Almost ready to get my 1962 Willys on the road, but have a weird problem with the engine. The car starts great when it's cold and runs like a dream, after it runs for a few minutes it dies and won't start again. The car had this problem before all the upgrades listed below, and still does it after. It's a 1973 307 (yes I know not the greatest) New distributor, plugs, wires, coil Tried 2 different carbs (2 brl) (same problem with both) Replaced fuel pump (same problem with both) Replaced all wiring (the rats/mice had done a job on the original) Anyone have any ideas what may cause this? The dwell is right, the power to the coil/distributor is good, the fuel feed and pressure to the carb is right.. I'm a little lost.
Do you have the correct plugs in it? Ditto for the coil, is it correct? Does the coil need a ballast resistor?
is the polarity correct on the coil? It'll run if reversed, but not well. Did you change the condenser? What did you set the dwell at?
Not warm at all, just starting to warm up when it dies. It does turn over with the starter after it does but won't fire. Changed the whole distributor, new points/condensor and everything else. Think the dwell is at around 34? Also, brand new fuel lines and cleaned out fuel tank and filters and still the same problem.
First verify spark and fuel in that time frame where it won't start, next I would pull the valve covers and back off all of the rocker nuts a half turn.
I had that problem on a couple small blocks. I turned out to be a cracked rotor under the cap. It would run really nice until it warmed up. Then it would spit and stall out and not fire again for an hour or so. I did all the same swap outs as you did and it turned out to be the rotor.
That's what I thought at first.. it's a completely new distributor with all new parts. And the problem is still there. New fuel pump, new fuel line, new filter: pressure checked and alright. This engine did run right and I've done everything I thought of to help fix the problem.. The rockers couldn't be the problem, they don't tighten themselves.
Maybe someone inconveniently placed a cigar in your gas tank. Runs good until it's sucked around the fuel pickup tube.
my poncho was that way, turned out the carb was total junk. the accelerator took a crap and so if you stalled it or it somehow died you would have to prime the carb manually to get it to fire and only after that would it run
Even though its new, try replacing the condenser again altough it doesn't sound like it runs long enough to get hot and fail. Just a guess.
29Nash is right. Start it and let it run,,when it dies ,,check for spark and fuel delivery at that point. That should answer a lot of your questions. Good luck . Tommy
Does it still crank? Not sure about the shut down part, but there is a common issue with SBCs not wanting to crank when hot requiring a remote starter relay.
check the batt side of coil wire to ign then check wire from coil to points if these primary wires are real old they will get brittle and break down when it warmsup every body wants the old stuff but tere is reason it was upgraded tom
The only way to go to step 2 of the fix is like DeSoto 291 Hemi said run it till it shuts off if you don"t have a remote starter have a buddy turn it over and check for firing and fuel delivery.go from there.
Need 4 things to run: 1) compresion, 2) spark 3) timing 4)fuel. Like the other guys are saying- let it run till it craps out. Check for spark, if spark is ok, shoot some carb cleaner in it and see if it wants to fire. No go? Check #1 and #3. Modelacitizen could be on to something also- see if the choke is pulling off as it warms up. Guess that would be a fifth thing-air.
and 6) beer with buddies!!! no...?? no one? mine seems to run better the next day when ive had buddies with beer around
You know, this is making me fell better. Tried all of the ideas so far, we've got spark and fuel and it'll crank. Only thing we haven't tested is compression when is dies. ALL the wiring is new ALL ignition is new ALL fuel system is new and problem still exists.
You say it has spark when it quits? Run it until it's ready to quit and catch it with a spray can of gas down the carb. See if you can keep it running with the spray. Will prove if it's carb related. What does it take to get it running again? If it only has to sit five or ten minutes let the key on. If it's heat related, i.e. condensor or coil, it won't start, because it never cooled off.
Do you have an old spark plug and wire? If so take the wire and strip it back a bunch and wrap the conductor around the threaded part of the plug. Tape it up real good leaving the ends of the plug open. Take a wire off a plug on the engine and plug it on the spare plug. Take the wire on the spare plug and put in on the engine. Now you have a spark gap where you can see the spark jumping the gap and going to the engine. As long as that spark gap is sparking you have ignition. If no spark in the gap when the engine dies you have ignition problems. You can buy a spark gap to do the same thing if your not handy with the junk. lg no neat sig line
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