Hey guys, I have a question. Sunday on my way home from a car show, while putting through a city street, my El Camino just shut off. Now, it had been doing this sporadically for a little while. I would just be driving the car at a slow speed on hot days, or just sitting in traffic idleing and the car would just die. I wouldn’t be able to re-start it for several hours. I would try, but it would just crank and crank. I could see down in the carb that I was getting fuel as I actuated the throttle. After asking a few questions, it was determined that my problem was most likely that fuel was boiling in the fuel bowls of my Holley and not allowing it to start until it cooled down. The carburetor was so hot you couldn’t keep your hand on it. So, in response to that diagnosis and advice, I called up Canton Racing Products and ordered one of their true Phenolic carburetor spacers. Wow, what a difference, you can drive the car in traffic all day and the carburetor never gets so hot that you can’t keep your hand on it. It’s amazing. Either way, I thought this solved the problem. Well, Sunday, the car shut off while I was moving slowly in traffic on a city street. Well, I pulled the car off to the side of the road and waited a few hours. I went back and it wouldn’t start. I checked for spark and didn’t have any. I checked the coil for power and had power on both sides. I then checked the points and had power there. I cranked the car and was able to observe a very faint spark between the breakers. Upon noticing this, I replaced the coil and the car fired right up. The coil that I had on the car was a 1.5 ohm Pertronix Flame-Thrower oil-filled coil. I have original style points and condesor and I'm utilizing the stock resistence wire and not a separate ballast resistor. I re-installed the original Delco-Remy coil that had been on the car for 25yrs and 70,000 miles. The old coil got me home, but this also got me thinking. Could this Pertronix coil that gave up the ghost today have been going bad and making me think it was the fuel in the carb bowls? Or is this problem totally unrelated. Basically, it is possible that the Pertronix coil was getting too warm or whatever the cause and would coil or whatever and then allow me to start the car? Or when a coil goes, does it just go without warning? I know I’ve had coils go without warning, but this series of events that led up to me discovering the no-spark condition on Sunday leads me to believe that perhaps I wasn’t getting spark the other times, however I never tested for spark the other times. I ordered a new GM coil today, my original will get me around until that comes in and I get it installed.

Thanks for all your help and ideas!

First guess: If you "could see down in the carb that I was getting fuel as I actuated the throttle", the bowls WEREN'T empty. I say it was the coil all along.

Schurkey, I would have to agree with you, but I wasn't really sure. The engine seemed "flooded" to me, but I couldn't figure out why it would flood except perhaps that it was getting WAY too much fuel somehow. The idea about the fuel boiling sounded good to be since the carb was so hot that I couldn't touch it, but, you are correct, it didn't jive with me being able to see fuel squirting into the carb. Either way, I'm glad I installed the phenolic spacer, because it really did help lower the temperature of the carburator.

Thanks