318 is suddenly doing THIS:

[TylerW]

I am running a stock 318 with a Holley 2280, stock ignition and 4-wire ECU, single ballast.

Out of nowhere, it's started falling out at part throttle.Doesn't matter if it's free running or under load, above 1500 rpms it'll begin cutting out and die if I hold my foot in it.Also starts smelling like an arc-welder at that point, weird combustion odor.

Restarts with about 3 seconds of cranking, and I can rev it through the "falling out" spot, so it's not a complete loss of spark/fuel.

I replaced the ECU just to eliminate that, since the old one had overheated in the past and also replaced the negative cable.No change.

Where should I start looking?

Thanks.

 

[muller]

when did this start?
maybe after you filled your tank?--bad gas?
does it smoke?
is it still charging?

 

[RedFish]

coil overheating or leaking ? They will stink. might be bad plug wires too.

 

[stroker416]

are you using a points type distributor or an electronic one?

 

[ramcharger]

I think your ballast resistor might frying. They're cheap and you should have a spare in the glovebox anyway, so I would try that first. You can check it with a multimeter to rule it out if you like.

 

[daredevil]

check fuel filter first and fuel pump ,could be starving. then a compression test will eliminate mechanical. electrical comes next.A weak coil will do the same thing youre describing as it cant fire the fuel above idle. good luck and keep us posted

 

[340sFastback]

Fuel pick up filter in tank could be clogged too.

 

[TylerW]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in posting back.I have been pretty busy and just now got back on this project.

I replaced the fuel filter and it wasn't clogged.

I ran the engine some more try to identify the symptoms better, and the only thing I can add is, if you keep your foot down, it will just dwindle down and die..no theatrics with backfiring or anything.If I back out of it while it is "winding down", it'll pick back up and idle.

So, with that in mind, I made it stall, then pulled the top off the carb.The carb bowl was full of gas just like it should be.

This is an electronic distributor, which I'm suspicous of because it's stabbed in several teeth away from normal but its timed right.

The entire engine came from an '84 Dodge Ram.

I'm still stumped, so I will try the suggestions so far and get back to you guys..thanks!

 

[TylerW]

Went through the carb and nothing bad was found.

Still no change, so I broke out the timing light and verified timing and mechanical advance function.

I then got my spark tester and installed it, and did not seem to be losing spark at the time the choking off happens, BUT....

I'm still getting the random pops out of the tailpipes at idle and this time when the engine quit there was a small cough out of the carb.

Witht hat in mind, I dug into it further, and might have found my smoking gun:

When I pulled the coil off, the terminal end of it smelled acrid, and there was evidence of oil leakage out of the coil.

Hmmmmmmm...