Engine trouble

[mlhj]

I am having problems with my carb 350 with a new edelbrock 600cfm carb. The motor is a stock GM 350. When the truck warms up it doesn't want to run right when it is in gear kind of acts like it is misfiring. Today I was trying to time it and when I went to time it the motor was retared at about 4 degres and when I advanced it over 0 to 12 degrees the timing light flickers and when u look down at the timing marks, the timing mark is jumping around all over the place. It has a new spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor. When I got this motor it had a used HEI distriptor with vacuum advance. I am woundering if there is something wrong with the Vacuum advance that might be casuing the timing mark to jump all over and running like S**t while in driving in gear. I know fuel pressure is good. But I am also woundering if the fuel is vaporing in the carb ,but I do have a see thru fuel filter and the does not look like it is boiling or vaporing in the filter.

[ZR1BLAZER]

well you shouldnt set your timing with the vac advance hooked up anyway. disconnect it and plug off the vac. then set it. with the timing mark jumping all over the place as mentioned i would mark both sides of the balancer (above and below the rubber) to make sure its not moving on you. if not mover to the dist. you need to get a light that you can dial in. its much easier to set the light on 36 degrees and time it like that. with a regular timing light its hard to tell if your motor is really advancing to 36 or higher or lower. if that is the case you will need to get your dist recurved. GL

[mlhj]

Yeah I had the Vav Advance disconnected with the port on the carb plugged. I am using my Mac Tools timing light with a dial. 99% of the time I work on fuel injection cars and since I am barely ever work on Carb engines I am trying to figure it all out. Now tonight I was doing some messing around I took the vac line from full vac port to timed vac port still runs the same. So i tried running the engine with no vac advance and seems to run better with out it, but still doesn't run right.

I was just thinking the engine runs fine when it is cold and woundering if maybe the ignition module is acting up when it gets hot.

I now wish I would of got a new motor with a package

I got the motor from someone I though was a friend
Paid 550 for motor then found out that the crank had .042 of play so got a reman for 100 had about 250 in the heads. 300 for carb and around 100 for odds and ends for the motor. oh yeah 70 for new oil pan and felpro rubber gasket.

And now this so called friend had his phone number changed since it has been a couple months since I last talk to him and he moved out. I swear next time I see him I will have a couple words for him.

[oncearacer52]

If the vacuum advance was unhooked and the timing was still bouncing around that much I would think something is bad in your distributor. It should not move hardly at all with no vacuum advance at idle.

[adh383]

You said it ran fine when it was cold-- have you put the timing light to it when it was cold just to see if the marks were moving around then? And as for your friend, maybe he just did'nt know about the inside of the motor!!!!! Good to one person is not always good to another.

[coppergmc]

How long have you had the motor running? Did you just recently put the distributor? About 15 years ago, I had a 69 C10 that I put a motor in. I used the basic performance stuff like you. Edelbrock carb, new HEI, headers, cam......... When I put the distributor in I put it in 180 out. It actually ran ok but wouldn't pull itself over the curb. I tried adjusting the timing and noticed that if I advanced or retarded the timing, the engine would start running worse and try to shut off. You might want to double check and make sure you installed the distributor where it needs to be.

Also, my current timing light acts a little strange sometimes. You have to actually put your hand around the connector that goes around the plug wire. If you don't, it flashes intermittently. Like it's not getting a good signal.

[mlhj]

A little bit ago I pulled the dist. out. the vac diaphram doesn't work at all leaks out the back side when I install vacuum with my hand vac pump. I also noticed that the leads out of the ignition module to pickup coil was a little melted at the contact, plus there was a lot of up and down play.

Since I had to drop the boy off at work and pick up the little one from grandma house I decided to stop by autozone and pick up a new ACCEL dis. I was thicking by the time I rebuild and replace everthing in the dis I could just buy a new one.

[mlhj]

Well just got done putting on the new Accel Dis and she now runs fine and was able to set the timing, buddy of mine is going to come over tomorrow and give me a hand on tuning in the carb.

[oncearacer52]

Great news.