The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 235 Dies after setting for 10 minutes....

Ok, I've had great luck with my truck so far after the engine rebuild. I have taken it many places now and on two different occasions at the grocery store it has died after about 1 minute of driving after sitting for 10 minutes or so while in the store. I think it has to do with either Vapor lock or the choke.

Background: it's a 1954 235 with Langdon's HEI and dual carter Weber carbs with electric chokes and water heat. It also has a new fuel pump and a pressure regulator set to 4 psi. I currently use the rear electric choke only, which seems to work well. The reason i believe it is the choke is after messing with the engine after it died I moved the wire to the forward choke and it started right up. Now, if this is the problem why does it happen? I would like to keep the electric chokes if i can find a work around. Should I convert it to manual choke?

On another subject, how should these engines be timed? I have read on here many different opinions. Should i use a timing light that can be adjusted for the advanced and if so what should it be set to? or should I drive it under a load and listen for pinging and back it off a bit? I feel like it's making power but want to get all of the power and fuel efficentcy out of the engine.

I really enjoy my setup it's nice to get in and tap the starter and it fire right up. Thanks for all of the previous help. Now just trying to work the bugs out.

On the Carter/Weber dual setup you need to have both chokes hooked up to a "key on" electrical source. You may have to readjust your idle mixture after getting them both wired. If I remember correctly, Langdon included a pig-tail with double electrical connections.

As for the timing....I'm running the conventional dizzy with an Ignitor I which just replaces the points with a magnetic pickup so I do a little T&E adjusting with a timing light and vacuum gauge. I pick up the vacuum off the large port on the center of the intake and normally adjust to maximize my vacuum reading and then retard (CW) 1" of vacuum. I added a little tang on the driver's side of the timing cover and I mark it as a starting point. (I've already marked the Harmonic balancer at TDC to correspond with the center of the timing tang I've added) A short road trip to make sure it's not pinging will let me make a couple very minor adjustments and I've found it's easier to check or reset the timing than trying to peer through the timing port above the starter. I have some pics of the setup in my webshots album.

I added it to the driver's side because I have the alternator mounted on the passengers side and it blocks my view. Just have to be a bit careful running the timing light wires over the top of the engine.

Tapping the starter is great....the C/W setup works great but had to richen my mixture a bit when our stations all switched to the E10 blended fuel. Also suggest you make sure your standard rubber fuel lines are converted to the blue-lined ethanol rated lines to avoid problems. I run my regulator at 3.5 psi. If you're running a liquid filled fuel pressure gauge in the engine compartment and notice 0 psi....applying a wet rag to the gauge will get it back to reading correctly.

Dave

Dave,

Thanks, I'll try you suggestions. I didn't receive a pigtail from Tom but I can make one easily enough. Did you have any problems with your setup initially? I think it's real close to being right but, I guess I can't help "messing" with it. Mixture etc. Did you have any problems with a real high Idle when cold but once warmed up it would not idle and die? I was told this is a electric choke anomaly. It sure beats the ol' rochesters huh?

Cory

Ubetcha! Don't want to raise any hackles on the folks who swear by the Rochesters, but I consider the C/W's and H/W's to be a great upgrade. Simple to install, not that tough to get synchronized and once you've got them tuned you can just enjoy the drive.

One thing I found that makes the tuning a whole lot easier, are some "hats" that fit on top of the C/W's that allow you to use a uni-syn to get the carbs equalized. I made a pair out of scrap sheet metal, some duct tape and use a little dum-dum sealer around the base to insure an airtight fit. The Uni-syn seals to the flat top of the hat. I made two so I can just move the uni-syn back and forth while I adjust my linkage. I've checked them a couple times and they haven't needed any tweaking. The key is to get your linkage nice and tight and to be sure to snug down the lock nuts once you get them in sync.

The actual idle mixture was very close right out of the box...a minor tweak with the vacuum gauge and tach dialed them in. Once you get both your c/w electric chokes wired you'll eliminate your problem. I used the "hose in ear" old standby initially for synchronizing before I made my "hats" and didn't really have to make any major adjustments. Since we've be limited to the E10 blended fuel, I've had to richen my idle mixture a tad....noticed that I was popping when off-throttle and decelerating. Of course, fuel mileage has dropped off a bit. Some friends have had issues with "phase separation" or vapor lock in their water heated intakes after shutting down their engines for a short time. Adding a few clothes pins to the fuel line, where it snakes around the front of the valve cover close to the thermostat housing, has eliminated this issue.

The fast-idle circuit cuts off in my exhaust heated intake in about 15-20 seconds....a water heated system will undoubtedly take longer. You can release the circuit early with a tap on the gas pedal before your electric chokes cut off.

The beauty of the Langdon setup is that you can fine tune them. As long as I'm getting 18 mpg I'm happy. Probably could do a little extra fine-tuning and squeeze another mile/gallon out but the truck runs so strong that I just want to be driving. I know I could improve on my mpg with a taller R&P to get me a little further into the upper regions of the torque band. Might add that if you are running a filter between the regulator and the carb, to add another pound of fuel pressure if your regulator has a numbered dial. Keep us posted on your progress.

Dave

I have the same setup and agree that it works fine if you use both chokes. I do not use a pressure regulator not do I see any reason to do so. I like the KISS method best. I time by ear only I don't worry about where the ball is but I know it's right. It runs perfect.