Hi guys; I’m not very knowledgeable about the 4.3 L, so I’ll just speak from my experience. I have a '94 Chev 1/2 T with a 4.3L and 4 spd. with OD. It says it is Vortex on the valve covers, but I have a plain “old” distributor with 6+1 wires coming out the top and a separate coil mounted on the right valve cover. I have been able to put a bracket on the distributor with a radiator clamp. I loosened the bolt that holds the distributor in the block but I had to leave it in so the distributor didn’t work its up out of the block. I truthfully can’t say I could “feel” any difference when advanced. It would cause the spark to fire against the cylinder when trying to start the engine in the advanced position. TomC
JanA I am pretty sure you have a separate camshaft ONLY position sensor mounted inside the distributor.
And a separately mounted on the engine ONLY crankshaft position sensor. https://www.carparts.com/details/Chevrolet/S10/Replacement/1995-2004/KIT1-082318-11-B.html
Your GM computer will be looking for these to be within position to each other. One tooth off reinstalling the distributor and it will not run. ~26 degrees off. Usually over 8-12 degrees then the GM computer shuts off the ignition and/or the fuel injectors.
There are solutions around this. But none easy. None that will keep you inspections legal.
Wes Kugel (sp) ran in to this same problem woodgasing a Dodge/Jeep 4.7L SOHC V-8.
Sorry man.
Steve Unruh
People, based on their experience of driving on generator gas, namely, I had to drive the same car with a compression ratio of 9: 1 and later 11: 1; I dare say that with an increase in the compression ratio in the engine, the problem of advancing the spark supply disappears as such … After cutting off the cylinder head, the angle of rotation of the ignition distributor had to be returned according to the factory marks, since the engine worked very hard, although with a drawdown of the head, the angle position went down. So, if you have an increase in the compression ratio, you should not pay special attention to ignition timing.
Hi Joni, with a 11:1 compression ratio do you drive on petroleum fuel or woodgas or both at the same time? I would think you are only running on woodgas at that compression ratio.
Bob
I’ve talked to Werner, he can change the ignition on his car, and he only runs on firewood, no petrol.
He has just recently managed to get the car through the inspection, and received a dispensation which hopefully means that we can all get newer cars inspected with gengas,
Okay, this is good to know. If you can go to 11:1 and put 97 octane in the gas will the computer retard the ignition if it since spark knock in the engine. Maybe You would have to go less maybe 10.7 : 1 compression ratio.
This might be worth try in the case of these V-6 engines. It would be cheaper that changing out a whole engine and everything with it and put in a V-8 that we know will work. I will have to talk to my Son who builds high performance engines and see how of compression he has done and still uses just high octane fuel. When we had the test in the USA.
In 1972 -73 the gas embargo they put on us shorted us on gasoline at the gastation pumps and then again in 2008 fuel prices sky rocketed up all most doubling at the pumps. Both of these events were test to see how we Americans would handle it. It cause some of us to prepare and go to DOW for the next time. I know our gasoline is much lower than in other countries but that is changing fast. It Just keeps going up in the USA. Not to fast but it will catch up with the rest of the world soon. All other items have more than double in the last few years. Facts are facts it’s time now we Americans pay out like everyone else.
Back in the early 70’s I would buy 115 octane Texaco at the pump to run in my 1965 442 Oldsmobile on , it ran real good with that higher octane gasoline.
Bob
I miss that days when aviation fuel had a shelf life and local air strips would give it away to get rid of it. Been around some down right nasty powerfull hotsaws in my day and most American V8 engines will absolutely scream through the wood on the high octane good stuff https://youtu.be/u17ll043Ld8
Here is a video of the local Washington boys that go to the Deming, Buckley and sultan log shows with the hotsaws, always awesome to watch what a crazy redneck can make in his shop for fun just like many of us here do. Always wanted to build one myself…woodgas hotsaws hmmmmm
BobMac compression increasing a bit on inline engines ain’s bad to do as Joni has pointed out.
Now V-type engines you are having to do 2 1/2 times the work and expenses at a minimum.
You Son can explain the whys to you.
For others . . . . once you have sunk down the two cylinder heads their intake and valley sealing surfaces are closer together. THEN you get to calculate and surface mill down the intake surfaces to match the changed/moved cylinder heads.
Oh!! Pistons then! Dished to flat top or pop-up pistons! Nope-nope. Worse. Even more expensive.
To build a long life quiet engine you source the pistons first. Then rough bore and individually hone each cylinder hole to each and every individual piston.
Just cold starting and light loaded warming up a bit on gasoline the octane ain’t gonna matter much.
And I’d wager that hybrid blended will prove the same. The wood gas itself will be your effective octane booster.
Steve Unruh
So what you are saying Steve it is cheaper to do a engine swap and all the rest. Or even more simpler just make sure you get the right engine and vehicle. Thank you for the informative words on this.
Bob
Yes BobMac.
Look really carefully before you leap.
Wife and I are moving out of this tax-hell county.
Two other family branches on my side are now too.
Wife and I decided to be the ones to buy a used box-van moving van for all of us to be able to do this in the raining seasons. Open bed pickup’s with open bed trailers suck in the rainy season for moving. Spend more time trying to tarp down . . . then 70 mph . . . flap-flap, tear-tear, shred-shred.
I did rent first.
Ford F450’s with the Ford three valve SOHC V-10’s.
GMC G3500’s with either the 4.8L or 6.0L V-8 “LS” pushrod two valve, still cam-in-block engines.
I decided to go with the GMC’s. The engines they use, when without the DOD and AFM systems, can last hundreds of thousands of miles. Has excellent support from the street racing tuner crowd for PCM reprograming. A bit weak on the auto trans especially since the big rental companies do NO trans fluids services.
I gamble on the trans. ~$2,600 to Reman replace when needed.
The Ford V-10 are timing chains, guides, phasers, the 24 cam follower fingers are all worn, clapped out by 150K.
Even with 5,000-7,000 mile verified oil changes. $5,100 for an quality upgraded Remanufactured Ford Triton V-10 engine. Plus installing. Zero PCM hot-rod reprogramming support. Terrible woodgas potential.
Plus worn Ford’s in the F450 twin I-beams suck for easy stay in your lane steering. Box-vans and motorhomes get winds kicked around a lot.
Unlucky, with just the right amount of front suspensions wear softness, and the certain brands of tires and you’ll learn about the HD chassis Ford “Death Shaking”. A decades old problem.
Ha! We spoiled American’s (and Canadians) still do have choices.
Choose wisely.
Steve Unruh
Jan I’ll let Wayne, Jakob, BobMac and other say on the woodgas engine oil changes.
On automatics transmission fluid services IF you change out ~25% of the full fluid capacity every 15,000 miles (21,000 km?) the transmission will last at least 2-3 times of “Lifetime” never-servicing.
Suck out of the dipsticks tube; pan drop; drain plug (if it has one); cooler lines running pump-out sucking-in replacing. I’ve done all of these.
Got 330,000 miles on a Plymouth mini van trans. Still working when sold. 226,000 on a Hyundai. Still trans driving fine. Four cam engine upper is very noisy now. Wife’s Ford Edge at 160,000 miles is now heading for 300,000 transmission miles. Socked away the ~$2100 for the stupid timing chain driven internal water pump when it begins to leak.
Transmissions fluid services done from new you are preventing wears and varnish build ups.
Old used transmission?? You are behind the wear use curve. Already have wear and buildups.
Same schedule. ONLY 25% every 15,000 miles. That old thickened trans fluid may be the only thing keeping the worn clutch discs working. As soon as you hint a slippage problem - never fluid change again. Thickenings Additives time - stretching out. And run it out until failure.
Never, ever let anyone power flush your transmission. Curse them. This will stir up particles and too quickly break away varnishes.
And curse the first European; and now American and Japanese manufacturers for making the expensive automatic transmission the make-you-buy-again 1-2 years out of warranty a replacement vehicle forcing element.
Screw "em good by doing fluids replacement restores. Trans, coolants, brake fluids and power steering fluids.
S.U.
The manual in my 2011 Sierra says it should be serviced every 70 thousand US miles. Mine hadn’t been done when I bought it at 87k miles and luckily fluid was just getting ready to turn colors.
If you have a drain plug on your transmission I would drain the fluid every other oil change and replace the same amount that came out. That was advice given to me by a GM transmission technician.
In my Buick I have to suck out the fluid via the dipstick and will get roughly a gallon/4 liters of fluid. When I bought that the fluid was almost brown. I would replace 4 liters and drive it then replace 4 more.
I worked with a former transmission guy that was beyond anal, but you couldn’t kill one of his if you serviced it exactly as Steve has said. His personal truck 2003 Chevy avalanche 5.7 automatic 4l60e had 580,000miles on it when he traded it in all factory components. He had a color gauge from eons back and would check the color vs the chart of the atf and change when needed. He frequently towed a travel trailer over the mountain pass and would do a service ( remove pan change filter replace needed atf) every single time he towed with it. I initially thought it very excessive and expensive, but I killed that same transmission in my Silverado 3 times in 2 years so he had to be onto something. It flat out worked and he built them for Sprint cars, drag cars, truck pull diesels, figure 8 cars and mud dragsters. Every customer he had has been with him over 40 years. Sadly he retired and doesn’t do it anymore
