ok i am working on a sort-of off topic car that has a slant six in it that wont run right at all...heres the scoop: got in it one day, went abouut 2 miles down the road.ran awesome! went into the restaraunt,ate,and came back outside ; fired it up,still running good..i pull out onto the main road and it dies in the middele of the intersection.so i pushed it through the intersection,pulled it to the side,and diagnosed the problem as the fuel pump.replaced the fuel pump and it still ran like crap but just enough to get it home.had a few friends look at it,ended up getting the carb rebuilt,still wont idle right.i replaced all the vaccum lines..a little better but nada..what could this be??? its got all new plug wires,cap,rotor,condensor,points,eerything in the ignition system... the carb is a holley model 1920 one barrel...what are the initial settings for this?like the idle maxture screw could it possibly be timing although i didnt mess with it? any help would be great and thanks in advance
Have you put a timing light on it to see what it's doing? Maybe the timing chain slipped a cog or is so worn it is not able to stay timed? How many miles on the engine? If it's a fair amount I'd really lean towards the timing chain.
I`m sure you changed the fuel filter right? Tank has a filter sock too, may have to inspect also. I believe the slants have a nylon dist. drive gear and timeing gear, something to look into. good luck
Did you put a O.E.M type fuel pump on it? Go electric, i know it's not traditional but it works. most O.E.M type pumps are of a poor quality, they tend to not supply enough fuel especially on cold starts. I faught with this issue for a month on my valiant, the electric pump fixed it.
STOP! Dont start throwing parts at it. That s no way to repair anything. First see if the points closed up. Re adjust them. make sure timing chain didnt jump. Rare but does happen if real loose. Dont know how to check that easily? Take a compresion test If it is over 110 it did not jump. (will be 90 or less if even one tooth off. ) Not very scientific I know but very practical. If it is a fuel problem if you pour a bit of gas down the carb and start it it will run for a few seconds normal till that goes away. If it does not then it isnt fuel related. Just sitting here I would suspect the condenser (Just because it is new doesnt mean it is good) but I would check all that stuff first before SPENDING one thin dime. Something else i have seen twice his summer so far with cars with points is guys leaving the key on "ign" when working on signal lights and such. In both cases the points were ruined so the car would not run right even though they were both new points. These two guys are neighbours too. I a 63 Ford galaxie 390 and the other a hemi Willys. It was hard to convince them and all the EXPERTS said i was full of it but i did this for a living for over 40 years so it was hard to ignore. Tis true about the nylon dist gear too although they do not give much trouble. Yes i have a slant 6. Look to your left. It is staring at you. Don
I agree, don't start throwing parts at it. Check the obvious. Make sure ya got fuel, spark, no air restrictions, etc... Pull the fuel line at the carb, get a rag and have a buddy crank the car. Should have a steady stream of fuel. Pull the coil wire from the distributor and place near a clean piece of sheet metal. Crank and make sure ya got spark. Check points. Make sure your timing is set properly, etc...
Be running a slant for about four years another great source for information is Slantsix.org good luck
thanks guys for the info...it has a new fuel filter ,the pump is working fine,but i need to check the rear filter...i didnt check the timing as of yet but ill toss a light on it tonight and do a compression test too...im doin this for a buddy cause hes fed up with it. im not stopping until its right again ..... its gonna be a long night......
That nylon distributor drive gear can be a problem. My parents had a new 1971 dodge dart with a 225 slant 6 in it. Not long after they got it I checked the oil and to my surprise the bottom of the dip stick was broken off. I look at it and come to the conclusion the crank had been hitting it until it fatigued the steel and it broke off. Not long after it looses the nylon distributor gear. I replaced it and it was fine for a few months then it striped it again. All I could figure was maybe the pc of dip stick was floating around and got into it. I messed around and dropped the pan and found the broken pc and got it out of the crank case. Before I put the pan back on I pushed the new dip stick in and sure as hell it would touch a counter weight on the crank every time it went around. So I kept the new stick in the trunk and cut the old one off and used it for a plug in the dip stick hole. Id pull the distributor out and look at the gear. JC
now im definatly going to look at that because this is a 71 dart that im working on does anybody know the initial settings for the carb screws? i think thats part of the problem too....its a holley model 1920 one barrel thanks all
I don't think it had anything to do with the slant 6's being rough on distributor gears. Probably more a matter of the nylon gear not being quite as durable as an iron/steel gear, hence the recurrent theme of failures.
blow some low pressure air through the fuel line from the tank side of the pump back. this will blow the crud out of the oilite filter in the tank. Then with the pump attached with the line of disconnected at the carb. Direct the flow into a suitable container and with the coil wire disconected crank the engine and count 12 pump pluses by watching the stream. After 12 pulses you should have between 8 to 12 ounces of gas in the container. Less volume represents a restricted flow, between the tank ad carb. Also since 90% of fuel problems are electically caused, check the wire from the coil terminal to the points and make sure it provides good continuity, and is not grounding against the dizzy body. Also make sure the breaker plate moves freely.
One thing I had a problem with on the old slanty powered '65 Valiant I had was the ballast resistor going bad. It is the ceramic rectangular thing on the firewall. Usually when they go bad the car will quit altogether and not start, but I have seen them cause the car to run crappy for awhile before they conk out completely. Keep us all posted as to your progress, and let us know when (if) you find the problem. It seems like on posts like this people ask questions, get feedback and suggestions and the OP never says what finally happens or what the cure was. Good luck! E
All good advice in the previous posts. One more thing to check is to make sure that the tank is vented properly. I'm fairly that car has an emissions compliant vent system on the tank with some sort of canister up in the engine compartment with a line running to it. Just make sure that someone didn't disconnect and plug that line. I think I would do it by the numbers down the line of things guys suggested. Check the compression to see if things are right there. Check the fuel flow from the pump. Check the distributor drive gear and general condition of the distributor it's self. Make sure that the coil is up to snuff and not failing when it gets hot. Usually when a ballast resistor craps out it craps out completely and isn't intermittent but stranger things have happened. Those cars were originally bought by people with little interest in cars except what color they and what gas mileage they got so quite often they got neglected as far as maintenance went.
I think you meant 90% of problems are electrical, right, because on this particular car there is no correlation at all between the fuel system and the electrical system. No EFI, No electric fuel pump, etc.
the corollary being that 90% or electrical problems will be fuel related. Meaning that if you sure it is a distributor problem rebuildig the carb will fix it, and changing the coil will solve the fuel pump problem...........
As far as the idle mixture set screw goes, warm the engine up to running temperature and and turn the screw in slowly until the engine starts to loose RPM. Then turn it back out 1/2 turn. My first car was a 60 Dodge Seneca with a slant six and 3 on the tree. I took it to the school shop for a tune up. It ran OK for a couple of days and then started messing up. Every time I made a left hand turn, the motor would loose power and acted weird. Turns out that when they timed it, for some reason they had taken the distributor hold down screw completely out. When they put it back in , they cross threaded it and it wasn't completely turned down all the way. Every time the car turned left it made the distributor turn slightly retarded and then slowly turned back to where it ran normally. Strange but true. Bill
alright guys i got to work on the car lastnight...i checked the distributor gear and it looked factory there wasnt any show of wear.looked at the points,all good.so then i decided to see how messed up the carburetor was...pulled it off,tookit apart,cleaned some things and restored them back to factory settings cause it was way off in spots.stuck it on the car and fired it up...IDLED LIKE A DREAM...but. i shut the car off after a couple minutes and it kept dribbling fuel into the intake,flooding it out for the next time i started it. could my online manual be wrong?would the float needle not seating cause this? thanks again guys for keeping up such a great site!
"would the float needle not seating cause this?" Yes, the float needle not seating can cause this. Also, make sure the float is not set too high.
Another point! On my 60 Seneca, sometime after the distributor issue, my car kep flooding. At first just during idle, but later all the time. Couldn't see it, but there was a very fine hole in the brass float. Even with a magnifying glass it was impossible to find. The float may not be sitting on the bottom of the bowl, but there won't be enough air in it to keep the needle in the seat once fuel pressure hits it. One way to find out if this is a problem, put the float in a small pot of water and place it on the stove. Place some kind of weight on it to keep it submerged. A fork or spoon will do it. Turn on the heat and watch what happens. If there is a hole in the float and the float is full of gas, you will see tiny fuel droplets rising to the surface. Even if there is no fuel left in it, you will see tiny bubbles foating from it. If there is a hole in it, don't bother trying to solder it. Get a new one or go with a solid plastic one if there is one available. Bill
Something just doesn't sound safe about this. Heat the water seperately and then take the container outside and place the float in it. No reason to possibly end up with gasoline vapors around a flame or other heat source inside the house!
The money I saved on taking it to the shop I used to help pay for my skin grafts. Actually you're right about the safety issue but it's the principal I'm pointing out. Hope he gets the problem solved. Bill
Lots of good idea here. Did you try & wiggle the dist. shaft back and forth while you had it out to check for bushing wear? Anyway, if it runs like a champ, then runs like crap, I'd look for fuel-system issues. For sure, have a buddy hold a coffee can and see if the pump is working, as other guys stated here. I'd replace the vacuum lines if they look older, 'cause problems there are hard to see by eye at times. Also, somebody may have had that distributor out before you. They have a bunch of slanted teeth, so they are easy to put back in OFF by a notch or so. So, be prepared to run the timing light on it. Yeah, drives ya crazy. But sounds like you'll find this problem, buddy. Lots luck. Stay with it.
maybe its a straight 6 that fell over in the engine bay? lol couldn't help myself.. if that has points you don't need a timing light to check it put a test light between the dist and power. turn the engine by hand untill the light goes out.. u should be at where u need to be for timing. if its not check that timing chain. take the motor and rotate it clockwise to take the slop out of the chain, then turn it backwards while watching the distributor see how far you can turn the motor before the dist turns..
I'm having a problem right now with my D100/hillside Hemi... had to limp back home two nites ago at 25 mph for 40 miles...geeesh! I think my problem is fuel related... I've seen fuel lines rust out enough to starve the engine of fuel by sucking air but not really leaking very much... wish us BOTH luck.
That float will be a bitch, they do tend to sink. If you have to replace, don't bother with the napa one, doesn't even come close to being the right size or shape.
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