Hey Guys,

Round five with this engine.  The motor starts great, idles great and revs great.  I have a 3x2 edel 553 intake with Ford 94's set up with progressive link. Like I said it will sit and idle all day and I can rev the motor and bring in the two secondary carbs without an issue.  I went through and checked valve lash again and is set at .015.

Once I put the car in gear to drive, it sputters and pukes or dies.  If I can get it to run I have to feather the pedal to get it up to 20-30 mph then it seems ok.  When the car is in neutral and on jack stands the drive line rotates freely with no drag or binding.  It is just under load the motor does this.  What is the deal with this thing???????  Trans is a TH350, 2000 Stall, 57' (later) distributor with Pertronix 2 setup.

I assume you have a 57-later dizzy. What's the initial timing, is the vacumn advance hooked up, if so where.

Jet sizes in carb, and how far out are the idle screws.

It's been years since I ran the 94 tri power set up, but many here do, and with more info I'm sure someone can help out.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Hey Miker,

Yea it is a 57 later dist.  I do have the vacuum hooked up, I have a T coming off of the intake, one to the distributor, the other to the trans (TH350).  I am not sure on the idle screws, I tuned them with a vacuum gage to pull max vacuum (15 lbs).  I will get timing and Jets tonight when I get home.
Thanks

I have no experience with tri carby set up so this might not be relevant, but the normal vacuum pick up point for a distributor should be from a port on the carby above the butterflies.
If you are picking it up from the manifold then you will have full vacuum all the time. I just encountered the exact same thing with my 64 T Bird with a 390.
The previous owner had set the timing up at 12 BTDC with the vacuum hose connected but the distributor was getting vacuum from the manifold.
The car was difficult to get off the mark without backfiring and coughing, but it ran OK once on the move.
When I checked the timing with the vacuum line connected it was 12 BTDC but with it disconnected the timing was very much retarded.
I set it to 12 BTDC with the vacuum hose blocked and then reconnected it to a port on the carby above the butterflies and after this the hesitation was gone and it was flying.



Gary - 1958 Star Customline and 1940 Ford Deluxe Hotrod

Need a little more info. Did you block off the power valves & close off the idle circuits in the secondary carbs? Most problems with these is the secondary carb throttle plates are not sealing good enough at idle and it creates a vacuum leak. Cover the secondary carbs with your hand while it's running you'll see what I mean. Im running the same setup in my 57. Took me awhile to dial it in but runs great now.

Dan      Kingman Az.      86409

Operating the vacuum advance with manifold vacuum should not be a problem.  It requires a bit different tune, idle speed adjustment and maybe idle mixture adjustment, than the other way but should work fine.  Regardless, that's an easy theory to test.  Disconnect and plug it.  Does the problem go away, change, or stay the same?



Lawrenceville, GA

Hey Dan,

Yes sir, the secondary carbs do not have mixture screws or power valves, they are set up strictly as secondary on a progressive link.  All the stumbling takes place at the 10-20 mph range, secondary's do not even get open before I start cussing, haha..  I have placed my hands over the secondary carbs while idling and I notice a very slight vacuum, but it has very little effect to the motor, so I think they are sealed somewhat well.

I am going to go back tonight and check all of the plugs. Probably should have done that already, but we shall see.

What distributor are you running? 

I have the 3x2 set up sounds similar to yours also a TH350 But running a Mallory dizzy with mech advance so no vacuum. Had some stumble off idle once and was PCV related. The 94s are notoriously twitchy and react poorly to fuel pressure (mine will flood at anything more than 2.5 psi. Might be fuel related or I once had a vac modulator on the trans go bad immediate out of the box failure--it was pulling ATF into the engine. And short shifting or missing 2nd and jumping to 3rd.I might try to isolate all the vacuum sources. I have a spare port on my manifold that I ran a vac gage through the firewall and watched it while driving. When the trans was at highest load (1-2 shift) the gauge freaked out.
Not sure if I'm explaining that this makes sense LMK if it doesn't

Mike Rizzo

1963 F100 "Rudy"

Daniel Island, SC

Ryan, thanks for the info. The problem I had with my 3X2 was getting a low enough idle speed. It didn't want to idle below 800 rpm's, didn't accelerate right and would flood after shutdown when hot. I tried a half dozen carb bases & throttle plates (even the 7* plates). I finally picked up 2 new secondary carb bases from Vintage Speed. That cured the idle problem & acceleration concern. The flooding I installed 1/2in. spacers under the carbs & a fuel pressure regulator set to 2 1/2lbs. Runs like it should now.
Next question is what size power valve are you running. At 15in. vacuum you should run a number 7 1/2 ( half the manifold vacuum). Maybe the one your running is opening too fast or slow to run correctly. What model number 94 carbs are you running? Secondary's should at least be the same model number.
I converted my ignition system to a Ford Duraspark system and run it with mechanical advance only, timing set at 16* (running a good size cam) with total advance at 38* if I recall correctly. Before that I ran an aftermarket dual point with the vacuum advance hooked up to the center carb after I did Teds modification to do so. Ran good with both systems but I prefer the Duraspark system for its convenience.




Dan      Kingman Az.      86409

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the info. I do run a Holley Fuel regulator and it is set right at 2 lbs, so I think I am good there. You bring up a great point with the power valve, it is a 4.5.  I will call vintage speed and get a 7.5, to see if that helps.  The duraspark distributor you are talking about is a mechanical advance much like the Mallory Unilite?  I've been looking at those, but not really wanting to pay that much until I cover all of the basics first.  I cannot wait to get this thing sorted out, I want to drive it!!

Thanks again guys!