My new old car idles, but nothing else.

[Kerosene]

So I brought home a stray 66 Dart with a 225, the car appears to have sat since 2001.The previous owner pulled it out of someone's backyard and threw a bunch of money at trying to make it run(new fuel pump, distro cap and rotor, plugs and wires, rebuild 1 barrel) but gave up when the car bent 4 pushrods on his first crank.

When I got it home the rockers were bone dry and adjusted super tight. So I oiled it all and backed all the adjustments off, and turned it all by hand for a while. I've since got the car to idle, buts it not happy with getting more air, and absolutely hates quick throttle movement.

I am fairly certain at this point that the carb is working as it should. Accelerator pump sprays fuel, and all the passages are clear. The points were way off, and barely opening if they were opening at all. They are at .20 now.. I pulled the spark plugs verified the gap. New plugs are now sooty black.The car idles best about 8 bdc by the timing marks with a timing light, but seems to have a miss, it idles like it has a big cam in it.

The car still goes dead the second you move the throttle open, and occasionally breaths fire out the carb. It really feels like like spark goes away on throttle.

Only thing I know to do now is mechanically verify the timing, and check the timing chain. If anyone else has ideas to help get this going, I am all ear at this point.

 

[GeorgeH]

If it killed the pushrods you need to look at the bottom of the lifters, and the cam closely among other things. The fire breathing could be the cam wiping out. If you've exhausted other avenues such as vacuum leaks and timing.

 

[nm9stheham]

Good on the points adjustments. From the sound of things you describe, it sounds like you have the ignition sorted out reasonably well.

The bent pushrods are likely due to stuck valves. (See the other need help thread! And it could be due to really stupid valve adjustment work....) Do you have new or straight pushrods now? Pull the rocker shaft, spray some carb cleaner into the valve springs and onto the valve stems, and gently tap on the valve stems with a small hammer just enough to get them to move a little bit. (Place a hard block of wood between the hammer and valve tips if you like; just don't let it push down on the retainers and let the keepers jump out....) Once they all move, then work some light oil into the guides.

Then put the rockers back on and adjust the valve lash carefully. To do this right, find where the TDC mark is on the pulley and line it up with 0. Either #1 or #6 cylinder's valves will both be slightly open; adjust the lash on the valves on the one of those 2 cylinders that does not have the valves slightly open. Then you can turn the crank 1/3 of a turn and adjust the valves on the next cylinder in the firing order. Keep doing this until all 6 cylinders are adjusted.

One cause of most of these symptoms is a big vacuum leak. Get a vacuum gauge, connect it so that it sees the vacuum under the carb in the intake manifold, and see what vacuum you get at idle. It should be around 20" or a bit more, and steady.