It is ALIVE!

[chevy76monteman]

For those of you who don't know, I've spent the last 3 weeks wrenching on my 76 Monte. Several main reasons were because of a badly cracked flex plate and a bad motor mount. I pulled the engine out and while it was out I repainted the block and installed my new cam and lifter kit. Its a Comp Cams XE268H Extreme Energy Cam with .477/.480 lift. This project should have taken a week or less, but since Oregon weather is what it is, rain is abundant and nice/decent days are a premium. Finally, after having to tackle several other issues trying to start the car: ransmission line fitting was cross threaded and out of 9 auto parts stores and 2 hardware stores, 1 place carried the correct fitting... NAPA; starter wouldn't turn over which turned out to be dirty battery cable terminals, engine wouldn't fire due to the distributor being 180 degrees off from where it should have been. Finally got the engine fired and cam broken in Thursday. Had an oil leak from the passenger valve cover because the new gasket somehow got boogered up.

Anyway, took the car for a test drive that night and encountered several problems. The brakes had no power due to the vacuum, the transmission didn't want to shift into high gear when floored, the power steering needs to be bled and the car needs an alignment.

Today I installed a new vacuum canister which solved the brake problem. I also fixed the transmission modulator vacuum line and added a quart of fluid which fixed the transmission issue, I hope. The only problem now is the idle. It idles fine in neutral and park, but wants to die in drive and reverse. Any thoughts?

 

[megaladon6]

recheck yoy basics like valve lash, and especially carb tuning and vacuum leaks. i have the xe274 cam in my car and no problems withe the brakes. if all that is good, first set your base timing BY THE BOOK (if it's vac advance-plug the line, if it's computer adv unplug the EST connector from the distributor etc.) make sure you do it in gear. then set the carb idle speed setting. do all this on a fully warmed up engine.

 

[79malibu]

timing

what? you set timing when its under load in gear? i was always told that you check it when warm at idle.

 

[78mali350]

well congrats on major work to the car without problems. but to answer your questions i am in the same boat on a couple of them

 

[chevy76monteman]

I probably should have left an update as to what the problem was. Turns out the vacuum advance line wasn't connected to the carb's idler circuit. After that was taken care of, the car idled fine... until about a month ago. I believe the power valve blew on my Holley. I've had nothing but headaches with that damn carb so I re-installed an Edelbrock 600 cfm and the car runs better now.