the problem over the weekend...

The three-way timing set I have has provisions for 4* advance/retard and straight up. It is adjusted in the install of the crank sprocket. This was installed correctly.

The problem is in the indicators (and the fact this is only the 3rd time I've installed a cam). They are a triangle, a square and a circle (just so happens to be adjacent to the cam timing 'circle'.. Guess what? Yep, I had simply used the wrong one! This resulted in the cam being quite a bit advanced...thus the intake/exhaust valves were open when they weren't supposed to be. I am SO fortunate to have done this with a stock cam, as one with more lift would have smacked the valves into the pistons.

So anyway, thanks to everyone here that has helped out... Even though this was a problem, I have learned A LOT in solving it.

 

Ahhh ha, so it was valve timing....in a round about way .

Congrats man, its always nice to have your car back and running...

Peace,
Erik