Hello Andy,
Any luck yet? It seems like you have tried everything, but I agree that it will
probably be a trivial problem to fix, but a difficult problem find.
Leak down in good - You watched the rockers so that eliminates a flat cam. You
may
want to try a standard compression check just to be sure.
I would replace the spark plug, plug wire (you could just swap this) and the
distributor cap. When the plug tries to spark under compression the air gap has
a
pretty high resistance. If you have a crack or carbon trace inside the
distributor
cap, the spark may be shorting inside the cap. A three buck new cap will
eliminate
this possibility.
Good luck, but I'm sure that this problem will be solved. You should write it up
for a Puzzler for "Car Talk".
Craig Wright
Andy Walker wrote:
> Hi, guys:
>
> Well, it's me again, still with a dead #4 cylinder in my Tiger. On top of all
> the other stuff I've tried, I've now done a leak down test and the cylinder
> held just fine. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, appears to operating
> normally but pulling #4 plug wire off while the engine is running makes no
> difference.
>
> I'm at my wits end with this. I have a virgin 260 to build for the car but
> that seems a bit drastic, at least until I know what's wrong with the 289. As
> far as I know, I could spend thousands of dollars building that 260 and still
> have the same problem when it goes into the car, if the problem turns out to
> be electrical. The car just has nothing on the low end and will barely come
> off the line. Could I have the distributor one tooth off? Could hooking the
> PCV line up to the vacuum outlet on the #4 runner on my intake be causing a
> problem? Could I just be jerking myself off here?
>
> Right now, I'm extremely upset with my inability to solve this problem with
> the Tiger. I've never run into anything like this with a small block Ford in
> any kind of car. Anybody want a show car Tiger turned "project car?"
>
> Andy Walker
> B382001600
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