The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Engine sputters/coughs and dies after 15-20 mins of idle

I rigged up a hose with a funnel and wired it up to the open hood for a gravity feed. I started the engine and filled up the funnel and hose. I then looked down the carb throat and saw it dripping inside. about a minute or two in I could see the carb flooding on the outside aswell. I shut it all down and pulled the carb. I'm gonna go through it and replace the needle and seat at the minimum.

Fixed the issues that were causing the engine to cut out after X number of minutes. First I went through the carb and found that there are two different float settings depending on which needle you have and use. I found on Mike's Carburators website that for the spring needle you set it at 9/32nd's and for the solid needle you set it at 15/32nd's. I reassembled the carb and ran the engine. No signs of flooding but, it still died after 15 mins! I walked away and scratched my head for a while. I remembered that when I had my old distributor w/pertronix installed that it would idle long past 15-20mins, just performed poorly and wasn't firing the #6 cylinder under compression. That was why I installed the Langdon's HEI. So, I thought something must be wrong with the HEI unit or the coil that goes with it. (He sells a Ford 300 I6 coil to pair with the HEI) I decided to borrow the coil from my 1978 Ford 300 as I new it had been running and was a good unit. I installed it on my 58' and started it. It ran for over 45 mins till I turned it off. I have since driven it several miles with no issue. I have never seen a coil act in that manner. I have only had them fail when over heating and then not restart for several minutes until cooled.

So, to summarize: My carb float was not set correctly since the rebuild kits mention only one setting. And, my ignition coil was going bad causing it to die at random intervals. Just got back from getting the truck inspected, so finally I can get it registered after 6+ years of sitting and have her street legal! Thank you all for the thoughts, advice and directions. It helped immensely in tracking down problems!

2ManyTrucks was the first to mention the coil. Glad you got it sorted out and will soon be on the road.🛠

Ah yes. The venerable two-problems-at-the-same-time scenario.
The most insidious, and least respected of the venerable scenarios.
Its never the carburetor, until it is. Meaning that it is wise to test all other components prior to digging into the carburetor.

It would have been recommendable to test for spark as soon as the engine died. The faulty coil would have been discovered at that time. Coils very often fail in that manner. Once the engine reaches operating temperature (15 minutes of running time) the coil gets heat soaked. A failing coil does not do well at that temperature and conks out, only to work again once it cools off.

Your float setting may well have contributed to your issue, but finding that bad coil prior to digging into the carburetor would have made your fun times funner.
I am as happy as you are that you figured out what was causing your nightmare.
Victory!

Thank you, but remember what I said about it restarting and I could rev the engine and it would run? It makes no sense. I had spark when it would die. Just not at idle. Maybe cause I am running a Generator and not and Alternator?

I also had spark with the other distributor, but not under compression.

Its amazing how clear it all is, once its fixed.......

Your bad coil likely did not completely lose spark once the engine reached operating temperature. It probably just got too weak to run at idle.
There are spark testers which have an adjustable spark gap to verify adequate spark. Just seeing some spark is not good enough.
As far as generator vs alternator, a voltage meter would let you know what your voltage is at idle with your generator to rule that out.
If you haven't noticed, I have been stressing specific testing strategies, rather than trying to think about that one magic item which is causing the problem, nor throwing parts at the truck in hopes that will fix it.
I find myself trying to take shortcuts when I get in a hurry, like throwing parts at it, but it doesn't pan out well very often.

I currently have a dead battery in my '50. I could just go buy a battery, or an alternator, or I can continue to park it close enough to hook up the battery charger when I need to start it.
It would be a better idea for me to clean all of my cable connections, test the alternator for charging voltage, load test the battery after its charged up.
I don't have time to mess with it due to work and from wasting too much time on websites, so it will go unsolved until I have time to attack it systematically.
Carl