I am in the later stage of my restoration of a 71 convertible 442 clone. Prior to my car going to the body shop were it stayed for 13 mouths the car ran perfect. Started with little effort ran good. They engine was built about a year before going to the body shop but it might have 100 miles since being built. (Just sitting in garage when $$$ is low). But since coming home from body shop car run horrible. When cold it takes forever to start, the carburetor spits and puts before firing when cold. I finally took it on the road just about a mile from home to see what she is doing, at full throttle it spits and putts and putts . No missing when sitting and idling but full throttle it runs like crap. Paint guy told me he was adjusting the carb trying to get it to crank up. One day I went to the shop and he had it idled up to the max, it was running like the engine wanted to jump out of the car. help, help, help
Engine is all stock .30 over edldebrock 455 intake and edlebrock 650 carb
HELP,HELP

 

Old gas? May try putting some premium in it
along with some Berrymans gumout.
I would also try to find out what the paint guy
did to the carb and try to put it back where it was.

 

I'm going to assume that the carb sat and the fuel evaporated and left some deposits. Add old gas into the mix, and adjustments to compensate, it spells trouble.

 

Eh it might be old gas, but the bit about the "paint guy" fkin up the carburetor doesn't sit well with me.

 

Yeah the paint guy messin with it makes me think the carb needs adjusted and maybe the timing looked at too. Gas gets old quicker now days with the crap gas.

 

Sure gas isn't what it used to be, but i recently started my car for the first time in over two years and had no problems getting it going again.

 

I would think some of it may have to do with
what part of the country you live in too.
Gas goes to $hit here in Central TX
pretty quick after spring if not used.

Was it garaged? Different factors considered
for what it's worth. You should be able to get
her back on track without to many asprins.

Good friends and a few cold ones, She'll
be runni'n like a top.

 

Fresh fuel, check the fuel filter, check your plugs, check the initial timing, and preset your carb back to factory specs then you should be able get it back running again. We cranked up a Delta 88 455 that sat for over 14 years, we put some dry gas in the tank and 5 gallons of racing gas and it fired up and ran. In fact we had for years a party where we would have several cars that we would wire the accelerators wide open and we would crank them up and time how long the engine would last! The all time CHAMPION was a 455 Oldsmobile 14 minutes wide open!! So your motor should be ok you just got some junk in it and with it being in a body shop with a Gadzillion tons of dust?

 

What kind of ignition setup do you have?

I agree with all of the above carburetor and fuel advice, but the symptoms you describe could be ignition-related, too: Bad coil, bad points, bad condenser, bad wires, etc.

- Eric

 

I rarely put more than 5 gallons of gas in the car and I have put fresh gas in it a couple times. new lines at the tank and sending unit. at full throttle it sputters like it has water in the gas. also it is hard as hell to start cold another thing if I run it for 20-30 minutes let it get good and hot then kill it after about 5 minutes and try it its hard to crank like its a cold engine and its 95 degrees outside. also I don't know how to adjust an edlebrock

 

Sounds like a coil ? Check for good spark on hard start

I am not that great on adjusting carbs but I believe 2.5 turns out is a good starting point
Please chime in if I am wrong here

 

IF it is a stale gas issue, just putting fresh gas in it may not fix it, as varnish/gum will build up in the carb and fresh gas won't clear that up usually.

Get a quart of SEAFOAM gas additive(most parts store sell it), and put that in the tank. That stuff works wonders. I'm not sure about the e-brock carb, but if it has a bowl vent like the q-jet, you can even use a small funnel to pour it in the carb directly, thus hastening the cleaning of the varnish.

Try it, if it doesn't fix it , can't hurt, but I bet it will

Greg