Need help with an old Carburator!

[pgriffith]

I have a '84 Chev K10 pickup with a 350ci Carburated engine. I dont know didly about carburated engines, this is the first one i have ever had. But its not running right. It will start and idle fine, but when i give it gas it cuts out really bad. If I give it lots of gas it doesnt cut out, its at part throttle or low throttle that it cuts out. I have replaced the fuel filter and all the spark plugs and wires. It doesnt sound like a misfire. Can anyone that knows about carburated engines help me?

[ABH]

Clean it our real good. I think seafoam will do it. Or carb cleaner.

Try adjusting the mixture screws. It has been many years since I played with them, but that seems a good place to start.

[pgriffith]

I already tried to clean it, i dont know enough about the carburator to mess with the screws any other ideas? It was running perfect before this started happening.

[PiercedJD]

are you using a vaccum advance distributor? or mech.? sounds more like a timing issue to me. you say it idles fine and goes WOT fine, but at part throttle where the timing should be advancing it breaks up.......

have you put a timing light on the motor? Just wondering why the carburetor is suddenly suspect? Carburetors just meter fuel based on vaccum ( very rough description) but if it's functioning properly at idle and at wot and you haven't changed the jetting then I might look elsewhere... ( timing).

if it's a vaccum advance distributor it's not terribly uncommon for the vaccum advance to cause the same symptoms.

[ABH]

There is that too. ( I forgot about that, D'oh )

Get a Hayes/Chilton book on the vehicle.

[pgriffith]

I dont know jack about this engine. I do know it has an aftermarket Distributor, its HEI i think. Is that what your asking?

[hockeyman]

If the timing checks out okay, then I'd replace the accelerator pump. It's a small piece that fits into the carb and relatively inexpensive.
If you don't know anything about carbs, send it to as shop to have it rebuilt. Better to spend a little money and have an experienced person fix it right the first time.

[RallyRed 98]

is this in park/neutral or in gear or both? all signs are pointing to timing, which is really easy to change with a carb'd motor... but if it only happens in gear i would suspect a vacuum leak.

i'm guessing you have a quadrabog... good luck with that!

[pgriffith]

yeah it does it in gear/park/idle and all. I had it down at the shop today and they told me it was a bad carburator, said the accelorator pump had gone bad. Then they called me back hours later and said they were wrong. Turned out to be the distributor. Now they put a new distributor in it and its not doing it any more. But it has NO power. It had power before but it doesnt any more. I think the timing is messed. Its going back to the shop tommorow.

[RallyRed 98]

advance it yourself! i mean... timing marks are rarely spot on but you can advance it back to get some power. in my experience carb shops will cut your timing back to give you a more even idle so it seems like they did more work than they actually did.

give it a shot at least

[pgriffith]

I dont know how, can you explain?

[wantmorepower]

Do you want to know how to time your 350 or how to adjust your mixture?

[wantmorepower]

Rally red is right. Most shops will tune for idle quality and fuel economy...

[pgriffith]

I want to tune it for power.

[wantmorepower]

What type of carb do you have....