Hello all. Ive been a long time reader on the forum but just got registered. This is my first 'car' and am very eager to have this thing road worthy. Im haveing a few problems with it though as to I bought the car not running. I just rebuilt my 350 L48 and put in a dual pattern 260/270 cam, pock. porting and gasket matched my 882's for now and used an edelbrock intake on the rebuild. I calculated it out to have about 8.4/1 compression ratio and am useing the original Q-jet carb with no emissions equip(taken off before i bought it). I have a few questions for yall:

Im having a little trouble setting the timing without a light. With all the other vacumn ports capped except the pcv, full vac to brakes, and heat crossover choke, Im not sure what port goes to the vac. advance on my dist. Currently I have it off of the far right port on the drivers side. This is a 204 carb and i put a rebuild kit in it.

Another problem is my engine is overheating bad. When running it gets up to 220 with a new 160 thermastat. Im only running one jug of antifreeze. Is this enough?? I have no leaks but I am wondering if the cap pressure would have that much affect. Id doesnt boil over until 250 when i cut the engine off.
Im hoping the radiator is not the problem but i couldnt imagine anything else. I do have the fan installed and the belts tight also.

Another one, is my dash lights. The other day they came on and after i turned them off, now they wont come back on. I have traced the wires and the fuse is good. Im pretty sure its not the switch b/c when i took it out everything seemed to check out.

Again, how long does the rear spring last??? Mine seems to be sitting extremely low and squats upon accel.

My transmission (350) seems to be shifting odd. It takes hitting 3500 rpm to initiate a shift 1-2 and 2-3. The fluid level is good but all the shifts seem kinda harsh; really hard no matter what your shifting into.

Last but not least, my brakes will not bleed. I can pump on them and they build enough press. to stop but this thing isnt going out until its fixed.

Thanks for any help... :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Here are a few things you have to do.

1) Get access to a timing light and set the initial timing correctly. Disconnect the vacuum advance for now and set that up later.

2) Since it seems you already have it running I would not start it again untill you get the light and know where your timing is, the least you could do is limp it into a garage and have them set the timing and hook up the vacuum advance. You can damage your new engine easily with incorrect timing.

Your overheating problem could be related to the timing so don't run it again until you get the timing set properly. Work on one problem at a time and the forum members will be happy to help you out, and right now the only thing that should worry you is the timing.

Once you get that set up you will have lots of time to enjoy your new car.