Miss in engine

[Kelley W King]

Guys, I know this is a camaro forum but you have good input. I have a 77 trans am which had not run since 2006. The shaker scoop leaked and filled the engine with enough water to push the oil up in the cylinders. I installed new cap and rotor and wires and rebuilt carb. The engine has good compression but sometimes misses on # 6 cylinder. I removed the valve cover to insure the cam had not eaten a lobe and checked for weak or broken valve springs. Some say a lifter might have rust in it or bleeding down and some say a valve might be sticking. There is no clicking or popping through the carb or exaust. It does come and go while driving. Any thoughts?

[Mike S]

 My vote would be rust particles in the lifter that are trapped.
If that much water damage was done to the motor then it's only a matter of time before something else happens.
I would suspect the bearing surfaces (rod and mains) were damaged and will cause troubles soon.
I wonder what the cylinder walls looked like before you had started it again.

Mike

[Kelley W King]

Thanks for vote Mike. I got the car thinking the engine would have to be gone through so it was a nice surprise when it ran. I drove it several times this weekend and it seems to do better the more i drive it. If it does break I will be right where I thought when I got it.

[tmodel66]

Kelley go to your local parts house and get a jar of CTC Tune Up and put it in your oil. If it's a lifter it will fix it. It good for a little bit of everything. Here's a link to look at the bottle to get the right stuff.
http://ctctuneup.tripod.com/

[maroman]

Or try Marvel Mystery oil. I usually don't believe in snake oil but MM has saved me a lot of grief with lifters. As you said if it blows!

[hotrod68]

Kelly..........you didn't say if you'd changed the plugs. In your shoes I'd change the spark plugs and the wires, also. A fouled spark plug can cause an intermittent miss even thogh it may be firing. I'd also look for blue smoke from the exhaust to see if it was burning any oil, and signs of blowby which would indicate a scored cylinder or rings. If you had a bad lifter more than likely it would be tapping, especially on startup. Hope this helps.