Timing being off only a couple degrees isn't the cause of a major backfire and serious bog. The idea was to verify the initial timing (and curve) weren't drastically affected by reading it with the vacuum can pulling a huge amount of advance right at idle, leaving the true settings massively retarded. You are still correct, Larry...best to start over doing things in the right order than to wildly chase tail. Several major concerns have been brought up, all valid.
I think the issue is more the the choke is always open, and doesn't seem to "set" when I floor the pedal before starting. Do you know what might cause this? Am I setting the choke correctly? Maybe I will double check my 12v wiring . . . Should the choke close when cold and I turn the key to acc? Also I'm not sure if the huge backfire and bog are related issues. To describe the sensation more accurately, the car will chug chug chug and die when given moderate throttle, with each chug the whole car move violently forwards and backwards. The backfire I haven't heard since before the car was running, but seemed to be fixed by me replacing the condenser,points, and cap.
Choke should close fully when you depress the pedal on a cold start. If it's not, it may have got bumped in shipping. Check the moving parts for interference and adjust as needed. You're right it sounds like it's not a choke issue.
I don't know much about this but flooring the pedal before starting sets everything up on the carb via the fast idle cam, right? the round "stepped" piece on the throttle linkage on the drivers side of the carb? I've had to adjust this before because mine wouldn't set from the pre-start flooring.
I have a theory and I'm not going to tell you until you post manifold vacuum and verify initial timing with the advance disconnected...
Haha ok, I will! I haven't been able to touch the car since last weekend but hopefully tomorrow I can get at it for an hour or two after work!
Ok I was able to get at the car today and here's what I found: Vacuum is 19 psi hot and cold (keep In mind this is through very cheap gauge) Timing is 11 degrees BTDC hot and cold, vac advance plugged Timing does not advance when I suck on the vac advance hose, in fact there is very little resistance to suckage I also kind of dogged a bullet, found a very, very slow fuel leak at the carb inlet. Synched down the fuel line and good to go! So I need a new vac advance canister (can I just buy an HEI yet?), but what's this mystical theory of yours 436?
The backfire was just when I originally got the car and it wasn't running yet, it doesn't happen when the car bogs. Not sure about the smoke, I will try and get a friend to watch the car while I do the bog. The distributor has been verified to be in phase via plugging the spake plug hole of the #1 cylinder and engine over to find TDC (see my old thread above). Also glad to hear that your back in business Mark!!! I'm a long way from forced induction but someday it will happen!!
Thanks! So a rich bog will tend to sound like the ignition is breaking up, like a brap brap cackle sort of thing, and often creates black smoke. A lean bog will just fall on its face, but sometimes pop out the carb. You might look at the inside of the air filter for evidence of a carb backfire.
I had a similar issue but not nearly as bad. Mine was only when throttling off idle under load. ended up being my points. I went with points eliminator from Crane cams, Crane XR-I. it was a very easy instillation, about an hour. and under $100.00. made a big improvement but I had trouble dialing in my timing, seemed like I had to keep adjusting it. I was lucky to find a new old stock distributer on Ebay for $30.00! couldn't pass it up. After I put that in my timing adjusted perfectly. I think I had a combination of old and worn parts. Good luck and keep us posted.
Hope you get this figured out. Question to all who know, and want to share: What is this wire from the starter to the coil? We just changed the distributer, coil, and wires on my son's car, and there was no wire from the starter... There was a switched power wire that came from the fuse panel...to a ceramic block on the firewall, and then from the ceramic block, to the coil.
The resistor wire cuts running voltage to the points to maximize point life. There is a wire from the starter solenoid that bypasses the resistance wire during cranking ONLY. This thread explains it, http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...nd-HEI-System-function-tests-and-modification
Sounds like someone removed an inoperable resistance wire and added a switched wire from the ignition to a chrysler ballast resistor (ceramic block), to your coil.
Would this be an indication of replace the vac advance mechanism or time for total without vac advance hooked up? If that's your original intent and desires to get an HEI, I'd try eliminating the vac advance as mentioned to see if the bog goes away before springing for an HEI.
Well today I got home from work and started the car up with video camera in hand. Warmed is up and decided to drive around the block before making the video. Well guess what??? The problem completely disappeared on it's own! ou: This is the first time this has happened since getting it running. There is no sign or hint of the problem whatsoever, in fact it drives nicely for not setting the dwell or power timing! What the hell could cause the problem to just go away randomly?? The only thing I can think of is the change in humidity (it has been raining the last few days). I'm not really complaining and am really enjoying driving the car around, but I feel like this problem went away before I had a chance to understand it. Maybe it will come back, probably when I really need to drive the car somewhere haha. To answer to above question, I do want to get an HEI anyways so I think I may just spring for it, though perhaps not as soon as before. Give the ignition a fresh start so to speak. As of now I'm still stumped but happy!
