I have a recent built 400 engine and have slowly developed a hard starting and idle issue doing a carb rebuild a nod checking for vacuum leaks.I wanted to know if someone could read that plug and is that a sign of running lean caused I have had some pinging issues also thanks image-19.jpg

 

Looks perfect to me.

Is your gap a tiny bit wide?

- Eric

 

The engine builder set the gap,I will check it today.the engine is from a 1969 vista 400 high compression engine rebuilt back to stock spec other then slight bigger cam and now running HEI ingnitiin should I set the gap at .30 as advertised stock for this engine I've seen some guys running .45 gap?

 

That's actually a pretty cool picture, the sp is in excellent focus and the bronze 400 makes a great background. Plug looks ok to me

 

looks nice not fouled or detonated...there is mega info out there on breaking down the exact residue on plugs, i have a circle track magazine from the 90's that goes into the extent of nascar teams analyzing spark plugs it's was pretty interesting

 

just wondering about the lean condition are there a lot of miles on that plug?

 

Nice tan color and HEI gap is about right.

 

+1.

That gap would be a bit large for points, but if you've converted to HEI, it's fine.

- Eric

 

No the plugs are 2 months of light driving half highway and half city. I've been running mostly pure 93 gas (no ethanol) and trying some different octane boosters out. The one time I ran a half tank of 93 ethanol gas is when I really noticed the pinging pulling a hill on the highway and once gas braking it.but besides the bad running carb I think all these uncovered ports on my manifold could be a cause of my bad running issues also noticed no tube in choke holes the egr valve and especially that port behind carb those uncovered cant be good.so gonna get this carb rebuilt and close these ports and go from there thanks for all the replies.
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is the vacuum tree plugged off? thats a lot of systems plugged off and is the choke working?

 

No vacuum tree not plugged off and there was no choke on this carb just the housing the two hot choke tube holes in the manifold are just open but I was told all this was alright so now working on cleaning up this mess.Suprising the car run alright as is but hard starting and idle issues but I know it's not right and could be better.im sure I'm losing power from all this.

 

Maybe it's about time you told us a little more about this motor.

No 400s were made with EGR. That's a 1973-'74 intake manifold and a late-'70s APT carburetor.
What other things are non-original? What is your compression? What kind of cam do you have?
What other work was done?

I see most vacuum accessories not connected, but most of those are from the '73 that the manifold came off of, and not from your car.
I see that you have no choke connected, so cold starts must be difficult.
I see a large port on the back of the throttle body that appears to be open - is it?
I can't see what is connected to the upper port on the back of the carb., but whatever it is, it shouldn't be.
I can't see what the vacuum break diaphragm is connected to, but whatever it is, it looks like the hose is going to the wrong place.

What do other people see?

- Eric

 

Pic 2. The top nipple on the rear of the carb is the fresh air intake for the choke .. not a vacuum port. Looks like the rear vacuum break is connected to it .. that's not going to achieve anything. The gold hard line with the black bit of rubber in the same shot looks like it should go there.

 

Correct. That's the air intake for the hot air choke, which is missing from the carb.

- Eric

 

If you get the EGR system working, it will help stop the pinging.

 

The skinny line from the front looks like it's heading for the distributor, but if I recall my youtube videos, that's not the ported line it looks to be, but manifold vac. Vac advance is supposed to be ported, isn't it? The fat line heading in the same direction might be for the transmission. The one heading for the driver's side is anyone's guess ... on mine that port is part of the EGR setup.

I thought my vacuum lines were hacked on. Wow. I'm impressed.

 

there are probably some short cuts to get it to run better but really it needs to be rehosed up and bad parts replaced and tuned ....put a vacuum gauge on it for a baseline maybe

 

I'm gonna go throught the rehouse process and will update you all on the outcome next week.

 

We still don't know the specifics of this motor.

The way that this motor is built will dictate which hoses need to be connected to what, and which need to be thrown out.

Once you've started modifying things, everything's up for grabs, and nothing is set in stone.

- Eric

 

The engine is a 1069 400 g block c heads was pulled from 60xxx vista crusier engine was broken down clean up crank was turned reused the rods and hi-comp pistons all new bearings rings and gasket. Heads were cleaned up and 3-angle valve job. Don't know specifics of cam was told 280 nice idle you can definitely here it.It was only a long block so had to source a manifold from a 73-76 BB manifold.Thinking since this engine really didn't come with all the emmision needs the newer manifold has will it be easier to cap of some ports like the tvs and egr and choke stove holes in manifold and just run vac advance to carb,PVC to carb,electri choke, transmission and brake booster to manifold vacuum and be alright.

 

Yes, with a little more punctuation, that would cover it.

A 1969 10.5:1 400 motor with a cam is definitely not set up to run with EGR, and does not need either of those thermal vacuum switches or the EGR valve.

That carb was made to work with EGR and may need to be rejetted, as it is probably set a bit lean.

Go through all of your vacuum connections and just connect what you need.
You will need to look at a diagram of that particular carburetor's vacuum connections to decide what to connect where.
You will need to determine whether the car runs better with ported or manifold vacuum advance through trial and error.

Either an electric choke, or installation of the missing hot air choke parts should work fine.

- Eric

 

Well to close this thread out and let y'all know the solution I came up with to fix my problem.I went to a local shop Friday Southern Rods and picked up a Proform 750 electric choke carb.I caped off all my open vacuum ports ran my vac advance to a port on the left side of carb,ran transmission vac to a port on the front bottom and ran my PVC valve to a port they placed on the rear bottom.So far I'm very pleased with the carb ran excellent right out the box.Use a edelbrok adapter with the 4 swirl ports.Only adjustments were my choke on e it warmed up and my idle. Drove the last two days no pinging,excellent throttle response and the best thing even after sitting over night I just turn the key,I haven't pumped the gas not once since install to start it.Heres a a few pics of it taken today need to clean the bay up its getting dusty.
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There you go. A fair solution.

They make a plate to block off the EGR hole, by the way, so you can take it off and throw it away.
You can put pipe-thread plugs in the hole that the vacuum tower switches came out of.

- Eric

 

Thanks MDchanic im gonna order that egr block off plate soon.My next project is electrical im still running the stock alt and starter off the 350 that was previously here gonna look at a mini stater cause ive been noticinig some heat soak issues small but noticable and i wanna add a nice sound system so a 100amp alt is in order this 63 amp just aint cutting the mustard.Plus my a/c is not in order heat is beatiful but cold comes out but not strong.Once I get them issues out the way i can stay from up under my hood and work on something else.Thanks again everyone...