450SLC backfires through air cleaner

I just combed through the last 100 days of posts from both the tech board and this board to see if anyone else had similar experience.

My '74 450SLC with 160K backfired once at a stoplight and quit. Subsequent attempts to start produce a backfire out of the intake. Did the timing chain slip? Is this a fatal problem? Cap, rotor and points seem to check out OK. Any help,suggestions would be appreciated.

[cth350]

Loosing the timing chain would be a VERY expensive problem. To the tune of 4,000$ if you ask somebody for an estimate (under 1,000) if you DIY all but the machine work. However, it's easy to check. Hand crank your motor to the 0 mark on the crank and pull the valve cover on the passenger side. If the mark on the cam is way outa joint, rotate around again to the 0 mark. If it's still out of joint, goodbye cash (well, goodbye motor at least).

There are several old posts, mostly related to the 280CE or 280SE 4.5 or 300sel 3.5 about the fuel injection system in your car. (try searching for D-jet or D-jectronic or just EFI).

I have a small bundle of EFI documents that I send people in your shoes. email me and I'll reply with a 1.4mb attachement of a bunch of scanned doc pages all conviently zipped together.

It may not solve your problem, but it will eliminate the FI system from the equation.


-CTH