Technical 383 sbc stall in gear & hesitant

Thank you.
I will check the timing as well as ask the mechanic why he determined that going lower in timing was better. I'm quite sure it should be around 16-18, initial with ~36 total, correct?

 

Thanks, I will find out what jets/needles/springs are in there and take note of them for here.

Thank you, along with the posts above I will ask about the cam installation & degreeing.

 

Thanks OP ,
Get a good O2 wide band .
KEEP NOTES !!!!! You will do Several adjustments repeating Experimenting multiple times,
Decent quality timing light built in aVance knobs
Around $65 up
Good big face Vacume gauge ,
(( i uses a 5 inch or so face for tunning))

Make sure your fuel delivery is correct in good running order 6-7 psi idle to wide open.
If in doubt try different gauges to verify correct readings .

Air filter good Quality and high flowing ,

Intake Type / style and make ?

Go back to Holley
680-750
Plugs ? Start with with recommendations for those heads for starting point , I run ngk in all my engines
Vtwin flatty stocker blown turbo nitrous lawnmower

This is where wideband O2 makes things a lot easier , Old days you looked at the plugs but the new gas formulas will lie to you by the Eye !!!

Holley much easier to tune but more than just turning a couple screws , same thing on eEdelbrock , more than a couple screws .
Had 2 new of each 650 &750 Edel on 454 , ( rollback )spent several hours ((( like 30 hr )) trying to Tune just the carburetor ,was unable to get rid of the bad spot . Put a holley on tuned in like 1 hr or so .

Set idle at I,000 to 1.200 RPMs
Moter should like 12 -16 deg initial timing .
Check to make sure 0 is 0 (TDC))

Whats the cranking compression ??

The distributor definitely Need to be re-curved over a stock one .
Use good quality cap Rotor wires specially if stock HEI .

On 87 no more then 25-33 total if compression ratio is over 10 to 1 .
0n 91-93 around 33-36 total TO about 10-5-1.
IF compression ratio is HIGHER ""LESS ""Total on 91-93

Get a base line before playing with PV valve & squirter cams , if you go back to Holley .

Pay attention to transfer slot like mentioned before, drill butterflies if blades are pass transfer slot ,
(( I start with two .025 in each primary butterflies) )
at idle screws will have no effect
(((( there is several tech threads on the HAMB & on web to tunning a carb,))) read several articles to get a better understanding how a carb supplies fuel from idle to wide open and cruising.
Wideband O2 will help with all Your tunning needs for the carburetor idle too wide open ,jet selection , pv valve, squirter's and etc. ,and cruising
There is so much to Tunning a carburetor to run correctly then most people think if you want to run correctly.

 

I briefly ran vac advance on it, wasnt pulling much vacuum, changed out to non vac advance early on the cars set up, never really explored the vac advance options as a 17yr old.
I got it to idle down in the 750 range thru card adjustment, very rough idle no matter what, worthless under 4000 rpm, screamer from 4000-7000 rpm.
Theres a lot better cams out there. 292H one has enough duration to be a pain in the ass and not enough lift to match for serious power. Maybe the vacuum advance would have improved "driveability"

 

If cranking compression is at least around 150, the cam timing is probably within reason. That needs to be checked again to confirm.

Cams that have a lot of duration and valve overlap, have a tendency to have poor volumetric efficiency at slower engine speeds, hence not making enough power to keep the engine running under a load, in gear at idle speeds.
The engine will loose a lot of RPM going from neutral to drive and then slowly loose more RPM until it dies. It will start right back up though.
Stock compression like 8.5-1 and tighter torque converters (lower stall speed) can
compound the same type of symptom also. That's some of the reasons these types of cams need more compression than stock and higher stall speeds.

Since it ran ok before with the same setup, I doubt that this is the cause of the trouble at this time.

I suspect carb adjustments and ignition timing.

First I would put the timing light on it and run the engine as it is.
Record the timing at the idle speed in neutral and then put it in gear. While its in gear, read the timing again and if the timing goes down, then the distributer is already into the mechanical advance curve at idle.
That will cause a large drop in RPM from neutral to drive. And can cause the symptom you are describing.
If the timing is dropping when put in gear, you either have to have a slower initial idle speed, or have to re-curve the mechanical advance to come in at a higher RPM, so the timing at idle, in neutral and in gear are the same.
This is something that's fairly easy to check off the list of troubleshooting, and we see this happen quite often with customer cars that don't run right.

With the initial timing at 8 degrees as you state, if the above is happening, the timing is going way past AFTC in gear and will not keep running.

8 degrees initial with the vacuum advance disconnected is probably fine as long as the vacuum advance is then hooked to manifold vacuum and providing the engine produces a decent amount of manifold vacuum.
Timing on your engine should be at least 15 degrees initial, or more at idle with 21-23 degrees of mechanical advance to get to 36-38 degrees total with no vacuum advance used.
Some factory distributers are hard to get that much mechanical advance from, without modifications.

After that, I would readjust the carb.
Process of elimination is where you are at.

Its not unusual to have a dist. vacuum advance disconnected and just run the mechanical advance.
We usually only see that on engines that run a lot of initial advance. Initial+ mechanical+ vacuum advance will give too much total timing.

Good luck.
Bill

 

You might check the mechanical advance mechanism in the distributor also. The HEI’s had issues with wear to the pins that the weights swing out on and sometimes the holes in the weights themselves get elongated. Take the cap off and see what shape it’s in. While open clean the pins and weights and lube them just a little. The advance plate needs to move freely too. Just grab it and move it back and forth, the action should be smooth with no drag as if it was gummed up. For some reason the HEI can be trouble prone there too, and curing that would mean removing and disassembling the distributor.

 

Hello, just spoke to the mechanic. He told me that it sounds like there may be some trash in the carb that could have been pulled from the tank or fuel line. Suggested I pull the carb and look/clean it out. He also mentioned the 8 degree timing: he said he INITIALLY set the timing to 8 degress, as he was starting from the stock recommendation. He said he moved it up some until it became hard to start, then backed it off a bit. So timing is definitely above 8 degrees. He also said that I could *probably* put a bit more advance in it now, and not have issues starting since the engine is broken in pretty well now. As for the cam, he said the previous one wiped because it wasn't driven very much, so many times the engine was starting "dry". He did properly break in & degree. Used break-in oil that was supplied with the cam.

 

Have a hard time with the " not driven enough ," sounds fishy , either wasn't broken in correctly or wrong springs or wrong oil , but not lack of use ..

 

Either way, I do not blame him, as he himself was not sure. He only suggested that could have contributed. While flat tappets have a harder time with new oil, not many people here have any (NW Tennessee, non-roller cams are sparse if even known of in this quiet place! haha...), so the case of wiped flat tappet lobes here are very rare. Even then, that cam was put in with a different mechanic, almost 30 years ago, and somewhere over the course of time, the engine developed a slow oil leak, during that time anyone could have slipped up and not noticed and drove. It didn't develop the cam problem until I started using it, so I'll blame myself for that. Needless to say, it's a lesson learnt for me, regardless of cause. I'm going to be using oil with zinc and definitely drive it more. The one constant here is that I do know for a fact, that this cam was installed/broken in correctly.

Anyways..........
*I think I may have found the culprit*
I turned the fuel pressure from 6.5 to 5.5PSI today, which did help quite a bit with the rich running.
The MAJOR breakthrough came when I went to adjust the idle screws. I was removing the breather, when I noticed a hiss coming from the carb. When I got the breather off, I could hear the hiss without even leaning in the engine bay while running. I haven't ever heard a vacuum leak in my life, but I was very sure this was it. I remember when driving the truck home today and the past few problematic times, I could hear a loud suction noise, but I blamed that on the crazy wind here recently (wow....I'm very bright!) Anyways, With a lack of knowledge & equipment & light, I tried moving my finger around trying to pinpoint where it may be coming from. But I can confirm there is a loud hissing noise coming from the carburetor area. Could be the intake, vac lines, ports not being sealed, or the actual carb seats. I'll investigate further in the coming days.
So..... That's where I'm at now!

I took a video, too. Excuse my young awkwardness!

 

Timing need to go higher !!! And a recurve !!!
yes maybe hard start after warm NOW ,
this how you get around that ( hard start )
Put a extra Push buton under dash or where you like ,
Connected ONE side To small wire on starter solenoid , the other side to battery positive at the starter . Use 10 -12 ga wires , When you got to START
((( after warm )))). The key is in OFFF position ,Just push the button , while holding the button for about a second or two
Flip key / turn KEY to ON ,,, NO hard start !!
The reason To set idel to 1,000-1,200 rpms to keep plugs clean / from loading up,( Cam )
& you have a good size stalll ,
650 -850 to low, most people want to hear the lope,
If that what your looking for , use the wright grind
And you will still be up around 1,000 to 1.300
The right matched parts makes things more Efficient .
A holley will out perfom the Edlebrock ,
When your budget allows it install a Holley

OP , the feel of seat of your pants Does not mean its tuned or runnig correct , I recommend for you to find a mechanic that is more experience with MODIFIED engines that are NOT stock!!!
Once you learn how to tune your engine correctly it will feel like you put a shot of 100 HP of nitrous oxide on it ..
The More work and effort you put into it , you will see results , it just takes trial era and repeating steps over and over Keep notes