Hello, I am the grandson of 27Chevy and continuing his legacy with his 1927 Chevy Capitol AA. Sadly my grandfather passed away back in 2020, and I’ve been maintaining the car for him and my grandmother. I had a little bit of trouble trying to start the car for the first time this summer. I was able to start it with an aerosol can of quick start to the intake, until the vacuum pump could start drawing fuel on its own.
I have taken it out for a couple drives with no issues or problems until i was taking it out for Mother’s Day. And the engine started to sound rough and felt like it didn’t have the proper acceleration. I cut the engine and had it flatbedded it back to my grandmothers house. The engine is making a noise I have never heard it make before.
Any help, link, addresses, contacts is greatly appreciated, I have basic mechanic experience so I need all the help I can get. Down below I have a link to the engine making noise and the other is my cousin video about the car.
You can start the engine and pull off one spark plug wire at a time and see which one gets quieter so you will have an idea of which cylinder the noise is coming from.
Steve '25 Superior "K", '79 Corvette , '72 Corvette LT-1 & 1965 Corvette Coupe
Where should I look to make sure the valve move, do I have to pull the head off? Or could I look on the passenger side of the engine and look at the push rods and see if they are moving properly.
No need to pull the head to see if a valve is stuck. You'll need to remove the valve cover and felt oil pad and turn the motor and watch the valve side of the rocker arms. Forgive me if you already know this but the oiling felt on top of the rocker arms needs to be oiled every ~50 miles or so as does the front water pump bearing.
I was able to get out and work on the 27’. I started to take apart the valve cover, I went on the passenger side to look for any other bolts that might be holding the valve cover together and I noticed that the cylinder 3 spark plug cable was disconnected from the distributor. I thought that may have been the problem, I put everything back together and made sure all the spark plug cables were connected to the distributor and the spark plugs themselves.
I started the car up and it started very smoothly and almost instantly with advance like it did before, however it’s was still making the same noise just not as loud and rough. I did pull the valve cover off and looked at all the valves. I did not crank the engine but I did shimmy all the arms and noticed that the 4th cylinders last arm (valve closest to firewall) had a bit of play.
Is there a way to tighten it? What might cause it to become loose? I have a link to a video of the valve and the excessive play.
There is a lock nut on the top of the rocker arm and a slotted stud it holds in place. Loosen the lock nut and adjust the valve clearance to spec. .006" intake and .008" exhaust with engine at normal operating temperature.
Stephen
Steve '25 Superior "K", '79 Corvette , '72 Corvette LT-1 & 1965 Corvette Coupe
I'd recommend getting a copy of the owner and repair manuals which have a lot of good information on how to make adjustments, do diagnostics, etc. From your last video, I would be shocked if the noises you're hearing is from loose rocker arms. You'll need check but I have a feeling you're probably within spec or pretty close.
Sounds like the starting fluid smashed a rod bearing. NEVER use starting fluid again! Now you are going to have to pull the engine or at least the pan to find out how badly the rods got damaged. Sounds like a bad rod knocking and engine is not happy.
I took some time to look into the engine and diagnose what was causing the noise. I drained the oil, dropped the oil pan and found that the cylinder 3 bearing for the crankshaft was completely destroyed. Shaving and chunks were in the oil and it looks like some smaller shards might have scratched the lower parts of the 4th cylinder wall. I will need to look more in-depth in the bottom end for anymore damage and to replace damaged parts. Does anyone know if or where I could find or buy parts outside of the filling station, ebay, etc. Are there over sized parts for rebuilds? for example if I were to get the crankshaft and cylinders machined. I will not be doing anything major with rebuilding until I could get some feed back from here and also researching. Anything and everything is greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing back on some info and tips to rebuild the bottom end.
I will post some pictures of what I found in the coming days.
Thank you all for all the help that you guys have given me this far. I am really grateful.
I haven't had to buy pistons for my Chevrolet, but I just received a new set for my four cylinder overland whippet.. I had the engine bored .060" and Egge in California made a set of aluminum pistons to fit... includes rings and wrist pins. They look great... cost about 1K with 10 week lead time. Not a lot of choices out there for specialty pistons. I've got 5000 miles on a set of Egge pistons in my Model T and running fine. Bill
