Okay so im back with my on going problems. Here is what has been done so far. This weekend I decided to get a new intake manifold by edelbrock performer :2121: and upgrade to a four barrel carb by holley :1850: I put everything in place and I dont quite understand the placement of all of my vacuum parts due to the fact there is no longer an egr on the vehicle and some of my set up has changed. I have a 1977 mav. with a stock 302 engine with a/c. I do not know what my carb tuning dials/ screws have to be set to and I have not set the idle speed. I have a vacuum diagram someone sent me online but its not too helpful. if needed I will post pics. When i try to start the car it turns over but does not start. I dont know if that is behalf of the tuning not being done or the vacuums done improperly. or a combination of both. ALL HELP IS APPRECIATED Any information is good information.
fist off you need to make sure the all the vacuum ports are plugged off or properly hooked up. their usually is some vacuum ports under the bowls of the holley carbs that can be easy to miss. on the edelbrock intake, their is some ports in the intake runners that need to be plugged up. some times theirs one on the back side of the plenum that is easy to miss. if you dont know where a vacuum line goes then leave it off till you get it running. the important part is to have all the vacuum ports on the carb and intake capped off. the recommended lines are the vacuum advance line on the distributor to the ported vacuum port on the carb. the automatic transmission modulator valve, the power brake booster if you have power brakes, and the air conditioning if you have that.
Okay I have the breaks connected to the correct place and the advance and pcv connected properly for sure. how many turns out should the tuning dials be?
I'd bet you don't have the ignition timing set where it needs to be, seeing as you swapped intakes and pulled then replaced the distributor. The initial timing needs to be set before attempting to tune the carb.
if this is a new out of the box carb. "don't turn any screws". check the dist. and see if it's 180 out.
Tried fixing it. backfire came through exhaust. Yeah so I have a light and it's for sure my dizzy but I need crank and in order for me to use the light I need to crank it. I guess I will wait for a second person. Will I have to remove it and reset it since it is this bad? Any real way of going through this?
I was ignorant and assumed I could just set it back in. I did not take any measure to marking anything upon taking it out. So most likely no.
Then, you need to get number one cylinder to top dead center, and set the distributor to the number one cylinder position. There should be loads of detialed information on this around the Internet , maybe even a video on YouTube.
I just recently installed this same intake manifold. My car would also not start and backfire. The manual that came with mine has the DISTRIBUTOR CAP LABELED WRONG! Start your #1 wire where its #3 on the diagram and rewire it from there.
To set the distributor in correctly, first get the crankshaft at #1 cylinder TDC on the compression stroke. The crank turns two revolutions for every one rev of the distributor, so you MUST have the correct TDC. Once you get the timing mark on the balancer at TDC of the comp stroke, turn it further til you have the pointer aligned to 12*BTC. Then drop the distributor in to where the rotor is pointed at about 1 o'clock (as viewed from the front of the engine) That is where #1 on the distributor cap should be. The rotor will turn about a half turn as the distributor goes into the engine as the gears mesh (distributor and cam gears) You may have to play with it to get the oil pump drive stabbed into the bottom of the distributor shaft (I take a dab of moly grease and slop it into the hole in the bottom of the shaft to help this along, I also coat the distributor gear with it too, if it's dry) Now when you have the distributor in place, screw the hold down clamp down, but leave it slightly loose. Hook up the breaker wires to the coil and the spark plug wires. Leave the #1 wire loose from the plug, stick a phillips screw driver into the loose end of the wire, hold it close to a ground. Then with the ignition switch in the "ON" position, slowly rotate the distributor, stopping immediately when you get a spark. Lock the distributor down. If all this is done correctly, the engine should fire right up when you get fuel into the engine. Once it's running, check the timing with a light. It should be exactly where you set the pointer. Now, tune the carb, setting the idle speed screw first, then fine tune the mixture screws to get the smoothest idle. After all this is done, kill the engine and remove the bowl sight plugs and see if the floats are set correctly, there should be just a dribble of fuel coming out as you remove the sight plugs. I like to set the idle speed as low as it'll go and still have the engine idle when put into gear.
