Then that is probably an AOD, not a C4. I'm not too familiar with those.

 

Also, you said it has a points style distributor. Check the points, if they are burned it will act like it is running out of fuel.

 

Uh-oh! If it's an '88 AOD, it has a linkage from the carb/throttle body to the trans, right? If that isn't adjusted just right, you'll burn up the trans pretty quickly! And since you don't have it hooked to the original engine with TBI, I don't know how you could hook up that linkage properly. The early AOD's are very sensitive to throttle valve linkage adjustment.

 

If the tranny has been running ok , leave it alone. The AOD is non electronic and if its like the 700R4 it is adjusted by the TV cable tension at the carb hookup. Go back to the engine. It's either fuel, air/vaccum or electrical system. Go through each,one at a time and don't jump around. Have a friend do a quality control on your work as a double check. Be very detailed in your inspection of each part of each system. You are over looking something. Have a great day,chuck

 

Yes the tranny has been working just fine. So, I think I will leave it alone. The way I see it,is all I did was replace a 1/4" plug on the back of the carb. Other than that all has satyed the same. Other than me going through the carb. It does have dual points in it,and I think I will replace pints and condensor today. At least that will eliminate one more thing.

 

Is this a high miles engine?
Mark your timing line sand check with a timing light. If it jumped time on a worn timing gear you will see it at idle.
I have seen them jump one tooth and with a timing light it will float back and forth on the timing line.
The rpms will go up and down all by itself.
If its not that I would check the points and vacum advance.

 

Wouldn't I have a vacuum line attached to my distributor if it had vacuum advance ? Don't mean to sound like an idiot, but I see no vacuum line attached to the distr..Ant one set of points did seem a little weak on fire.

 

If it has vacuum advance yes.

 

I guess she doesn't have a vacuum advance

 

Does your distributor have a hole in the side for a vac can? Do you have a picture of the setup? If you have no vac advance, it may be dying just because your mech advance drops when you put it in gear.

 

It's not just dying when I put it in gear. It will barely run at all. It idles very rough, and I cannot accelerate at all without it puking up fuel out of the carb and dying. It's a mess.

 

Just my two knucklehead cents.

Vacuum plugs don't generally "fall off". My guess is if you've only driven the truck 800 miles, the plug wasn't in place when you got it. That rear port is a BIG vacuum draw and I suspect it didn't run all that great to begin with.

I didn't see anything about how it runs above idle. You don't set the idle mixture to "turns", you set them to where the highest idle RPM (or vacuum with a gauge) is achieved. Plugging up that rear port would have a dramatic affect on idle mixture. Just for grins, back those screws out a few turns and see what happens. Then bring them back in one at a time slowly until you feel it falter. At that point, back it out 1/2 turn. Do this on both sides. If you can kill the engine by screwing them in (gently - don't bottom them out hard), I suggest you don't have a vacuum problem. If nothing changes, I'd be looking for another vacuum leak.

Once again, I don't know how it runs above Idle. What color are the plugs ?
A vacuum leak that large driven 800 miles is a lot of "Lean" miles. Plugging that rear port should have made a HUGE difference. If it didn't, I'd do a compression check just to ensure you didn't burn a valve or two.

Although it may have nothing to do with your problem at the moment, lose that Dual Point Distributor. Sounds like it might be a mechanical advance Mallory or something. Get a stock distributor or better yet, convert a stock Distributor to a Pertronix set up and be done with it.

Lastly, there are two major rules in troubleshooting. Don't make more than one change at a time and... if you don't know what the problem is - Rule out "what it isn't".

Good Luck

 

how old is the fuel tank, could there be rust plugging the fuel line, also check your fuel filter (if you haven't already) and make sure the distributor hold down bolt is good and tight, maybe a little loose and vibrated out of timing since youv'e owned it.

 

You said blowing smoke and that you have a dual point distributer. I had a similar problem getting my 289 to run. Pertronix makes a unit for your distributer. I had the same model of distributer and the engine was running like crap. I could not get the dual points set correctly, so I replaced them with the pertronix unit and TADAHHH, it ran like a champ. Also, you said smoke; this makes me think electric choke. Is the wire to the electric choke hooked up? Is the choke gradually opening as the engine warms up? If not, there's your smoke problem. Good luck, Jag

 

Have you checked the timing. If the plastic timing gear is worn it may have jumped a tooth or two retarding the timing alot. A quick check with a timing light will tell.