Joffroi

I've been able to take my 68 442 out around the block a couple times and I wanted to run by how its running with you guys to get opinion on what needs to be tinkered with. Car starts without any problems at all. When I first take it out from a cold start, the idle speed of the car is fast. The car will cruise at about 20mph without giving it gas. Car will drive just fine, but after the engine heats up some (couple miles) the idle gets a little more rough and then the car will even die if I'm still in Drive and not giving it gas. In park, it idles perfectly. Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?

don71

That suggests to a vacuum leak. It could be something else though.

To rule it out, check vacuum (gauge)when cold and then when hot, and compare.

Second, I would make sure mechanical advance isn't sticky.

pogo69

Make sure the choke is opening properly

oldcutlass

Sounds like the choke is not set up correctly. It should manually release by tapping the accelerator, and go back to the normal curb idle setting. I would go back and check all your tune up settings, dwell, timing, and carb a/f mixtures.

Octania

Is the choke pulloff hooked up properly?
There are a few linkages and settings typically set (or mis-set depending on the skill of the rebuilder) during a carb build. Vacuum canister at front RH corner of carb should have a link going to top right corner of carb- the secondary air valve shaft. ["left" and "right" are not the observer's of course but the CAR's] Along the way, this external linkage rod also serves to bump the choke linkage a bit, opening ["pulling off"] the choke the exact right amount as soon as the engine starts.

Then, when you blip the throttle after the engine is running, the fast idle pieces are allowed to drop down off the highest step and get a medium lower cold idle speed. Later, as the engine warms up more, the fast idle steps on the carb's RH side go completely out of play, leaving the curb idle screw on the LH side to control the idle speed.

Maybe your curb idle is just too slow, and it cannot stay running when in gear. If you find that bumping up the curb idle little by little results in a jump from "won't idle at all in gear" to "crazy high idle" - and it gets worse when put in gear from Park- then it indicates that the distributor vacuum advance is not doing what you want it to. I ended up learning all about VA and the HEI use of VA, and putting a new vacuum canister on the distributor, tailoring the mech. adv., and changing from carb ported to direct manifold feed to the distributor vacuum canister in order to get a proper idle.