Need help from Tuning Guru's

nothingbutdarts said
I bought a old 77 p/up with a factory 440, thermoquad. Was a plow truck for the neighbor and rarely run. I'm having trouble figuring it out: idles fine, starts OK, new fuel pump and it checks out good with both flow and pressure. You nail it and it revs just so high and starts spitting and sputtering around say, 30 MPH in first gear (3:55's so it's not reving very high), I think it might be overfueling but not sure. New gas, I disconnected the secondaries @ the throttle plates and tied them and the choke open, Still does the same thing. I hooked up a vaccume gauge, 16" @ idle (I'm @ 8,500') it goes close to zero @ wide open throttle and stays a the same place when you have it @ WOT. What would the reading be on the vacume gauge say if the exhaust was getting plugged? If the exhaust was getting plugged would it make the exhaust black @ WOT? The carb has a rebuilt tag on it, though I don't know how old it is or if it ever worked OK on the engine. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'd start off by checking the timing is advancing correctly, should start to advance at 800rpm and be at full, 36deg at 2300-2500. If that truck sat for quite a while the mice may have packed the muffler full of bedding, so break the exhaust pipe loose up stream of the muffler and see if this helps. Also when you say the fuel pressure is fine, can you see what the pressure is when she's acting up at 30mph.
One other thing, pull off your distributor cap and watch the rotor as you turn the crank in normal rotation about a 1/4 turn, then turn the crank back the other way. When you go back the other way the distributor rotor should start turning almost immediately. To much slack in the timing chain and she'll run like a dog and may of even jumped a tooth.

Terry