Air bubbles in Davco 382 - hard starting series 60

Oh it's getting better!

Took apart the cam gear drive and realized I didn't need to. You cannot change the timing with just the cam timing gear apart. There's not enough room in the gear cover. You simply cannot do it. So I took the fan off and the cover for the adjustable gear thinking if I back it off I can get enough slack to move the gear. Nope. The only way I can do this is by removing the adjustable gear hub but leaving the gear. But how do I remove just the hub? Already tried grease and a suction cup. If I cannot get it out, the whole front needs to come apart again. I really don't want to do that. Truck will be the victim of unfortunate circumstance if I have to.

 

Yeah I know that, but if I can get the hub out for the adjustable gear there should be enough slack to turn the cam gear one tooth. It's funny because almost every detroit guy I've talked to in the past say to always mark the gears, but what's the point if you can't throw it out anyways? Maybe that's a different model?

Anyways I have a good idea on how to get it out. I managed to get it to move 1/8" inch at times, if I can modify a very small flat screwdriver to be more of a pry bar I should be able to get behind it through the hole and pull it back.

 

Pissed around with it all day today. Didn't get a new cam bolt that was a mistake because that probably throws off the readings. Stock spec for lift is .257 to .299 I either get about .260 or .308 depending on the tooth. Unfortunately I don't know originally where it was I somehow lost my original marks, so I either tried 1 and 2 teeth advanced or 2 and 3. Going to put the bolt back on and piss around a little more tomorrow see if I can get it closer to the high side, I'm sure torqueing that ####### changes the timing a bit. I definitely notice it making more dynamic compression cranking it over by hand.

 

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!


I was dealing with a lot of issues that seemed to add up. The biggest one was incorrect cam timing, two teeth out. I'm also very sure the cam was out when I bought the truck. The truck now starts great, but when it's cold it will have a miss/smoke 5 seconds after starting. The BOI(beginning of injection) goes from 20 to 5, and that coincides exactly with the miss. Either it's air remaining in the system(likely) or someone goofed with the ECM to get it to start better with the cam out of time. Leon did mention there were some changes in the ECM.

Overall the engine is much smoother. Idle fuel consumption went from .6 gallons/hr to .25, and at 900 rpms high idle went from 1.0 to .6. It takes off from a stop much smoother, less herky jerky. It also doesn't stink at idle like it used to. The problem is with the cam out of time when I bought it I was used to this. Jake boost also went from about 12-14 to well over 20 bobtailing. I'd imagine 25 wouldn't be out of the question with a full load. The truck also coasts much smoother, the cam out of time causes pumping losses like a jake brake.

 

A number of people have said that including Leon. It's not that I ignored it, just seemed unlikely that it was out of time before and after I took it apart especially since I lined everything up.

I have no problem taking lumps for this, I'm not a stubborn know-it-all that can do nothing wrong. I could care less about being right or wrong, but rather I care about the truck running correctly.