Working out the Kinks of a Fresh Engine

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Dodge72

Dodge72

Odd one out
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
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Location
Olympia, WA
Hello all! Some of you may seen my video on "What Did you Do with your Car Today?"

My 360 started and ran, yay! :)

Unfortunately it was 9:30 PM and I got a complaint from a neighbor, so it didn't get time to run and really break-in. When the next day rolled around after work however, we attempted to get it running again only to have the choke go open (manual choke) and it died from being too cold/possibly too rich. Next attempt to fire it got too much gas, plus my boyfriend noticed at the base of the carburetor, right at the gasket seal, was wet with fuel, and he noticed a drip. Have to fix this before firing it again. I removed a spark plug and it is already black, so the carb mix is too rich as well.

Specs: LA 360, factory roller cam engine with hydraulic rollers. Mild RV spec cam. LD340 intake with a Mr.Gasket aluminum spacer. Edelbrock 1405, rebuilt at home with the combo of '2' on the metering rod/jet combo. I'll most likely start backing off the mixture screws as this setup is a little on the rich side already. I'll install the manual choke cable until I get the electric choke conversion in. The gas leak was on the right side of the carb, the side with the throttle linkage and at the base. We used very thin gaskets, and it was soaked when we took the carb off. We also have to use the innermost stud locations on the LD340 as one of the stud holes has no threads in it. What should I check for? A few things:

I will try to run without the spacer.
Is there a thicker gasket for the Edelbrock that does NOT just mount to the outside holes? If not, I'll have to see about trying to tap that one buggered hole.
I will double check to make sure the carb is atomizing the fuel properly.
We attempted to get it timed, I believe it is only at 10* advanced right now.

Let me know if any of you have other thoughts, thank you!
 
crackedback said:
Too much fuel pressure or misadjusted floats in carb
Click to expand...

I have a Carter mechanical fuel pump. Is it possible to have too much pressure that way?

The floats were adjusted with a 7/16" drill bit. I'll be changing the springs for the rods since that was the one thing we didn't change too,so I can double check the float level.
 
Dodge72 said:
Hello all! Some of you may seen my video on "What Did you Do with your Car Today?"

My 360 started and ran, yay! :)

Unfortunately it was 9:30 PM and I got a complaint from a neighbor, so it didn't get time to run and really break-in. When the next day rolled around after work however, we attempted to get it running again only to have the choke go open (manual choke) and it died from being too cold/possibly too rich. Next attempt to fire it got too much gas, plus my boyfriend noticed at the base of the carburetor, right at the gasket seal, was wet with fuel, and he noticed a drip. Have to fix this before firing it again. I removed a spark plug and it is already black, so the carb mix is too rich as well.

Specs: LA 360, factory roller cam engine with hydraulic rollers. Mild RV spec cam. LD340 intake with a Mr.Gasket aluminum spacer. Edelbrock 1405, rebuilt at home with the combo of '2' on the metering rod/jet combo. I'll most likely start backing off the mixture screws as this setup is a little on the rich side already. I'll install the manual choke cable until I get the electric choke conversion in. The gas leak was on the right side of the carb, the side with the throttle linkage and at the base. We used very thin gaskets, and it was soaked when we took the carb off. We also have to use the innermost stud locations on the LD340 as one of the stud holes has no threads in it. What should I check for? A few things:

I will try to run without the spacer.
Is there a thicker gasket for the Edelbrock that does NOT just mount to the outside holes? If not, I'll have to see about trying to tap that one buggered hole.
I will double check to make sure the carb is atomizing the fuel properly.
We attempted to get it timed, I believe it is only at 10* advanced right now.

Let me know if any of you have other thoughts, thank you!
Click to expand...



10 degrees TOTAL? That's a parts killer. Get 40 on it to break it in.

If it's rich at idle, backing the screws out will make it richer.

Need to see where Mason county is. If it's not 10 PM I tell the neighbors to eat crap. They don't pay my bills.

Just another of many reasons I live in the country.
 
yellow rose said:
10 degrees TOTAL? That's a parts killer. Get 40 on it to break it in.

If it's rich at idle, backing the screws out will make it richer.

Need to see where Mason county is. If it's not 10 PM I tell the neighbors to eat crap. They don't pay my bills.

Just another of many reasons I live in the country.
Click to expand...

I'm going to get the "stock" metering rods and back the screws in to lean it out some. And we attempted to do timing, but we were preoccupied with trying to get the car to run at 2000rpm and didn't get to fiddle with timing. For sure I'll bump that up, I realize it's too little.

As for the neighbor... We are renting currently and the neighbor has been real cool with us (owns a 69 Charger himself...) so we decided it can be continued after work.
 
Dodge72 said:
I'm going to get the "stock" metering rods and back the screws in to lean it out some. And we attempted to do timing, but we were preoccupied with trying to get the car to run at 2000rpm and didn't get to fiddle with timing. For sure I'll bump that up, I realize it's too little.

As for the neighbor... We are renting currently and the neighbor has been real cool with us (owns a 69 Charger himself...) so we decided it can be continued after work.
Click to expand...


There are times to be flexible. That was one of them.

You can use the leaner metering rods, but get some timing on it as soon as it lights the next time.

Retarded timing causes damage...like stuck exhaust valves. So get some timing in it and go from there.
 
Do you really mean 10 degrees total
or 10 degrees with the timing light on the dampner
 
If you have fuel leaking out of the carb, along the throttle shafts from dripping in from the boosters, changing rods or mixture screws won't help. You can't have unmetered fuel dropping in like that.

10* initial is OK, but probably less than optimal.
 
Dodge72 said:
Hello all! Some of you may seen my video on "What Did you Do with your Car Today?"

My 360 started and ran, yay! :)

Unfortunately it was 9:30 PM and I got a complaint from a neighbor, so it didn't get time to run and really break-in. When the next day rolled around after work however, we attempted to get it running again only to have the choke go open (manual choke) and it died from being too cold/possibly too rich. Next attempt to fire it got too much gas, plus my boyfriend noticed at the base of the carburetor, right at the gasket seal, was wet with fuel, and he noticed a drip. Have to fix this before firing it again. I removed a spark plug and it is already black, so the carb mix is too rich as well.

Specs: LA 360, factory roller cam engine with hydraulic rollers. Mild RV spec cam. LD340 intake with a Mr.Gasket aluminum spacer. Edelbrock 1405, rebuilt at home with the combo of '2' on the metering rod/jet combo. I'll most likely start backing off the mixture screws as this setup is a little on the rich side already. I'll install the manual choke cable until I get the electric choke conversion in. The gas leak was on the right side of the carb, the side with the throttle linkage and at the base. We used very thin gaskets, and it was soaked when we took the carb off. We also have to use the innermost stud locations on the LD340 as one of the stud holes has no threads in it. What should I check for? A few things:

I will try to run without the spacer.
Is there a thicker gasket for the Edelbrock that does NOT just mount to the outside holes? If not, I'll have to see about trying to tap that one buggered hole.
I will double check to make sure the carb is atomizing the fuel properly.
We attempted to get it timed, I believe it is only at 10* advanced right now.

Let me know if any of you have other thoughts, thank you!
Click to expand...
Tell the neighbor 10 pm is when he come ***** at you.
You have a a stuck needle n seat.

That let's the fuel overfill the bowl and push it's way out the main boosters.

Black plugs are indicative of this issue.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. So I may have cheated and swapped a carb to a known working 1406, just so we aren't fiddling anymore. Eliminated the spacer as well.

Fill the bowls and away she went!

Got the timing to about 30* @ 2000 all in, varying the RPM. I have a roller cam so it was mostly about getting those piston rings to seat, making sure the engine can get up to temp without blowing gaskets. Besides a loose rocker shaft (oopps! We caught it very quickly), it got up to 195* and held there. There's one water pump bolt leaking , just needs new sealant as we had to remove it once. I'll have to go through the 1405 and see what is going on with it, check the throttle bushing and double check stuff like the needle and seat. But it seems to like the 1406, may just keep it on there for a little bit. Now to hook up the rest of the exhaust and linkage, and fine tune the engine before taking the Dart out the first time as a V8 car.
 
A new Edelbrock is cheap and works great right out of the box....
I've seen guys rebuild carbs over and over and still fighting problems. ...new Edelbrock - problem solved.

Jeff
 
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