why does it idle but not take fuel

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shafer

shafer

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ok all knowing mopar gods help me out on this.
i have a 69 dart 318 2bbl mostly original.

the car sat fore 3 years with out being run

i have replaced the fuel tank, sending unit, cleaned the fuel lines, tried several rebuilt carbs, replaced the filters, bypassed the existing fuel system with fuel hose and gas can, replaced the timming chain, replaced the vaccuum advance on the distributer, added an electric fuel pump and i am getting ready to replace the intake manifold gaskets.

here is my problem, the car idles perfectly, sometimes it runs out great, i drove it to raleigh and back 100mi round trip to a cruise in and it ran great , except for a few instances of seeming like it picked up trash.
most of the time though it will go 5 or so miles and run ragged, idle perfect but wont take gas, stalls ect,but still idles perfect i want to drive this car to shows this year. do you think the intake gaskets will work or do i have another problem. i am thinking now i have a vaccuum issue.
 
I would put a fuel pressure gauge at the carb to rule out fuel starvation. And also check the distributor to make sure mechanical is advancing.
 
Did you add the electric pump inline with the factory pump? Or did you cut out the factory pump all together? Have you tried spraying around the manifolds/carb with carb cleaner/WD-40 to look for a vacuum leak? Do you have power brakes? Do you still have the original points system or did you upgrade to electronic ignition?
 
i do not own a pressure guage , but i can see the flow of fuel through the filter, it stays about 3/4 full. i am going to move the electric fuel pump to the rear of the car.
 
slant6/4speed said:
Did you add the electric pump inline with the factory pump? Or did you cut out the factory pump all together? Have you tried spraying around the manifolds/carb with carb cleaner/WD-40 to look for a vacuum leak? Do you have power brakes? Do you still have the original points system or did you upgrade to electronic ignition?
Click to expand...
i cut out mechanic pump, no power brakes , the left bank of the intake was sprayed with carb cleaner and the idle picked up greatly , this was why i'm thinking to replce the manifold gaskets . the car still has points upgrade in near future
 
OK, this may be a long shot, but it happened to me. I had the same problem with my old 64 Belvedere, which had a 1970 318 in it at the time. The guy who owned it before me swore that it was plugging the fuel filter and would run as you explain yours does. I did everything you ran through, but it would still run perfect at idle, but hit the gas and it was erratic as all getout and could not be trusted further than the driveway. I explained this to an old school friend of mine and he told me to change the condenser in the points system. I had my doubts about this but seeing as the condenser was only a buck, I decided to give it a try. Lo and behold, it worked!!! I don't know why, but I think as he explained it, the condenser was defective and would load up with spark and flood the system with spark, effectively cancelling the spark signal from the points to the plugs!! Ain't sayin' this is your problem, but seeing as how you have points, it's worth the buck to eliminate this as a possible problem!! It worked for me!!! Good luck, Geof
 
cosgig said:
OK, this may be a long shot, but it happened to me. I had the same problem with my old 64 Belvedere, which had a 1970 318 in it at the time. The guy who owned it before me swore that it was plugging the fuel filter and would run as you explain yours does. I did everything you ran through, but it would still run perfect at idle, but hit the gas and it was erratic as all getout and could not be trusted further than the driveway. I explained this to an old school friend of mine and he told me to change the condenser in the points system. I had my doubts about this but seeing as the condenser was only a buck, I decided to give it a try. Lo and behold, it worked!!! I don't know why, but I think as he explained it, the condenser was defective and would load up with spark and flood the system with spark, effectively cancelling the spark signal from the points to the plugs!! Ain't sayin' this is your problem, but seeing as how you have points, it's worth the buck to eliminate this as a possible problem!! It worked for me!!! Good luck, Geof
Click to expand...

hey i'll try it also
 
If you have a known vaccuum leak, I would get that fixed, that could be making it seem like other things.Hope it woks out for you.
Andrew/kidd
 
Well the vacuum leak IS a problem that needs to be fixed before anything more can be done. One at a time-I hate the "shotgun" method of trouble shooting.
 
I don't think anyone is telling him to replace a bunch of things at one time. Yes, the vacuum leak needs to be fixed. The engine will never run right until he does. It can also damage the engine and cause other issues like excessive oil consumption.

I left a plug out of the back of an Edelbrock carb once, and it ran exactly like you're describing. it idled fine, but ran horribly under load. Huge vacuum leak. Oops.

But there is no guarantee that it is the one item that will fix the problem. Others were just throwing out items to check if the vacuum leak wasn't 100% of the problem.
 
Vacuum leaks can be really tricky to find. I hope your new intake gaskets solve your problem but keep in mind others that may crop up - like old cracked vacuum lines.
Years ago I changed intake manifolds on my old 340 Swinger and couldn't find a vacuum leak. The carb mounting area was drilled for both Holley and the stock Carter carbs. I'd put a Holley 750 on it and it turned out one of the Carter bolt holes had been drilled too deep and broke into the plenum area. The hole was only partially covered by the Holley gasket and carb.
Those vacuum leaks can be sneaky and cause all sorts of devilish problems.
 
slant6/4speed said:
Well the vacuum leak IS a problem that needs to be fixed before anything more can be done. One at a time-I hate the "shotgun" method of trouble shooting.
Click to expand...

occasionally the "shotgun method" is the best option, sometimes it isnt one thing thats the problem, it's a combination of small things, each one not enough to cause severe drive ability issues, but when combined together they can wreak havoc with your ability to find "the problem"
 
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