1979 Chevy El Camino miss/ hard cranking when hot

JRAY2282

MEMBER
1979 CHEVROLET EL CAMINO

Engine Performance problem
1979 Chevy El Camino V8 Two Wheel Drive Automatic

My 4.4 litre v8 has a distinctive miss and a lack of power. This vehicle sat for 16 years I did a compression test and found about 145 psi in each cyclinder except one was about 130 or 135 I replaced the coil, dist. And rotor cap wires and pluges fuel pump and filter it has dual exhaust and when warm one pipe exhaust seems warmer than the other also the cooler one has a little whit smoke or steam coming from it.
Can you help me out?
J Ray

1 Reply

PEAR69

MECHANIC
1,482 POSTS

After 16 years there is bound to be gasket and seals leaking. Do a leak down test. Check the (or just replace) intake gaskets.
Is it steam or smoke coming from the exhaust? Probably steam from coolant leaking into the combustion chamber - from a leaking intake gasket.
The cooler exhaust pipe indicates more than one cylinder missing on that particular side of the engine. This could be caused by an unballanced fuel delivery issue - so, the carburater probably needs rebuilding.
If the compression on the low cylinder is 10% lower than the other ones -- this indicates worn out piston rings or worn out valve guides. Hopefully its valve guides - a leak down test can confirm this. Did you change the oil and filter?
By the time you go testing and replacing everything that may be wrong - you will find that it is better and cheaper to just remove the intake and heads and just freshin them up with new seals and gaskets. You can then determine if: the valves need replacing, check the condition of the top of the pistons (which probably need to be cleaned up), check the carb.