Hi all, I am having an issue with my truck as of late. The engine is a freshly rebuilt 235 w/dual carbs, and dual exhaust, everything w/ the exception of the radiator is new. So, I have had it on the road a few times this summer, and it has run pretty darn good, but they have all been short trips. Today I was driving it around town, on some longer runs and when I came to a stop sign the engine died! I tried to restart it with no joy. I was thinking it was an overheating issue so I pulled over to the shoulder and let it cool down, it worked it started back up, and I went home. But, then tonight when I went to put the truck in the garage it would not start, I finally got it to start but it would not idle, I checked the timing which was good. I have yet to do a valve adjustment since the rebuild, but I only have about ten miles on the rebuild so I thought it would be to soon for a valve adjustment. The fuel pump, and filter are new, so I’m left scratching my head, is it a fuel issue, or a heat issue, or none of the above? Help please...I wanna go cruising
Not enough info to diagnose but you're on track thinking of the valves as they can go tight when the engine is warm and when it stalls , it " heat Soaks " and gets even hotter due to lack of coolant circulating... Adjust the valves when the engine is fully hot , following the instructions on Deves' speedprint (?) page , then once it's idling , spray some starting fluid around the intake manifold to head joints , see if it's leaking there , mine does when it's hot . Did you make a hot spark test ? this requires a spare plug and wire , it must have white or blus spark , yellow / red / orange won't cut it , often the condensor poops out when it's hot but works fine when it gets hot....
Thanks Nate, I did not have time today to adjust the valves, hop to get to it tomorrow. I will post back when complete. I tested the vacuum yesterday to see if I had any leaks, I had a steady 18# of vacuum, put I will try the fluid test as well. I am not familiar with the hot spark test. Where am I hooking the spare spark plug up too? And, what am I looking for? Thanks... Mike.
Spark Test Just hook the known good spark plug to one of the longer plug wires and set it atop the rockerbox with the gap facing the windshield , get in the cab and peer between the hood gap as you crank it over , KEY ON , you should get a good blue/white spark on a rythmic basis . The stalling out part makes me wonder if the float level is correctly set and if you have a fuel filter just before the carby inlet as a tiny bit of spooge will hold the float open just s little bit and the engine will stall out and be very hard to re - start when it's hot .
