Re: backfire

Posted by Kevin Daly on September 03, 1998 at 07:16:30

In Reply to: backfire
posted by Jim Ledbetter on August 28, 1998 at 19:13:23

Hey Jim,
I had an identical situation with my car.Here's what happened.Mine would backfire once when the engine was turned off.It took 1-2 seconds for the explosion to take place.It happened the first time at a gas station.It sent people diving behind the pumps.They thought I was a gangster or something.
The reason for this was my engine was running retarded all the time.This was a result of a loosening cam screw in the distributor.When the engine heated up and things expanded the cam would start to slip thus retarding the timing from its original setting.There was a flat washer under the screw from the previous owner.I replaced it with a split lock washer and a new screw and re-timed the engine.This cured the problem once and for all.
The first thing I noticed when all of this was happening was that the exhaust manifold was glowing bright orange in color.I was driving the car at night and could see the glow through a hole in the firewall.Take her out at night and get her good and hot and pull over and look under the hood.If it's orange, you're probably in the same boat as I was.
Others may suggest there's an air leak around your manifold gasket.This may also be true but I would look for the great glowing pumpkin first.Please let me know what you find.
Regards,
Kevin Daly