Car dies in gear...

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Cope

Cope

Fusing with fire
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
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San Jose, Ca.
I'm so sick of carbs... So I burned a few plug wires and had some issues, back fire and bad stumble. I replaced the wires and went to my 950 carb just to get the car home. Ran ok but not great after everyone telling me 950 was way to much carb for the 318 I rebuilt the 750 that's been on the car for 10 years and the dam thing still won't work.

T port is square, idle mix screws 1 1/4 out, floats are adjusted to the hole. No vacuum leaks.
I can idle fine in nutral but as soon as I try drive or reverse it just dies.
I have my AFR and vaccum hooked up and working.

Any ideas I'm at my whits end with this. Its hot and my car won't run=me not happy.

Thanks for any ideas or advice.
 
What is the 950? That is a HUGE carb for a 318....hell a 750 is a big carb for a 318!
 
Cope said:
I'm so sick of carbs... So I burned a few plug wires and had some issues, back fire and bad stumble. I replaced the wires and went to my 950 carb just to get the car home. Ran ok but not great after everyone telling me 950 was way to much carb for the 318 I rebuilt the 750 that's been on the car for 10 years and the dam thing still won't work.

T port is square, idle mix screws 1 1/4 out, floats are adjusted to the hole. No vacuum leaks.
I can idle fine in nutral but as soon as I try drive or reverse it just dies.
I have my AFR and vaccum hooked up and working.

Any ideas I'm at my whits end with this. Its hot and my car won't run=me not happy.

Thanks for any ideas or advice.
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Even a 750 is a tad large for a 318 but that probably isn't the issue. What carb are you running?
 
Is this a previously good running engine?...or is this after a rebuild? where something like too big of a cam could be the issue.
 
My timing light is at the shop and car is in the drive way so I can't speak to the timing but I did try and twist the dis and it won't move so timing ain't moved. (I don't think)

Carb is holley 4150 750 that been running great for 10 years on the 318 before 2 plug wires hit the header

The 950 was off my 512 CI stroker, I could not get the base gasket for the 750 so I threw the 950 on to get the car home from the shop.

The 750 has all new gaskets and new PV.
 
Yeah this is a good running engine. No changes have been made besides swapping carb and plug wires.

I have tried nutral RPM from 500 to 1,000 with no luck. Tried ported vacuum to dizy and tried plugging the vaccum with no luck.

In the past I used ported vaccum with the 750.

When I rebuilt the carb I sprayed it out with compressed air and carb cleaner. It almost seems like the air bleeds are clogged but at 1000 rpm I can hear them.
 
Cope said:
My timing light is at the shop and car is in the drive way so I can't speak to the timing but I did try and twist the dis and it won't move so timing ain't moved. (I don't think)

Carb is holley 4150 750 that been running great for 10 years on the 318 before 2 plug wires hit the header

The 950 was off my 512 CI stroker, I could not get the base gasket for the 750 so I threw the 950 on to get the car home from the shop.

The 750 has all new gaskets and new PV.
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You need to get that timing light and verify where you're at. Do you have a vacuum gauge and tach? You could adjust the timing and idle mixture screws for highest vacuum/RPM reading in the meantime. Please tell us everything you can about the engine build.
 
I have a vacuum gauge and tach. I'm pulling 18 inches at 800 rpm.

318 is stock inside.
High rise intake, long tube headders, MSD box.

This motor set up has ran great for 10 years until I messed with the carb..
I did put carb, headders and MSD on a long time ago and remember it was a ***** to get it tuned.. just don't remember how I did it...

Ill get the timing light tomarrow or later today and check where she's at.

Fuel PSI just under 6 pounds.
 
In order to get my RPM where I needed it without opening the primary transfer slots up too much, I opened the secondary plates a bit. I'd double check your idle mixture screws with the vacuum gauge or tach. I got a more accurate reading adjusting mine to maximize the RPM with my tach set to low RPM so I could see the smallest increase/decrease in RPM while adjusting. With 18 inches of vacuum, I would not go lower than a 6.5 PV. What do you have installed now?
 
Have you checked for vacuum leaks around the ports and base of carb???
 
Sprayed the entire carb, no change in RPM.

I think the PV is 6.5 but I'm gonna pull the front bowl and check.

I'm not dripping fuel from the boosters so I think I'm still in the T port.
 
krazykuda said:
That can cause issues...
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It's worth the extra time to pull off the carb and verify that the slots are still good. I'd square them off and just barely open the secondary plates from lightly seated (1/2 to 1 turn) and back your mixture screws out 1.5 turns. After this, if you can't get your idle set with very small adjustments to the curb idle screw, adjust the secondaries some more.
 
PV is 6.5

Ok pulling the carb back off to check the T port slot.....

Good times in this heat... thank god for cold beer. The only issue is now if I do get it working I can't drive it...... ah the double edge curse of cold beer.....
 
Spraying it out with a can of carb cleaner lots of times won't get all he varnish out of the tiny passages and air bleeds. Needs to be soaked in carb cleaning solution
 
T port was square. (Close to anyway)
Opened the secondary butterfly a half turn more and now it's lean at over 2 turns out.. and still won't idle in D...

I think it's the heat but now I'm leaning twards "fixing" it with a BFH, at least then it will realy be broken...
:)
 
Cope said:
T port was square. (Close to anyway)
Opened the secondary butterfly a half turn more and now it's lean at over 2 turns out.. and still won't idle in D...

I think it's the heat but now I'm leaning twards "fixing" it with a BFH, at least then it will realy be broken...
:)
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Are you letting the engine get to operating temp? Maybe you just need a choke adjustment until the intake manifold gets hot enough to sustain idle.
 
That's not a bad idea, if it still won't work by the time my.pops gets off, I'll have him drop it in the carb bucket....
 
Yeah, she's at temp. It's hot as the surface of the sun out here and it ideas fine in N, So it's had all day to warm up....

Unless all the sweat dripping off me has cooled it down?
 
Just for shots and giggles, what timimg to you folks recommen?

I think I'm at 19-36 but no telling until I get a ride to the shop..
 
Cope said:
Just for shots and giggles, what timimg to you folks recommen?

I think I'm at 19-36 but no telling until I get a ride to the shop..
Click to expand...
You really want to let the car idle for a while and make sure the coolant temp is within normal range before you rule out your choke adjustment. A cold engine wont idle in gear. I'd start with 10 deg BTDC at idle and 34-38 degs at 3,000 RPM with the vacuum line disconnected and plugged.
 
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