Engine sputtering at about 65

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cookietruck said:
also, does your car have part throttle kickdown?
looks like you might could do an adjustment on the wire on the lokar that adjusts your trans pressure, the "kickdown linkage"...
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Yes, that’s been a constant battle. When I had less throttle travel it was pretty nice, shifted 1 to 2 at 20mph, 2 to 3 at 40, but now that I have more travel on the throttle linkage and I had to move one of the return springs to the front that’s all out of whack and 2 to 3 is around 50-55mph which is much too high.
 
So the timing is set correctly now after many hours of messing with it and running it by a local whiz at carbs. His suggestion was a new carb with his reasoning that the secondaries, are dripping fuel even at idle and being that this has been rebuilt less than 3 months ago, it's probably an issue that will keep happening. Any ideas on this line of thinking? I can also at that time add a Power Valve that's more appropriate for the car that opens with better vacuum values.
 
if it's an old carb then maybe it would be a good idea to get a new one.
BUT...most likely there is no reason you shouldn't be able to fix the carb you have and it's probably simple, like float level or where the secondary throttle blades are adjusted...

on the kickdown adjustment, it's easy if you have two people, get someone to push the trans kickdown lever all the way back. then, push the throttle all the way back, pull the cable tight and then tighten down the lock on the end of the cable, from there you might need to screw the adjuster on the bracket in, so it effectively shortens the cable housing, taking some more pressure off the trans lever. that's the fine tuning part.
I've found the lokar stuff works best if you can get a long light spring on the trans lever that pulls the lever forward.
 
cookietruck said:
if it's an old carb then maybe it would be a good idea to get a new one.
BUT...most likely there is no reason you shouldn't be able to fix the carb you have and it's probably simple, like float level or where the secondary throttle blades are adjusted...

on the kickdown adjustment, it's easy if you have two people, get someone to push the trans kickdown lever all the way back. then, push the throttle all the way back, pull the cable tight and then tighten down the lock on the end of the cable, from there you might need to screw the adjuster on the bracket in, so it effectively shortens the cable housing, taking some more pressure off the trans lever. that's the fine tuning part.
I've found the lokar stuff works best if you can get a long light spring on the trans lever that pulls the lever forward.
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So on the transmission side, the TPV goes all the way to the back of the car? I can't remember which way it swings to engage. I think I remember it pushing back by the cable pulling, if that makes sense.

As for the carb, since this is my driver and I'm not experienced at all with carbs, I'm leaning more towards replacing just because of my lack of experience with them. If it was a total project and not something I depend on I might be more apt to mess around with it myself and even tackle a rebuild. Maybe if I decide to buy a new one, I'll buy a rebuild kit for the old one and then I'll have time to build it as a spare so I can learn more about them.
 
Dave Haertel said:
So on the transmission side, the TPV goes all the way to the back of the car? I can't remember which way it swings to engage. I think I remember it pushing back by the cable pulling, if that makes sense.
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it's on the drivers side of the transmission, the cable should loop around in the rear and then pull the lever towards the rear of the car.
maybe an easier way to adjust it would be, put a light spring on the lever that pulls it forward (and leave it on). then adjust the stop on the end of the cable up by the carb so that the cable has no slack, then use that aluminum adjuster screw to add some preload, maybe screw that screw about 1/4" out and see how it does...

Dave Haertel said:
As for the carb, since this is my driver and I'm not experienced at all with carbs, I'm leaning more towards replacing
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understandable, that's actually what i would do. I put a quick fuel 650 on a basically stock 318 in my truck and it was just about perfect right out of the box.
choke adjust, idle mix adjust, drive....
 
As above.... The fuel dripping out of the secondaries could be due to the rear float being full of fuel and sinking, or just being set wrong, or the secondary throttle stop screw being set wrong. I'd lean towards the latter but it would have to be troubleshot. Neither is hard to do, especially the float: just idle the car on level ground, and remove the rear sight plug; the fuel should be right at the bottom of that hole.

I can see your thinking about another carb. There is a slight chance that a new carb would have a problem, but for sure your odds of have something better are very high.
cookietruck said:
I've found the lokar stuff works best if you can get a long light spring on the trans lever that pulls the lever forward.
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My son and I ended up at the same place.
 
nm9stheham said:
As above.... The fuel dripping out of the secondaries could be due to the rear float being full of fuel and sinking, or just being set wrong, or the secondary throttle stop screw being set wrong. I'd lean towards the latter but it would have to be troubleshot. Neither is hard to do, especially the float: just idle the car on level ground, and remove the rear sight plug; the fuel should be right at the bottom of that hole.

I can see your thinking about another carb. There is a slight chance that a new carb would have a problem, but for sure your odds of have something better are very high.
My son and I ended up at the same place.
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Another interesting revelation, the secondary shaft is sloppy is full of all kinds of play and allowing fuel to leak out the side when you move it at all.
 
Dave Haertel said:
Another interesting revelation, the secondary shaft is sloppy is full of all kinds of play and allowing fuel to leak out the side when you move it at all.
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There are plastic/teflon bushings in the throttle shaft holes in the base. These sound like they are worn out, or somebody abused them....or left (or dissolved) them out at the carb rebuild. You can get these and rework the base of the carb. This is probably totally screwing up the secondary action and messing with the air coming under the carb at idle and low speeds and cruise conditions.

Rebuilding the base is not rocket science, but takes some knowledge on how to treat the shafts and get the butterflies out. I've done it before on a very old carb where the secondary shaft was frozen in the bores, and it came out fine and is running on my son's 340.

But this is pointing to a new carb if you do not want to go that deep into carb things at this time.

I am not sure I want to know who rebuilt this carb....sounds like crap.
 
nm9stheham said:
There are plastic/teflon bushings in the throttle shaft holes in the base. These sound like they are worn out, or somebody abused them....or left (or dissolved) them out at the carb rebuild. You can get these and rework the base of the carb. This is probably totally screwing up the secondary action and messing with the air coming under the carb at idle and low speeds and cruise conditions.

Rebuilding the base is not rocket science, but takes some knowledge on how to treat the shafts and get the butterflies out. I've done it before on a very old carb where the secondary shaft was frozen in the bores, and it came out fine and is running on my son's 340.

But this is pointing to a new carb if you do not want to go that deep into carb things at this time.

I am not sure I want to know who rebuilt this carb....sounds like crap.
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So, actually the guy that rebuilt it came highly recommended believe it or not, I guess now I know not to take recommendations anymore lol.

I'm leaning towards purchasing one, and then I'll take this all apart and learn it from the inside out and end up with a working spare. It seems to me to be the most prudent way to go forward with this.
 
Dave Haertel said:
So, actually the guy that rebuilt it came highly recommended believe it or not, I guess now I know not to take recommendations anymore lol.

I'm leaning towards purchasing one, and then I'll take this all apart and learn it from the inside out and end up with a working spare. It seems to me to be the most prudent way to go forward with this.
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I would recommend a Edelbrock carb. They are simple and relative easy to tune. No power valves to blow out or mess with either.
 
I would have to get on the Summit site and look. You running a 340? 650 should do the trick. The electric chokes are nice too. What intake are you running?
 
toolmanmike said:
I would have to get on the Summit site and look. You running a 340? 650 should do the trick. The electric chokes are nice too. What intake are you running?
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Not sure which intake, it's a Weiand but don't know the model number at the moment. I'll check in the morning.
 
Just wondering if it was a square bore or spread bore.
 
toolmanmike said:
Just wondering if it was a square bore or spread bore.
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I forgot to look, I'll go check when I get a minute, I had a ***** of a time getting to work, she was backfiring, sputtering, gagging and coughing the last mile of the way here. Good thing Jegs or Summit has cheap overnight shipping, I can have something here tomorrow if I can make a decision today.
 
toolmanmike said:
Just wondering if it was a square bore or spread bore.
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It's the action plus line but I can't find a model number. Jegs says that if you're using a squarebore carb then you need an adapter, so that would tell me a spreadbore. The carb is an 1850-11 that's on there now.
 
Dave Haertel said:
It's the action plus line but I can't find a model number. Jegs says that if you're using a squarebore carb then you need an adapter, so that would tell me a spreadbore. The carb is an 1850-11 that's on there now.
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Square bore.
 
Like this? Holley 1850. 600 vacuum secondary
holley 1850.jpg
 
It's completely your call. I have had excellent luck with the Edelbrock style carbs. Many here at FABO as well. Your choice.
 
toolmanmike said:
It's completely your call. I have had excellent luck with the Edelbrock style carbs. Many here at FABO as well. Your choice.
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I ended up going with a slightly smaller Holley, a 600cfm, very similar to what was there, just because I'm familiar with it a little bit more right now than the Edelbrocks. Price was a factor too, this isn't a street/strip car, this is my driver and so I don't think spending double or triple would be worth what I feel should make a decent improvement on the car.

I did hook everything back up, I just took the picture before it was all finished. Looks good, now I just have to hope this was the problem.

Dart Bling.jpg
 
So, I'm considering going to an HEI distributor and replacing what's in there as an upgrade. Any suggestions here? Other than to start a new thread? :D
 
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