Our story begins after a lot of agonizing, and I decided to sell my beloved dart. Someone that lives in the same city as my parents offered me $5400 for it, so I packed up the baby and planned to make a visit of it. Well, about 40 miles in to the journey I hear a loud bang, and the engine dies. I turn off the ignition and pull over immediately. I look at the temp guage and it's almost pegged, I get the boy out of the car and go around to look under the hood. Everything looks fine, but I can see the heat rising off the engine. I call my mother and she comes to pick up the kid while I wait for a tow into town. I haven't really looked at it yet, but I'm guessing that I won't be selling it until I fix it. Anyone know what it could be? I'm worried that it's probably a thrown rod. Talk about bad luck. I've already tried to use this as an excuse to keep the car, but that's not really working...

-josh

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64 Dart 170 /6

Have you checked you water pump belt? Have you checked for coolant in your radiator?

Yeah, there is water is in the rad, and the belts are still good. Also, the idiot light for the oil pressure didn't come on (it flickers at low idle, so unless it stopped working during the trip...).

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64 Dart 170 /6

Hmmm. Did the engine stop immediately after the bang?

Does it turn over when you try to start it or is the engine locked-up?
If it turns over, there is a good chance that it will run again. (who knows how well it will run, but it will run...)
DD

It did stop immediately after the bang, and I bumped the key and it spun freely. I just didn't want to keep on it for fear of something utterly catestrophic happening. Which is why I ran to the protection of this forum...

-josh

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64 Dart 170 /6

what do you mean "it spun freeely?" no compression freely or with compression, ready to start freely?

zedpapa

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1970 dodge dart w/225 /6 bored .040" over, holley 390cfm w/vac. sec., compcams 252s, clifford shorty headers w/2.5" exhaust w/flowmaster, f-body 11" front discs, aluminum A-833OD, 8 1/4 w/3.21 SG
soon to have 5 gears!!!

sorry. to clarify: I turned the key and the starter engaged. The engine turned over at what sound like a normal rate (i.e. the starter didn't whine because of an abnormalyhigh speed, nor did it appear to be bogging), but I only did it for a moment for fear of doing any damage.

-josh

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64 Dart 170 /6

Has the oil light been flickering at low idle for a while?? What does the oil light do now?

This engine has oil, has water and it cranks.... so pop-off the distributor cap and have someone crank the engine while you watch the rotor, to be sure it is spinning around. (a broken dist. gear or t-chain will show it's self here)
If the rotor is spinning smoothly, put the distributor cap back on and try to start the engine.

If it does not start, check for fuel, spark and static time the engine, then try to start it again.
Time to be a detective, find some "clues" so we can solve this problem.
DD

Heh, awesome. I'm on the case.

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64 Dart 170 /6

Well, it backfires through the carb when I try to start it. I'm pretty sure that the timing chain jumped. Which is better than I had suspected. It looks like I have some work to do next weekend.

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64 Dart 170 /6

Check the distributor's drive gear.
DD

Doc, you're like the Kreskin of automotive repair. It appears that the rubber gasket that I put at the base of the distributor was entirely too thick. Upon close inspection of the dist. drive gear, I found that the bottom third was missing 3 teeth. So, I had to go ALL the way to the trunk of the car to get my spare dizzy, bolted it in, and the car started right up. Simple. I guess the huge backfire and loss of all power at highway speed just frightened me into throwing Occam's Razor right out the window and expect the worse.

Thank's for all the help!

-josh

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64 Dart 170 /6

I really like a simple fix to a problem, everything in life should be 'quick and easy'!
DD