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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:06 AM
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Default 350 Engine help

Been working on my friends reman. Jasper 350. We put on the Holley System Max kit he bought for Summit racing, supposed to be good for 425 Hp. Anyway, we finished up, now we have some issues...now it'll start but won't go past about 400-600 rpm. We float tested the carb, and fixed that, but it is still not going past about 600 rpm no matter what we do. We put the old carb back on, same result. It'll try to idle for about 15-20 seconds and then it dies. No vacuum leaks we found, and we are out of ideas. The timing shouldn't be that far off right now. What the heck is wrong?
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:08 AM
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Verify for sure timing is close, also check rocker adjustment. Did the ignition system change during the swap?
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:15 AM
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Originally Posted by wiseman79
Verify for sure timing is close, also check rocker adjustment. Did the ignition system change during the swap?
No, its the same distributor and wires we had to start with.
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:20 AM
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Does the throttle linkage have full range of motion? Maybe it's catching on something?
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Durango_boy
Does the throttle linkage have full range of motion? Maybe it's catching on something?
Yes, it appears to be fine. We even pulled it at the carb itself and at WOT, it does nothing. So anyone think we still have the timing wrong?
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:29 AM
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So what does it do when you try to get near 400-600 RPMs? Does it shudder, bog, cough, backfire ?
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:35 AM
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Originally Posted by The3
So what does it do when you try to get near 400-600 RPMs? Does it shudder, bog, cough, backfire ?
Shudder. Big time. Little bog too at the end before it dies. Has no problem starting though but only stays alive very briefly. Used to burn out the top of the carb then we found out it was 180 off. Also fixed the float on the carb so fuel wouldn't puddle, that appears correct now. I'm a C5 guy and only know fuel injection systems, carbs are new and scary to me
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:41 AM
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Sounds like timing then. Start from scratch if you're not sure where you went wrong.

Have you read the timing sticky at the top of the Tech section?
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:41 AM
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I assume your working on a C3 that you just put an engine in. Make sure the rubber fuel line from the tank hard line to the fuel pump is not kinked or bent. It's is normally a prefabbed "S" formed line and if not installed correctly can bind and starve the engine. This happend on my engine I just installed. Took me a while to fugure out. Good luck.
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 10:46 AM
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Originally Posted by Durango_boy
Sounds like timing then. Start from scratch if you're not sure where you went wrong.

Have you read the timing sticky at the top of the Tech section?
I think i will send that his way, I took a look at it before I posted it seems pretty thorough but wasn't sure what I was looking at.
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 11:22 AM
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Also, what if we have the cam gear and crank gear in wrong? Like the dots were lined up down the middle, but instead of them being so they are right next to each other, we had them so each one was at the top in the middle. (ie still in a straight line, with both pointing up, but not touching. The reason we did this is because thats how it was when we took off the old ones. We used double chain set to replace. I see in some directions that the cam gear is usually having the dot at the bottom middle of the gear with the crank gear at the top middle so they touch. Maybe thats the culprit?
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 12:35 PM
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Here is how the timing marks should line up.

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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 12:38 PM
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I can't see your picture at work, but I think I know what its going to be. The marks are 12 oclock for the crank gear and 6 oclock for the cam gear. His are set at 12 oclock for both. So, that being the case, does that explain why his engine is not working correctly? I just find it odd that the one we took off was at 12 and 12 oclock for both too, yet it ran fine. Different manufacturing guidelines maybe???
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 12:42 PM
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Originally Posted by VetteFTW
I can't see your picture at work, but I think I know what its going to be. The marks are 12 oclock for the crank gear and 6 oclock for the cam gear. His are set at 12 oclock for both. So, that being the case, does that explain why his engine is not working correctly? I just find it odd that the one we took off was at 12 and 12 oclock for both too, yet it ran fine. Different manufacturing guidelines maybe???

You said earlier that the engine was 180 degrees off, and the timing gear being 180 off corresponds with that.

Get the gears so the cam gear mark is at 6 and the crank gear mark is at 12. The, rotate it to top dead center on #1, make sure your balancer timing mark is at 0, and drop the distributor in so the rotor points to the contact plugged into plug #1.

Then, follow each wire around the distributor clockwise, and make sure they all go to the plugs in the proper firing order.
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 12:43 PM
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bingo!!!
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 12:55 PM
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Ha I knew it! See, these stupid directions have been wrong before, but this is blatently bad. It even tells you on page 9 of this stupid thing to have them both 12 oclock. But I have NEVER EVER EVER seen anything that said that besides this. Its always 12 oclock for crank, and 6 oclock for cam. Holley sux the big one for having such horrible directions. I can't believe they do that. Check the directions out below. They do say 12 oclock for both. But this is wrong clearly.

http://static.summitracing.com/globa...-1%282%291.pdf
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 01:01 PM
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you're right, that's what the instructions say . . . if it were mine, i'd degree the cam anyway - seems like i've heard of this before
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 01:08 PM
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Originally Posted by VetteFTW
Ha I knew it! See, these stupid directions have been wrong before, but this is blatently bad. It even tells you on page 9 of this stupid thing to have them both 12 oclock. But I have NEVER EVER EVER seen anything that said that besides this. Its always 12 oclock for crank, and 6 oclock for cam. Holley sux the big one for having such horrible directions. I can't believe they do that. Check the directions out below. They do say 12 oclock for both. But this is wrong clearly.

http://static.summitracing.com/globa...-1%282%291.pdf
1. I'd call both Holley and Summit before flipping it. It may be right , it may be wrong. Depends who made the timing gear set
2. Did you have any trouble setting the valves (initial static)
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 01:32 PM
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When I installed my new cam and timing gears I had the timing advanced 15 degrees on the crank but set the gears for no advance...check this closely. I was positive I had these set correctly, but alas a little more wrenching and problems solved.
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Old Apr 7, 2008 | 05:03 PM
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It doesn't matter if the dot is at 6 o'clock or 12 o'clock, it seems small block chevy cams come both ways, so you're either at top dead center on #1 or 180* out & tdc on #6. Just put your finger over the #1 spark plug hole, & when #1 is coming up to tdc on compression it will blow air out past your finger, now with the timing mark at 10* before tdc put the distributor in with the rotor on #1.
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