Gary's 2 442-S

I have a 72 442 with 455 in it. The engine was rebuilt by the previous owner and has never been driven. I have had the car now for 4 yrs and now I am ready to try to get it on the road. I am having a problem trying to get this engine to idle. It was doing when I got it. I have had the engine and transmission out of the car because I did a complete restoration on the car. I had to replace the valve seals because there was leakage in them and once I pulled the heads and replaced with new ones that problem went away. The previous owner told me that the engine was modified with a cam but was not sure which. The engine came with an Edlebrock 600 and I bought a Quadrajet to go on it thinking the carburetor maybe bad. I put the new quadrajet on and the thing would not idle at all, so I took it back. I put the Edlebrock back on it and once again bad idleing unless I really have the primary and secondary really wide open and then it really burns much fuel just sitting ideling. I then sent the Rochester that the previous owner sent with the car off to Carburetor Exchange and had them rebuild the thing and they tested it on an engine and it worked fine. I get that carburetor back and put it own and the the engine will not start unless I have have the chock partially open and barely open. Once the engine warms up, the chock opens. But then once again I had to open the primarily and secondary. That engine burned an awful amount of fuel. Way too much. I have check the engine for vacuum leak and there appears to be none. the timing is set at 8 btdc. I decided to use manifold vacuum vs the ported and there was still no change. the engine did measure at about 14" of vacuum. I think it has something to do with the vacuum but now I am not sure, but I dont think that 3 carbutors would have the same results. any suggestions?

alek72us

Put the timing at 0 keep the dist blot loose and start it. with it running slowly turn the dist one way or another and see if the idleing clears up. also double check all wires making sure they are all on the spark plugs and cap correctly.

oldcutlass

Try your timing @ 14 degrees with the vacuum adv disconnected, make sure your dwell is at 30 deg first if you have points. Set your idle @800 rpm. See if that gets it to idle. If not, what you may have is a really bad vacuum leak.