biscuitville

Fired up my rebuilt engine for the first time today (same cam and lifters as before) and had some issues I need help with. The motor fired up ok but idled really high (2000-2300). The initial timing was only about 2 degrees. Retarding the timing caused it to backfire through the carb. Was worried about advancing it more - thought that might cause it to idle even faster.
The 3/5 and 4/6 headers started to glow after just 1-2 minutes and so I shut it down. It then dieseled on for another 30 seconds or so.

I think I can rule out the carb since it was set well before the rebuild and then backing off the idle adjustment screw did nothing to the idle.

Does this sound like I have the distributor off a "tooth"? Any other ideas? I appreciate any help you can provide.

Street Rat

I am no expert but I will offer my two cents.

Timing gears installed incorrectly?
Distributor firing order not wired correctly on distributor cap?
Distributor not installed with rotor phased at #1 top dead center?

Let us know what you find out.

Revi

If your engine idles at 2000rpm + and you can back off the idle screw and it doesn't effect idle, you have a carb issue as well. The engine is getting fuel from somewhere.

lars

Your timing is grossly retarded, and this is causing very high exhaust gas temperature (EGT). Get your timing up to 36 total, which should put you in the mid-teen range for initial, and get your vacuum advance hooked up.

There is no such thing as the distributor being "one tooth off." If you're "off a tooth," it just clocks the distributor differently in the block, but timing can be correctly set no matter where the distributor is installed, as long as it's not physically hitting something.

If you're idling at 2300 rpm with the throttle closed, you have a massive vacuum leak.

Lars

Mike Ward

+1

This one tooth off thing- never heard of it before coming here- is just silly.

Make sure your choke linkage, particularly the high idle cam, is not the cause of the incorrect engine speed. If you've set the timing at 2* with 2000RPM, it's hopelessly retarded.

biscuitville

Thanks for all the replies.
Timing chain was installed correctly.
Distributor was set up with the rotor on the # while at TDC on compression stroke - just isn't physically pointing where I had it before.
Can't find a source of vacuum leakage. Double-checked all intake mounting bolts and then applied gasket sealer between the carb/spcer gaskets just to ensure there were no leaks there.

No choke on my carb.

Advanced the timing so I had it 13 degrees advanced at idle. (Just mechanical - no vacuum advance hooked up.) Closed the butterflies a bit and got the idle rpm down to ~ 16-1800. Engine is still running hot - nearly overheated after just a few minutes. The 3/5 & 4/6 exhaust pipes are still glowing somewhat but not nearly as bad as before.

Could my motor be running lean? Is it possible for it to idle fast while running lean? Recall I took the carb off the motor before rebuild (was running great - a touch rich maybe) and then reinstalled it w/o any changes.

biscuitville

Throttle plates were sticking open, causing the high rpms. Think the throttle linkage was off just a little.
Now have it with 18 degrees advanced at 1400 rpm idle and likely not running lean (eyes burning badly). Also not overheating now. Perhaps just a little more fiddling with the carb and iginition and I will be there.

Thanks for all the replies.