3.3 Issues

[McCulloch911]

My t-maxx 3.3 has been sitting for a couple years now. I cleaned it and used after run oil to store it. I installed a new plug and the engine fired after only a little time but only would idle when the thorottle was applied. It as no power and seems to be running really rich (gobs of fuel are coming out of the exhaust pipe). I leaned the HSN but the performance didnt change any. I did the same to the LSN and no difference and with the idle i adjusted the screw and the results didnt change much. I changed all the fuel lines and removed the air filter to see if there was any blockage and there wasnt. The engine has excellent compression and only has maybe 2 gallons of fuel ran through it. Im all out of ideas and would appreciate any imput. Please let me know what you think.....

[Snook Man]

Did you at some time remove the piston from the engine?
A piston installed backwards will result in all the above symptoms.

[McCulloch911]

Actually I did a while back. How do you tell if the piston is backwards or not?

[lubecakes]

It has a relief in the bottom of the piston, that relief goes toward the carb. If you seperated the conrod from the piston make sure the rod oil hole faces forward too.
Did you change the plug? Is your fuel fresh?.....Not full of absorbed moisture?
Maybe the conditions a couple years ago were drastically different than they are now and it's way out of tune in today's weather.

[McCulloch911]

When I pulled the piston it was still connected to the rod. I basically disassembled the engine because I was curious as to how it all worked. Is it still possible to but it in backwards? The fuel is good I know because I run in it my other vehicles and yes the plug was brand new. I have reset the carb to the factory settings and still the same results. Any other suggestions??

[1979chevy.]

Well you still could have put it on backwards, even if it was connected to the rod.




God answers prayer,pray,believe,never give up!!!

[Snook Man]

Yes very possible to install it backwards. You have a 50/50 chance of it being installed correctly.

Remove the engine back plate and rotate the piston to BDC, look inside and you should be able to see the bottom of the piston skirt. The cutout portion of the skirt has to face the front/carb side of the engine or it will not run correctly.
The notches on the back plate also need to be pointed in the up direction when you install the backplate.

[McCulloch911]

Ok thank you very much for your response and I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

[McCulloch911]

Well boys sure enough I had the piston and rod in back words. So I switched it and reset the carb to factory settings and tried starting fresh. It idled nice but was running really fat with raw gobs of fuel just spewing out of the pipe. So I started leaning out the HSN and well I just couldnt find a happy spot. At high speeds it would die which made me think that it was running to lean and the fuel was burning off before it ran threw the engine?! So in small increments I started adjusting the LSN and once again couldnt get any good results. So I now have the carb set back to factory settings and am lost and confused. Any input and further advice would be appreciated.

[Double G]

Start at factory for the HSN, LSN and idle gap. Then tune the HSN either richer or leaner depending on the temp and how the engine reacts. Then when that is fine, move to the LSN.

[McCulloch911]

That's what I did but it still wont run properly. But when setting the LSN it says to set it flush with the throttle body. There is a inner and a outter housing so which one do I set it to??

[Double G]

Turn it about 1.5-1.75 turns out.

[newtmaxxguy]

how do you set the idle screw to factory setting ??

[McCulloch911]

Out from bottomed out??

[lubecakes]

Take a small paper clip and use that to set the idle gap. Put the lsn flush with the inside housing.

[McCulloch911]

Well ive set the carb back to factory settings and it's still doing the same thing. It has no power and raw fuel just pours out of the exhaust pipe. I totally stumped........