Todd,
1. The engine was sitting for a year or less, and was run 3x while parked
in December '05 all was fine!
Is the engine original? If so, about how many miles?
2. Started it yesterday and the engine was "missing" like a shake while in
idle.
How long did the engine run before you shut it off?
My immediate reaction is either a piece of carbon is stuck under a valve or
one or more lifters aren't pumping up. For the lifters, it could be the
internal plunger spring is old and weak or affected by varnish and gunk. For
a piece of carbon stuck under a valve, simply taking the car out and running
the engine hard might clear it. That could also clear a stuck spring(s) in a
lifter(s) with full volume hot oil going through the lifters.
One other posibility, which goes back to the age of the engine, is the rings
are stuck and the engine is not building up enough vacuum at idle to run
properly. Did you accelerate the engine and does that smooth out the miss
and shake any? If it does at least a bit, then I suspect stuck rings or
collapsed rings. If that is the case, running a can of RESTORE in the engine
oil should free up carbon/varnish stuck rings after about 2-3 hours of
running on the road. After that, switching to a synthetic engine oil, like
Mobil 1 10/30, should clear up the rest.
3. In December I added high test 2 gals. gas with small amount of lead
additive.
4. Added 4 gals more of gas as it was out of gas yesterday
5. Any ideas of what to check to correct this?
In my experience, if a vehicle is going to set for a long time, don't start
the engine periodically, unless you're willing for it to run for at least 30
minutes and get it good and hot, with accelerating it several times. Short
periods of running never clear out carbon formation in the combustion
chambers and won't get the engine hot enough to vaporize crankcase
contaminates. Short engine runs can lead to cold internal crap formation,
for want of a better description.
Milton Schick
1964 442 Cutlass
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
