Slant Six Bogging Down!

To the OP: Let's find out some basics and the general area of the problem before you make any big changes. You need spark, fuel in the right amount, and compression. The fuel supply is the main suspect based on what you have said; testing for that and spark are pretty easy so do those before messing with compression.

- Does the car start fairly reasonably? If not , please describe
- When it idles, does it idle fairly smoothly or is it very ragged or just barely running?
- If you give it gas gradually when sitting still in neutral, will the engine speed up?
- Is there any particular smell of gas around the engine?

Do the following:
1. Pull off the center spark plug wire from the distributor cap (the one from the coil) , and place the end of the wire 1/4" from metal and crank the engine. You should get a regular sequence of good, blue sparks.
2. With that spark wire still off, do the following 3 fuel system tests:
a) Remove the line to the fuel pump coming from the tank and put on a longer hose, and see if you can blow any air back into the tank. Remove the gas cap first. It may have some resistance, but you should be able to push a fair amount of air back if you have decent lungpower.
b) Reconnect and then disconnect the fuel pump outlet line and connect it to a fuel pressure gauge. Crank the car and see if you get 3-5 psi pressure. If you get pressure, then it should hold for many minutes after you stop cranking. (A simple fuel pressure and vacuum gauge is easy to find and not too expensive.)
c) Then take off the pressure gauge from the fuel pump outlet line and put the line into a can. Crank the engine and see if it pumps a pint to a quart of fuel in 30 seconds of cranking.

Let us know what you find.