Tonight i was driving around with some friends and obviously showing them the torque etc. etc. but than we got on the highway where i jumped on it until 75, let off and than cruised at 60-65 until the exit, after getting off the exit ramp the road you get on is a 45mph road, so i put it into 2nd and jumped on it, but something felt wrong, it felt like it changed gears even though it didn't, performance wasn't right. I only took it to 55, let off cruised at the speed limit, came to a light, it idle fine, but than when i accelerated something was wrong, it felt like it was running out of gas, but than it would surge, than die surge, over and over but not in any type of pattern just random, than it stalled at 40mph, so i managed to pull over with my now-manual brakes/steering lol, and parked it. Nothing under hte hood was out of place, it was squirting gas fine, and afterwards started right up. I dont know what actually happened, and now im uneasy about driving it and jumping on it at all. The car will also nearly stall after reving it (im talking sub 500rpm idling than slowly builds up), and after any type of burnout and letting off it stalls.

It has a 600cfm performer carb, the rest of the fuel system is stock:

- 350 "hecho en mexico" 4-bolt main completely stock bottom end
- Crane 268-2 cam, (i love this cam) lol
- Performer RPM manifold
- Performer 600cfm carb (is this enough?)
- Hooker 1 5/8 headers
- Trick Flow 23 degree heads, 62cc chambers, steal shim gasket for maximum compression
- Accel HEI distributor

Is the carb too small? The fuel pump too low volume? Wrong jets? I haven't touched the carb, wouldn't know where to begin.

Maybe a blocked fuel filter or float level too low.

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/1071/

going by that, i dont think its the floats, if it wasn't getting enough gas, but has the symptoms they said would occur when the floats are too high than its gotta be something else?

I had the exact same problems after rebuilding my holley 600. Turns out after I tore it apart I found a tiny piece of clear "wrapper" like material clogging one of the jets. Cleaned that out, replaced the jet, and the car runs great. Believe me, a tiny piece of dirt or other material in just one jet can make your car run like a$$. Good luck.

Hey chad,

It cant be the filter, then he would never be able to get it up to the r.p.m.'s he was doing, i had a clogged fuel filter, it feels like a 1200 r.p.m. rev limiter.
My advice would be get a fuel pressure gauge, so u can monitor that, I have no idea whats in a carter, whoops i mean edelbrock carb, but i'd say floats are too low. Or debris in the carb sounds plausible.

-Ricky
-1968 396 SS
-(aka one of the dumb kids from the infamous burnout video)

yeah it just gets me that it would happen out of hte blue, ill check it today and see if there is any obvious debris in it, but like i said, according to the site i linked to, i have the symptoms of my floats being too high, and being too low, wtf is that lol

Anyone here think vapor-lock is a possibility? It did feel like a progression of the fuel mixture leaning out until it leaned so much it was nothing but air (i was in the passanger seat when it happened)


-Ricky
-68 SS 396
-in case anyone wants to get me an early christmas present, i could use a couple 295/50/r15's (BF goodrich radial TA's)

yeah but from my seat it was a bit different, it felt like it was stumbling, but it wasn't under acceleration, like pockets of fuel were coming, followed by pockets of nothing, than it seemed like just a pocket too big came and it stalled.

It hasn't done it again but I havne't messed around that much since..

What do the plugs look like??

Scott

my new engine died on the highway on me last weekend. I thought it was vapor lock or a fuel issue. Turned out to be a bad ignition coil. Make sure you're getting good spark. If you have a standard canister style coil it's pretty cheap to replace.

my new engine died on the highway on me last weekend. I thought it was vapor lock or a fuel issue. Turned out to be a bad ignition coil. Make sure you're getting good spark. If you have a standard canister style coil it's pretty cheap to replace.
same thing happend to me, new coil solved all my problems.

the hei in there was new (installed feb.) 99% sure its not hte coil (the problem would occur consistenly if it was no?)

haven't looked at hte spark plugs, i know the motor runs a little rich under WOT but not during regular driving.

Did it backfire at all? Or just stall? How's the distributor? Is the bolt tight? Loose distributor cap?

checked all that on the road when it stalled, no backfire, it started up like nothing happened..

Maybe a bad batch of gas? :confused:

Check your fuel pressure. Edelbrock carburetors cannot handle much more than 6 psi, and will exhibit symptoms as you describe. Install a regulator if needed, and set it at 5-6 psi. Hope this helps, Steve