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1980 - 1986 Bullnose F100, F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks Discuss the Early Eighties Bullnose Ford Truck

85 351w Problems

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Old Feb 2, 2015 | 08:55 PM
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85 351w Problems

So the other day I noticed my distributors vaccum advance was broken. The tabs that hold the part that the vaccum hose plugs into sheared off and allowed it to flip back and forth. I ordered a new dristributor and put it in. Also I installed my AEM wideband gauge. I got the truck running and set the timing by vaccum. At idle (700-800) it sits at 19 psi of vaccum. Looking at my wideband when i start it up it climbs straight to 17 And then bars out. I screwed the idel mixture screws out as far as they would go and took a test drive. It idled at about 13.5 to 14.8 and when I get on it a little it goes straight back to lean but smelled as it was running rich. Also, I just thought of something, when I swapped the 351w inplace of the 300 I left the 300's Duraspark 2 brain box in. The 351w had an unmarked replacement from a parts store. The 351w distributor is a points distributor I think Im not 100% on how to identify the difference. Could these mismatched ignition parts cause my lean problem?

Thanks, John
 
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Old Feb 3, 2015 | 06:34 PM
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The 300 box will work with the 351w dist. I am a little confused on what your points dist comment was. Of course the points dist will not plug into the electronic ignition system, there is not enough wires to the dist on a points style dist.
 
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Old Feb 3, 2015 | 08:32 PM
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Oh okay, I have never figured out the difference in looks between a points style and electric style distributor so I wasn't sure. I barely made it to school this morning. It was way down on power and when I would shift into 4th it would bog down really bad and back fire through the intake. I had to go 55 the whole way there. After school got out I went out and tryed to start it. it spun and spun and would only pop when I didn't touch the gas at all. I figured it was rich so I never touched the pedal. It would pop and stumble a little but would die. Undid the fuel line from the carb while a friend cranked it and I didn't get any fuel out of it so I figured it needed a fuel pump. Walked to the parts store and got a pump. Got the pump on and it still wouldn't start. By then it was to dark and I couldn't see five inches in front of my face and I gave up and caught a ride home. Any Ideas? Im out of em. The wideband says lean, exhaust smell says rich, fuel pump says lean, fuel gauge says really rich.
Thanks, John
 
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Old Feb 3, 2015 | 09:01 PM
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Maybe you're out of gas?
 
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Old Feb 3, 2015 | 09:13 PM
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No haha it shouldn't be out of fuel, I just filled up the other day and the gauge shows a 1/4 tank. Tomorrow I'm going to pop the cap off amd check to see if the rotor is still spinning, make sure it has fuel at the carb, and pull a plug to check for spark. It has a new distributor, plugs, plug wires, msd coil, and fuel filter.
 
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