Quote Originally Posted by Taily View Post
Cam and lifters always as a set mate and always be sus on an unknown fibre cam drive sprocket.

You're talking about your blue motor aren't you?

Black smoke and running worse? What sort of carby is it (should be a Varijet) and have you checked the basics... inlet manifold and carby tight and not sucking air etc? Black smoke and running rough do seem to point to a carby (might get away with running a kit through it and a real close look at the float and choke mechanisms - they also had a gasket between the throttle body and the body of the carby and/or a bakelite insulator under the carby that gave trouble from time to time sucking air), but that rattle you describe makes me wonder if something in the lubrication system (blocked oil filter or worn out oil pump) isn't right if the lifters are all rattling away together at mid to high rpm. Do you have an oil pressure gauge on it - if so what are you getting at idle/1500/3000rpm?

Those 6's had a couple of plastic vac trees that perished and sucked air and they had a hot idle ported vac system that increased the idle if they got a bit too hot (to increse the fan speed to draw more air through the radiator.

Has anyone showed you how to check for vac leaks using either WD40 (be careful) or water?
I got the oil pressure gauge working, and it comes up like it should (ignition on, engine turned off..) and once the engine is started it slowly moves back, and then keeps going until it hits dead in the red indicator (at idle..) :( :( :/
Won't move off there even when the motors rpm changes :/

I also took the rocker cover off and started her up and checked the bolts on the rockers and they were all as tight as they would go and there was no play in any of the rockers or pushrods...

So now that leads me to think its more of an internal problem, just what the problem is, I dunno. But five will get me ten that its got something to do with the low oil pressure..

Checked for vacuum leaks, none showed up at all. I even second checked that all the hoses were hooked up right just to make sure..

So where does that leave me? Any more ideas??