I have my 350 in the car and some what running but here is the problem; When I try to start the car by giving it a little gas it won't stay running unless you keep the starter engaged and the gas pedal half down .. then when it starts it rev's a bit and runs. Also does not want to stay running at idle even after it is warmed up unless the idle is set at over 1,000. Specs, 350 .30 forged, ta intake, John Osborne 800 qjet, gs118 cam, ported heads, pentronics ign. I am not sure the mechanic hooked the pentronics up correctly? The carb has run great on another 350 and my 455 car as recently as a few weeks ago. The engine ran great on the dyno less this carb. Will try swapping the carb with my brothers "John O." carb from his 350 in the next day or so. Any thoughts on what this might be?? Thanks, David
Sounds like your on the right path, eliminate one variable at a time, don't switch more than one part out before checking how it starts and drives. After the carb I would definately look at the ignition, sounds like timing or a horrible vacuum leak.
Ignition I've been told that I may not be getting enough voltage to the pos. side of the coil from the resistor wire coming out of the dash? David
I had a similar issue with a coil not getting enough voltage but it only affected the car after 3-3500 rpm. When you do get it running, pull a wire off the plug just barely and if you hear a loud snapping noise you should be fine. Spark is spark for starting and ideling purposes.
Take a look at your Pertronix instructions carefully. It explains that often (particularly on GM cars) there is <12v to the coil and may not properly actuate the ignitor. You can try running a fused jumper to the module and see if it helps. If this doesn't help, it sounds like you should look at the timing. Remember, if you bypass the ignition switch like this, you may not be able to turn the engine off, so be sure to come off of a switched terminal on the fuse block (radio, heater, acc...) Best of luck JT
Jumper If I run a jumper wire to the coil does it need a resistor inline to control the voltage? Thanks, David
If you run a temp jumperwire from the battery to the coil for testing, and it works like it should again, then start searching for other pertronix threads on the board. There's one that has photos of exactly what you should do and has part locations and options as well. I plan on doing this with my '71 also once I get the carb fixed up right. If it works, the general idea is to remove the cloth resistor wire comming from the fuse block (engine side) to the coil (engine harness) and replace with regular wire which will carry and hold 12v. If yer not up for that much yet, then run a parallel wire the length of the resistor wire and tap it on both ends for some added juice.
Use a relay. Use the resistor wire to activate the relay and then have the relay supply battery power to the coil. You will need to install a diode on one of the voltage regulator wires though. (Something about feed back from the alt, you would turn the key off but because the alt was making power it would keep about 6 volts going to the resisitor wire which was enough to keep the relay on which kept the engine running, putting a cheap diode inline with one of the 4 wires on the voltage regulater prevents alternator feedback.) I have done this on a friend's 69 GS 400, his car would actually stall at idle when any electrical load was present (i.e. turning on A/C, rolling down a window (electric), radio, etc..). Turned out to be a major voltage drop at the coil wire for some reason. THe car has an ignitor 2 w/ MSD blaster2 coil. You can run straight 12v to the coil w/ pertronix, I think its better to actually. Just make sure if you are using a 1.5ohm (i think thats it) or less resistance coil to use a ballast resisitor. THe ignitor 2 doesn't need it though. Dan
i had trouble with the pertronix working right, the dwell ended up being at least 35* and it really ran poorly, i scrapped it and went back to the points setup. the folks at pertronix said that the dwell numbers should be correct, but they couldn;t tell me why they had their units setup to run at 35* when correct dwell angle was 30*
BabyCorbra, I would say the pertronix unit you got was bad. I've never heard of a unit having 35* dwell.. The LSC unit has 25*, the Ignitor II is variable from ~20* to about ~32* depending on rpm. The original Ignitor I dunno bout tho as I don't have one. Dans answer to everything is, "Add a Relay!" :laugh:
Newer cars may be full of them, but... You woudn't believe how many new cars have electrical problems.. :eek2:
Hmm, didn't you not come over to my house so I could put a relay in your old Buick??? uh Huh... Relay's are the way baby! :beer
Oh sure, peg me on my one minor quam with electrical voltage.. I'm still against them in 99% of other cases.. The headlights made sense, as does for added fan(s) but just shovin 'em in there cuz it's easy, that's no excuse..
