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Old Nov 2, 2009 | 09:26 PM
  #1  
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rough idle

I just recenly put the holley 390, clifford, hooker headers, dSII setup on my truck and it runs ok. idles rough. its pulling a steady 17hg on the vac gauge and im still fine tuning the carb but man it runs a little "rougher" at idle than i think it should. Also another big thing is when i turn the wheel when the vehicle is not moving, the engine nearly dies out. i have to rev it up a little to turn the wheels when the truck is not moving. Ex is pulling into or outta a parking spot at slow speeds.

plugs and wires are all new. what are some things i could try to help fix the rough idle and turning issue i got.

Maybe its normal i dont know, how does yours guys trucks run who have done the clifford/ offy swap??
 
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Old Nov 3, 2009 | 04:42 AM
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sounds like you have a vaccume leak. spray brake cleaner around the carb, and intake to head. listen for the idle to rise, and you have found your leak. I had to use copper seal on my carb gaskets to spacer,and to intake, it stoped leaking then, and ran great
 
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Old Nov 3, 2009 | 04:44 PM
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Either that or you are too lean or too rich.
If you are using an electric choke I would verify that it is operating correctly.
 
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Old Nov 3, 2009 | 10:26 PM
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well tonight i was searchin for vac leaks and found my clifford manifold i bought off some guy on ebay had a small crack in it causing the leak. put some good ol JB weld on it and the truck seems to run better. pulling alot better vac now. around 18 19hg steady, but still runs rough. I have the timing advance a little over 10 degrees to smoothin it out.

also i dont know if anyone else who did this swap has the problem i have of the accesories really putting a load on the engine. if i have the heat goin, lights on and turnin the wheel at a slow speed, the dam thing dies out on me. its a little better now ever since finding the vac leak.

And to anyone who is thinking of doing this swap. DO NOT i repeat DO NOT GET HOOKER HEADERS. they are JUNK JUNK JUNK. surrounds the starter and the pipes come down and meet the trans crossmember so there is no easy way to hook up the rest of the exhaust. **** pore design and for 400 bucks. i made the mistake please dont anyone else.
 
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Old Nov 3, 2009 | 10:28 PM
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also you said copper seal. You mean RTV high heat???
 
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Old Nov 3, 2009 | 10:50 PM
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Rough idle still seems like a mixture issue to me. Vaccum leak can cause it too but if there are no more leaks...........?
 
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Old Nov 3, 2009 | 11:21 PM
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Sorry to hear about those hooker headers. Didn't know hooker made 300 headers. Thanks for letting the rest of us know. Oh and this same thing happened to me when I took my stock manifold off and put it back on again. Turns out I pinched and folded my intake manifold gasket over so there was a big leak between the head and the manifold. Had to redo the gasket. A good way to tell if you have an air leak is to put your hand over the top of the carb, covering and restricting air intake. If it helps the problem at all, you are running too lean for some reason.
 
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Old Nov 4, 2009 | 12:26 PM
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Try changing the vac source for the dizzy between the timed port on the carb and a full manifold vac source then readjust the carb and try. Mine will run on either source BUT the throttle plates have to be opened further via the idle speed screw to get a decent idle on the timed port so I opt to run off a full vac source.
 
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Old Nov 6, 2009 | 04:57 PM
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i put a shop rag over the top of the carb like you said. What is it supposed to do when i do this. What my truck does is you cover up the carb and very slowly (it takes about 30 secs to start doing it) it will die out. and then i let air back in and comes back to life. What does this test prove??
 
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Old Nov 6, 2009 | 07:21 PM
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when you cover the carb, it should stall out. if it don't stall out, you still have a vaccume leak. in your case, not a big one, but you still have one. they're a real pia to find, but when you do, you will notice a big difference in how the truck runs
 
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Old Nov 8, 2009 | 11:27 PM
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i covered up the timed spark port on my holley and hooked up the vac advance to a full vac port, and it made a huge difference. Also for you guys with a off idle hesistation problem, heres what i did and it fixed it. First obviously check the timing. next put the vac advance to full vac port. next i got a bigger shooter for the carb .037, and a secondary spring kit. Installed the black spring which has them open at about 2200 rpm and the truck has no more bog at all. but i still have a rough idle can hear it skip a beat by listening to the exhaust.

Is it possible to get a MSD kit to help out with spark for our trucks. I like to make sure im burning all that fuel and air mix going into the engine.
 
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Old Nov 9, 2009 | 08:54 PM
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Yes I believe you can use MSD components on your 300's ignition. I am obviously no expert on that either.
 
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Old Nov 14, 2009 | 03:12 PM
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truck still misfires. it may be comming from the intake gaskets leaking i dont know. probably will just change them again. Also one more question is when i rev the engine i get smoke coming out of the breather, or dipstick hole if i have it opened up a little. Not alot but its more than its supposed to be. I have an aftermarker breather in the valve cover. it has a New pcv. Any suggestions on what it could be
 
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Old Nov 14, 2009 | 03:55 PM
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hook your pvc hose straight to the intake instead of the bottom of the carb. check your plugs to see if 1 is fouled, the smoke is blow by. take a compression test while the plugs are out to see what's goin on. usually blow by indecates worn rings
 
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Old Nov 14, 2009 | 04:23 PM
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1 is clean. compression is 145 all the way back to cyl 6 which is 125 still good.
 
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