Built 340 problems...going nuts! Need Help!

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wheelman21

Mopar noob
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Jan 1, 2011
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Hey guys, I'm starting to go nuts here. I have a 340 with J heads, M1 high rise, Mighty demon 750 (which I hate btw), and aggressive cam. I've had an issue getting consistent running with it. I can't seem to get the idle right. It will idle, then you drive it, and it won't return to idle, it stalls out. I'm not sure what's going on with it. I think that's a carb issue but that's not my biggest problem right now. Right now the issue is that it won't even start or fire at all. Look, I get the basics, air+fuel+spark=:burnout:But I can't seem to fire. I put in some 110 light leaded at the end of the season and it seemed like she really liked it. So I've been trying to start the car and it won't fire...at all! I've charged the battery, it's getting air, and checked all wires etc. It's getting plenty of fuel. I've tried starting every which way, no gas, feather throttle, adding starter fluid. Short of dropping a brick of dynamite down there I don't know why it won't fire. It's not even popping off. Nothing at all. I'm getting what can only be described as a smoke or vapor out of the breather on the valve cover but you can only really see if it you look at it right in the right light. Any thoughts fellas?
 
Ignition box / resistor failed? Bad Ground?

Did you put a plug in the end of a plug wire & check for spark?

Oh, and it's pretty damn cold out up here. If it doesn't have a working choke...good luck.
 
80fbody said:
Ignition box / resistor failed? Bad Ground?

Did you put a plug in the end of a plug wire & check for spark?

Oh, and it's pretty damn cold out up here. If it doesn't have a working choke...good luck.
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Ground is good. My ignition doesn't require a resistor. I'll have to double check the box.

I don't have a choke, but my garage is heated and has a heated floor. It's at least 55-60 in there.
 
swinger340 said:
Could also be a vacuum advance issue. Has similar problem with my car. My vacuum advance was sticking and not always returning to same spot at idle. Almost every time you revved it up it would come back to idle at diff RPM. Swapped out dizzy and is fine now.
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That sounds exactly like the problem I'm having! I'm going to swap out the Dist for a customer curved one anyway I think. If I can get the damn thing to run that is!
 
As Crackedback would say, no1 thing is GET THE TIMING

Heck for all we know the mechanical advance is sticking.

Vacuum? Are you guys nuts? Hell just unHOOK the vacuum advance until you get this sorted out.
 
67Dart273 said:
As Crackedback would say, no1 thing is GET THE TIMING

Heck for all we know the mechanical advance is sticking.

Vacuum? Are you guys nuts? Hell just unHOOK the vacuum advance until you get this sorted out.
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I need to read whole post before commenting. LOL!!!!:violent1:
 
Well She starts!!! I put a spark indicator light on front left bank. No light. I have an FBO ignition box that caused me a number of problems when I dropped the 340 in. I upgraded to his latest and greatest, and out of the box it didn't work. He sent me another and it worked...that was two summers ago, probably less than 2000 miles. Today I swapped it out for my stock 318 ignition box, and boom, fired right away and ran. the FBO box is what is causing the no start.
 
I think I heard Trailbeast's " Yessssss.. " all the way from here.. lol

Try a Trailbeast kit...

jmexperience..

hope it helps.. lol
 
Tell Don of the problem. He is a good dude.
 
Who's they? Don? Wonder how they handled the 'recall' with no registration card or other customer trail.....? I was going to say BG crap but he sells/sold that too....
 
TrailBeast said:
If they recalled the one they sold you, then why do you have to buy another one?
That'd piss me off.
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Yea it kind of does. I didn't know there was a recall. Glad I found out during the off season before it let me down somewhere. If the old part fails and I can't replace it with a replacement, I would hope they would replace it with the new one. That being said if they gave me my money back it would cost me an additional $30 to upgrade to the latest. However especially considering this is the second time the unit has failed me and I've had to put my stock 318 unit in to get the vehicle to start, once was after I had to push it into a parking lot because it broke down in an intersection. The stock unit got it home. This was after I had to rollback it home because it broke down. I was told it had to be a carb issue and was sold a new gasket kit. I must have stripped and cleaned that carb 5 times plus. Turned out that first unit I had would fail when it got hot under the hood.
 
Sorry to hear about that but glad your back on the road. I'd love to upgrade my ignition but it's stories like this one that keep the orange box under my hood.
 
I'm a proponent of KISS,,

I want to ask you,, after you pay the $30, - when you get in your car,, are you going to be comfortable/confident your trips going to be trouble free,, or would you be like me,, and saying a little prayer every time I turned the key,, and worry if/when it's going to happen again..

Worse.. if you were my customer,, I would be worried too..

I've been there,,, If I had supplied that unit, I'd be changing to a reliable GM/HEI type unit, free to my customer,, so I could sleep soundly..

and if it does fail, parts are just down the road,, anywhere..

Just something you might not have thought about..

hope it helps..
 
inertia said:
I'm a proponent of KISS,,

I want to ask you,, after you pay the $30, - when you get in your car,, are you going to be comfortable/confident your trips going to be trouble free,, or would you be like me,, and saying a little prayer every time I turned the key,, and worry if/when it's going to happen again..

Worse.. if you were my customer,, I would be worried too..

I've been there,,, If I had supplied that unit, I'd be changing to a reliable GM/HEI type unit, free to my customer,, so I could sleep soundly..

and if it does fail, parts are just down the road,, anywhere..

Just something you might not have thought about..

hope it helps..
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I'm really considering going with an HEI unit. What I'm really trying to work out is all the little bugs that make the car a bit unreliable on the street. I'm always a bit nervous when I take this car out. Trailbeast feel free to chime in here as I know you have some experience here.
 
wheelman21 said:
Trailbeast feel free to chime in here as I know you have some experience here.
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Sure, you want a reliable good starting and running car that you don't have to question weather it's going to fire no matter where you are, or the conditions.
The HEI's are just that, and personally I have not had a no start in close to two years now after installing mine.
If a part ever fails out on the road, you can get that part in the next town even on a weekend.
After selling dozens of these HEI kits not ONE has failed for any reason that I have been alerted to.

www.classichei.com is our website where you can see more detailed information and instructions.

BTW, you did the right thing by contacting me via PM about this.
I don't always have time to read everything on the forum and I miss things.
 
TB's ideas are a good one. I boiled mine down more to "more simple" yet. I quite simply mounted a 4 pin HEI right on the flat of the firewall. No extra heat sink. Wired it right up to the factory coil. Everybody preaches an "E core" coil but the fact is that the HEI even gives you a hotter spark through the factory coil.

A slight added bonus is than if you leave the key on (unlike Pertronix or Mopar) the ignition power does not heat up the coil with the engine off.

One member here mounted an HEI inside an empty Mopar ECU

If you are worried about it quitting, build yourself an emergency ignition.............I threw this together when testing a couple of used engines I bought, and carry it in the trunk. The clip leads are battery and ground, and hook up the coil wire, plug in the distributor, and you have a complete replacement igntion.

 
AJ/FormS said:
If I may; the Orange box in my car has 14yrs/125000 miles on it.
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Hey AJ,, Welcome to the site,, you'll find lotsa helpful folks and info here..

Your Orange box is fine,, for old technology,,

The upgrade to an HEI is just such a nite and day improvement,, using parts readily avail at any local parts stores,,

Here's a thread with lotsa good info,, check out the video in the first post, it pretty much speaks for itself...

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=236528&highlight=HEI%2CTrailbeast

hope it helps
 
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