Right on! Glad your on your way. One thing I think that may be throwing your thought process off is your looking at the rotor through the cap and the tabs are lining up. I'm guessing they are 1/4" wide at the terminal and the tip of the rotor as well. But you're not going to conduct current when they are perfectly lined up. The spark will jump as soon as the edges of each swing near each other. Did I make that sound logical anyone?? Harder to type than to grab two paint sticks and show.

If you're smelling that much gas you may still be rich in the idle circuit. Are you using a vacuum gauge to help set this? I try to set my idle as low as I can. Some will idle down to 500 but my stroker idles at 500-750 no problem with 239* duration. 500 being a bit low and it would load up after a while. We set the Dodge at 550 initially but it seems to do better at 750. I hate a high idle, drives me nuts on my own rides.

 

I understand what you're saying perfectly about the terminal/rotor tip Damon. I had always assumed that the spark occurred at first contact between the two terminals and not when they were perfectly lined up. I really don't want to belabor a discussion about the setting of timing by looking at where the rotor is pointing, (not blaming you for this either of course) the only thing I ever really meant was that I couldn't understand how there could be a huge variance in degrees from looking at where the pointer is on the balancer when the rotor is on #1. I never expected to set the timing this way, but when the engine doesn't stay running long enough to get a light on it to actually check, it's difficult. I'll say it again, I never expected to set the timing by looking at the timing tab/rotor correlation. Only trying to get it close enough as to start, run and stay running so I could actually set the timing. I'm to the point where the start and run part is handled, really close on the sustained running part also. I have video of the engine idling smooth at 1500 rpm for several minutes and then suddenly stalling. Why it's abruptly stalling still is strange to me. As long as I can get it to do the same thing today I'll have the timing light on it and see what/where it's at with the timing.


I've only got the air/fuel mixture screws out maybe a turn and a half on the carb. Haven't used a vacuum gauge yet of course, as soon as it stays running, I will. If anything, with where the mixture screws are I'd have to think it would be lean, not rich.


Are you idling at 500 in gear? That seems really low to me. I'd like to be around 8-900 stationary and 6-700 in gear.

 

The problem with looking at things, and assuming they are "directly lined up", is that's not necessarily where the spark gets directed to the wire. If you look at a cap and rotor, you'll notice the width of the rotor tip, and the width of the post in the cap are both about 3/16" wide. The two can transfer the spark as soon as they get close enough, so if you turn the cap until they just begin to align, and continue until they just begin to break, the spark transfer can happen anywhere in that area. Allows for quite a difference in timing, so easy to set it at 15 degrees, but maybe be off 5-6 degrees either way.
Wish you had made up or bought a remote start button, as you'd have saved yourself a lot of grief trying to jump out and keep the engine running before it died. I've used one for decades, and it's so nice to have one hand on the distributor, or carb linkage, and push the button while I give it throttle, or twist the distributor. It's like having a helping hand when you're by yourself.

edit-Oops! Looks like Damon already said the same thing on the cap and rotor!

 

I'd be surprised if an engine with any decent performance cam would ever idle at 500 rpm, in or out of gear! I think your idle guesstimate is much closer, and it might need to be even higher depending on what stall speed converter you have. A stock converter wont allow an engine with much cam to keep running in gear. It might idle down to 800-900 in neutral, but may drop too much when shifted into gear and the converter stalls it.

 

I dont have an in gear idle guys. But like I said a 500 it loads up and stalls after some time. 750 is an all day number.

 

I wasn't suggesting that you did/didn't have separate idle settings, only asking if 500 was idle while in gear or not. I tried for an hour again this afternoon to get the engine to idle at all and anything under 1500 and it conks out immediately. I had the timing light hooked up and was trying to keep it running long enough to even get a peek at what it's showing and couldn't keep it running to do that. I tried advancing the distributor a tiny bit today and had it spit out the carb while running when I lightly hit the throttle. I moved it back to where it was yesterday and leaving it there until I can hopefully get it to run for a couple minutes like yesterday. It will not stay running on it's own until I have ran the engine for several minutes and got it good and warm, hot actually, including having the fan turn on. Hoping to get a quick clip showing the timing light on tonight. The weather is so beautiful this week, praying I can get this thing dialed in enough so I could take it down the street!

 

If you can keep it running at higher rpm, you can still check it with the timing light. You will need to hold it steady, but it will work. Just crank the idle screw up to make it run around 2500-3000 rpm's, and total timing should be all in. Check the timing against your timing tape, and turn the distributor so total is around 34 degrees.
You can then start lowering the idle, and if all is OK in the distributor, it should drop into the proper idle timing. If this doesn't work, then there might be a problem with either mechanical or vacuum advance in the distributor, and it may need to be replaced.

 

My Austin wont idle below 1100 in neutral when cold. Once it's fully warmed up, it will idle around 900 in neutral, but it needs a little more stall. I have to set hot idle at 1,000 rpm, so when I put it in gear it will idle around 750-800 rpm. My Falcon wont hardly idle at all when cold, and I'm lucky it's a stick! It needs a couple minutes revving it in the driveway when it's cold, and then it actually idles about 750-800 with the clutch in. Once it's warmed up, the idle actually rises about 100 rpm, and I've never been able to figure out how to change that. I set it slightly low when cold, so when it's warmed up it wont idle too high at stoplights.

 

I was able to get a light on it this evening, have a video clip but nobody could decipher what it's showing. Engine was idling at 1600 rpm vacuum advance hose plugged to carb. First time around it was showing between 35-40 btdc so I retarded the timing a little bit. Second time it was reading between 25-30 still at 1600 rpm and I thought that was good. Engine has to be really warmed up to get it to idle at all without stalling. With the timing where it's at I'm at a loss as to why the fuel smell is so terribly strong still. Air fuel mixture screws were right at a turn and a half and I actually brought them out another half turn. I want to say this helped a bit but the raw fuel smell is burning my eyes after a few minutes of running. I'm going to turn the idle screw up tomorrow so it's back around 2500+ to see if it will stay running and get the light back on it.





I've got a fuel gauge that is not working as well as the water temp gauge. I'm sure it's the sending unit for the temp gauge as the light is working on it. Fuel gauge always worked before the engine swap and tank removal. It's a brand new sending unit that I tested with the meter before installing. Good ground, good power connection, I really don't want to drop the tank back down again! Now I really need to go and get a new multimeter since I never did replace it yet.

 

Im stumped!!! I admit it.