Hydraulic head seals replaced and now it doesn’t like to run.

Chris, the IP TM says those safety wired screws are supposed to be 18 inch pounds. That had it binding last week so I just backed them off to where it was moving free then wired them in place. Same yesterday except I didn’t even try torquing. I just went by feel. Kind of like setting wheel bearings in my opinion.

FDC is bypassed and the fuel has been turned up a few flats years ago. I used to be concerned about the 3 clicks or touch of foot feed required to start. Now it is second nature and I don’t even think about ir.

gimpyrobb said:

Hey Tim, I never thought about it but, Clinto and myself have had a few trucks have running issues if the two screws that hold the fuel control rod are torqued too tight. Not sure why that is, but backing them off a tad worked great. Maybe that was the case here too.

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I completely forgot about this - I had this problem after changing the O rings on my previous engine and, thanks to advice received here, loosening the two screws (that were not even THAT tight) fixed it! Good call.

OK guys what is going on here? You are getting the hard part replacing O rings and getting the Head back in correct but messing up on the easy part. Making sure the fuel control rod moves free and correct.

What can I write besides we are all a bit on the special side.

Colton and I spent the afternoon after church putting all the wire clamps on. I don’t have a good set of batteries so I’m not going to do any extended long drives until I do. So hat will have to wait.

One odd thing we both noticed is the exhaust sounds more harsh than it used to. Kind of each exhaust pulse is popping. I don’t remember that from before. Probably nothing but imagination. I’ll listen at the Rally in a few months to other trucks and then see if it is something.

It could just be that "Automatic Rough" one senses when flying out over the ocean for a while.

You will not know "how it runs" for at least 50 gallons thruput. Put some fuel in there to make it happy, certainly not a tank of the current "no lubrication" flavor stuff. Get the batteries installed correct and drive it, then drive it some more. Make believe you are a young soldier and they send you and truck to where the shootin is. It is a tactical military vehicle.

That is my plan while the fuel is cheap and the weather is no ac friendly. Thanks again for all the help everyone.

Life got in the way again after the post above. One of the inside rear tires leaked, I let the truck sit and by the time I got the tire good. The brakes were low on fluid. So, the truck didn’t get driven on the road. Just around my property pulling trees and being a mobile scaffolding for tree trimming. Starting and seeming to run ok but still with the chugging exhaust pulse mentioned above.

Then the world got the plague and shut down. My school is shut down, but we still work at the school taking work to the students. But, all of my off work activities have been stopped along with all of Colton’s Corps of Cadet activities. Basically, I had time to mess with the Whistler again.

Tires and brakes all good to go again. I drove to town and put in 36 gallons of fresh fuel. Then hit the open road for a 30 mile loosen it up cruise. It wouldn’t pull more than 2200 rpm and had lots of black smoke. I thought no problem and just kept the pedal down figuring a run is what it needed.

2 miles later I felt a lurch and decided a 30 mile drive might not be the brightest idea. I got turned around and headed for home. It was 90° out and the temp had gotten to 200°. Something that has never happened before in any condition. I was not able to get over 2000 rpm now either, but made it home.

No load rpm was 2300. New air and fuel filters got the no load rpm back up to 2900. But the chugging exhaust is still there. I tried doing a long drive again today. 2400 rpm on flat ground was all it would do. No lurches though. Temperature slowing climbed to almost 200 again. I backed off and held 1900 rpm for a few miles and the temperature stabilized just below 200. Something is still not right so I turned around and headed home again.

Coolant is full and not being used. Since the odd exhaust pulsing started when we did the hydraulic head and this thread discusses the troubles we had getting it even running after that work. I decided to just make this a continuation.

Any bright suggestions?

Hope it’s not this

I’m leaning towards head gasket like in that thread. No blue smoke though. Just black.

You may have the solution in your grasp.
That fuel control rod can be problematic.
When I Finally fixed all the problems with my M54A2, And The last tiresome thing to complete was that fuel rod.
I had 5 attempts at getting it (The 'o' ring) to set set right, and allow proper full range free movement.
It just did not 'feel' right, so I kept re-doing it until it did 'feel right'..
Then the engine fire up and ran great.