Thread: loss of spark

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got back home after a week on the road for work. decided to take the car for a blast, ran great. This trip was about an hour from my home. On the way back I got on it to merge on the highway and there was an overwhelming smell of anti-freeze, so I pulled over and checked under the hood, nothing wrong. Drove home car ran alittle warm around 205. About a mile from my home the car stopped dead ?? Pushed it off the road and let it sit, thought it might be a fuel issue. 5 minutes later it started back up, put some gas in and went home. As I pulled into my driveway the car stalled again ??
Checked the fuel pump, it works checked the spark nothing. If I let it sit for 5 min it will start and run for 5 then stall. Any idea what would cause this. Also I was down all my reserve tank, so I guess I have a blown head gasket leaking into the exhaust port. Great !!

205 is not hot, and if it wasn't boiling over i wouldn't worry about that right now. might have a leak, but don't sound like a head gasket. far as the running go we would need to know what you are driving.

1969 427 with a blower running 2 edelbrock 4 barrels and a mallory distributor and pro-master coil. could it be a short and if so how do I investigate ??

Originally posted by scott78
1969 427 with a blower running 2 edelbrock 4 barrels and a mallory distributor and pro-master coil. could it be a short and if so how do I investigate ??

you running a big block blower and your calling 205 hot, thats about right if it don't go much higher. if the dist. has fire going to it, then I'd say the problem would be in the mallory distributor. you need to talk to them about that.

when I rev the motor water is coming out of the sidepipes. That is why I think there is an issuse with the gasket.
Also I ahve a mallory dist and coil. There is a small black box connected between them . Could this be my problem. I do not know what it does.

Originally posted by scott78
when I rev the motor water is coming out of the sidepipes. That is why I think there is an issuse with the gasket.
Also I ahve a mallory dist and coil. There is a small black box connected between them . Could this be my problem. I do not know what it does.

I don't know anything about Mallory dist either. Never run one. Any motor that you run short trips and idle a lot, will have condensation coming out of the tail pipes. I'd worry about what was coming out of the rad. if 205 is as high as it got there is nothing wrong with that.

I would take a shot and say you were having a faulty coil problem, it heats up with use and the heat is breaking down the insulation, therefor no spark. Cools down again and you have spark, pull the coil and get it tested. If it is a mallory points distributor check the points gap and make sure the - side of the coil goes to the distributor.

The quitting does sound like a bad coil. The antifreeze could be a gasket, but could also be a cracked head. Hope not!

Could it also be the electronic part under the rotor in the dist cap ??and is there anyway to check ?

Originally posted by scott78
Could it also be the electronic part under the rotor in the dist cap ??and is there anyway to check ?

check this site out and see if you can find out anything.
http://www.centuryperformance.com/ma...oubleshoot.asp

Originally posted by DennyW
Wow Mike, that is an excellent Mallory site. I just went through all the testing procedures for everything.

Black box ? Looks like to me by that site, it's a power filter.

i'm getting almost as good as you. thats about all scott should need to know.

Thanks,
Great resource, I will try and test later. Removed the filter because the heat in the engine compartment had caused it to spread open, exposing it's internal circuit board.
Car started and ran for 10 min. I will try a drive locally later.