My bird has a stalling problem that I cannot figure out. It idles smooth when cold, but once warmed up the idle is sort of rough, like it's missing. It loves to stall at stop lights, just before the light turns green, after sitting for 30 seconds or more. Putting the car in neutral helps a lot, but what a pain! When idling, if I turn the heater motor to high or hit the high beams it will sometimes cause a hickup bad enough to stall the engine. Voltage regulator maybe? It also bogs when shifting (TH350), like it's not getting enough fuel, or maybe the air valve is too loose (quadrajet).
It even stalled today when I was coasting in drive at 20mph.
I think the cam is a performer plus 204/214, so it should idle smooth at pontiac specs? The performer cam spec numbers are similar to an 067.
What should my idle speed be in drive with that cam???
So far I've done the following: -tried timing settings 9, and 12 degrees initial. -set the idle at different speeds. Increasing idle does help, but it will only let the car idle longer before the inevitable stall. I would like an idle speed of 500 to 600rpm in drive, I've tried as high as 750rpm, and it helps, but I don't think it should be that high. -checked for vacuum leaks to the best of my ability. Tightened the intake bolts and carb bolts. They were loose. it didn't help. Maybe I need to pull them and install new gaskets. -changed the spark plug wires, rotor and cap. No points, I'm running Pertronics. -cleaned the plugs. They are not old so i didn't replace. Narrowed the gap from .045 to .035. -checked the wiring. found several issues. Loose positive at alternator. Installed new terminal, cleaned up post. Did not help. -voltage regulator was loose on firewall. Replaced screws and remounted. verified good ground. -made sure engine was grounded to firewall. did a resistance check. it's all good. -added a ground wire from the distributor to the firewall. did not help. -inspected the mechanical advance. it was a little rusty, so i sprayed the hinges with WD40 and worked them. dried them off. The springs seem to be weak, but the mechanism moves smoothly. -inspected coil wiring. looks fine. nothing loose. coil is only 2 years old. MSD blaster. -hooked up a vacuum gage to the carb and adjusted the idle screws for maximum vacuum.
Maybe it's actually two problems. One is electrical and the other carburation. The electrical is causing the stalling, and the carb is causing the major bogging during shifting. But it is a big bog...almost like it's loosing spark. Maybe I need to look at the power wire for the coil a little closer.
What I plan on trying next: -checking float level -changing fuel filter (it's not that old) -checking fuel pressure -checking to see if my float bowl leaks, since it's a q-jet and i've read it's a problem. This is a Edelbrock Performer RPM Q-jet and it's maybe 3 years old.
I'm also a little skeptical of the Pertronics. When i first installed it a few years back, I was experimenting with plug gap and at .060 I noticed the same stalling problem, so I backed it off to .045. That's also why I recently re-gapped to .035, figuring the stock gap would be best. I just wasn't driving the car much back then, but since I had it painted I'm driving it a lot.
Does anybody have ideas? Or, is this post so long you didn't get to the end and just gave up? lol
