The saga that is my Diplomat

[brotherGood]

Well, we've officially designated the car for "restoration". Calling the insurance company tomorrow to get it put back into storage, and were going to start tearing into it. Im getting antsy after seeing the BlackBird and Heavy Metal HellRaiser..lol. If things go according to plan, come spring the body work will be done, I'll have new brake lines and the carb will finally be right.

Now, to get some guitars built to make some play money.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Git R Dun....

 

[brotherGood]

Wow..this thread was back a way.

Drove the car finally last night. Spent the winter getting brakes, new carb, and fixing one coolant leak. Still gotta bleed the brakes again, find one more coolant leak, and tune it..but otherwise, its good. Best its been since before the control arms broke back in 2012. Were thinking this is timing related, but figured I'd ask more experienced...starts fine, but when I go to put it in gear, it dies unless I give it gas to stay running. Also, I gave it WOT on the way home, and it backfired through the carb, sputtered, and had moderate acceleration..not a sudden go. Dad seems to think it needs more timing..we just got it set to the factory base timing, but I know some engines like more. Is this the case here?

 

[Aspen500]

With a basically stock engine, it should run fine at the factory spec. You can dial in more initial than stock and it sometimes helps. The most important number is the total advance (without vacuum advance). The best way is to know how much mechanical advance you have and what a good total is for your set up and then set initial. If you want 34 total and the mechanical advance will give 22 at the crank for example (would be 11 degrees distributor advance), then initial should be set to 12 BTDC (34-22=12). Every engine and set up is different as to what ideal total advance is. A good baseline for mild small block Mopar is around 36 degrees total.

One thing you may want to check is if the timing marks on the balancer are accurate. If the outer ring has slipped, what shows as 10* BTDC might actually be 0 or 10* ATDC or whatever. Bring it up to top dead center on cyl 1 and see if the mark is lined up with the TDC mark on the timing cover.

 

[brotherGood]

So, how do I figure out how much advance I have in it already? Then, how to adjust it in the distributor. And, to clarify..to add timing is to advance the number closer to 0, correct? I've personally never messed with timing, so its pretty new to me.

 

[brotherGood]

Screwed with it some more Saturday. Dad drove it a bit, but still needs a couple things here and there.

Thought this was a cool picture within the video I took of him backing into the garage.

Here's a whole shot of the car..dirt and all.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Looks good.

 

[brotherGood]

Alright, brakes are fixed, and timing is close. The choke I still cant figure out, so its wired open for the time being..summer time I really don't need it anyway. Did a plug check on Friday and the drivers side looked good, but the passenger side looked terrible. Two were fouled, one was fugly, and the other was eh. Reset the A/F on the carb, and bumped the idle up a tad. The issue of it dying when put in gear and at stops got fixed, as was the stumble at initial acceleration. Im pulling around 17 psi of vacuum (or however that is measured) at idle. Timing was set by ear by a mechanic. It runs STRONG, but has a miss at high RPM. Ran it hard Sunday morning up to around 85 or 90 (still in second and pulling) before I got out of it..thats how I noticed the miss. Rechecked the plugs Monday, and they looked much better considering I found the best ones out of another set I had and stuck em in there. Didn't look wet like they did Friday..but still a little dark. Could be from before though.

What will cause that miss at high idle. You guys think maybe I should adjust the carb some more? Or maybe some more timing?

 

[Jack Meoff]

How bout a full set of matching plugs?

 

[brotherGood]

I'll throw plugs in..but I wouldn't think that'd be the root of the problem.