Hi there,

Novice guy here when it comes to those old cars. We just installed a new holley 2bbl carburetor on the 360, and the truck has trouble staying in idle for very long before dying on me. Same problem happens when I put it in drive or reverse, it tends to stall almost immediatly after.

Can you give me any pointers as to what I should do to fix the issue, or at least what to look for?

I took a picture of the engine bay:



Engine bay




#3 close up

#1: this used to go to the old air cleaner and down into the charcoal canister, can I get rid of it?
#2: That breather used to have a hose coming in from the air cleaner... Is it supposed to be open on top like that?
#3: no clue what that thing is. It used to be connected to the old carb, it has a rod and an adjustable bolt with spring. When the rod was pushed in with the throttle of the old carb, the truck would die. It's now just sitting on the engine, getting power from a cable. Can I safely disconnect that thing?

Thanks a lot for any help you can get me.

 

#1 - what year truck is it? Does the charcoal canister have any other lines plugged into it? It would seem it's a evaporative control thingy for gas vapors, but I didn't know they had that back in the 70's on trucks.

#2 - It's supposed to be open, but it needs to be filtered. You could use something that looks like this: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/p...FVKBswodGg8K0Q

The reason it was originally plumbed to the air cleaner was that if you had a lot of blow-by like under load, the blow-by would go right into the engine again and be burned.

#3 - that's a high-idle solenoid or whatever it's called. It's meant to keep the idle up when the ignition is turned on. It's used to (I think) keep the engine from "running on". It'll fully close the throttle plates as soon as you turn off the ignition. It's not needed, if you have everything else running right.

Now, for the idle problem. What's the base timing set at? Is there any vacuum on the vacuum advance at idle? There shouldn't be. If there is, you have it in the wrong port on the carb, or the throttle plates are WAY too far open.

 

sounds like a vacuum leak did you plug /connect all the Vacuum ports ?

 

1st definitely check for vacume leaks.....2nd....check the float level and 3rd...fuel pump/filter..might have a slight restriction causing fuel starvation

 

Krewat,
The truck is 1973 F100; the charcoal canister does have what looks like a gas line running to it. As far as timing goes, that goes over my head, I'm very new at this. I guess I'll have to go back and do some research. Although, what's the vacuum advance?

Mike/Beechkid,
I'll double check the ports but I think they're plugged. Vacuum leak, I've heard you could do that by spraying carb cleaner around the hoses and listen for the engine to change rpm. Is that safe? Since my engine stalls easily, is there a way to check for a leak without engine running?

Sorry if there are stupid questions, again, I'm new at this, but trying to learn!

 

No stupid question here.......The engine has to be running...................it doesn't take much spray to change the idle speed.....keep it light, use the spray tube that comes with the can.

 

Ne carb? Is the truck idling about 900-1000 rpm in park?
These are all great suggestions above. Try idling it up first. If you can't keep it running, you can't check the rest.

 

I got it to idle in park, however, how do I check rpm? I don't have a gauge for it.

It starts right up and idles fine in park, however as soon as I put it in gear, it stalls, whether it be in drive or reverse.

I'm not very experienced, but I'll try to describe:

I start the engine (I pump the gas pedal once before doing so), it idles fine.
I put it in drive with my foot on the brake pedal, it seems to idle fine as well, although at a much lower speed with a fairly big jolt (clutch engaging?), but as soon as I let go of the brake, it stalls.

It's pretty frustrating, I can't figure out why.

 

Call me 469-371-5833