Hi Everyone. I am in dire need of help getting my new motor to run.
As a rank amateur I have spent the last couple of months replacing the tired 289 in my 66 with a reco roller cam 5.0. It is a basic engine and came complete with a new Holley 600 and aluminium manifold.. Earlier this week I got to the point where I was ready to start it up, time it, do some basic carby adjustments for the time being and check that all was well with the new trans I also put in. Once that was done the idea was to get it towed to an exhaust place to get it hooked up to the JBA shorty headers I bought and installed.
I compensate for being a mechanical mug by extensive research and triple checking everything I do. So triple checked everything - oil pressure primed, dizzy and rotor at TDC on cyl 1 on comp stroke, plug leads all correct for firing order, all wiring etc. The moment of truth arrived. Should also say that I do have 12 volts continuous to the coil with engine running as this was done for the Pertronix in the old motor, I have verified this with a multi meter. After a bit of mucking around I got it to fire up but it kept dying unless I held the throttle open. Turned the idle screw up quite a bit and it would stay running. Without any muffling it was loud but seemed happy and running on all 8. Even though its a roller cam I figured it wouldn't hurt to let it warm up at what was about 1,500 revs. Verified thermostat had opened, temp gauge happy so started to turn the idle down and it died only hundred revs or so less. This kept repeating, it will run apparently happily at about 1,500 but turn it down and it dies.
I did some reading and then checked no fuel blockage (new mechanical pump, new hoses from inner fender to pump and pump to carb, new in line filter, pulled that and blew air through the filter, only fuel came out, also checked little gauze filter inside carb inlet, clean as a whistle), started it again and checked for vac leak by spraying at all likely points, also put a rag over carb to see if reducing air flow had any effect - no indication of any vac leak. Note that all of this is at about 1,500 revs, not normal idle.
Yesterday I tried the other thing my reading suggested that maybe the idle mixture was too lean and wouldn't sustain a normal idle speed. I richened up both sides but no change, it still dies when I turn the idle speed down.
Throughout all of this putting a timing light on it hasn't been very illuminating, pardon the pun. At about 1,500 revs the light showed about 30 degrees advance but because I couldn't get it to idle at a more correct 700 or so I don't know what the static timing is. However, I did have to advance it from TDC to get it going and by measuring the circumference of the dizzy and the distance I rotated it from the TDC mark I made, allowing for dizzy turning at half crank speed, some quick maths suggests I'm around 8-10 degrees which should be in the ballpark. Obviously this is not very precise but gives a general indication. Vac advance disconnected and plugged.
So that's my sad story. It does run with that high idle and revs up nicely from there but won't idle normally so I don't think there is any component not functioning but something needs adjusting and figuring out what is beyond me. I have a rising sense of panic now as my daughter's wedding is approaching and the car is part of it so I HAVE to get it going and run it in and sort out any little issues before that. Only thing I haven't looked into is stale fuel. The car hasn't run since April, I did put some of that stabilizer stuff in the tank back then so I would have thought it was OK but I'll drain it and replace it if anyone thinks this could be the issue.
Any and all advice will be very gratefully received. If anyone with more skills and knowledge than me wanted to volunteer to come over and get it going for me as soon as possible I would set a new benchmark for gratitude. I am in Mulgrave in the SE suburbs of Melbourne. Happy to pay in money, beer or whatever might suit. I am getting desperate.
