Ok, just got my 350 rebuilt, and heres the deal. I went for my first test drive, and upon leaving the driveway I got a flat tire, but didn't realize it, so i'm goin around the block, and i get like half a mile away and I hit the clutch to shift from 3-4 and the engine instantly died, so I put it in fourth and drop it to get it goin again, and it does this the rest of the way... hit the clutch and it dies. so I go to downshift from 3-2 while coming to a stop and the cars screeches the tires, halts, and dies. I try to restart it but it's cranking very very slowly like it's pulling a lot of current and dosn't want to turn over, I have to half-throttle the carb to get it barely restarted and hardly make it back. Anyone heard of this or have any ideas of how this could happen?? Thanks.

BTW: When I got home, I restarted the engine 4 minutes later from getting back and it idled perfectly fine.

 

dirty or bad IAC valve? do a search for IAC and you will find how to clean it (it's simple)
my car was doing the same and after I cleaned the IAC valve it stopped.
it can be 100 other things probably but that is my guess.

 

hes using a holley so i dont think the iac is his problem hehe.. the engine dying when you hit the clutch doesnt seem to make any sense.. are you doing anything else when this happens? changing gears etc.. simply moving the clutch away from the flywheel shouldnt effect anything unless theres something in the bellhousing thats getting wedged between the flywheel and something.. let us know any other info you have.. verify the carb is tuned properly (correct jetting, float levels set correctly, etc.) as far as the downshift with the tires screeching and the car dying it sounds like you were going too fast for the gear you dropped it down into and the wheels locked up as a result.. not really a problem just simple driver error unless there's more to it.. oh and don't be too upset just yet.. I don't think I've ever had a car run perfectly on its first trial run after something as major as an engine rebuild/swap,etc.. you'll get it there.. just takes some time to work all he bugs out.. good luck.. keep us posted!

 

Does that Holley have a dashpot? You (it) might need one.

 

Vader, What exactly is a dashpot? I've never heard of that on a holley before. I most definately don't have an IAC valve, as nothing on my car is computer controlled at all anymore. I know when I had my engine on the dyno a week ago, they were having problems with getting the idle circuit set up properly (of course, the one day I wasn't able to be there to watch over), and one side is apparently all the way out because it kept stalling the engine. So I'm guessing that it's just a big carb problem, but that really pisses me off because the carb barely has 6K on it. It's a 700 Mech. classic double pumper. I got the tire fixed today, drove it around again and one time it started to die down, i feathered the gas and it came back up, and other time it was really shotty getting to a start, I'm gonng try putting my friend's demon on it today and see what that does, but let me know about that "dashpot," of anything else you guys can suggest to check for. Thanks

 

Is the clutch maybe not completely releasing? If not, when you put it in gear, that could stall the engine.

 

Nah, not that. I have a z-bar setup, so I know it's releasing all the way, and it was just when I hit the clutch and the engine would to go idle, regardless of tranny gear, neutral (cuz the clutch is in), it would die out.

 

Is the engine cold when this happens? If so how is it when it warms up?

 

from my small knowledge, the dashpot slows the closing of the accelerator plates (flappor doors) letting the engine take away the fuel discharge into the intake manifold..

i thought only cars with autos had them though?

- edit, i dont know if my definiton n control of the fashpot is correct, i may be wrong

sorry

 

The engine was completely up to temperature before I took it around the block that night that it was being weird. While driving it around today, everything was all normal, so go figure. I'd like to figure out what happened though so it dosn't happen again, not a fun time.

 

Well, if thats not it, then this is prolly gonna be useless info, but check the Z-bar... it may have cracked, like mine did. Then all seems dandy, but it really isn't pushing the clutch fork much if at all, even if it feels like it is.

 

im supirsed no one suggested the timing yet. new engine= tune with timing. 6k on the carb means it was ran before the rebuild, and from knowing how many miles is on the carb, those miles were probably put on by you. with timing to advanced it is possible for your engine to not want to start. also, with timing to advanced, illt kill the engine when you go to no load against it. i like to shove the auto tranny i have into N alot and rev it. when i messed with my timing to get some extra horses by advancing it, the engine would die when i stuck it into neutral(same effect as going onto the clutch).

so basically, to sum up what i just said, check the engine timing.

 

I was going more for carb icing. I'm dealing with it right now. Of course I don't run a choke and it's like 19*F out right now. I do agree it sounds like the timing is too advanced since it was hard to start after it died and was helped by opening the throttle.

 

Hydric has it. A dashpot slows the return of the throttle plates for the last few degrees so that the engine has a chance to clear the chambers and not overload with fuel (from the high vacuum condition) when the throttles are slammed closed. It's a common symptom of running a Holley, with all their "world class" fuel netering at all operating ranges...

A dashpot was standard equipment on some Holley equipped factory cars with manual transmissions, and even the Autolite and Motorcraft clones of Holley carbs on many manual Ford cars.

See item 18:

 

Vader, Would a brand new classic double pumper from jegs (PN: 510-O-4778C) have one of those? I bought it a year ago. Like I said, the carb was ok yesterday, but really shotty, like on startup it didn't want to stay running, and it would cough a lil while driving. My timing is currently set to 36 degrees total. Thanks guys.

 

Most out of the box carbs won't include a dashpot. It's possibly one of those necessary "options" that you'll need to purchase.