Thread: Engine wont start. Could use some help and ideas.

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Originally Posted by 36 sedan

I agree with Jerry, the distributor sounds 180° out causing the backfire.

The bog however is a different problem, have you considered that you may still have a vacuum leak at the intake manifold? The leak may be on the oil side and not visible from the top. Once you get the distributor corrected you can check for vacuum in the crankcase with pcv disconnected.

Sometimes the surface angles between the head and the intake are out of alignment, check with clay to see if gasket surfaces are even (top to bottom and length wise). If the angles do not match, it will cause all kinds of trouble that a gasket can not fix.

Question. I considered this originally. Only have 2 vacuum hoses; One to PCV and one to modulator on TH400. Can the modulator develop a leak and can it be replaced separately without pulling the trans? I tried running the car without it connected once and tranny would not shift correctly so I couldn't tell much but it did seem not to bog. I figured that since the tranny didn't like it when the modulator wasn't connected it must be working? The vacuum reading on engine was around 14 as I recall last it was running which I always thought was low but it was like that from the first time I fired the engine.