318 help

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Mike1972

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My nephew has a very nice looking valiant with a mild built 318. It starts easily and sounds really good. Problem is when you put it into drive or reverse it dies. Sometimes even if you 2 pedal it. We installed a new carb but still the same problem. Any ideas?

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Nice looking car. Do you have a vacuum gauge? What is the idle speed in park? Two feet on the pedals might be asking for trouble. I would get a kit and the specs for the old carb and rebuild it myself.
 
It happens even with just foot on the brake. It adles about 1000 to 1200 rpm. No vacuums on the engine.
 
2 carbs same problem, probably not the carb. Did it ever run, is this a new build? That idle is way to high. No vacuum, you got a huge vacuum leak
 
Does it have power brakes? Could be in the booster. isolate the booster and then apply brakes. see if it still stalls
 
Its isles great and drives great. Just really tough to get it into drive or reverse without it dying.
 
Check all hoses from the carb and the manifold for cracks. If the hoses are fine disconnect each hose and check for a change in engine sound. Make sure that all ports on the carb are being used or properly sealed. Can you get it to idle lower than 1200. It should be around 800, depending on how much cam is in the engine.
 
My son's 360 4 barrel dart had the exact same issue. Starts, idles, but put it in drive or reverse and it would die unless you feathered the pedal upto a decent speed. Reverse was much worse than drive. Ended up being the thin carb gasket, installed the thick one and all was great. Had to re-adjust the idle ect.
 
Mike1972 said:
Its isles great and drives great. Just really tough to get it into drive or reverse without it dying.
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What are the camshaft spec's.
Probably not enough initial timing at idle without having too much at full advance.
You more than likely need to re curve the distributor and shorten the centrifical advance. It should be idling around 800 and 650-720 in gear, roughly speaking of course.
 
I'd say the transfer slot is too lean, but you'd have to have waaaaaaaaaay too much idle timing to get the idle that high with the throttle closed that far ........... unless the secondaries are not closing all the way.
 
Mike1972 said:
Where would you suggest hooking up to check the vacuum?
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Find a low open port near the base of the carburetor... The high port on the pass side of the carb (about halfway up) is ported vacuum for the vacuum advance on the distributor...
 
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