440 vac leak??

["Otis Davidson" <otisdavidson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----Original Message Follows----
From: KerryPinkerton <pinkertonk@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: IML: 440 vac leak??
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:16:59 -0800 (PST)

>>Well, I'm approaching stumped.  My 73 runs like crap
and I've messed with it til I'm about out of ideas.

  Here are a couple of .02 cent ideas:
1) JUST because the floats are set correctly doesn't mean that they are not 
leaking. With the car running and that choke open,look down the carbs' 
throat and see if you see gas dripping down into the venturis. Holley makes 
Viton tipped float needle and seats which seem to seal better with todays 
bogus gas. Both my Holley 750cfm 4160-3310's have 'em....on my Imp and my 
RV.

2) If your secondaries are stuck open slightly...even cracked open just a 
little bit,you are gonna get a car that runs like cr*p also. You can adjust 
till you are blue in the face,but if they are open...

3) If you have Champions in there,throw 'em in the stove.

4) With the car running(or barely running),disconnect each plug-wire from 
the cap,note any RPM changes....then plug it back in. Work your way around 
the cap. If you disconnect one...and it makes no RPM difference,you found a 
dead one. If you don't lean against the fender or touch any part of the car 
when doing this,chances are you won't get 25,000 volts running thru you 
temporarily...hehehe. (I always get *zapped* no matter what. Maybe I drink 
too much H20...lol.)

5) Intake/Valley-Pan gaskets CAN leak in the lower area...and will suck 
crankcase vapors from the cam/lifter galley area and into the bottom of the 
intake-ports. My 440 RV had that problem...and was impossible to check for 
unless I removed the intake manifold. The Valley-Pan gaskets are easy to 
replace. I wrote a detailed posting on replacing them a while back.

>Oh, one piece of good news is that my 'ticking' sound
was a bad exhaust manifold which has now been
replaced.

  You replaced the left side exhaust manifold??? Yer the MAN. I think I'll 
bring my RV down to you so you can fix those too.  :o)

Steve from Albany,N.Y.
'75 Imp 4dr <--taking the bottom lip of the new rear pads to the grinder.
'79 440 powered 35 ft RV <--19 in of vac at idle. 0-60 in 29.5 sec.
_______________________________________________________________________
Here are the symptoms:

Timing set at 10 degrees BTDC with the Vac adv
disconnected and plugged.

Vac gauge shows about 17, it used to be about 20.

I have adjusted on the carb and timing and made little
change in the vac.

i have disconnected and plugged ALL vac lines with NO
change on the vac guage.

The car runs right now as well as it's run recently
WITH THE BREATHER OFF.  With the breather on it is
very FLAT at high RPM and has a slight bog if you
punch it at idle.  Turning the breather lid upside
down and letting more air in helps but not as much as
removing the breather completely.

Vacumm leak you say.  I've tried the starter spray,
propane trick and get no RPM or engine noise change.

Compression is 130 per cyl.

Now for the interesting stuff, under some conditions
of timing, I can screw the idle jets all the way in
and the car still runs which makes me think vacuum
leak.  Also the car will not idle down below about 600
RPM even with the screw completly backed out.

Plugs are about a year old but probably don't have a
1000 miles on the, same with wires, rotor button, and
cap.  Cap does not show signs of damage or wear.

At this point, the only think I can think of is that
there is a vacuum leak around the intake manifold,
probably on the bottom where I can't get to it.

Before I pull it off, I'd like to hear from the wisdom
of the group.

Oh, one piece of good news is that my 'ticking' sound
was a bad exhaust manifold which has now been
replaced.

Kerryp



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