I just finished adjusting the valve lash on my car, now everytime i shift it into gear, it stalls. It idles fine, at the right speed. Could i have gotten the rockers too tight? Wouldnt that make it backfire? Becuase it revs fine, its got a little hesitation right when i mash the throttle buts its alway done that.i tried to set the idle higher and had the same result, i drove the car just yesterday and it was just fine.

 

what is the "right" speed your setting it at?

 

Well my tach is way off so im not sure how many RPM's i just know that i set it high enough to where it should be able to idle. Another thing, after i adjusted the valves it started to idle alot lower in park that it did before i adjusted the valves

 

You may have overtightened the rockers. My idle is 800RPM in park and 5-600 in gear.

 

I guess the question arises then: how was the valve lash set?

 

Well, i beleive i just found the problem. I noticed that my A/F guage was max out on the rich side. I pulled one of the plugs and it is black as coal, now i just have to find out why its running rich after adjusting lash. If the valve were way too loose, could this happen?

 

If it were loose, the valve wouldn't open up all the way, which could impede air flow.

I'd try resetting the lash and see what happens.

 

Re lash them now? After i already have? Not sure which you mean. If they were loose before and they were not opening all the way, that would cause a lack in airflow, so after i have tightened them now they should open far enough, and thats why i getting such a rich condition right? id say its rich because i have richened the carb with metering rods. Hopefully this has been my problem all along, it hasnt been performing right at all

 

Well, I thought that i could replace the stock rods and re adjusted the IMS and it would lean it out, but it made no difference, its just a rich as it was before, it popped out the carb once when i was revving it too. And once it died at a dead idle in park and that was after i increased the idle speed.
I need some help here guys, do i need to re lash the valves again? I dont dont think i got them too tight but i guess its possibel. Another thing, even the cylinders that i didnt adjust are rich, i pulled four of the plugs and all are rich. Any suggestions will be great, im desperate at this point.

 

how exactly did u set the valve lash

 

adjusting valve lash is outined in any chilton or haynes manual.
it goes something like this:

to adjust a valve, loosten the rocker until it moves laterally with ease. lightly spin the pushrod and tighten the rocker nut. as soon as the pushrod stops moving, stop tightening. this is zero lash. 1/2 turn to 3/4 turn past zero lash is generally an acceptable lifter preload.

as for the which ones to adjust, stop the crank at TDC, and adjust the # 1, 2, 5, and 7 intake valves and the 1, 3, 4, and 8 exhaust valves. then rotate the crank 360* (#6 @TDC) and adjust the 3, 4, 6, and 8intake valves, and the 2, 5, 6, and 7 exhaust valves. when adjusting valves, use the

the sure fire way to do it is to rotate the crank until the exhaust valve of a cylinder has just started to open, and adjust the intake. now rotate the engine until the intake valve is just opening, and adjust the exhaust valve.

 

I'd set the lash with the motor running. If it stalls in gear after you reset them I'd suspect your timing is either way off (in either direction) or your idle mixture is too lean.

 

His O2 was showing rich idle.

But reset the lashes and give it another go.

 

if you have computer controlled carb or FI, i would check the teperature sensor in the intake manifold. every time i've had one of those go, it runs crazy rich.

 

Well im pretty sure the car is stalling becuase of the rich condition and iit all started when i re lashed the valves.

As for how i lashed the valves, i would bump the engine over then find the ones that are loose and tighten them, then bump the engine over again and tighen the loose ones and keep on till i get them all, and no i do not feel very secure about this method, My problem is, i wasnt sure how to tell when there was zero lift on the rocker, now i found another method that sounds to be pretty effective, which is to rotate the engine until the exhaust valve begins to open, then adjust that cylinders intake valve and repeat for all other valves

I was running stock TBI induction, and i swapped over to Carb, and all the emissions and ECM are not in use.

Its gotta be something to do with the way i lashed the valves, becuase as soon as i got done and fired it up is when the problem occured. For some reason it is running extremely rich

 

Well, i just got done adjust a few of the cylinders and they seemed to be way too tight, looked like it had the valve open a little when it was supposed to be shut. Im gonna get a feeler gauge and was wondering what the gap should be?

 

this is probably a quicker way to do it, assuming that you are running a hydraulic cam.

 

Its a solid mechanical cam

 

This sounds all too familiar. I am having the same problem and I believe I have narrowed it down to the in-tank fuel pump.

Did you remove the in tank pump when you switched over to a carb?

My car was a cc q-jet car and has the in tank pump with the bypass on the mechanical pump. But I think the new mechanical pump doesn't allow enough fuel to return to the tank causing the fuel bowl to overflow, not just on one carb, but 2 different carbs I have tried.

When I get the car back from the body shop, I am dropping the tank, pulling the pump, and for now, doing away with the return line.

 

Im still running the in tank pump and i have a gauge on it and it gets around 6 PSI consistantly