I got my Haynes manual this week and I was finally able to get my timing procedure correct. I was using disconnecting the wrong wire to get to my base timing. Once I got my timing set, I could actually drive the car uphill without it stalling out. Everything felt good, power was about where it used to be. I set my timing to about 5 BTDC. I emulated a high load situation by flooring it uphill and the car did sputter and stall like it didnt know what to do. I changed out the plugs, wires, rotor, fuel filter looks good so im not sure if its a regular maintenance thing. My setup is a Electronic Q-Jet 305 motor with an edelbrock performer intake (unsure if it has any other mods, doubt it though) what should my base timing be? My tachometer has also stopped working when before I did my intake gasket it worked fine. Now it is pinned deep and doesnt move which doesnt help my diagnostic efforts much. Especially since I dont know where my idle is. I have the day off tomorrow so let the ideas flow. I will respond as fast as I can.

 

Well the condition you describe is usally caused by a lean condition or incorrect timing. Ide start with the timing now you say youve got it set to 5 BTC wich i cant recall what factory was but it seems it should be more advanced than that? Could be mistaken on that though ide check the emissions sticker under the hood for that spec. About the tach you might wanna check you ignition modual as if im not mistaken that drives the tach as well. May be related to your problem. Give that stuff a try and see how she does.

 

Hey thunder, thanks for the reply. My emissions sticker is gone so I have know way of knowing what it should have been from the factory. I think my dissy may be a tooth off which could be throwing off my timing. If the Ign. module isnt too much I will pick one up at autozone today. When I setup the dissy I set it to point at number one on the cap, I now know it has to be between 1 and 8 so that could be the missing link here! Thanks again

 

your original was either 0 or 6 degrees. and even if it was 0, 6 is safe.

 

Well moveing your distributor a tooth off from where it originally was dosnt really make a difference as long as the time is set correctly. You can put the distributor in any way you want really because the only thing that matters is the position of the rotor relitive to the cap. So if you set it for 5 BTC then it is 5 DTC reguardless of how the distributor is in. Its just easier to put it back in the way stock had it.

 

UPDATE- Replaced my ignition module and reset my timing exactly to 5 degrees before TDC... Engine is still running very rich and is still bogging out under load (going uphill). I can literally floor the gas and the car does not respond. What would cause this OTHER than timing....?

 

sounds like it has gone into "limp-home" mode go to Auto Zone and rent the scan tool and find out why.

 

The scan tool is basically useless. My car is a bastard, started life as a F.I 2.8L and previous owner decided to replace that with a Carb'd 305. Any attempts to read scans will most likely result in 20 or so codes. If the car was running too rich, would it cause the weakness under load? Mixture control possibly?

 

Im gonna check the cat tomorrow maybe its clogged but I dont think would account for my rich smelling exhuast (bump)

 

Check the cat. What your describing is exactly what my car was doing with a clogged cat, I put a dynomax high flow one on and it runs like a raped ape. As much as a stock TBI 305 can anyway.