Yes JanA.
Check the ends of the pushrod tubes for any with abnormal wear.
I’ve know some guys to drop them a short distance onto concrete to check bounce; and sounds; looking for any that may be cracked or have filled up with oil.
Check the rocker arms and ball sockets wear points for any not like the others.
Put a straight edge across the tops of the rocker arm studs looking for any that have pulled up too high.
Any of these could cause excessive clearance the lash adjuster cannot make up for.
Pry both ends of the balance shaft up and down; back and forth looking for excessive ends bearing wear. Causing noise and oil pressure loss.
Now that you have easy access to the top back edge of the block seriously add in your own mechanical oil pressure gauge.
Then you can check for true low oil delivery pressure cold; warm; and hot idles.
Some of your problem may be down low in a worn oil pump. Replacing with new would only maybe solve. The new pump having to pump the volume for greater wears gaps throughout the engine. One GM inline engine I put in a high-volume pump to reduce internal noises. Then you must check for excessive oil pressure especially when cold. You can spin a bearing with too much pressure.
Regards
Steve Unruh
The height of the rocker arms studs JanA. The press in ones can pull up too high.
Hmm. Yes the heights of the actual valves would be a good one too. Not just the valve face and seats can wear . . . . the valve stem tip; or cap, can wear too.
Good one.
S.U.
What my old Chevrolet inline six looked like I bought for $800. GM hydraulic lifters.
Manually scooped out cleaned it. Valve cover off. Side tappet covers off. Oil pan off.
Then MANY, MANY oil changes.
Drove it.; loads worked it; for 8 years; 100,000 miles. Internal engine noises and all. Then sold it. Still making hot idle deep hard “tingking” noises. One or more piston wrist pins worn.
Sometimes best to just go a bit deaf. Not be so picky afraid.
It is just all “nuts and bolts”.
We age. We all have cumulative scars, lumps and bumps. Wrinkles. Get a bit stooped.
Ain’t dead yet.
S.U.
I’m sitting and thinking about the s10’s ignition, it has a fixed distributor, so fixed ignition.
I have broken the bracket to the distributor, shouldn’t the ignition be changed if I move it?
By the way, tested today when I went to Hörken, there is no difference as I saw on the ignition, between petrol and gen gas.
If I recall correctly, if the distributor on the 90s GM engines is set before starting the engine it does change your spark timing. So be careful. I know this was the case for late 90s Small Block V8s via another here on the forum.
Do you see anything wrong with this?
I had to go on petrol today, it didn’t run on gas yesterday so I cleaned under the unit this morning, and when I later went to Hörken, I couldn’t get it to run on gas, I tested the gas, but it didn’t burn.
I took out the wood and had unburned wood down to the choke, thinking that it was quite dense, hadn’t cleaned in 600km.
And I don’t understand if there will be a 4 degree difference, and if it means anything?
I tested a little yesterday when we were in Grängesberg, and when I start on a hill, I only get up to about 70-75kmh, (about 45mph) so I wonder how your cars behave when you start on uphills?
I am also wondering, will the car have much better power if I can adjust the ignition?
It would take advantage of the higher octane rating in the gas. But be careful to not raise it too high or you’ll have spark knock from the gasoline. 4.3L engines like about 24° to 30° total timing advance at Wide Open Throttle. It may already be in that ballpark in the stock configuration. Chevy Small Block family engines like a lot of spark advance.
One other thing to keep in mind is as your engine is spinning faster and your pistons having more velocity you gain Dynamic Compression, so you need less and less advance to the spark.
So you don’t think it’s worth changing the ignition?
I don’t know if the car runs as well as it can on gengas, I only have a 61mm pipe from the unit to the cyclone, maybe that’s where I should change.
I think helping the gas flow would see a lot of improvement in the engine performance. While the gas is hot it should have bigger piping. Maybe increase that to 75/76mm?
It might be what we are looking for. I was thinking idea was a lot more then -4 degrees. But that was just his example. Quite possibly, since woodgas is hot, it might incidentally be heating up the IATS (which I think he just made that up on the fly for an abbreviation.) which would advance the timing.
according to what he is saying based on the RPM and the air temperature the timing is only advanced to say -4 degrees, and it variably shifts around, so at 6000rpm it might only be advanced -2 degrees. I am sure the MAF sensor enters into the picture as well.
