273 Engine Help

-
6

68Abody

Member
Joined
May 13, 2008
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Hello everybody,

I have a 68 Dart 273 engine with 48,000 original miles on it. In the past few months it has been bogging down when stepping on the accelerator, and then it will stall. This only happens when the car gets warm. It then is very hard to start and when it does it idles very rough. I can not seem to figure out what is wrong with it, I have done many things to try to solve the problem with no avail. Here is what I have done so far.

1- New fuel lines, fuel pump, fuel filter, rebuilt carburetor.
2- New spark plugs, spark plug wires, new coil.
3- All new hoses.
4- Timed to 8 before, ( has Pertronix electronic ignition )

Do you think the Pertronix ignition has gone bad??? Do they ever go bad??

Any help would be greatly appriatiated. :???:
 
I don't know much about Petronix stuff. I did have similar problems with my 360 and I was able to solve it with carb tuning, mainly the idle mixture screws. IDK maybe this will help you some.
 
From what you state that it does it after it is warm, if your car has an automatic choke on it. I would check the accererator pump in the carb. Sounds like it is leaning out after the choke opens.
 
I had the very same problem- Drove me NUTS! But I have points, and they were the culprit, so I'm thinkin, yes, could be your electronic ignition is malfunctioning in some way causing a very similar problem.
Just a thought.
 
I was having trouble with my car hesitating and being "gutless" on acceleration. I got checking around, and found that the vacuum advance unit on my distributor wasn't working. I ordered a new one from Autozone for about $20, and it should come in tomorrow; so I'll post back and see if it fixed my problem or not.
I did the "red-neck" check: pulled the vacuum line from the carb, pulled the cap, and then sucked that line to see if I could advance the dizzy. It was like breathing in through a straw! I though that my vacuum line was bad, so I pulled it, plugged an end and tried to breathe - that line is solid. The vac advance unit is held on by two screws, is easy to get out, and replacing it should be a snap.
 
The vac advance shouldn't cause a bad acceleration, once the mains are about 1/2 way open it is INOP anyway.


What is your timing at 3000?

I wonder if you are boiling your fuel somewhere?
 
That, to me, sounds like it's flooding or at least running too rich. Try and figure out if it's running too rich by going back to the tailpipe and looking for black smoke or "chugging" while you're trying to rev it out. Maybe the float level is too high, or there's dirt in the needle/seat, or the metering rods are stuck in the "up" position. If it only does it when it's hot.....to me, that's kind of a tipoff that it's too rich, however, my buddy's corvair used to crap out when it was warm and it turned out to be a bad Pertronix unit. Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top