A while back I picked up an 80 Aspen 225 /6 car. The price was right to add to the backyard junkyard. Car was a survivor and was in pretty good shape in this case. It ran and drove and I followed my brother as he drove it to my place. He said it ran pretty good but the timing was messed up or timing chain had jumped just from the way it felt.
After it sat in my yard for a while I got to thinking that is is really nice example of the vehicle and it might be worth saving and seeing if someone wanted a 80 Aspen survivor car. It is interesting from the stand point that it is a non AC with aftermarket AC that seems like a really clean install. It also have a replacement HVAC panel I have never seen before.
I hauled it into my garage and started fiddling with it. Well my fellow F body friends it is a testament to Chrysler engineering and the 225 /6.
1. The timing was retarded 25 degrees and it ran!
2. The mechanical advance weights had been greased at some point with some heavy grease and it has hardened and the weights were stuck closed. It ran!
3. It had a new cap and rotor and wires on it. The cap was on backwards and they forced the spring clips to hold it. The contact on the top of the rotor was off center and it was eating the nub. It ran!
4. Someone does not know how to use dielectric grease. Every sparkplug wire tower on the distributor was filled to the top with dielectric grease, same as the sparkplug end of each wire. It ran!
5. Pulled all the plugs, looked like they had been replaced recently. All 6 were black, pig rich! It ran! Cleaned all the plugs and checked the gap and put them back.
6. The idle mixture screw was turned out 5 turns. (Know why it was stupid rich.) Cleaned up all the vacuum lines and have it set about 1.25 turns out.
Those were the things I found in the process of making it a solid runner. Set the timing to 12 BTDC. She fires up and runs nice now.
Next steps is to figure out why the dash lights are not working and see if the AC is viable.
Pretty impressed that it ran considering everything that was messed up.
After it sat in my yard for a while I got to thinking that is is really nice example of the vehicle and it might be worth saving and seeing if someone wanted a 80 Aspen survivor car. It is interesting from the stand point that it is a non AC with aftermarket AC that seems like a really clean install. It also have a replacement HVAC panel I have never seen before.
I hauled it into my garage and started fiddling with it. Well my fellow F body friends it is a testament to Chrysler engineering and the 225 /6.
1. The timing was retarded 25 degrees and it ran!
2. The mechanical advance weights had been greased at some point with some heavy grease and it has hardened and the weights were stuck closed. It ran!
3. It had a new cap and rotor and wires on it. The cap was on backwards and they forced the spring clips to hold it. The contact on the top of the rotor was off center and it was eating the nub. It ran!
4. Someone does not know how to use dielectric grease. Every sparkplug wire tower on the distributor was filled to the top with dielectric grease, same as the sparkplug end of each wire. It ran!
5. Pulled all the plugs, looked like they had been replaced recently. All 6 were black, pig rich! It ran! Cleaned all the plugs and checked the gap and put them back.
6. The idle mixture screw was turned out 5 turns. (Know why it was stupid rich.) Cleaned up all the vacuum lines and have it set about 1.25 turns out.
Those were the things I found in the process of making it a solid runner. Set the timing to 12 BTDC. She fires up and runs nice now.
Next steps is to figure out why the dash lights are not working and see if the AC is viable.
Pretty impressed that it ran considering everything that was messed up.
