I got a rebuilt 357. 600 Holley w/ vac seconds. Xe268h, standard everything else, vortec heads. Shorty headers, and a stock 700r4 with 3000 hughs stall. Stock hei. Now, y does this thing run better - smoother with timing retarded ( clockwise)? I have found tdc, the car starts right up. I'm talking v-vroom idles beautiful at 1500 with Choke off. I idle down to 1000 it idles rough and shuts off. If i shift to rev or drive, it dies immediately !!!!.

Going to try a different dizzy. I got an old proven stocker in barn. If it does the same must be carb. If not, then something in dizzy.

 

Look for a pretty large vacuum leak.
Timing would be the second thing to look at.
Are the rockers adjusted correctly?
This all assumes that the engine ran correctly some point in the past.

 

Changed dizzy to old stocker gm and now will idle down to 800rpm forever. I have to get new timing light. Any other ideas are appreciated

 

Will check intake and carb for vacuum l eake after church

 

Torque converter/transmission issue?

 

Thx for response. I don't know how to check that. it is a brand new hughs 3000 stall. But if u tell me how or what to look for I definitely will.

 

I'll presume you are setting your timing with the vacuum line not connected to the dist.
Are you certain your harmonic balancer zero mark is true? Weights stuck out on the dist.?

 

Vac adv. Is disconnected. Brand new light weight balancer. 3 diff. Dizzys

High perf. With super coil- weights stuck open only run if idle was wide open

Old stock camaro Dizzy- would run till less than 1100rpm then die

Barn Dizzy- runs and idles down to 800rpm good throttle response. Refer to videos. Almost 20" vac needle bounces some

 

I adjusted the air fuel mixture screws just a little bit more and now not only with it idle at 800 RPM it will give me a curb Idle which means in gear of 600 RPM without shutting down I let it run for about 5-6 minutes turn the car off and when I started it back up it started right back up well it took a couple of tries but it started for the most part right back up PS I think my battery might be just a little low

 

Update: gotta get me an advancing timing light and battery....

fired car up idles at 800 beautifully then I notice a high pitch whistle while adjusting the valve I loosened when trying to degree cam. It was coming from an ill fitting brake booster line. I plugged the carb the car shut off. I readjusted the idle up a bit and mix screws in all the way and the back out only one full turn. Fired it back up. Got idle dead on 750. Had 15in vac. Turned mix screws back in about 1/2 a turn and had 20in vac and a less bouncing needle. Good throttle response. Then I had to back off idle because it was now 1100rpm I went back down to 800rpm and now have 17in vac. I shut it off and tried to restart but battery is shot even with jumper cables.

Thx to everyone for your advice and experience. $3500 in an engine and I was this close to calling it quits and selling my car while it was still in pieces after having it hauled back to my house. Mind you, this is after it spent 9mo at the home of my friend who's dad is a ol skool builder. He said it was the vortec heads that was messing with him. I think it was the 750 carb. Driving it there and hauling it back was kinda disappointing but u guys have been a lot of help. Thx

 

I told you in post #2 that it was a vacuum leak.
Glad you found it, finally.
Your base timing is a little too far advanced.
That is what is causing your hard restart when hot issue.

 

thk you

 

Well that was a failure. I got my timing light adjusted down to 12btdc and shut car off. Now it won't start. I tried to put it back where it was and no matter what all I get is hard/no start. I was trying to find total timing. If i just tap the gas it made it even harder to turn over. Maybe it's flooding. All of this is with vac adv unhooked. So I'm close but no cigar. I'm going to wait until tomorrow just in case it is flooded it'll give it time to clear. This time when I get it started I'm going straight for total timing at 34deg.@3500rpm and the initial can fall where it may.

I was going to connect to ported vac for dizzy canister but for the first three years I drove this car I had it hooked up to mani vac. And idles down from there. Maybe that's what should do now. Idk... will post results tomorrow.

 

Check if you have spark at the ignition coil while cranking.
This now sounds like an intermittent wiring connection problem.

 

Timing light flashes on plug wire. I got up this morning and said screw it and put 34degrees on 0 with the dial back light while warm. I got my wife to hold it about 3000 and I moved 34deg to 0 the rpms improved and the car sounded great. I shut it off and it restarted right on cue. Then I looked down at my dial back and realized the dial had moved and I really was looking at 40deg. With the 34 on 0. When I readjusted and put 34 on 0 for real the car did run as good and when I shut off it didn't want to restart. When I get home and car is cold. I will: fire up, warm until fans come on 180-185, take off choke, unhook vac adv, rev to 3000, adjust timing for best vac, make sure I don't detonation, readjust idle, make sure I got good vac for brakes and no vac leakes, connect dizzy to ported vac, drive car see how it feels, come back shut off give 10min., see how restart, if all goes well that'll be the end of what I know how to do. Will post results.....

ps. I did see a couple grounds not hooked up not sure why they were left disconnected and I will bolt them down first. All of this just depends on the rain. Been getting a lot of that lately here in 27524.

 

Getting battery charges at AutoZone. Battery checking good but not full. Like alt. Not charging. Will have alt and starter checked also. If i can duck the rain.


oh I am getting yellow and orange spark not blue and that is with two diff dizzys, diff coils, diff modules, diff pickups and all. Do I need to change to acdelco rt45's? These are accels. First I'm going to get ign. System checked and go from there. I dont think it's the coil, module, ECT. Because the chances of both of them giving me the same prob is unlikely.

 

The first pic was of plug#1
These two are of cylinder #2

 

I like Accel plugs. But your gap looks like it's .100". Close it down to .035".
The plugs will fire in open air, but when you put them under pressure in the cylinder,
it makes it harder for them to fire. If they fire at all.
You correctly described weak spark. If it was strong, you would certainly know it -
along with the blue spark you would hear a strong snap.
But if your alternator is not charging and your battery is weak, then that might be most of your problem.
Get that fixed first.