Thread: 350 chevy will not start

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I'm stumped and would appreciate some help, or even ideas of what to try next. I haven't worked on engines for several years, but once upon a time I had a general clue about them.

The car is my sons, it's a performance enhanced 350 in a cutlass. Fairly old school stuff, just a carburated 350, no computer or anything. It wasn't running great the past 2 weeks, nothing bad, but would miss at high RPMs. 2 days ago he ran it in some heavy rain and hit some deep puddles. The car quit, refired a few times but quickly quit again.

I went to look at it, lots of water on the engine, a puddle on the manifold, air cleaner was very wet etc. Removed air cleaner and it fired a few times and would run if I kept the RPMs up at 2k or so, it ran very rough with lots of white smoke from the exhaust. After a few times it quit starting.

It had spark initially, but then it went away. The distributor had water inside, replaced the cap, the coil (HEI) the module and the capaciter the module plugs into. (basically everything electrical I could replace was replaced) Now we have spark again.

The plugs were replaced, the old ones looked pretty bad, oily. The engine was spun over several times with the plugs removed, I was told water came from the plug holes. I wasn't there to see the details.

It's appears to be getting fuel, and we tried some starter fliud as well just to be able to identify or eliminate fuel as the problem.

The timing is gear driven, not a chain, leading me to not anticipate it being a skipped tooth or anything.

I would apprecaite some ideas of what to try next,
thankyou
Mykle

it sounds like you might have some water mixed in with the oil.

It's possible that it has become flooded from all of our playing around.

What would I be checking the plugs for when I pull them? I've pulled a few to check for spark, I didn't notice anything unusual.

Spinning the engine with the plugs removed was my attepmt at clearing any potential water in the cylinders, how would I go about checking further and removing water?

I have a compression guage around here somewhere.

I agree it probably does have some water in the oil, it's not showing up on the dipstick yet, probably because it won't start so it's not getting mixed in yet. It's not sitting in the best spot to play mechanic, I had hoped to be able to limp it home before changing the oil.

Originally Posted by mykle

I agree it probably does have some water in the oil, it's not showing up on the dipstick yet, probably because it won't start so it's not getting mixed in yet. It's not sitting in the best spot to play mechanic, I had hoped to be able to limp it home before changing the oil.

water in the oil want keep it from running. if you have spark, and gas it should run, unless you pulled the dist. out to replace cap and put it back in a few teeth off.

I agree with Mike recheck your timing and your firing order to the spark plugs. With te plugs in, does it sound like the engine is giving good compression ?

I didn't pull the distributer out, the wires were all marked before removal to ensure proper replacement. It appears to have good compression.

So, it appears that if letting it sit overnight doesn't cure a potential flooded situation I should start troubleshooting it being a skipped tooth on the timing, I'm assuming that's where the compression comments are leading, correct?

I was kind of locked in on the water being at the core of the problem, maybe it's time to expand the box I'm thinking in. I also was under the impression that gear drives were fairly immune to skipping.

Check for vacume leaks then, any vacume hoses knocked off by the water carb float bowl full of water.

Say......just how deep was this puddle ? did he wet it or drown it ?

compression test, VERY POSSIBLE HYDRO-LOCK very disasterous!!!!!!! as any Jeeper or Hydo plane racer, you can compress fuel/air but water bends rods /holes in weakened pistons ,blows head gaskets . when you stated water from plug holes I must say " This cannot end well " 31 5w

ummmmmmmmm is this using an H.E.I. distributer???if not i suggest takink the coil off the firewall and drying the trapped water behind it thats preventing the coil from grounding.. experienced this same problem on a 1969 camero this guy had all done up pretty as can be except the rust behind the coil on the fire wall...i flat bedded it to this shop and told them everything i had checked(which didnt inclued removing brandy new chrome M.S.D.coil on the fire wall) kid younger and less experienced than me walked over to the car and began taking off the coil after listening to me tell all this to his boss..took a screwdriver too the rust spot then re attached the coil and started the car... wanna talk about pissed off and embarrassed....hope i helped

For an engine not to start due to Hydro-locking you really have to drown it in water, a few splashes won't do that. I would pull off the carb and rebuild it. In anycase run a good lot of carb cleaner through it to make sure you have no water sitting in any passageways. water is heavier than fuel and the passages in the carb are low down, so water that got through the bowl vents would accumulate in the passageways. And first of all water doesn't burn and secondly a carb isn't made to pull water through it's passages. Quite apart from that I don't guess the puddles were completely clean water, so there's bound to be some dirt in the carb, too. Pulling the carb only takes a minute and you can repair it at home.
If your timing gear has skipped a tooth most probably you will have wrecked you engine anyway by valves hitting the pistons, you would have heard that
Be sure to cure your water problem soon, water sitting in a cylinder can create rust buildup very soon and that would break your ring seal very quickly.
I would guess it's dirt and/or water in the carb. If you have a compressed air source use it to clean the carb, then you don't need carb cleaner. be sure to take out the four jets (primary and secondary) and get the passages under them really clean. Always rebuild with new gaskets.
But as always, that's just what I would do...
Wish you luck,
Max

Originally Posted by judasPriest

ummmmmmmmm is this using an H.E.I. distributer???if not i suggest takink the coil off the firewall and drying the trapped water behind it thats preventing the coil from grounding.. experienced this same problem on a 1969 camero this guy had all done up pretty as can be except the rust behind the coil on the fire wall...i flat bedded it to this shop and told them everything i had checked(which didnt inclued removing brandy new chrome M.S.D.coil on the fire wall) kid younger and less experienced than me walked over to the car and began taking off the coil after listening to me tell all this to his boss..took a screwdriver too the rust spot then re attached the coil and started the car... wanna talk about pissed off and embarrassed....hope i helped

I believe somebody is pulling your leg juda, all he did was clean the rust off your firewall. you don't need to ground a coil. the points is the ground that makes the coil work.