Car still stalling when put in gear?

I would be leaning towards a Fubar'd idle circuit on the carb. If it were the cam, I think you'd see some variation in the vac needle.

What is your torque converter rated stall RPM? I had this problem with my 289 after I put in a big cam. At an 850 rpm, it would stall when going into gear. After I put in a TCI Break-a-way rated a 2500rpm stall, it worked like normal.

Are you using the correct firing order for a 351W?

What carb? What cam? It could be converter also. If you have not read a book on modifying carbs, it is worth the time and money.

Are the sooted plugs all on the same bank?
could be an internal leak from the intake not centered.
Have you checked the line to the trans and the mod valve?

PB

interesting that it idles rough at 1K, but still pulls 17 vacuum. First thing I would do is crack open the rear throttle blades, that way it will draw more air at idle. You may need to richen up the idle mixture after doing this, and if the idle speed goes up you'll need to reset that. This should help your stalling problem, more air and fuel at idle means more idle power, maybe enough to overcome to your stalling problem.

I know it's to obvious , but it sure sound like
it's sucking air. Try spraying carb cleaner
around the base of the carb and the rear,
as well as anywhere you're vacum lines
go. Also check your PCV Valve.

If it were a vacuum leak it shouldn't have as much vacuum as it does.

Clark, the duration of that cam should make it idle kinda rough, and I wouldn't think it should have that much vacuum. I would expect 14 or 15 on vacuum, the 17 you're getting is a result of the engine starving for air, in my opinion. I'm running a Crane 284H which has a little less duration than yours, but more lift, and I can only get 13" vacuum.

I'm not real familiar with the demon carbs. If they don't have a linkage or screw you can adjust to crack the blades open a little, you'll have to drill a small hole in each of the rear throttle blades(be very conservative with your hole size!). It seems like some holleys have an adjustment and others don't. I've heard of people doing it both ways. I've been running manual trannies for the last few years so I'm getting rusty on my auto trans carb tuning.

There are some good carb guru's over on fordmuscle.com, so you may want to try doing a search over there, or signing up and making a post.

Good luck, let me know what fixes it.

Ok Clark, I did a little research to refresh my memory while at the same time hopefully help you solve your problem. I'll break it down in a step by step format.

1. Remove carb, drain gas
2. Flip it over upside down. Look at the primary and secondary blades, you'll see a narrow slot on the wall of each of the venturi. This is the transfer slot.
3. Go the side of the carb and back off the idle speed screw all the way. Put the throttle in the full closed postion. Now look at the transfer slot, there should be about a fingernails thickness of it showing(about .030") on the manifold side of the blade. If not, adjust the idle speed screw until there is. (I *think* the idle speed screw is the only way to adjust how open the front blades are at idle. I'd look around for maybe another means of adjustment just to be sure. I don't have a carb sitting beside me right now so its hard to say.)
4. If the primary transfer slot was out of adjustment, reinstall the carb, adjust idle mixture, see how it does. Normally they are adjusted right from the factory. If the adjustment is right, but you still have the problem...
5. Check the rear transfer slots. You can crack the blades open by adjusting the slotted screw on the bottomside of the baseplate. Be careful not to overtighten, the screw is tapered and only gets so tight before you start stripping threads. Open the blades to where about .030 of the transfer slot is showing.
6. Reinstall carb. For a base mixture setting, turn the screws in all the way, then back off 1 1/2 turns. Hook everything up. You may want to go ahead and hook up your vacuum gage to a full time vacuum source.
7. Start it up, it should only require some fine tuning of the mixture screws. Be careful to adjust the idle speed after you cracked the rear blades. If you set the idle too high it will put the rear two on the transition circuit, causing an erratic rich idle. Adjusting idle speed will be a balancing act, however with all four blades cracked open a little it should be about right to start with.

I pieced this info together from a compilation of about 10 others that had the same problem and have corrected it. Hopefully it will help you out some. If it helps but doesn't quite get it right, there are a few other things you can do if necessary. Let us know.

Clark said:

Thanks 302 for the input,

The Secondary's getting cracked open is a little confusing, how would you do this on a vacuum secondary carb? Just to let you know I tried to enrich the mixture and just got tearing eyes from that.

Click to expand...

Did moving the mix screws change anything else, other than the over rich smell?
If not then the rear throttle adjustment may be open too far,
drawing fuel at idle.
302coupe gave a good overall steps.


PB

You have too much fuel going in.
thats why when the plug is off it will idle but low vac.
The throttle plates are open too much, This will draw fuel past the idle stage and your mixture screws will make no change in the engine running.

Best start from the beginning and do a total recheck on ALL the settings.
Start with rear blades at about.003-.005 open.
unscrew the front till the screw no longer touches and turn it 11/2 to 2 turns.
start with the mixture screws about 1 1/2 turns out from closed position.

Start eng and if it will idle at speed the RECHECK Timing before proceeding further.

PB

Ozsum2 said:

I would be leaning towards a Fubar'd idle circuit on the carb. If it were the cam, I think you'd see some variation in the vac needle.

Click to expand...

See my above post.