Low end torque & gas milage

Ducati Rod · 10-01-2023, 04:13 AM

I installed a new head after the freeze plug in the front of the head dumped the coolant into the oil. All seems fine now "except" for the low end torque and the loss of a few miles per gallon. Car has about 135,000 miles, but these issues came with the new head. The good thing is the bad oil consumption all went away with the new (rebuilt) head. Any ideas??????????? Thanks in advance. Rod

Dave at Pelican Parts · Dave at Pelican Parts's Garage

Verify the cam timing. This can affect both the low-end and the fuel economy, and can very easily be changed when changing the head.

--DD

Ducati Rod · 10-01-2023, 01:23 PM

Dave, thank you for the reply, I did use a so called "official" tool but maybe I got something wrong! Seems the jobs are piling up, too many toys! I had a '74 Triumph Trident in boxes for 30 some years & just put it together. I wasn't real pleased with how it was running with the factory cam timing marks. Rumor has it they're only close & I'm running a Megacycle cam, so I was just setting up the dials. Then there's the early 50's Oliver crawler front end loader (needed for moving snow-banks) I just got the magneto back from rebuild. That will need a full tune-up & valve adjust. Also need to do a tune up for the '46 Willys when I put the snow plow on it, I've heard we're getting lot of snow here in Maine this winter & we got to put the garden to bed for the winter, guess I'll be busy for a while~

Ducati Rod · 10-24-2023, 09:20 AM

Finally got around to checking the cam timing. I put the 90 degree lock in the flywheel and the cam locks fell right into place. This makes me believe the cam timing isn't the issue. What else could be the cause? Twice in about 6 or 8 months I got the engine light with a code saying something like cam (not sure if it said which one) over retarded. I erased it and it stayed out for months. What could cause this & would it be the issue? I imagine so~
Looking forward to a good answer
Rod