ford 302 dies when i shift into gear...help

i just swapped a ford 302 with a c4 in my truck and i got the timing and carb tuned but when ever i shift in to reverse or drive it dies unless i rev up the engine then i can get it around the block a few times and it dies at a stop. any ideas? any help would be great
thanks
mat

 

Sounds like the torque converter is locking up or nearly locking up.

 

What camshaft is in the engine? stock or a street/strip cam?

 

its the stock cam, i pulled the engine from a running car, the torqe converter seemed to be fine but ill look in to that
thanks

 

Vacuum leak

 

It sounds like you have the idle set too low in park so that it dies when the new load is added by putting it into gear. You want to adjust the carb to idle in gear at a stop light. It shouldn't race too much in neutral and park. I'd say you need to do some more carb adjusting until it will idle in drive.

 

Non lock- up torque converters (C4) don't lock up.

 

Yeppers... Put it in gear, RPMs drop+vac leaky=stall. Revvin' it a bit builds back up the vacuum. Same reason big cams idle higher, they bleed off vacuum so the RPMs gotta be increased to build enough to keep the engine runnin'.

 

did a va*** check on her and every thing came up good, ive adjusted the carb all over the place trying to find something that would work, i have it at idle around 1000 rpms and in gear its around 1500 or so
when i give it a gas i can get it to hold a idle in drive and go but around the block a couple of times it dies at a stop and doesnt want to start again, its a good thing their is a slope to my drive way
the damm thing worked fine when i pulled it and now im just cussing it out
thanks for all the ideas

 

Since it has the stock cam, I would check for a vacuum leak, I had one engine do that after a intake swap, couldn't find a vacuum leak turned out the vacuum leak was between the intake ports, and the lifter valley.

C4's didn't have lock-up converters

 

what kind of carb? sounds like maybe flooding or not enough fuel (fuel filter)

 

That's a pretty high idle for a stock cam, my big*** cam doesn't idle that high... What was the vacuum reading you were seein'? If you have a stock converter and are idlin' that high it's probably damn close to it's stall speed.

 

its a edelbrock 600 cfm, i know im getting enough fuel and i dont think its flooding but ill check that

 

It idles at 1000 rpm, then when put in gear the engine goes to 1500 rpms? or did you mean 500 rpm's.

 

i got the idle down to around 800 and the vacuum reading said it was about 15? it jumped around after i gave it gas and would go down into the "normal" reading then i would give it gas and it would go back up
this it my first swap so im still pretty new, im just trying to figure some **** out till my buddy gets off work, but he still is confused on whats goin on to
it idles around 500 rpm after i rev it up to get it in gear and not die

 

you say it ran fine before you pulled it from whatever it came out of. what did you change, carb, dist, replace intake gaskets, how about va*** line for power brakes? it has to be something simple that you may be overlooking.

 

Does the engine have a good electrical ground??

 

im sure its something simple i just cant find it
it had emission **** all over it. i changed the intake manifold the carb and dist. i dont have power brakes i think im going to take the manifold off and see if i can find a vacuum leak under thier, but i just dont know any more
i tore the engine down and cleaned it all up and put new gaskets thru out it

 

Ever since I had the problem with the intake leak into the lifter valley, I allways put a little bead of silicone on both sides of the intake gaskets to avoid that problem.

 

This is actually the recommended way of doin' it from Edelbrock... Actually I'm not even sure they want you to use the gaskets at all. I've had mondo vacuum leaks because of this exact situation.

 

How ironic, the intake that had the vacuum leaking into the lifter valley was an Edelbrock.

 

try just unpluging the vacuum advance ....could be a short inside when the plate moves.

 

Sounds like the timing is really low and you have the idle speed screw turned way in to compensate. When you put it under load, it will die.

What is your base timing set at? What is it at with vac advance connected? What size carb, and is it vac secondary or mechanical? How did you adjust the idle bleeds? On mine, I have found that turning them all the way in, and then backing them out 1.5 turns is almost always dead-on right.

 

i have taken off the vacuum lines and it runs and does the same thing, im going to pull the manifold off and see if i can see something and replace the gaskets and such
thanks
mat

 

my base timing is set at 8btc which is what ive read its supposed to be at, i have tried it all over the place with same results
as for the carb i adjusted just like you said then hooked up a tac and my buddy helped with that its a 600cfm and i belive its a vac secondary but im not sure

 

Before you rip it apart, save yourself some time and money and properly diagnose the problem.

If you have a vac leak, you will need to fix it. I just recommend you determine that you actually have one first.

15in at idle isn't very much, but it could be because of a lot of other factors besides a leak. Big cam? Big carb? Do you have the idle screw turned way in? Are you reading ported vacuum?

 

I think 8* is waaaaaay too little base timing. All the Fords I've had work best with 12-14* initial.

The carb will have a 2" round dashpot on the p***enger side if it's a vac secondary. This little dude at the far left of the pic.

 

ill try to turn up the timing and see how that goes, the cam is stock the carb is just a 600cfm edelbrock and edelbrock manifold

 

Ha! Well then it is vacuum secondary. But it's not a Holley. Sorry for ***uming.

Turn up the timing and reset the idle speed to ~900 in Park and try again.

 

Just got done chasing this exact problem with a 383 mopar this weekend. The outside hub of the harmonic balancer sliped and moved the timing marks. Just something to think about.