The silicone makes a real good lubricant for the plugs to pop out. If the black stuff on the plug is silicone, you will need to clean it from the block really well, maybe sandpaper? A seal driver or as big of socket that will fit the ID of the plug keeps the plug from "collapsing" in and losing its tension. The thing you have to ask yourself now is how many of the other ones are waiting to "fall" out from the poor installation method.
Are you verifying by looking at the high idle/choke linkage that it's kicking down vs. hanging up? An aggressive initial timing setting WILL raise the idle quite a ways. It might take 10 minutes to assess in person all these guesses over the 'Net.
I finally got the car back together and it just inst running right. By timing it using the large mark on the balancer and using Larry's method the car wont start unless the curb idle screw on the carb is turned way up. Once it starts it will run at roughly 2k rpms until I turn the idle screw down. I get it idling at roughly 1k then i shift it into drive and it drops to 600 an nearly dies or fully dies. I then proceed to put it in park and it goes up to maybe 850, and if i hit the gas the rpms go up to roughly 1500 and stay there unless I drop the car into gear or turn the curb idle screw down on the carb. I even had the motor back fire out of the carb once and shot a fireball out of it an die immediately a second time. Ive checked the linkage on the carb and everything is right. I never took the carb off or adjusted anything on it since it was running good. After these issues started I tried adjusting the air/fuel ratio screws using a vacuum gauge on the full port vacuum line of the carb. It is significantly richer than stock but the manifold vacuum went from 5 to roughly 7 at 900 or so rpm's. Im stumped.
put a vacuum gauge on it. tune for highest vacuum at 7-800 rpm what is timing set at total and initial?
Do not use the big deep cut in the balancer for the timing mark. I have the same type balancer on my 350, its the newer style (mine is actually quite old, but it is the replacement for older worn ones) Use the thin cut mark for timing. It sounds like your timing is severely retarded, which would explain the stalling, low vacuum, and backfiring thru the carb. Find and use the thin mark, it might be rusty if the engine sat for awhile, but its there
Wow! Thank you. I will try timing it with the small mark. That makes so much sense. When i advance it it seems to run better but then by using that large mark I have way to much timing. Why they heck would they have a large mark and a small mark and expect us to know to use the small mark???
Once you get the timing thing figured out you'll be golden. Also, reset your idle screws by setting them in all the way gently then back out 1.75 turns. Get your timing and idle right before adjusting them, and it sounds like you have a vacuum gauge - you should have 15 plus and go for max with the idle screws. You will have to make small incremental adjustments to get it all correct. Get the timing set closer first and go from there - still sounds like you are way off, plus your idle screw issue isn't helping. Turn the idle down, check timing, down some more and check it again and make sure you are using the correct mark. You never mentioned verifying TDC on number one piston and that your distributor is set in correctly.
Kody, The large mark is probably the 30* mark. You have to remember that there are weights and springs inside the distributor that advance the timing BEYOND where you set it initially. That means that you are adding 30* to whatever you are setting the idle timing to, and then the mechanical advance is advancing the timing beyond that. The only time you would need to use the 30* mark is if you only had a standard timing light with no dial back feature. In that case you could use the 30* mark to set the total timing. In any case, you CANNOT set the total timing WITHOUT knowing if the weights are extended all the way. They must be extended all the way to maximum. The ONLY way to be sure of that is to use VERY light springs and watch the timing mark to see where it stops advancing. The total timing needs to be set at that RPM or above. Make sure you disconnect the vacuum advance.
Larry I have the lightest spring I could find in the distributor. Around 2500 the timing mark won't advance any more. So I was using the large mark and lining it up with the 0 on the red indicator tab with my dial back light set to 32 with the engine rpm high enough to not advance any more. By doing that the engine does seem to be set really retarded. The vacuum advance is also plugged.
Nope, if you want to use the 30* mark, the advance light needs to be set at 0. If you want to use the dial back feature of the light, then set the advance light dial to 32* and use THE FACTORY MARK.
You aren't alone:grin: That's why I wrote the timing thread way back when. You can use either method. They should both yield the same results. If you use the dial back feature, you are looking to line up the factory mark with the 0 on the timing TAB at RPM. If you want to use the 30* mark, then you are lining the 30* mark up with the 2 on the timing tab. Whatever method you use, use the other to check yourself.
So it looks like my large mark is 0 and the small one is the 30 degree mark. I tried it the other way around and I couldn't get the marks to line up at all. By using the big mark as 0 i was able to set the timing light at 32 and get it to line up with the 0 on the timing tab. When I set the light to zero and used the second small mark it would line up with the zero on the tab. Once the car cools down enough for me to get my arm in there and tighten down the distributor bolt I will take it for a drive. I also set the air fuel screws on the carb. Stock is 1.5 turns out and i had a little less than 5psi of vacuum, i now have them at 2-3/4 turns out and i have between 7-8.
Nope, the red mark is the factory mark. That's the one you need to use if you want to use the dial back feature set to 32*
When I use that mark the car acts like it is retarded and will hardly run. I will try it again today. I may try to take a video as well.
Well i finally figured it all out. I set the timing light to 32 and used the large factory mark and and got it lining it up with the 0 on time timing tab while having the engine revved to make sure the mark wouldn't go any higher. It seems to run good with no ping at WOT. Thanks for the help.
