Hi everyone I've been having issues with the car stalling out while sitting at a stop light, while backing up or at very low rpm when I'm just pulling away? It's a 1969 Riv with a 72 455 with a brand new restored 72 Qjet from Everyday Performance holley blue electric fuel pump Mr gasket pressure regulator (that tops out at 6psi) liquid filled pressure gauge and new fuel filter. The line from the rocker forward have been replaced with russel -6AN braided line and fittings. The fuel sending unit was rebuilt by Tri Starr with a new "sock" and tank O ring gasket. There's no vapour return line on these Rivs just a tank vent tube? When I fire the car up from cold I have to feather the gas for a minute to keep it idling but then it usually planes out and will idle until warm with no stalling issues. Once I put it in reverse to back out the driveway it will stall (not everytime). Last weekend after we went for a short cruise and stopped for breakfast (which the car sat for an hour) it fired up,warmed up to operating temps and we left. AFTER two stop lights and approaching the 3rd at maybe 20 mph the car stalled out and I coasted off into a parking lot. I tried cranking it over but it did not want to start. If I pushed the pedal to the floor and held it while cranking it it would fire up but would stall again unless I kept the fuel/rpms into it. I was able to keep it running to drive it home by putting it in neutral and keeping in the gas s bit at every stop light/sign. Once I was out on the hwy it was fine and when I got off and pulled down my street and into the driveway (at low rpm/speed) it was fine. I parked it in the driveway and it sat there and idled with no issues??? Does anyone have any rips or advice?? This similar thing happened the weekend prior at my brothers house bit it wouldn't start and I had to leave it overnight and the next morning it fired right up like nothing happened??
Sounds like your choke isn't working? That could explain the backing out of the driveway situation when you first start it up. Unless your sitting there for 20 minutes to warm it up, the engine is going to need some choke to run right until it gets to temp. When the engine stalls out, your have to see what the car is missing- is it fuel or spark? From what I read, it sounds like you have a fuel problem. When it stalls, get out, look down the carb and manually work the linkage. See if you have two streams of fuel squirting in the carb. Is it vapor locking? Do you run high ethanol fuel up there?
Couple of ideas. Have you tried leaving the gas cap half off? (vapor lock?). And, what is the voltage source for your electric fuel pump? Is it going through a relay perhaps and the relay is dropping out intermittently?
Stock engine or modified? Is timing advance on manifold vacuum? It may need some additional initial timing.
Sounds like vapor lock. Engine is running too hot, or the exhaust crossover is baking the carburetor. If your fuel pressure gauge is inside the engine compartment, the heat will effect it's accuracy.
The choke is there but not hooked up so it stays open all the time and I would have to pull the air cleaner and manually close it. I plan on rigging up a cable or rod into the cabin. The spark plugs are brand new and the wires are a few years old. I run 93 octane in it and as for the ethanol content I don't think it's any higher than what you guys have down there? I will check for dual streams in the carb. I have ran it in the drive way with the cap off and it didnt do anything? The tank itself has a vent tube which I'm going to snake it to see if there's any blockage. My holley pump runs on 12v it's wired to a aux painless fuse block (brandnew) with a 20A fuse and nothing else is on that circit and no relay. It's a modified engine and I pretty sure it's on manifold vacuum the dizzy is on the big port on the front right of the carb just above the idle mixture screw. I have to reread Larry's timing thread and check it again but at warm idle my timing is at 38*. I got all the overheating issues sorted out with t it now it may go past 190* -200* for a brief second then drops to 180*-185* which is my thermo is a 180*. I have a edlebrock performer intake so does it have an exhaust crossover? My fuel pressure gauge is way over by the right fenderwell away from the engine. I just got back from a drive to the coffee shop and zero issues? The pressure gauge before I left read 5.5-6psi with engine up to temp. I get back and pip the hood with it idling and it reads 3psi. I get my wife to bring it up to 2000rpm to simulate road testing and it dropped just under 3psi?? Maybe I'm not getting enough pressure to the carb and it's stalling out?? The temp here is currently 19*C 66*F. The last few times it acted up it was about 10* hotter with humidity.
Do you mean 38 degrees all in? Im sure you don't have 38 at idle The trick to solving this is you have to diagnose it at the time the problem rears its head. So on the side of the road if need be. Have your tools in the car and your game plan ready. Know the things your going to check when the problem is happening. Intermittent problems are the worst
When the car is sitting in the driveway idling at full operating temp (180*-185*). The timing gauge goes to +16* and the balancer mark with the light on it would be at about 2* past that. When I bring the rpms up it goes completely out of sight. My car usually idles around 700-900rpm once warmed up.
3 psig seems low. Maybe flush the fuel supply line with an air blast. My car wouldn't even start without a choke and its hot here. Just my thoughts.
So I did some checking and this is what got! Both jets squirt on the carb when I push the linkage. I checked with my timing light and at idle the mark is about a half inch above the timing bar so that should be around 18*-20* thats with the dist. Vac plugged in and unplugged. At 2000rpm dist vac on timing mark was about an 1.5" below the timing bar. At 2000rpm with the dist vac off and capped the timing mark was nowhere to be seen. Any thoughts?? I'm still really new on the timing end of things so please bare with me.
Checking it in the driveway with it idling normally is useless. You need to check it when the car stalls out and your sitting on the side of the road. Your car is waaaaay over advanced. Factory base timing was zero degrees. Set the initial timing to 8-10 degrees. That a pretty baseline setting. We need to know how much mechanical advance is in the distributor. What distributor do you have in the car? There should be a casting number on it. Post it up
Did Davis give you an idea of what mechanical advance the distributor has in it and at what rpm its all in at?
