Hi, I have a 1990 Grand Wagoneer (AMC 360 with HEI). It was running fine but had low hot oil pressure and blew some smoke at start up. Otherwise idled great and drove strong on the freeway and around town.
I pulled the valve covers and found pieces of the old valve seals. I used the pressurized cylinder method to replace the valve seals. No problems there and reassembly went well. All rockers torqued correctly.
I then replaced the fuel pump and rebuilt the oil pump. The fuel pump leaked a lot of oil out of its gasket and it seemed to put gas into the oil. I pulled the HEI distributor to get access to the flare fitting on the pump. Replaced the fuel pump and gasket no problem.
Oil pump was fairly easy. I pulled it, put new gears in and a mid plate as the cover was scored fairly badly. I put new oil into the engine and then primed the pump with a screw driver on a drill. It built pressure fairly quickly but I let the drill run for a bit to make sure all the oil flowed through the engine. Reinstalled the HEI distributor.
Went to fire up the engine and it runs really rough at anything below about half throttle. From half throttle to WOT it runs smooth like it used to. When it tries to idle is misses hard then abruptly dies hard.
Things I have checked so far:
1. The new fuel pump is pumping. Lots of gas in the carb bowl and the accelerator pump squirts.
2. Engine has 50psi cold pressure when its running.
3. Firing order. Triple checked this one.
Could this be caused by being a tooth off on the distributor? When I took it apart I marked where the cap and rotor was pointing at and I was certain to have reassembled it correctly. Anything else I should look for and double check?
Thanks!