My truck won't stay RUNNING!

I have a 1957 F100 that I put a 1969 351w in. I have an EZ wiring harness, a Pertronix ignitor ignition, flamethrower coil, a 1406 Edelbrock carb, and a performer intake. The engine came out of a 1969 cougar and was running when I pulled it. I made sure the distributor is set right. When I fired the motor it fired easily, the rpm's jumped up, and then died. It does the same thing over and over. It seems like I have to give it a lot of gas to get it started then it fires, revs up, and dies. It has a new fuel pump and a new gas tank pick-up. Does anybody have any advice for me on where to start trouble shooting this? Does it sound like a vacuum issue? Any help would be great. I've tried everything I can think of. Thanks

 

Check ignition first, then fuel pressure, with engine revs up and dies - might be leaning out, running out of fuel. Easy test have a timing light, if it is still flashing when it dies, then it is not spark, but a fuel issue.

Make sure you can siphon fuel from the tank, then you are at least good to fuel pump.

 

Fuel supply issue first guess

Fill the carb manually thru the vent tube and see if you can make it run longer. If it does, time to look at the lines/pump/tank again

Badly timed engine is my other guess. I recently fixed a buddies car that did the same thing with a fresh rebuild, and it had a mismatched balancer & tab combo that resulted in the timing being 30 degrees off. Started real real hard and floody, then revved, popped, died.

good luck

 

^^^^good info & tricks^^^^
F A S T ... fuel, air, spark, timing - you are loosing/getting too much of at least one.

 

i had this happen to me and it turned out to be a bad set of intake gaskets, pulled the manifold cleaned the surface area really well and set a good set of gaskets down, torqued the manifold down and it fired right up and stayed running

 

I'm not sure if Fords are the same, but on Chevys the ignition only runs on 9 volts. They usually have a wire that runs from the coil to the starter so that when you start the engine the ignition gets a full 12 volts for the time that the starter is turning, it acts as a switch. if you have a break in your main power feed to the coil the engine will start and then die as soon as you turn the key to run. I don't know if this will help, but its something to think about.

 

The first step is to isolate the problem to eliminate all the wild goose chases.

Get a can of spray gum cutter or starter fluid. Start it up and as it starts to die, spray a little into the carb. If the engine picks back up then you know that it is a fuel problem. It could be fuel starvation or it could be a vacuum leak but at least you will eliminate all the ignition possibilities. If the added fuel doesn't help then look into the ignition. Narrow your search first.

If the gum cutter helps keep it running try spraying around any possible leaks...carb base intake gaskets etc.

 

Fuel issue would be my first guess. Try some of the techniques listed above and see where you're at.

 

Do as shifty suggested and fill the carb thought the vent tube on top. With the bowls full the engine should run a minute or so.

If it is starting and then dies when you let off the key it is because the ignition circuit from the switch to the coil isn't complete. Meaning bad or no connection or bad resistor.

 

Hit the base of the carb with spray too, can see vacuum leaks that way.

 

It was an intake gasket problem! I don't know if it moved when I set the intake or just a crappy gasket but new intake gaskets took care of it. Thanks for the help and all the suggestions.