My beloved 1968 stock Toronado is a survivor. I have it for 10 years now and bought it from the son of the first owner. It's a "Swiss"-car, leaving a GM-plant here in Switzerland that then existed. Over the years the car made about 250'000km (which are about 150'000 miles).

Since I have most of the paperwork I'm quite sure it has the first engine in. And the first transmission. Reading the shop bills I guess they made up the cylinder heads - but this may be 100'000 miles ago. Just before I bought it - as last bigger repair to the drivetrain - the chain was replaced that connects engine to transmission.

In the 10 years I have it, it drove just fine. It's a silent and decent car - a gentlemans car. It was never raced and will never be - just had and has to move its 2 tons over the swiss hills and mountains. Cruising.

But for several years I've got the strong impression, the car is getting weaker and weaker. I tried a rebuilt carb but that changed nothing (but no bad choice since the one that was on was not stock).

4 years ago I replaced exhausting system against a repro that was offered on the internet (cannot remember exactly from who). It fittet okay but the new muffler is quite "closed" which I assumed to be stock-like - after that the car was again more silent and decent - and I assume that this costed some horses dieing in the muffler. But not THAT many - and not that much torque.

Last Friday I measured compression on 4 cylinders - just random sample. They are all much higher than 10:1 - and that's my impression too: Zylinders and valves are probably okay.

As a last thing I consider the timing set might be worn out - seems to be a weak point I was told here in the forum. Last friday I removed the fuelpump for a minute and put my finger in that hole to "feel" that chain - and it feeled quite loose. As I read in the forum a jumped over timing chain might cause the engine to get that weak.

May be a good idea to define more precisely "weak"... The engine has power only at low rpm. There is no more power reving it up when accelerating. It will not go over about 3000 rpm at all. And currently I'm scared that I cannot climb an average hill with more than 40 mph (flowing with the traffic). So I mean VERY weak.

So I'll try to ask my questions - you may feel that I'm just quite unsure about what to do.

• Do you find it plausible that an incorrect timing caused by worn timing gears and chain causes the car becoming so powerless?
• With such an old engine - but running smooth - would it make sense just to replace the timing set (gear and chain) and leave the rest as it is?
• Is it a bad idea to try to replace the timing set with the enging in the car? I mean: that's the point... to do it properly (and following the shop manual) the engine should be taken out of the car. And it this is done - shouldn't one do the rest also?
• And WHAT IS "THE REST"? Only heads? Also pistons? How about crankshaft bearings?

I don't have problems to spend some bucks to the shop - IF IT MAKES SENSE. I would appreciate your opinions!

 

With your symptoms, I would think of the ignition system first:
Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, points, condenser, possibly coil.

Sounds like low spark voltage, either because it's not being generated (points, condenser, coil) or because it's leaking out (rotor, cap, wires).

Do your spark plug wires have a date on them?

- Eric

 

Hmm - will check that. To be honest: I have a Pertronix unit laying around for quite a while that I was to lazy to build in ...

Wires with plugs and spark plugs are new.

 

I would appreciate your opinions![/QUOTE]

I hope you have figured this out by now, if not, I can respond to having the same issue. Finally I figured out the muffler was incorrect and causing major back pressure, replacing the muffler made a huge difference, then, as you correctly noted, the timing chain had to be changed. I did this with the engine out so all could be resealed and painted. Now, it's like new again