SBC can't get out of its own way HELP!

you can buy shorter plugs to keep your wires off your headers.

 

Sounds like it could be a bad plug wire. I ain't no wrench by a long shot, but I'll throw in my two cents. You say it idles bad, start it up, you can check by doing this. Start pulling off spark plug wires, one at a time, as you pull each off see if it changes the way it idles, it should run ruffer with each plug wire you pull off, when you pull one off and it does not change the way it is ideling, I would say you have found your bad wire. A bad wire will make it run ruff and not have much power. If it were timing I would think it would either not start at all or be hard to start. Hope this helps.

 

start the engine and spray wd-40 on the front and rear of the intake manifold,if it smooths out, you have a vacumn leak.

 

plugs you could have cracked one putting the headers on

 

I'm +1 on the timing chain jump

 

Check your oil pump. The oil presser could be down and your lifters are not pumping up enough.

 

Check your oil pump. The oil presser could be down and your lifters are not pumping up enough.

 

Sounds like the fuel line's clogged.

 

Start where you last touched it, meaning if installation of a pair of headers was the last thing you did before it started running bad you MUST START THERE! Check everything, plugs-cracked porcelain, plug wires-burned against header or touching engine ground or clip came loose from plug wire inside boot or improper firing order. Only after checking the last area of "change" can you move on to some other possible problem. A little hard to believe (I gues it can happen though) something as severe as skipping cam time can happen at the same time as installing headers, JMHO.

Marty McFly

 

broke an old mech advance spring in the dizzy and have advanced time from fly weights staying open at idle? Engine catches up with it at higher RPM. Just throwing theories.

 

ok, hold on, did the headers come after the tire spinning and wanting to stall? or before? was it running fine before the peeling out in the corner? i think people are gettin thrownn off on the time line here.....

 

HArd to know where to start looking, but I have seen this sypmptom with a jumped timing chain. The first indication is to put on a timing light and measure the timing. If it is suddenly way off (like 20 degrees from where it was) that is a likely culprit. Another symptom is if it takes massively advanced or retarded ignition timig to make it run better.

My brother had something similar happen with a big block Olds (in a Chevy pickup). A screw from somewhere up in the airhorn area of the Quadrajet vibrated loose and was apparently laying on top of the secondary butterflies. First time he nailed it the screw passed - down the intake and into a valve. It was a mess, but amazingly the motor didn't scatter. He was able to figure it out fairly quickly based on the noise (loud intake valve clicking) and a visual inspection that showed an open hole.

All that said, I would start with the basics first like timing, cap, rotor, points, dirty / stuck float, etc. Good luck!

 

when was the last time you put fresh gas in the truck. could be as easy as a clogged fuel filter or dirt in the carb. check the easy things first like everyone else on here said first like plugs,plug wires , timing before you start tearing things apart. good luck

 

ok so this morning I but a breaker bar on the pully nut and turned it until the rotor began to spin then it took about a 1/16 of a turn in the other direction to get to move again is it normal to have that much slope in the rotor?

And the headers were put on about a week before this happened and the truck ran fine with them on. however I think I do need new wires and plugs.

 

2 clues here: Rebuild about 10 years ago. Got some rubber on the road. I'll bet apples to oranges the 10 year old timing chain and gears just couldn't stand up to that sudden rubber burning session it was put through.

 

Get someone who knows what they're doing to have a look at the basics.
As you can see from the all good responses in this thread...the possibilites are endless.
This could be simple, hard, cheap or expensive...but I guarantee you one thing:

If you don't know what your doing or seeing...it'll be hard AND expensive.

 

We'll put the Olds motor in there...

 

OK, so heres an update, I have the front of the motor stripped down, and the chain off with piston 1 at tdc, however if it did skip a tooth do I have to rotate the cam back to original position. kindof lost here how do I reset the cam to the right spot. And by the way I really appreciate the help guys, thanks.

 

If the timing chain skipped, you don't reset, you replace. Align the dots once you replace the timing set. good luck

 

Yes, you need to replace the chain and gears.Align the marks,cam gear straight down,crank gear straight up.The marks on the gears pointing at each other...

 

if you have a four barrel carb, check to see if the back barrels are stuck open slightly

 

ok I am totally lost and probably pretty dumb, but I cant figue this out, when I took the cover off there was only a little slop in the chain and I didnt think I revved the engine that high, so after finding the right tdc the dots lined up perfect on the old chain so it must not have skipped a tooth. the night this happened the vacum was fine so no leaks anywere, now the chain looks like it didnt skip, so after I put this back together what should I look for?

 

the basics,check timing,dirt or water [ bad gas ] clogged filter, spark plugs bad , bad wires or loose dizzy, vacum lines cracked and anything else you can think of. Does the dizzy have points in it? Maybe round up a local mechanic and the 2 of you go through the basics. TAKE NOTES FROM HIM!!!!!!

 

No power, bucking, popping, generally won't go in all gears under more than part throttle usually indicates a fuel starvation issue - IE it's not getting gas. Filters are cheap, fuel pumps are cheap, I would have started there. Ideally you want to check the fuel pressure with a tester, but not everyone has access to those.

I had a problem like that on a TBI 350. It got enough fuel to cruise, but if I had to pass or go hard up a hill it popped and bucked and just didn't go. Took the can off the line under the truck in the parts store parking lot and found a good sized brown chunk of leaf in the inlet side of the old filter. Of course after I bought a new one. How the hell it got in the fuel line I have NO idea, and by then it had been a couple years since I'd had the lines apart. The pump on those is in the tank and it sure didn't go through both the sock and the pump.